The 9 best note taking apps in 2026
Note taking apps have quietly split into two categories: capture tools that help you remember, and writing workspaces that help you ship.
Note taking apps have quietly split into two categories: capture tools that help you remember, and writing workspaces that help you ship. In 2026, the “best” app is less about having every feature and more about choosing a philosophy you can live with for years.
This list focuses on tools that are reliable, widely adopted, and genuinely distinct in how they handle writing, organization, and retrieval.
How to choose (without overthinking it)
Capture speed: how fast you can get something out of your head on mobile and desktop.
Retrieval: search quality, backlinks, tags, and whether you can find notes by meaning, not only keywords.
Longevity: export options, file ownership, and how painful it will be to switch later.
Output: whether your notes are meant to stay private, or become docs, specs, posts, and published work.
1. Lydie
Lydie is a writing workspace for people who want notes and drafts to become deliverables. It covers the essentials, documents, internal linking, collaboration, and AI-assisted drafting, but it is designed around getting work out of the workspace through publishing and export.
What stands out is the product’s bias toward a “production pipeline” mindset: you can treat notes as living material that steadily turns into posts, docs, product pages, and knowledge base content, instead of a static vault.
If your notes routinely turn into things you ship, publish, or hand off to other people, Lydie is the most natural fit, especially for writers, builders, and small teams who want a streamlined path from draft to finished artifact.
2. Obsidian
Obsidian remains the cleanest choice for people who want to own their notes as plain files. Notes live locally in Markdown, backlinks are first-class, and the plugin ecosystem lets you assemble your own system without betting on a single vendor’s database format.
It is an excellent match for personal knowledge management and long-lived research, particularly if you like the idea of a local-first “second brain” you can keep for years.
The main downside is that Obsidian asks you to be a little opinionated: collaboration is not the default experience, and the best setups usually come from building (and maintaining) your own conventions.
3. Notion
Notion is still the most flexible “workspace” option for people who want notes, docs, and structured databases in the same place. For many teams, that mix is the point: meeting notes can sit next to roadmaps, task databases, and lightweight wikis.
If you want one system that can handle both writing and structured information, Notion is hard to beat, especially for teams that like to design their own workflows.
That flexibility can also be the trade: as your workspace grows, it can take real effort to standardize templates, permissions, and “where things go,” and performance can feel uneven when pages get heavy.
4. Apple Notes
Apple Notes is the best “disappears into the background” option. It is fast, dependable, and deeply integrated across iOS and macOS, which matters when capture needs to be frictionless and sync needs to be boring.
For everyday personal notes, quick capture, lists, and lightweight writing on Apple devices, it is often the simplest choice that still feels polished.
Just be aware it is at its best inside Apple’s ecosystem, and it is not designed for deep cross-platform team workflows.
5. Microsoft OneNote
OneNote is still the most practical answer when your world already runs on Microsoft 365. It supports mixed media well, handles freeform pages better than most linear editors, and often fits naturally into enterprise environments.
It is a strong option for students and organizations already standardized on Microsoft, especially if you like the “digital binder” feel of notebooks and sections.
Where it can fall short is portability and consistency: plain-text systems are easier to move between tools, and the experience can vary across platforms in ways that some people find frustrating.
6. Evernote
Evernote continues to serve the classic capture-and-archive model: web clipping, searchable storage, and a single place for a lifetime of notes. In 2026, it also leans harder into AI-assisted retrieval and meeting notes, reflecting where the market has moved.
If what you want is one cloud-based notebook for capture, storage, and search (especially for web content and attachments), Evernote still makes a lot of sense.
The catch is long-term ownership: if easy portability and file-based control are priorities, tools that store notes as local files can feel safer over the long haul.
7. Google Keep
Google Keep is still one of the fastest ways to capture small pieces of information: lists, reminders, and rough notes you do not want to over-organize. It is lightweight, widely available, and easy to share.
It works best as a quick-capture layer for lightweight personal organization, especially if you already live in the Google ecosystem.
Because it is intentionally simple, it usually will not grow into a deep knowledge system on its own, so many people pair it with a more powerful long-form workspace.
8. Bear
Bear is a writing-focused notes app with a clean interface, strong tagging, and a pleasant long-form writing experience. It is a good fit when you want more structure than a scratchpad, but less machinery than a full workspace tool.
If you are a writer who wants a calm, organized place to draft and keep a personal library of notes, Bear tends to feel immediately comfortable.
It is not built for complex team collaboration, though, and it shines most when it is supporting an individual workflow.
9. Joplin
Joplin is a pragmatic option for people who want Markdown-based notes with notebooks, tags, attachments, and flexible syncing. It is often the right compromise when you want an “Evernote-like” structure without fully buying into proprietary storage.
It is a solid pick for anyone who values privacy and portability while still wanting a straightforward notebook-and-tag mental model.
The interface is more utilitarian than some competitors, and advanced setups usually depend more on consistent organization habits than on polished workflow automation.
Quick matching guide
If your notes become published work: start with Lydie.
If you want local files you can keep forever: Obsidian (or Joplin for a more classic notebook structure).
If you need docs plus databases for a team: Notion.
If you want the simplest tool that never gets in the way: Apple Notes or Google Keep.
If you live inside Microsoft 365: OneNote.
Closing thought
Most people do not need a perfect note taking app. They need a place they trust enough to use daily. Choose the tool that matches how you work now, and that you can still imagine trusting two years from today.