# Comparison of note-taking software

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

## General information

| 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 | Android (not released yet), iOS, macOS, Microsoft Windows XP/Vista/7/Mobile web-based |
| Microsoft OneNote | Microsoft | Freemium | 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 |
| 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

| 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 | ? | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Markdown (in GUI), XML (data file); Export as: pdf, txt, md |
| Evernote | tags, Notebooks, Stacks | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Imports and exports in Evernote XML. |
| Gnote | Notebooks | ? | No | Yes | ? | Yes | No | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | NoteXmlFormat, HTML, PDF |
| Google Keep | tags, colors | No | No | Yes | Partial | No | Yes | No | ? | Partial | 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 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Imports: Evernote XML. Exports: OneNote binary format. |
| 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 | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Proprietary; export to PDF, HTML, Markdown, CSV |
| Obsidian | Wiki, Tree and Categories | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Plug-In | No | Plug-In | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Markdown, PDF |
| Okular | ? | ? | ? | No | ? | Yes | 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 | Yes | Plug-In | Plug-In | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | 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 | ? | ? | ? | Yes | Proprietary |
| Zettlr | Tree, Tags, Wiki | Yes | ? | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | 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

| 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 | 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 | 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 | 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 (imported from local or remote source) for rendered Markdown as well as app interface; |
| KeyNote NF | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | 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 | Yes | Yes | OLE, bullets, line, flags, formulas | No local storage of notebooks on Mac or versions past Office 2016 |
| 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 | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Advanced linking, 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 |
| 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 | Yes | No | No | No | Bullets, numbering, checkboxes, HTML, LaTeX, internal links, citations | |
| Zim | No | Yes | 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 |