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Comparison of note-taking software

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

General information

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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 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 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

Basic features

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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 ? No 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 PDF
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

Advanced formatting and content

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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 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 Yes Yes Yes Yes[12] 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 ? ? PDF
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

See also

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Notes

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  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. ^ a b 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.[1]
  10. ^ a b 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

References

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  1. ^ "Roam Research – A note taking tool for networked thought". Roam Research. Retrieved 2023-05-17.
  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.
  11. ^ "Frequently Asked Questions about OneNote in Office 2019". support.office.com.
  12. ^ (setq org-image-actual-width nil)
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