Comparison of note-taking software

Last updated

The tables below compare features of notable note-taking software.

Contents

General information

NameDeveloper(s) License Platforms
AllMyNotes Organizer Vladonai Software Freemium Microsoft Windows
BasKet Note Pads KDE GPL-2.0-or-later Unix-like (KDE)
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 Google 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 WindowsWindows 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

Basic features

NameOrganizing principle(s)Outline bulleting with indentTabbed sections Sync Web Clipping PDF annotate and save
[unclear]
White­board Ink-pen input Handwriting recognition Spell checkSearchReplace in notePrintingFile save/export/import formats
AllMyNotes Organizer TreeYesNoYes ?NoNoNoNoYesYes ?YesProprietary, encrypted; import: plain text, RTF, CSV, images, HTML; exports: plain text, HTML, RTF, images
BasKet Note Pads Tree, tags ?NoNo ?NoYesNoNoYesYes ?NoRich text; export as HTML; import text files
CintaNotes Notebooks, sections, tags YesYesYes ?NoNoNoNoNoYes ?YesProprietary; export to Unicode text, XML and HTML
ConnectedText Wiki, Tree and Categories YesYesNo ?NoNoNoNoYesYes ?YesProprietary (SQL); Export to text, XML, CHM and HTML. Import from text, HTML, XML and RTF
Day One Chronological, tags YesNoYes [Notes 3]  ?NoNoNoNoYesYes ?Yes [Notes 4] Markdown (in GUI), XML (data file); Export as: pdf, txt, md
Evernote tags, Notebooks, StacksYesNoYesYesYesNoPartial [Notes 5] YesYesYesYesYesImports and exports in Evernote XML. [2] [3]
Gnote Notebooks ?NoYes ?YesNo ? ?YesYes ?YesNoteXmlFormat, HTML, PDF
Google Keep tags, colorsNoNoYesPartial [Notes 6] NoYesNo ?Partial [Notes 7] Yes ?NoProprietary; export to Google Doc and thence to PDF, Word, ODT etc.
Joplin Nested notebooks, tree, tagsYesNoYesBrowser ExtensionNoNoPlug-InNoYesYesPlug-InYesImport/Export: JEX (proprietary), RAW (proprietary, directory), Markdown (optionally with front matter); Export: HTML, PDF; Import: Evernote ENEX
KeyNote NF Notebooks, notes and tree YesYesNo ?NoNoNoNoYesYes ?YesInternal: combination of TXT and RTF; import/export: TXT, RTF, HTML, Treepad
Memonic  ? ?NoYes ?YesNoNo ? ? ? ?YesNotes stored as XML; can attach any filetype
Microsoft OneNote Notebooks, notebook sections, section groups, tags (could be applied to content blocks)YesYesYes [Notes 8] YesYes [Notes 9] YesYesYesYesYesNoYesImports: Evernote XML. [4] Exports: OneNote binary format. [5]
MyInfo Notebooks, sections, notes, tree, tags, custom attributesYesYesNoYesYesNoNoNoYesYesYesYesProprietary, encrypted; import: plain text, RTF, CSV, MS Word, TreePad, images, web pages; exports: plain text, HTML, RTF, CSV, MS Word, TreePad
MyNotex  ? ? ?Yes ?NoNoNoNo ?Yes ?YesSqlite based, zipped attachments; export to HTML; copying as LaTeX; import text files, OpenOffice.org documents
Notes notes, tree, tagsYes ?YesYes ? ?YesYesYesYesYesYesSqlite based; export to PDF
Notion Notebooks, notebook sections, sectionYesYesYesPartial [Notes 6] Yes [Notes 10] NoNoNoYesYes ?YesProprietary; export to PDF, HTML, Markdown, CSV
Obsidian Wiki, Tree and Categories YesYesYes ?NoNoPlug-In [6] NoYesYesYesYesMarkdown, PDF
Okular  ? ? ?No ?Yes [Notes 10] NoNoNo ? ? ?YesPDF, PS, TIFF, CHM, DjVu, DVI, XPS, ODF, others; export PDF+notes for sending to other Okular users
Open-Sankoré tree, notebooksNoNoNo ?YesYesYesNoNoNo ?YesSave/export: PDF, IWB, UBZ; Import: PDF, IWB, UBZ, images, image directories
Org-mode (Emacs) tree, tags YesYesYesYes [7] YesPlug-In [8] Plug-In [9] NoYesYesYes [10] Yes LaTeX, HTML, DocBook, Taskjuggler, PDF, Freemind, XOXO, iCalendar
PDF Studio  ? ? ? ? ?YesNo ? ? ? ? ?YesPDF
Personal Knowbase tags  ? ? ? ?NoNo ? ? ? ? ?YesExport to RTF, HTML, TXT, CSV
Qiqqa tags, brainstorm NoNoYes ?YesNoYesNoNoYes ?YesProprietary, PDF, Brainstorm; export to RTF and Word
Samsung Notes Yes ?Yes ?YesYesYesYes ? ? ? ?
Simplenote tags YesNoYes ?NoNoNoNoYesYes ?YesExport to XML
TagSpaces tags, files, directoriesYesNoNo ?NoNoNoNoNoYes ?YesPNG, 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)YesYesYes ?Via pluginNo ?NoYes(via browser)Yes ?YesHTML, json, txt,csv
Tomboy  ?Yes ?Yes ?NoNoNoNoYesYes ?YesNoteXmlFormat, HTML, PDF, wiki-formats
Ulysses Notebooks, sections, tags YesYesYes ?YesYesYes ?YesYesYesYesRich text; export as HTML; import text files; markdown editing.
Microsoft Windows Journal  ? ?No ? ?No ?YesYes [Notes 11]  ? ? ?YesProprietary
Zettlr Tree, Tags, Wiki Yes ?Yes [Notes 12] NoNoNoNoNoYes [Notes 13] YesYesYes Markdown, Export and Import of Pandoc supported formats.
Zim tags (wikiwords)YesNoNo ?NoNoNoNoYesYesYesYes, using installed web browserStored in modified DokuWiki Markdown; export: HTML, LaTeX, Pandoc Markdown, Sphinx RST (reStructuredText)
NameOrganizing principle(s)Outline bulleting with indentTabbed sections Sync Web Clipping PDF annotate and save White­board Ink-pen input Handwriting recognition Spell checkSearchReplacePrintingFile save/export/import formats

