Best note-taking apps

Think about the number of notes you take on a daily or weekly basis. In everything from listening to podcasts, sitting in meetings, quickly scrawling something on a sticky note so you don’t forget, or taking inventory of the pantry and what you need to grab at the store, let’s face it: we all take a lot of notes.

Where do most of those notes end up? Hardly in the place we need them to. The second we need to look back on them, they’re hardly ever in sight. They end up everywhere — in the mail pile, under the couch, in the car, at work when you’re at home. Just never the place you need them. Thankfully we live in a time when that hassle can be a thing of the past. With so many note-taking apps out there, there’s no need to be scouring the house for those notes anymore.

If you just so happen to be in the market for one of those apps, we’ve conveniently compiled a list of our favorites for you to take a look at.

Squid

While some folks are all about innovation and “the next best thing,” others are reluctant to give up perfectly good ol’ reliable pen and paper. There’s just nothing like handwriting yourself a note instead of typing one to keep you from forgetting, but keeping track of all those pesky notes around the house can be at times, well, a little frustrating. That’s where Squid comes in.

Squid is an extremely clever note-taking app that is an amazing choice for those who want to keep the handwritten aspect of note-taking, all while keeping the notes in a digital format so they’re all in one place for easy tracking. Easily use a stylis or your finger to create new notes, to digitally sign PDFs, and more.

Download it now: Google Play

Evernote

It just wouldn’t be a note-taking post without mentioning a couple of our all-time favorites, one of which is Evernote. Evernote will not only keep you on task and organized with all of it’s fantastic capabilities, but it’ll also keep everyone else you work with on task as well, whether you find yourself collaborating on something with a spouse, your employees, and even your colleagues.

From checklists to doodles, tasks, and details, Evernote has plenty of features, and is always improving on those as well as creating more. If that’s what you’re looking for—an app with endless features for you to discover and utilize, then Evernote is the perfect note-taking app for you!

Download it now: Google Play

GNotes

On the simpler side of things, GNote is pretty standard and straight to the point. Minimalistic, without being not enough (and hey, it’s got an awesome modern look to it as well). If you’re not into all of the fluff and features of more extensive apps, then GNote is an absolutely fantastic option for you.

Basically, GNote has 4 core, foundational “features,” or ways to take notes. Type a note in on your touchscreen, use the voice-to-text feature and simply say your note, save a note with a specific URL to come back to later, or, similar to Squid, handwrite a note on your phone or tablet. If you’re slowly but surely working to cut the clutter in your life, we highly recommend GNote to help you organize all your thoughts in one, simple place.

Download it now: Google Play

Google Keep

Google Keep is an all-around fun note taking app, another one with features a-plenty. Not only are all of your notes organized in an awesome stacked design in Keep’s main page, but you can do so much to improve upon your note-taking game, making Keep a good option for the detail-oriented who love to keep things nice, tidy, and organized.

In Google Keep, you’ll be able to assign a specific color to each of your individual notes. You could do a plethora of random colors, or you could make all grocery lists yellow, all reminders blue, etc. You can also create a note by drawing something, or utilizing voice-to-text. On top of that, it’s never been easier to find your notes, because of the handy search bar, as well as the ability to tag every note to a specific category.

Download it now: Google Play

S Note

The S Note app will help you to separate all of your different types of notes. On S Note’s home screen, you’ll be able to see all of the different “notebooks” you’ve created, from grocery lists to vacation planning, random ideas, etc— it’s completely up to you what you decide to create.

Another cool feature in S Note is the ability to really draw. If you’re on the creative side, or just like to try your hand at doodling, there’s several different brushes to choose from. You also have intensity and endless color options, which makes this one of the best note-taking/drawing combo apps out there.

Download it now: Google Play

Just Note

Simple and sleek, Just Note is just what you need. Similar to GNote (but possibly even simpler), Just Note is small and light, but gets the job done. Are you busy? Not looking to add anything else the slightest bit overwhelming to your plate? That’s where Just Note comes in, helping you simplify everything at hand.

That’s not all though—for our international readers, Just Note is available in a variety of languages, including (but not limited to) French, German, Korean, and Chinese. Whoever you may be, you can add as many, or as few notes as you like with Just Note.

Download it now: Google Play

Closing

Whether you’re looking for something that gets down to even the littlest detail, you consider yourself more of a minimalist and you want something light but efficient, or you place yourself somewhere in the middle, there’s something on this list for everyone, and we sure hope it was extremely helpful for you.

Have you tried any of these apps, or one not on this list? Tell us about it in the comments section; we’d love to hear your thoughts!