The tables below compare features of notable note-taking software.
Name | Developer(s) | License | Platforms |
---|---|---|---|
AllMyNotes Organizer | Vladonai Software | Freemium | Microsoft Windows |
Bear | Shiny Frog | Freemium | macOS, iOS |
CintaNotes | Cinta Software | Freemium | Microsoft Windows |
ConnectedText | Eduardo Mauro | Shareware | Microsoft Windows |
Day One | Bloom Built (Automattic) | Proprietary commercial | macOS, iOS, Android |
Dropbox Paper | Dropbox | Freemium | Android, iOS, web-based |
Evernote | Evernote Corporation | Freemium | Android, iOS, macOS, Microsoft Windows 7/8/10, Microsoft Windows Phone, and web-based |
Gnote | Aurimas Černius | GPL-3.0-or-later | Linux |
Google Keep | Freeware | Android, iOS, ChromeOS, browser based | |
Joplin | laurent22 et al. | AGPL-3.0 or later | Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android |
KeyNote | Marek Jedliński, Tranglos Software | MPL-2.0 | Microsoft Windows |
Memonic | Nektoon AG | Freemium [Notes 1] | Android (not released yet), iOS, macOS, Microsoft Windows XP/Vista/7/Mobile web-based |
Microsoft OneNote | Microsoft | Freemium [Notes 2] | Android, macOS, iOS, Windows (desktop and mobile), PWA |
MyInfo | Milenix Software | Shareware | Windows |
MyNotex | Massimo Nardello | GPL-3.0-or-later | Linux |
Notational Velocity | Zachary Schneirov | GPL-3.0-or-later | macOS |
Notes | Apple | Proprietary commercial | macOS, iOS, web-based |
Notion | Notion Labs Inc. | Freemium | Android, macOS, iOS (iPad, iPhone), Microsoft Windows, web-based |
Obsidian | Obsidian | Freemium | Linux, macOS, Microsoft Windows, iOS, Android |
Open-Sankoré | Sankoré | LGPL-2.0-only | Linux, macOS, Unix, Microsoft Windows |
Org-mode (Emacs) | Carsten Dominik, et al. | GPL-3.0-or-later | Linux, macOS, Unix, Microsoft Windows |
PDF Studio | Qoppa Software | Shareware | Linux, macOS, Microsoft Windows, web-based |
Personal Knowbase | Bitsmith Software | Proprietary commercial | Microsoft Windows |
QOwnNotes | Patrizio Bekerle | GPL-2.0-only | Linux, macOS, Microsoft Windows |
Qiqqa | Quantisle Ltd. | Freemium | Microsoft Windows XP/Vista/7/8, Web-based, Android |
Roam | Roam Research | Proprietary commercial | macOS, Linux, Windows [1] |
Samsung Notes | Samsung Electronics | Proprietary commercial | Android, Windows |
Simplenote | Automattic inc. | Clients: GPL-2.0-only | Web app |
TagSpaces | TagSpaces UG | AGPL-3.0-only | Web app |
TiddlyWiki | Jeremy Ruston | BSD-3-Clause | Cross-platform (single HTML file, runs in browser, on a nodeJS server, on Android and IOS) |
Tomboy | Alex Graveley | LGPL-2.1-only | Cross-platform (Mono/GTK+) |
Ulysses | The Soulmen | Shareware | macOS, iOS |
Whizfolders | AvniTech Solutions | Proprietary commercial | Microsoft Windows |
Microsoft Windows Journal | Microsoft | Included with Windows | Windows XP Tablet PC edition, Windows Vista through Windows 10 v1511 |
Zettlr | Hendrik Erz | GPL-3.0-or-later | macOS, Microsoft Windows, Linux |
Zim | Jaap Karssenberg | GPL-2.0-or-later | Cross-platform (Python, GTK+) |
ZOHO Notebook | ZOHO Corporation | Freemium | Web app |
Name | Organizing principle(s) | Outline bulleting with indent | Tabbed sections | Sync | Web Clipping | PDF annotate and save [unclear] | Whiteboard | Ink-pen input | Handwriting recognition | Spell check | Search | Replace in note | Printing | File save/export/import formats |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
AllMyNotes Organizer | Tree | Yes | No | Yes | ? | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Proprietary, encrypted; import: plain text, RTF, CSV, images, HTML; exports: plain text, HTML, RTF, images |
Bear | tags | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Proprietary, encrypted; export: plain text, markdown, textbundle, RTF, HTML, DOCX, PDF, JPG, ePub |
CintaNotes | Notebooks, sections, tags | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | ? | Yes | Proprietary; export to Unicode text, XML and HTML |
ConnectedText | Wiki, Tree and Categories | Yes | Yes | No | ? | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Proprietary (SQL); Export to text, XML, CHM and HTML. Import from text, HTML, XML and RTF |
Day One | Chronological, tags | Yes | No | Yes [Notes 3] | ? | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes [Notes 4] | Markdown (in GUI), XML (data file); Export as: pdf, txt, md |
Evernote | tags, Notebooks, Stacks | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Partial [Notes 5] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Imports and exports in Evernote XML. [2] [3] |
Gnote | Notebooks | ? | No | Yes | ? | Yes | No | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | NoteXmlFormat, HTML, PDF |