Advanced formatting and content

NameDrawing atop text
[unclear]
Text box, flow diagram
[unclear]
Text and paragraph formattingInsert hyperlink
[unclear]
Insert image Resize image Insert table Insert audio Insert video Attachment
[unclear]
Other objectsRemarks / other features
AllMyNotes Organizer NoNoYesYesYesYesYesNoNoYesAlarms, check-boxes, bullets, phones, advanced links, autosaving; last cursor position memory,passwords on tree folders,failure-resistant self-healing DB engine
BasKet Note Pads  ? ?YesYesYes ?NoNoNoYestags (check boxes, etc.)Adding, managing notes by category, autosave
CintaNotes NoNoYesYesNo ?NoNoNoYesLinks to notesTagging and searching for tags, tag hierarchy
ConnectedText NoYesYesYesYes ?YesNoYesYesScripting of pages with Python and other scripting languages.LaTeX, Scripts, RSS Feeds, Transclusion, Directed Graphs and Flowcharts by GraphViz, many other features.
Day One NoNoYesYesYes ?YesNoYesNotags, bullets, numbering, line, programming code snippetseditable note metadata (date/time, location, weather, motion activity, music playing, step count)
Evernote NoNoYesYesYesYes [Notes 14] YesYesYesYesCheck-box, line, tagsBusiness and personal notes integrated in same client; businesses have control over business notes, but cannot see personal notes
Gnote NoNoYesYesNoNoNoNoNoNo ?Port of Tomboy to C++; wiki-style linked notes
Google Keep NoNoYesYesYes ?Partial [Notes 15] Yes ?No Google Calendar remindersNotes 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  ?YesYesYesYesPartial [Notes 16] YesYesYesYesLinks to other notesConfigurable 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 for rendered Markdown as well as app interface;
KeyNote NF NoNoYesYesYes [Notes 17] YesYes [Notes 18] NoNoYesOLE 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 YesYesYesYesYesYesYesYes [Notes 19] YesYes OLE, bullets, line, flags, formulasNo local storage of notebooks on Mac or versions past Office 2016 [11]
MyInfo  ? ?YesYesYesYesYesYesNoYes OLE, bullets, numbering, page breaks, advanced linksTags; filters; calendar; reminders
MyNotex  ? ?YesYesYes ? ? ? ?Yes ?Activity lists; tags; notes management by subject; encryption with AES or GPG; multilingual
Notational Velocity  ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?Instant open and searching
Notion NoNoYesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesBullets, numbering, checkboxes, reminders, calendars
Obsidian NoYesYesYesYesPartialYesYesYesYesBullets, numbering, checkboxes, canvases, HTML, LaTeX, internal links
Okular  ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Open-Sankoré YesYesYesYesYes ?YesYesYesYesplug-ins, web pages, applicationsAnnotate live desktop applications and web pages; autosave; plug-in system; audio recording
Org-mode (Emacs) ?YesYesYesYesYes [12] YesNoNoYesAdvanced linking,[ clarification needed ] bullets, tags, checkboxes, full spreadsheet, embedding of programming code, formulas, markupMajor 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 YesYesNoYesYes ?NoNoNoNoPDF, brainstorm, citations
Samsung Notes YesYes ?YesYes ?NoYes ? ?PDF
Simplenote NoNoYesYesNo ?NoNoNoNo
TagSpaces NoNoYesYesYesYesYesYesYes ?Tags, pluginsPlugins, 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)YesYesYesYesYesYesYesYesHTML, LaTeX, markdown pluginsPlugins; user scripts
Tomboy PartialNoPartialYesNoNoNoNoNoNoNote Links, highlighting, fixed-widthReminders; to do-lists; formulas in LaTeX
Microsoft Windows Journal  ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Zettlr NoNoYesYesYesPartial [Notes 20] YesNoNoNoBullets, numbering, checkboxes, HTML, LaTeX, internal links, citations
Zim NoYes [Notes 21] YesYesYesYesYesNoNoYesPlugins; Versioning; LaTeX integration (formulas, export); HTML export (including slideshow); GNOME's Zeitgeist integration; Lilypond music sheet integrationASCII diagram drawing; Tags; Tasks; Table of Content navigation; SQLite3 search indexing; Autosaving; Last cursor position memory; Tabbed multi-documents
NameDrawing atop textText box, flow diagramText and paragraph formattingInsert hyperlink Insert image Resize image Insert table Insert audio Insert video AttachmentOther objectsRemarks / other features

