The 11 Best Cross-Platform Note-Taking Apps

In earlier times, note-taking used to be a simple process that required only a pencil and paper/notebook. However, with changing times and so many options in place, the note-taking process too has changed by becoming digital.

We all need to pen down notes at some point in life, be it related to your profession, personal life, or even to manage our day to day lives like a shopping list, monthly expenses, and so on.

Since the classic old pen and paper method is not that reliable, therefore, most of the people have shifted towards the idea of jotting down notes on their laptops or computers so that the notes are safe and secure forever.

Related Read: The 11 Best Cross-Platform Task Apps

Although there are many note-taking apps in place these days, this article will introduce you to some of the best cross-platform note taking apps. To know about these apps, continue reading!

1. Google Keep

Somewhat similar to Post-it notes, Google Keep lets you make a selection for notes from 12 different colors. This app offers an easy way to write down notes, it allows you to add images, write and even draw.

You can save images, URLs and text using Google Keep Chrome extension as and when you browse the web. Anything that gets saved in this application gets sync with every platform you use.

Besides, the app really shines with the other G suite products like Google Drive, Docs, Slides, Calendars, and Sheets etc. just open the Google Keep sidebar and refer to your notes.

Google Keep - Notes and Lists
Google Keep – Notes and Lists

2. Notion

The notion is equipped with a variety of features like powerful search, visual, whiteboard and so on. This is not any regular note taking app, rather it’s a collaboration of tools like tasks and projects, spreadsheets and databases, notes and knowledge bases.

Everything in this app is called a “Block” and new documents or notes are called “Page”. Notion allows you to create a defined workspace where you can store all your notes and share them with team members. Well, the notion can be a bit complicated choice when it comes to capturing notes but nothing can beat it when it comes to data sharing with others.

Notion - All-in-one Workspace for Your Notes, Tasks and Wikis
Notion – All-in-one
Workspace for Your Notes, Tasks and Wikis

3. Simplenote

Simplenotes offers a simple way to jot down and edit your important notes. This app comes with minimal abilities. Expect no image uploading, no file attachment and no rich formatting with this app, all you can do is to save the typed text.

With Simplenote, you can history of your notes and restore them to the previous version along with features to organize and share the notes. This app supports all major platforms and can be run on any browser. It is truly the best app if you are looking just for simple note-taking.

Simplenote - Note Taking App
Simplenote – Note Taking App

4. Standard Notes

Standard Notes open source app suits best if you want your notes to be confidential and encrypted. Its free version comes with limited features that include a text editor and no bullets, images, attachments and rich text support.

The app functions by adding tags to organize notes which get saved to the corresponding folder. Whereas the paid version is loaded with many features like download extensions that allow you to add different editors, write simple or advanced code or rich text, add nested folders, save notes and copy notes, etc. Besides, you can sync your notes with Dropbox and Google Drive, etc.

Standard Note - Note Taking App
Standard Note – Note Taking App

5. Boostnote

Boostnote is a free, open-source app and the best note-taking apps. Choose Markdown or snippet notes when you create a fresh note to create any sort of text or text editor for code. This app lets you work with text snippets as well, text snipped are lines of text which are used repeatedly.

Some of the other features of this note-taking app include customized hotkeys, dark and light visual themes and font changes etc. Besides, it allows you to save notes locally or in an offline mode.

Boostnote
Boostnote

6. Evernote

Evernote is one of the oldest note taking apps that lets you make both simple and complex notes with the help of a combination of tags, notes and notebooks. It comes with the feature called Web Clipper extension that allows saving webpages that include text, images and PDFs etc.

with just one click. You can easily access your notes from your computer, mobile phone and laptop using this app. Its features also include present PowerPoint-style notes, set reminders and merge notes, etc. besides, its latest addition include Siri integration and new tables for iOs users.

Evernote - Note Taking App
Evernote – Note Taking App

7. Joplin

Joplin, an open-source, free note taking and to-do app is capable of handling hefty amounts of notes. These notes can be tagged, searched, modified and copied. You can sync these notes with other devices such as Dropbox, Google Drive and OneDrive etc.

