Notetaking Apps reviews from Reddit

Summary

We analyzed 189 Reddit reviews across 14 subreddits and 19 posts to rank the best Notetaking Apps brands recommended by redditors, including communities like r/ipad, r/productivity, r/NoteTaking, r/GalaxyTab, r/Btechtards. Top-rated brands include Microsoft (4.1/5), GoodNotes (4.1/5), Samsung (4.3/5).

Stats

Reviews189

Subreddits14

Posts19

Brands60

Products11

Top communities

r/ipad42 r/productivity29 r/NoteTaking28 r/GalaxyTab27 r/Btechtards15

189 reviews from

and

By Brand

By Product

Microsoft

4.1

(25)

"One Note is the one I would recommend. I have tried many note taking softwares over the past four years and have always gone back to OneNote."

"Fr man OneNote is goated. No set up or anything requires, it’s available on multiple platforms and syncs between them for free"

"OneNote is the best, its free and its got everything you need really."

"Onenote, it is the best one for me. No nonsense, just type your notes or write on a tablet, or paste screenshots, whatever you want, syncs easily on any device"

"One Note is the one I would recommend. I have tried many note taking softwares over the past four years and have always gone back to OneNote."

"One note is good ! Depending on the class, if your prof posts the slides before lectures you can import those to one note and write notes on the slides as you go through them in lecture"

"Onenote ^^^ it’s free and just as good if not better than the other note taking apps"

"I mainly use OneNote. For each course, download all of the lectures as pdf files and input them into onenote. Then you can annotate the lecture as you attend each one."

"One note to just brainstorm or whenever I need an infinite canvas."

"OneNote is free. If you are planning to attend college especially STEM major I suggest giving it a try."

GoodNotes

4.1

(15)

"For iPad: Goodnotes, or Notability."

"Good Notes is way superior for students who use books in PDF forms. Notability creates a new notes and erases all the original bookmarks while GoodNotes will retain the bookmarks making navigation way easier."

"Helpful! Thank you! Downloading good notes now:)"

"I also do an ipad, with pencil and goodnotes."

"Using goodnotes with ipad + apple pencil, haven’t found a better workflow yet."

"Goodnotes , and I guess even Bamboo isn't too bad"

"Goodnotes, freenotes, and the freeform app is a little jank, but it's a freely scalable digital whiteboard, I like it."

"I love and use goodnotes but the standard app is pretty robust as well."

"GoodNotes plus planners in PDF"

"I use both goodnotes and samsung notes, both are great for writing"

Samsung

4.3

(13)

"Samsung notes is king."

"If I would pick one, I pick samsung notes because it doesnt need wifi, and the spen features is good with samsung notes"

"Samsung notes the best for writing"

"Samsung notes with stylus. Works like charm."

"I personally use Samsung Notes, w in built app for samsung pads"

"The one the most I use is Samsung Notes for Budget tracking"

"Samsung notes is so good but i really want infinite canvas why don't they just add it."

"I still use Samsung Notes and Microsoft OneNote."

"Samsung notes and xodo user here."

"I also prefer Samsung Notes."

Notion

4.0

(13)

"Try Notion."

"Notion works fine for me"

"I've been using notion for the past 2 years. imo easier to learn than obsidian."

"Notion can replace all notes-taking, journaling and other productivity apps."

"Notion."

"Notion, Obsidian for typed notes. I personally prefer notion."

"Notion for anything shared with others."

"Notion and OneNote are both great and amazing of it's own right"

"Notion has AI and I take notes in it."

"I second Notion as the easiest and the prettiest one."

Notability

4.3

(12)

"That’s how Noteabilty stays on top in features and being the best"

"Notability all day!"

"Notability >>>>>"

"I love noteability and it’s my choice for college / medical program. Favorite features are the record function with text play back and while you write your notes. AI summary of your notes that can easily generate flash cards or quizzes in less than a minutr."

"I personally use notability just because not everyone uses it for its subscription model."

"I pay the yearly subscription to Notability and it works great (for me)."