Google Keep | tags, colors | No | No | Yes | Partial [Notes 6] | No | Yes | No | ? | Partial [Notes 7] | Yes | ? | No | Proprietary; export to Google Doc and thence to PDF, Word, ODT etc. |
Joplin | Nested notebooks, tree, tags | Yes | No | Yes | Browser Extension | No | No | Plug-In | No | Yes | Yes | Plug-In | Yes | Import/Export: JEX (proprietary), RAW (proprietary, directory), Markdown (optionally with front matter); Export: HTML, PDF; Import: Evernote ENEX |
KeyNote NF | Notebooks, notes and tree | Yes | Yes | No | ? | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Internal: combination of TXT and RTF; import/export: TXT, RTF, HTML, Treepad |
Memonic | ? | ? | No | Yes | ? | Yes | No | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Notes stored as XML; can attach any filetype |
Microsoft OneNote | Notebooks, notebook sections, section groups, tags (could be applied to content blocks) | Yes | Yes | Yes [Notes 8] | Yes | Yes [Notes 9] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Imports: Evernote XML. [4] Exports: OneNote binary format. [5] |
MyInfo | Notebooks, sections, notes, tree, tags, custom attributes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Proprietary, encrypted; import: plain text, RTF, CSV, MS Word, TreePad, images, web pages; exports: plain text, HTML, RTF, CSV, MS Word, TreePad |
MyNotex | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | No | No | No | No | ? | Yes | ? | Yes | Sqlite based, zipped attachments; export to HTML; copying as LaTeX; import text files, OpenOffice.org documents |
Notes | notes, tree, tags | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Sqlite based; export to PDF |
Notion | Notebooks, notebook sections, section | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial [Notes 6] | Yes [Notes 10] | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Proprietary; export to PDF, HTML, Markdown, CSV |
Obsidian | Wiki, Tree and Categories | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Plug-In | No | Plug-In [6] | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Markdown, PDF |
Okular | ? | ? | ? | No | ? | Yes [Notes 10] | No | No | No | ? | ? | ? | Yes | PDF, PS, TIFF, CHM, DjVu, DVI, XPS, ODF, others; export PDF+notes for sending to other Okular users |
Open-Sankoré | tree, notebooks | No | No | No | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | ? | Yes | Save/export: PDF, IWB, UBZ; Import: PDF, IWB, UBZ, images, image directories |
Org-mode (Emacs) | tree, tags | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes [7] | Yes | Plug-In [8] | Plug-In [9] | No | Yes | Yes | Yes [10] | Yes | LaTeX, HTML, DocBook, Taskjuggler, PDF, Freemind, XOXO, iCalendar |
PDF Studio | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | |
Personal Knowbase | tags | ? | ? | ? | ? | No | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Export to RTF, HTML, TXT, CSV |
Qiqqa | tags, brainstorm | No | No | Yes | ? | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | ? | Yes | Proprietary, PDF, Brainstorm; export to RTF and Word |
Samsung Notes | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ||
Simplenote | tags | Yes | No | Yes | ? | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Export to XML |
TagSpaces | tags, files, directories | Yes | No | No | ? | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | ? | Yes | PNG, JPG, GIF, BMP, ICO, WEBP, SVG, PDF, HTML, MHT, MHTML, MARKDOWN, TXT, XML, JSON, OGG, OGV, WEBM, ODT, ODS, ODP, ODG, EPUB, ZIP |
TiddlyWiki | tags (wikiwords) | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Via plugin | No | ? | No | Yes(via browser) | Yes | ? | Yes | HTML, json, txt,csv |
Tomboy | ? | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | NoteXmlFormat, HTML, PDF, wiki-formats |
Ulysses | Notebooks, sections, tags | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Rich text; export as HTML; import text files; markdown editing. |
Microsoft Windows Journal | ? | ? | No | ? | ? | No | ? | Yes | Yes [Notes 11] | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Proprietary |
Zettlr | Tree, Tags, Wiki | Yes | ? | Yes [Notes 12] | No | No | No | No | No | Yes [Notes 13] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Markdown, Export and Import of Pandoc supported formats. |
Zim | tags (wikiwords) | Yes | No | No | ? | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes, using installed web browser | Stored in modified DokuWiki Markdown; export: HTML, LaTeX, Pandoc Markdown, Sphinx RST (reStructuredText) |
Name | Organizing principle(s) | Outline bulleting with indent | Tabbed sections | Sync | Web Clipping | PDF annotate and save | Whiteboard | Ink-pen input | Handwriting recognition | Spell check | Search | Replace | Printing | File save/export/import formats |
