note taking app

5 Best Note Taking Apps for Your Productivity

In the modern world, there’s just so much happening that you can’t even begin to remember half of the important things. That is why it is so important to take notes of things that you need to remember. One of the simplest ways to take notes would be to carry a notebook and pen with you and scribble away stuff in it. But there’s a better way, with the smartphone era so into existence, you needn’t carry a pen or paper. Just install a note taking app on your phone and you’re done.

Note taking apps have various forms and functions. Apart from writing simple notes, you can now add handwriting notes or record audio. Since the Play Store and App Store have so many of these, choosing the one that fits your needs the best seems to need some work.

That is why, we bring to you the 5 best note taking apps for both Android and iOS devices.

1. Evernote

evernote logo

Evernote is a famous note taking app. Simple enough to take quick notes, it is still powerful enough to act as a complete organizer. You can add text, images, audio, and files to notes, then organize them into notebooks. Everything is tied together with powerful search, and your notes are easy to find no matter where you saved it. You can search for specific words, whether they’re in a PDF, a typed memo or a photographed note scrawled on a scrap of paper.

Evernote also has the Evernote Web Clipper which makes it easy to save web pages, article snippets or highlights of a website that you found interesting and want to remember.

Price: Free for basic features (up to 60MB file uploads per month); from $25/year Plus plan for offline notebook access, email integration, searching inside files and more.

Find it here on the App Store and Google Play.

2. OneNote

OneNote Thumbnail

OneNote is a note taking app has the feel of a paper notebook. It is designed around notebooks and note sections and makes you want to keep things organized and orderly. OneNote automatically syncs with Microsoft’s OneNote cloud-storage platform, so your notes are accessible from anywhere, on any Internet-connected device. The app’s search functionality can help you find any note you want to recall.

On Android devices, the OneNote widget allows you to take notes right on the home screen without opening the app. If you’re actively using the rest of Microsoft Office, OneNote really shines because it is all connected. You can embed tables from Excel, pull clips from emails, or link research to MS Word.

Price: Free for basic features; from $69/year for Office 365 for Microsoft Office including the full version of OneNote.

Find it here on the App Store and Google Play.

3. Google Keep

google keep app photo

Google’s free note taking app has been built to capture notes, lists, photos, and audio. It has a minimalist design that seems to make it look like a basic note taking app, but you can do so much with it. Google Keep does pretty much everything you expect of a notes app. You can organize notes easily using a color coded system, look for anything with a powerful search engine, share notes with others, and everything is synced up to your Google account so you never have to worry losing anything. You don’t even need to create an extra account.

What differentiates Google Keep the most from apps like OneNote and Evernote is that there’s almost zero learning time. You don’t need to figure the app out. It’s just so simple and easy to use.

Google Keep also has an audio transcription feature. When you record your thoughts with Keep’s audio recorder in its mobile apps, Google transcribes the text while recording the audio.

Price: Free

Find it here on the App Store and Google Play.

4. Simplenote

simplenote logo

Simplenote is a note taking app that sticks to its name. It offers a clutter-free space for typing notes. It’s just a blank canvas for plain-text notes about meetings, weekend plans, and anything you want to write and remember. Simplenote doesn’t let you add images or attachments, but you can quickly write down text notes and search through your entire collection.

It allows you to organize notes with tags, and the simplicity of plain text makes Simplenote’s search robust and fast. Simplenote lacks extravagant features but that is what makes it a very efficient note taking app. The app is built to take notes and that’s it. No extra time to figure out how it works, your time is saved and you remain efficient.

Price: Free

Find it here on the App Store and Google Play.

5. Dropbox Paper

Dropbox-Paper logo

Dropbox Paper is a relatively new note taking app. It has a big blank canvas like interface on which you can write your notes and agenda. You can also organize notes by title and create to-do lists, but even basic formatting tools are obscured from view — they appear in a floating box above words and phrases highlighted by your cursor.

Although it looks minimal, you can embed videos from YouTube and music from SoundCloud. You can also add links to photos and other files in your Dropbox account and attach them to note documents. Dropbox Paper also offers extensive collaboration tools. You can invite other users to edit your notes, and also restrict privileges to some people. All the list of changes are visible as a list of revisions in a timeline. You can create and amend comments, chat with any users that happen to be editing the same note as you and assign tasks in a to-do list by mentioning users with an “@” symbol. However, to use all the features, you’ll need an internet connection.

Price: Free

Find it here on the App Store and Google Play.

If you are looking for a great app to take notes, look no further than the five I’ve listed above. They’re the complete package, they work amazingly great and increase your productivity. If you haven’t installed an app for notes in your smartphone, yet, I urge you to do so now. Writing down notes is a sure shot way to ensure that you don’t forget anything important; be it a meeting or an idea.