Joplin app can be run on macOS, Linux, and Windows systems, besides these all OS can be sync with each other so that you can access your notes anytime and anywhere using your laptop, mobile phone or tablet, etc.

Joplin
Joplin

8. Org-mode

Org-mode note taking app not only lets you take notes but also to create to-do lists, authoring documents and planning projects in an effective and fast plain text environment.

This versatile application comes with many interesting features that let you write simple/general notes, write pdf slides and handouts, create search notes, results, published papers, analysis code, manage deadlines and to-do list, compose emails and write blogs.

When you perform these functions, all the org-mode documents get converted to the plain text which can be accessed from any text editor.

Org Mode Note Taking App
Org Mode Note Taking App

9. Turtl

Turtl note-taking application provides a safe and secure environment to keep bookmarks, notes, ideas, images, documents and passwords etc.

Turtl comes with easy filtering and tagging options which makes it a great choice for both personal and professional use. This highly efficient and safe software application uses your password to create a cryptographic key that can be used to encrypt data before saving it anywhere on your system or the servers so that only you and authorized people can access the stored data.

Turtl - Note Taking App
Turtl – Note Taking App

10. TiddlyWiki

TiddlyWiki, just like its name, is a unique notebook that lets you organize, capture, share and modify information or data. This nonlinear notebook allows you to create a to-do list, organize your work and plan an essay/novel.

Additionally, it also lets you choose the location to keep your data ensuring that you still be able to access notes you take in today’s date even after the decades to come.

TiddlyWiki - Note Taking App
TiddlyWiki – Note Taking App

11. Zim

Zim, a graphical text editor works to maintain wiki pages. These pages contain links to other pages, images and simple formatting. The pages get stored in a folder and could have attachments in it. It saved all your data in a plain text format with wiki formatting.

Besides, plugins like task list manager, equation editor, and tray icon offer additional functionality which makes it a great app for brainstorming, create emails, blogs, take notes during the meeting and archive notes, etc.

Zim - Note Taking App
Zim – Note Taking App
Summary:

Note taking is important whether it’s related to your personal life or professional, you need to jot down some points in order to organize and manage things. We have created this list of 12 best cross-platform note taking apps which will help you solve the purpose of taking notes and make life simpler for you!

Anusha worked for many years in the IT industry as a Project Manager, and also a senior writer and editor at GeeksMint. She is a huge fan of Linux and is passionate about writing Linux and technology-related stuff.

Each tutorial at GeeksMint is created by a team of experienced writers so that it meets our high-quality writing standards.

5 thoughts on “The 11 Best Cross-Platform Note-Taking Apps”

  1. The biggest problem with Keep, for me, is that searching your notes is basically worthless. For example, I have a note that is a list of books i want to read. It’s hundreds of entries long. If I enter a search term (for an app from the company that made its name on SEARCH!), Keep will tell me it’s in a note, but no way to actually go to the specific part of the note where it is. In essence, it tells me here is a haystack, you find your needle in it. Good luck. Good grief is more like it.

    Reply
  2. What I really want, is a tree of thoughts. Google Keep and similar is completely unusable for me. I might as well use notes from Evolution, which gives pretty much the same.

    I may have an idea for a project, so I make a list of notes for ideas about project. But each idea may have pros and cons, so I want to add a list of notes to each idea. But then I learn new things that may be important, so I want to add those as yet another sublist.

    If there’s nothing like this around, then I’ll make one, but I would prefer using an existing one, not just because I don’t want to make one, but because I would rather contribute to something that exists than making yet another note app.

    If someone has suggestions, I would very much appreciate tips.

    Reply
  3. Is this sponsored by Google ?

    1. You know the list is bad when Google keep tops it. I mean, Google keep isn’t flexible and is mentioned before notion and Evernote.

    2. Microsoft onenote, is a free app, with much more features and organisations and doesn’t put any hidden data limits like evernote and there are 7 complex in branch system and it hasn’t even been mentioned. Don’t get me wrong, I hate microsoft, but their Onenote for Windows 10 definitely deserves top 5 in the list.

    You did add few apps which I have never heard of. Will check them out. Thanks for the article.

    Reply

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