Top 10 Best Note-Taking Apps for Mac in 2024

Top 10 Note-Taking Apps for Mac in 2024

Taking notes is one of those activities that is both extremely personal and universal. Everybody takes notes of some sort, be it as easy as jotting down a phone number or grocery list or as methodical as drafting out thorough book summaries or minutes from meetings. Some see notes as nothing more than text with a few headings and bullets, while others see notes as complex scrapbooks filled with drawings and photos. Whatever your note-taking style, there’s an app out there to accommodate all your peculiarities, unusual tastes, and requirements. Perhaps you should search for it.

Notes can be taken anywhere, in an envelope, in a notebook, or even on the back of a significant bill. There are parallels between note-taking applications and other apps as well. These apps help you keep organized, capture ideas while on the go, organize your calendar, and much more.

There’s probably a notes app out there that suits your note-taking approach, whether it calls for sophisticated organizing and media categorization or simple design and gesture-based features. Here is a list of the ten best note-taking applications for Mac in 2024 to consider, regardless of the operating system you use—iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, or another hardware.

OneNote

OneNote’s note-taking functionality is highly customizable, enabling it to accommodate your unique requirements. Every notebook is structured like a ring binder, with divisions and sub-sections known as pages. Additionally, every page is essentially a canvas on which you can write any kind of comment, wherever you choose. You can include photographs, add written notes by clicking anywhere, and give each person in the picture a mustache if your computer is compatible with a pen. (Alternatively, you can use your trackpad to sketch one, although it won’t be as fashionable.) Instead of being a digital notepad for people to jot down brief ideas and fragments of text, it seems like a solution designed specifically for students and anyone else who has to write lengthy, discursive notes about something or sketch up a few schematics.

Apple Notes

If you’re already well-versed in Apple’s ecosystem, finding a fantastic note-taking app at no cost won’t take you too far. Built within macOS and iOS, Apple Notes (also accessible through your browser) is also accessible through Notes or iCloud Notes, depending on how you’re accessing it. Whether using a PC or Chromebook, all you have to do is navigate to icloud.com/notes to access an online version of the app with all of your synchronized notes. It’s a convenient extra that prevents your notes from being entirely dependent on your Apple products.

Macs, iPads, and iPhones indeed come with a ton of amazing note-taking applications. Although Apple Notes is free and integrated, I could have easily filled this slot with choices like Bear and Craft, which I adore. Furthermore, it is as practical, user-friendly, and helpful for the majority of people as any of the higher-end options. And it continues to improve. Apple has introduced tools like tags, sharing, and a robust search over the last few years. You may generally format your notes as you need them to be—you can handwrite or draw on them, attach photographs, scan documents, and add text. It even has Siri integration.

Google Keep

Notes often have a function and aren’t meant to stand alone. They have a multitude of purposes, such as serving as a helpful outline for your next book or as a reminder to send a friend an email. Frequently, using these additional items necessitates using another app or service. Your notes app does not allow you to send emails, and although you could be able to outline a book there, it’s probably not the best place to write one. For Google Power users, this is why Google Keep is such a fantastic choice.

Google Keep is a bit strange. It’s decent, although somewhat basic, note-taking software. There’s a useful Chrome extension for storing brief notes and links, as well as reasonable versions for iOS, Android, and the web.

Notion

You can take notes for yourself, for others, or both—whether they are coworkers, fellow students, or just close friends and family. Taking personal notes is the main purpose of all the applications that we have examined thus far. Although their primary functions are located elsewhere, you can share and work together on notes and even notebooks. The notion has built-in collaboration from the beginning; however, it may still be used alone.

The only app on this list that does not comply with the requirement that it be a note-taking app is Notion. It is, but it can be so much more due to its collaborative aspects. In essence, it is two instruments in one: an effective note-taking app and a task.

Obsidian

One of the new breeds of note-taking apps, Obsidian, pushes the limits of what a note-taking tool should and can accomplish. It aims to be a one-stop shop for all things digital, much like Notion and Roam Research (which didn’t make our list due to their high price and entry hurdle), and it kind of succeeds in that regard.

Check out Obsidian only if you’re willing to put in the effort to have it configured to your needs, as it has a far higher learning curve than the other apps on this list. It’s simply a note-taking tool that works with Markdown-formatted text files, but things may rapidly get convoluted.

Joplin

Not only is Joplin the greatest free Evernote substitute, but it’s also the greatest open-source note-taking app on our list. As I’ll discuss below, there are several reasons why I don’t think Evernote should be on this list at this time. That being said, most other note-taking apps compete with Evernote by attempting to be unique. Although OneNote is fantastic, using it is not at all like using Evernote. However, Joplin comes very close; you can import all of your Evernote notebooks with it.

An Evernote-like note-taking program would have an interface similar to this. Notes are in a second column; notebooks go in a third, and you examine and write your notes there. There’s also a fourth preview column that displays what your notes look like in rich text because Joplin fully supports Markdown (and gets a million bonus points for doing so). This is just the default, of course; you may write in rich text, disable the preview, and alter the settings however you see fit.

Conclusion

Taking notes digitally is just as intimate as writing in your high school notebook. You may customize your online note-taking experience to suit your needs with good note-taking apps that support this level of customization.

That implies that the note-taking app that you are most familiar with will be the best one. Try out a few of these and decide which one works best for you.