As a developer and DevOps engineer, I need to keep notes of all my code snippets, experiments, research, and other activities.
Google could be used to find information on any subject, but having a personalized trove of notes is incredibly convenient for reference.
OneNote
I started my digital note-taking journey using Microsoft OneNote because it came with other Microsoft applications provided by my employer.
For me, the biggest drawback of OneNote was that the notebooks must be loaded into OneNote individually on all devices that need access to those notes. I would prefer that by opening the app, all my notes be available immediately. OneNote makes it incredibly inconvenient when switching devices.
Microsoft OneNote
Better with Office OneNote is a member of the Office family you already know. Shape notes with points pulled from…
Evernote
I moved to Evernote next, which I used for over a year.
At first, Evernote had all the features I wanted — easy access to all my notes on all devices, a fantastic web browser extension for saving web pages, and incredibly reliable and convenient. However, as I used more Markdown for my notes, I quickly discovered that Evernote lacks this handy feature. I looked online for any hint of that being added to future releases. Many people were asking for this feature, but Evernote made no public announcement that they would add it.
Evernote is an excellent, cloud-based note-taking service — if Markdown isn’t needed.
Evernote is free to use unless you need to use it on more than two devices, more storage, or additional features such as support for PDFs.
You can sign up for Evernote and download the app at
Best Note Taking App – Organize Your Notes with Evernote
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Joplin
After Evernote, I discovered an open-source and free note-taking app called Joplin.
Joplin website
With Joplin Cloud, share your notes with your friends, family or colleagues and collaborate on them. You can also…
Joplin is a cross-platform that runs on Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, and Windows.
It has excellent support for Markdown, but the markdown/editor can get annoying with a dual split window with one panel displaying the markdown editor while the other showing the rendered output. On a small screen with limited real estate, this gets annoying quickly.
Joplin has a web clipper tool, but it doesn’t do nearly as well as the Evernote Web Clipper (the Evernote Web Clipper does the best job of staying true to the original layout of a website).
Joplin offers paid storage called Joplin Cloud, but it also supports local storage in addition to storing notes in Dropbox.
Simplenote
SimpleNote supports Markdown, but it doesn’t offer a lot of frills. The Markdown rendering is minimalistic. It’s too simplistic for my taste, but it could be desirable for people who prefer a minimal app.
Simplenote
The simplest way to keep notes. Light, clean, and free. Simplenote is now available for iOS, Android, Mac, and the web.
SimpleNote is free and runs on Android, iOS, macOS, Linux, and Windows.
NotePlan 3
I discovered NotePlan 3 while using the Setapp subscription, which offers a subscription for access to 230+ apps for macOS and iOS.
I used it for over a year and loved the blending of a note-taking app and a task manager. It has excellent support for Markdown with an in-line rendering of the page, unlike Joplin.
NotePlan supports bi-directional linking, tags, mentions, and filters. The labels can be multi-level.
NotePlan is available in the iOS App store as a subscription — charging $60 a year or $7 if paid monthly.
This is an excellent note-taking app, but the price is steep for what this app does.
Obsidian
Obsidian
The human brain is non-linear: we jump from idea to idea all the time. Your second brain should work the same. In…
Although NotePlan is an excellent Markdown note-taking app, I wanted to find a cheaper app. I already have a subscription to Setapp that offers NotePlan, but I had to pay $5 a month extra to run it on my iOS devices.
I found Obsidian and was intrigued by the graphical linking of the notes. However, the graph linking isn’t automatic, i.e., you have to link the notes purposefully.
I dropped Obsidian at the time because it did have an iOS version, and it did not support Live Preview.
I’m planning to take it for another spin because it seems to have improved drastically since I last used it.
Obsidian is free to use and is available for iOS, macOS, Linux, and Windows.
Bear Notes
Although I had used Bear Notes before NotePlan, I never gave it a chance. I picked Bear Notes back up after using NotePlan and other apps for a few years.
Private Markdown Editor for iPhone, iPad, and Mac
With Bear Pro, you can encrypt individual notes to keep them safe and lock Bear to keep away nosy friends, family, and…
Bear Notes is a great Markdown note-taking app that offers a live preview of the Markdown.
The biggest drawback to Bear Notes is that it runs on iOS and macOS only.
The subscription cost of $15 a year — one $1.49 if paid monthly, which is low for a great note-taking app.
Bear Notes is available in the Apple iOS and macOS App stores.
UpNote
Best Notes App – Write and Organize with UpNote
Write unlimited notes on iOS, Mac, Android, and Windows Add attachments, tables, codes, and more to your notes Protect…
I discovered UpNote less than a month ago, but it’s now my default note-taking app — replacing Bear Notes. The reasons I made UpNote my default are
- Its lifetime purchase cost of $19.99, or 0.99 cents if paid monthly
- in-line rendering of Markdown
- supports tag and folders
- Stability and fast
There are some quirks with tags, which I hope will be addressed in an upcoming release, but overall it’s a stable and easy-to-use note-taking app.
Apple Notes
Apple Notes comes bundled with iOS, iPad, and macOS. Because it comes bundled and is an excellent app for note-taking, people might find Apple Notes sufficient unless they need Markdown support.
Last Words
Although I’m currently using UpNote, I plan to revisit Obsidian because it now has an iOS version and now offers a live preview.
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