Name | Drawing atop text [unclear] | Text box, flow diagram [unclear] | Text and paragraph formatting | Insert hyperlink [unclear] | Insert image | Resize image | Insert table | Insert audio | Insert video | Attachment [unclear] | Other objects | Remarks / other features |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
AllMyNotes Organizer | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Alarms, check-boxes, bullets, phones, advanced links, autosaving; last cursor position memory,passwords on tree folders,failure-resistant self-healing DB engine | |
Bear | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | check-boxes, bullets, link to notes, encryption, document scanning, OCR search | |
CintaNotes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | ? | No | No | No | Yes | Links to notes | Tagging and searching for tags, tag hierarchy |
ConnectedText | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Scripting of pages with Python and other scripting languages. | LaTeX, Scripts, RSS Feeds, Transclusion, Directed Graphs and Flowcharts by GraphViz, many other features. |
Day One | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | No | Yes | No | tags, bullets, numbering, line, programming code snippets | editable note metadata (date/time, location, weather, motion activity, music playing, step count) |
Evernote | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes [Notes 14] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Check-box, line, tags | Business and personal notes integrated in same client; businesses have control over business notes, but cannot see personal notes |
Gnote | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | ? | Port of Tomboy to C++; wiki-style linked notes |
Google Keep | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Partial [Notes 15] | Yes | ? | No | Google Calendar reminders | Notes can be shared with other Google Keep users. |
IPython Notebook | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Part of IPython shell; allows for programming code, output and annotation to be combined in single interactive environment |
Joplin | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial [Notes 16] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Links to other notes | Configurable editor layout with live preview of Markdown; Command pallette; Notes <--> Todo conversion; Plug-ins; Cloud sync available with various services, including a separate server self-hosted server; Configurable note history; Optional client side encryption; Custom CSS (imported from local or remote source) for rendered Markdown as well as app interface; |
KeyNote NF | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes [Notes 17] | Yes | Yes [Notes 18] | No | No | Yes | OLE objects; "virtual nodes" which integrate and edit the content of external plain-text or rich-text files; internal links; mirror nodes. | Text processing; tree numbering and sorting; custom tree icons; node checkboxes; checkbox filtering; search filtering; reminder alarms; compressed or encrypted notebooks; auto-minimize and/or auto-lock when idle; quick access key for fast notes; additional scratchpad; autosave of up to 9 previous file versions; automatic clipboard capturing; read-only notebooks or notes; macros; templates; text shortcuts; plug-ins; bookmarks; custom keyboard shortcuts; program can be made portable through "Options" setting |
Memonic | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
Microsoft OneNote | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes [Notes 19] | Yes | Yes | OLE, bullets, line, flags, formulas | No local storage of notebooks on Mac or versions past Office 2016 [11] |
MyInfo | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | OLE, bullets, numbering, page breaks, advanced links | Tags; filters; calendar; reminders |
MyNotex | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | Activity lists; tags; notes management by subject; encryption with AES or GPG; multilingual |
Notational Velocity | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Instant open and searching |
Notion | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Bullets, numbering, checkboxes, reminders, calendars | |
Obsidian | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Bullets, numbering, checkboxes, canvases, HTML, LaTeX, internal links | |
Okular | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
Open-Sankoré | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | plug-ins, web pages, applications | Annotate live desktop applications and web pages; autosave; plug-in system; audio recording |