See also

Notes

  1. Free users limited to 100 notes.
  2. Depends on platform and version.
  3. Data is synced between devices by Dropbox or iCloud.
  4. Printable via exported pdf files.
  5. No support for ink notes in Mac version. Cannot mix ink with text
  6. 1 2 Clips URLs and titles only. Web page content is not clipped
  7. On Android and ChromeOS uses platform's spell checker.
  8. All versions can sync with OneDrive and SharePoint. Versions later than Office 2016 can only use online notebooks and cannot use local notebooks.
  9. OneNote 2010 and OneNote 2007 Service Pack 2 and beyond have it built in. A Save As PDF add-in is available for earlier versions of OneNote 2007. Can save to PDF with add-in.
  10. 1 2 Saved in separate file.
  11. Handwritten notes are searchable.
  12. Sync of files and folders using external services.
  13. Internal spell check or LanguageTool integration.
  14. At least Microsoft Windows version (06/2016)
  15. Lists only, with check-box facility.
  16. Resize large images
  17. As the RTF format stores pictures internally as bitmaps (.bmp), this leads to large notebook files.
  18. Tables must be created in another program. After pasting the table into Keynote NF, one can edit the cells and add new rows, but changing the size of the columns and adding or removing columns is not possible. These operations can be done by pasting the table into another program (for example, MS Word).
  19. Can also search in audio.
  20. Resize upon initial insertion.
  21. Using plugins

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">GNOME Evolution</span> Personal information manager software and workgroup information management tool for GNOME

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).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pidgin (software)</span> Open-source multi-platform instant messaging client

Pidgin is a free and open-source multi-platform instant messaging client, based on a library named libpurple that has support for many instant messaging protocols, allowing the user to simultaneously log in to various services from a single application, with a single interface for both popular and obsolete protocols, thus avoiding the hassle of having to deal with new software for each device and protocol.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ardour (software)</span> Open-source digital audio workstation

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DokuWiki</span> Wiki software

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kontact</span> Personal information manager software

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 email client programs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BitlBee</span>

BitlBee is a cross-platform IRC instant messaging gateway, licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LiVES</span>

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LMMS</span> Free software digital audio workstation

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zotero</span> Open-source reference management software

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">FreeCAD</span> Free and open-source 3D CAD software

FreeCAD is a general-purpose parametric 3D computer-aided design (CAD) modeler and a building information modeling (BIM) software application with finite element method (FEM) support. It is intended for mechanical engineering product design but also expands to a wider range of uses around engineering, such as architecture or electrical engineering. FreeCAD is free and open-source, under the LGPL-2.0-or-later license, and available for Linux, macOS, and Windows operating systems. Users can extend the functionality of the software using the Python programming language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gnote</span> Open-source desktop note-taking application

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Org-mode</span> Open source mode for GNU Emacs

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zim (software)</span> Personal wiki software written in Python

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Art of Illusion</span>

Art of Illusion is a free software, and open source software package for making 3D graphics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joplin (software)</span> Notetaking application

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Obsidian (software)</span> Knowledge base and note-taking software

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 commercial licenses available for pay.

References

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  2. "Import notes and notebooks – Evernote Help & Learning".
  3. "Export notes and notebooks as ENEX or HTML – Evernote Help & Learning".
  4. "Import content from Evernote to OneNote".
  5. "Export and import OneNote notebooks".
  6. "Excalidraw - Full featured sketching plugin in Obsidian".
  7. Newell, Bob. "A Web Clipper of Sorts for Org-Mode" . Retrieved 26 February 2023.
  8. "Valentin Herrmann / org-xournalpp · GitLab". GitLab.
  9. "raw and Scribble Notes in GNU Emacs". YouTube . Retrieved 26 February 2023.
  10. "Query Replace". gnu.org. Retrieved 19 March 2023.
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  12. (setq org-image-actual-width nil)