"Notability or you can just use Notes for free but with less customization"

"Chatgpt and co-pilot doesn’t take PDFs, slides, handwritten notes etc. notability does"

"Because you have to pay monthly for noteability, the best note taking app"

"I got notability when it was a one time payment and that was very much worth it!"

Obsidian

4.5

(10)

"Obsidian. Once you use it. Cannot ever go back."

"Highly customizable, secure (saved locally but paid sync available - I do this to have a “all devices” vault that I access on pc, iPad, etc!)"

"In my view Obsidian is perfect for that, daily notes are implemented natively"

"Another is Obsidian as for my main 2025 note taking app"

"I use Obsidian MD. Markdown, so it will live forever for as long as we have computers."

"Obsidian because you can make it how you want. Sync is paid but there are free community things."

"If you do care - Obsidian (takes a long time to set up, but gets the job done)"

"Obsidian with Git Sync"

"Obsidian is geeky, you can customize everything"

"I heard Obsidian is good"

Noteful

4.6

(8)

"100% Noteful. I was a long time GoodNotes user until I got frustrated with them focusing on unnecessary features while letting their core purpose (note taking) suffer."

"Noteful is a one-time purchase with excellent strokes and handwriting."

"Noteful is very efficient, fast, stable and well featured."

"Noteful is far from crappy. It is even better than notability in a lot of ways. Like a lot. It's a one time payment app, and it is definitely well spent."

"Noteful - My go to note taking app(College student)"

"It has notes recording :)) - i dont have to make flash cards, layers take care of that"

"Noteful"

"Noteful has been really good."

Nebo

4.7

(7)

"Ive been using Nebo for 7 years and it only ever gets better."

"Nebo!"

"Yh Nebo is really good I’ve been using it for over a year now"

"Nebo"

"I would use Nebo. It converts whole document pages of handwriting into typed text automatically and it convert math notes into LaTex."

"Try nebo, I've been using forever for written notes."

"I think Nebo and Xodo had that"

Upnote

4.1

(7)

"Upnote. Love the simplicity of the layout and the versatility of the formatting options."

"If you want the apple notes experience but cross platform, Upnote is the one."

"Upnote ✅"

"I standby upnote, been using it since 2022"

"Big fan of UpNote"

"Try Upnote. Imo it is the best non-stylus note taking app."

"I use UpNote for private notes I want locally accessible on my devices"

#10

Simplenote

4.0

(5)

"Tried SimpleNotes the other day and liked it very much but found out that you can't add images in ur notes."

"Simplenote on my side."

"SimpleNote by Automattic."

"I use Simplenote."

"Simplenote - because im on windows, macos and android"

#11

Evernote

3.6

(5)

"It actually improved after the company got bought out. They've fixed bugs and started refactoring the interface."

"I'm still a heavy Evernote user and use the app daily for notes."

"I use Notion, Evernote, and OneNote."

"Evernote"

"Unpopular opinion: Evernote. It's expensive but it do the job."

#12

Noteshelf

4.3

(4)

"A very powerful new feature of Noteshelf has been left out, that being the new AI integration."

"I use Noteshelf."

"I use and love Noteshelf"

"Noteshelf 3. Has a permanent license option and is pretty reliable."

#13

Freenotes

3.5

(4)

"I’m checking out Freenotes rn, and ya know - this app is impressive."

"I use freenotes and haven’t had any lagging issues."

"Freenotes Currently using native apple notes."

"Give Freenotes a try."

#14

Joplin

4.0

(3)

"I use joplin"

"Joplin, at least on Android, already has sync, and you can choose where to save it; for example, use OneDrive."

"Personally I use Joplin. I prefer customisability and open-source software, and like that I can sync it with my Dropbox folder"

#15

NotePlan

4.0

(3)

"NotePlan."

"Noteplan and Twos both have these features"

"NotePlan!"

#16

Capacities

4.0

(3)

"CAPACITIES changed my life, the daily note taking is integrated beautifully"

"The Capacities app has a daily note function."

"If you don't care about changing how you think and your stuff going into a cloud - Capacities (object-based thinking)"

#17

Xodo

4.0

3.5

3.0

(1)

"Notetime if you care about simplicity and timestamping each note."

#60

Penjo

3.0

(1)

"Penjo"

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