Org-mode (Emacs) | Yes [12] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes [13] | Yes | No | No | Yes | Advanced linking,[ clarification needed ] bullets, tags, checkboxes, full spreadsheet, embedding of programming code, formulas, markup | Major mode of Emacs; uses plain-text; includes ToDos, spreadsheet, deadlines, encryption, reminders, agenda, calendar |
PDF Studio | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
Personal Knowbase | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | Passwords; portable[ clarification needed ] |
Qiqqa | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | ? | No | No | No | No | PDF, brainstorm, citations | |
Samsung Notes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | No | Yes | ? | ? | ||
Simplenote | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | ? | No | No | No | No | ||
TagSpaces | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Tags, plugins | Plugins, you can present your local images, videos and music to your TV via ChromeCast. You can create a personal "wiki" for tracking of your projects, ideas or memories. |
TiddlyWiki | ? | Yes(with plugin) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | HTML, LaTeX, markdown plugins | Plugins; user scripts |
Tomboy | Partial | No | Partial | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | Note Links, highlighting, fixed-width | Reminders; to do-lists; formulas in LaTeX |
Microsoft Windows Journal | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
Zettlr | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial [Notes 20] | Yes | No | No | No | Bullets, numbering, checkboxes, HTML, LaTeX, internal links, citations | |
Zim | No | Yes [Notes 21] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Plugins; Versioning; LaTeX integration (formulas, export); HTML export (including slideshow); GNOME's Zeitgeist integration; Lilypond music sheet integration | ASCII diagram drawing; Tags; Tasks; Table of Content navigation; SQLite3 search indexing; Autosaving; Last cursor position memory; Tabbed multi-documents |
Name | Drawing atop text | Text box, flow diagram | Text and paragraph formatting | Insert hyperlink | Insert image | Resize image | Insert table | Insert audio | Insert video | Attachment | Other objects | Remarks / other features |
GNOME Evolution is the official personal information manager for GNOME. It has been an official part of GNOME since Evolution 2.0 was included with the GNOME 2.8 release in September 2004. It combines e-mail, address book, calendar, task list and note-taking features. Its user interface and functionality is similar to Microsoft Outlook. Evolution is free software licensed under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL).
Ardour is a hard disk recorder and digital audio workstation application that runs on Linux, macOS, FreeBSD and Microsoft Windows. Its primary author is Paul Davis, who was also responsible for the JACK Audio Connection Kit. It is intended as a digital audio workstation suitable for professional use.
DokuWiki is an open source wiki application licensed under GPLv2 and written in the PHP programming language. It works on plain text files and thus does not need a database. Its syntax is similar to the one used by MediaWiki. It is often recommended as a more lightweight, easier to customize alternative to MediaWiki. The 'Doku' in DokuWiki is short for Dokumentation which in German means documentation.
Kontact is a personal information manager and groupware software suite developed by KDE. It supports calendars, contacts, notes, to-do lists, news, and email. It offers a number of inter-changeable graphical UIs all built on top of a common core.
The following tables compare general and technical features of notable non-web-based email client programs.
This article provides basic comparisons for notable text editors. More feature details for text editors are available from the Category of text editor features and from the individual products' articles. This article may not be up-to-date or necessarily all-inclusive.
LiVES (LiVES Editing System) is a free and open-source video editing software and VJ tool, released under the GNU General Public License version 3 or later. There are binary versions available for most popular Linux distributions (including Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, Suse, Gentoo, Slackware, Arch Linux, Mandriva and Mageia). There are also ports for BSD, and it will run under Solaris and IRIX. It has been compiled under OS X Leopard, but not thoroughly tested on that platform. In early 2019, a version for Microsoft Windows was announced, with a release slated for in the second half of 2019.
Evernote is a note-taking and task-management application developed by the Evernote Corporation. It is intended for archiving and creating notes with embedded photos, audio, and saved web content. Notes are stored in virtual "notebooks" and can be tagged, annotated, edited, searched, and exported.
A personal wiki is wiki software that allows individual users to organize information on their desktop or mobile computing devices in a manner similar to community wikis, but without collaborative software or multiple users.
LMMS is a digital audio workstation application program. It allows music to be produced by arranging samples, synthesizing sounds, entering notes via computer keyboard or mouse or by playing on a MIDI keyboard, and combining the features of trackers and sequencers. It is free and open source software, written in Qt and released under GPL-2.0-or-later.
Zotero is free and open-source reference management software to manage bibliographic data and related research materials, such as PDF and ePUB files. Features include web browser integration, online syncing, generation of in-text citations, footnotes, and bibliographies, integrated PDF, ePUB and HTML readers with annotation capabilities, and a note editor, as well as integration with the word processors Microsoft Word, LibreOffice Writer, and Google Docs. It was originally created at the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University and, as of 2021, is developed by the non-profit Corporation for Digital Scholarship.
WIKINDX is a free bibliographic and quotations/notes management and article authoring system designed either for single use and multi-user collaborative use across the internet. WIKINDX falls within the category of reference management software, but also provides functionality to write notes and entire papers.
Gnote is a free and open-source desktop note-taking application written for Linux, cloned by Hubert Figuière from Tomboy. It uses a Wiki-like linking system to connect notes together. Gnote is part of the GNOME desktop environment, often filling the need for personal information management. The main principle is a notepad with a wiki-style interface. Words in the note body that match existing note titles automatically become hyperlinks, allowing for the management of large libraries of personal information, such as references to favorite artists that would then automatically be highlighted in notes containing their names. Plugins extend the program to include functionality like exporting to HTML and printing support. As of version 0.8.0, Gnote has been ported to GTK+3.
Org Mode is a mode for document editing, formatting, and organizing within the free software text editor GNU Emacs and its derivatives, designed for notes, planning, and authoring. The name is used to encompass plain text files that include simple marks to indicate levels of a hierarchy, and an editor with functions that can read the markup and manipulate hierarchy elements.
Zim is a graphical text editor designed to maintain a collection of locally stored wiki-pages, a personal wiki. It works as a personal knowledge base and note-taking software application that operates on text files using markdown. Each wiki-page can contain things like text with simple formatting, links to other pages, attachments, and images. Additional plugins, such as an equation editor and spell-checker, are also available. The wiki-pages are stored in a folder structure in plain text files with wiki formatting. Zim can be used with the Getting Things Done method.
Darktable is a free and open-source photography application and raw developer. Rather than being a raster graphics editor like Adobe Photoshop or GIMP, it comprises a subset of image editing operations specifically aimed at non-destructive raw image post-production. It is primarily focused on improving a photographer's workflow by facilitating the handling of large numbers of images. It is freely available in versions tailored for most major Linux distributions, macOS, Solaris and Windows and is released under the GPL-3.0-or-later.
Yoshimi is an open-source software synthesizer for Linux. It contains three synthesis engines, using additive, subtractive and wavetable synthesis. Any single patch can use one or all. A kit mode allows a patch to have up to 16 of engine sets to support multi-layered sounds/drum kits. A complete setup or instance can contain anywhere from one to sixty-four patches.
Joplin is a free and open-source desktop and mobile note-taking and to-do list application written for Unix-like and Microsoft Windows operating systems, as well as iOS, Android, and Linux/Windows terminals, written in JavaScript. The desktop app is made using Electron, while the mobile app uses React Native.
Obsidian is a personal knowledge base and note-taking software application that operates on Markdown files. It allows users to make internal links for notes and then to visualize the connections as a graph. It is designed to help users organize and structure their thoughts and knowledge in a flexible, non-linear way. The software is free for personal use, with paid commercial licenses available.
Linux software comparison