There are plenty of free note-taking services that help you organise your work, research, thoughts and daily life. Some can even sync your notes across multiple devices. Rob Beattie compares six of the best options
Evernote (evernote.com)
Some people are still riled about the new web-based Evernote interface but we reckon it’s an improvement in every way as clean and clear as Bronze Award-winning Simplenote, and an oasis of calm compared with OneNote. The free version is entirely usable, despite its monthly 60MB limit, and lets you add as many notes as you like, clip web pages and synchronise notes. It works across any of your devices running the web app, the Windows software or the mobile iOS/Android versions, and also offers basic sharing and collaboration, which is useful if a group of people are planning a trip or working together on a project. This breadth of devices is also available on OneNote but Simplenote still lacks Windows software.
Evernote’s web clipper extension is able to grab entire pages or parts of a page, and lets you add tags before saving it to a notebook. The annotation tools aren’t perfect, but they are better at producing good results than OneNote’s similar tools, although the latter’s pen support is generally superior. Simplenote, however, has nothing like this, if you discount copying and pasting a URL.
The redesigned text editor is a joy to use and we also like the way Evernote is ditching unnecessary elements (Evernote Food recently joined Hello and Peek in their software retirement home) to concentrate on its core note-taking services.
Currently, you can only get offline access to your notes by paying for a subscription. The 60MB monthly upload limit for free accounts is a touch measly, and Evernote’s Windows and OS X services lag behind the browser-based versions. We’d also love to lose all those intrusive nudges to ‘upgrade now’.
Evernote remains the gold standard for creating original notes, assembling information from the web, organising it into notebooks and then sharing it across different devices. Even the free version includes some excellent and sophisticated sharing tools.
OneNote (www.onenote.com)
OneNote is free on all platforms and devices, so it doesn’t hold back features for paid-for versions as Evernote does. It’s a good choice if you use other Microsoft products and services because it integrates with OneDrive and has a familiar Office-like interface, which makes it feel like a ‘proper’ program.
The web clipping isn’t as sophisticated as Evernote’s but it’s quick and easy, and grabbing a section of a site, such as an image, is fast and responsive. The Desktop version offers lots of annotation tools and lets you insert external files, such as spreadsheets and audio files. Integration with Bing is excellent and sharing is more sophisticated than the other award-winners, thanks to its origins as a business tool. The ‘blank canvas’ approach to notes – where you can add notes, handwritten notes, photos, audio, tasks, weblinks and more – is appealing, once you get used to it.
OneNote’s browser-based tool isn’t as sophisticated as the Desktop version, and lacks many of its tools. These inconsistencies make it confusing to use across different devices. There’s also a lot to learn.
OneNote is probably the most powerful collaborative note-taking service around but it still feels like a business tool. As a result, the learning curve is steep compared with Evernote and the web client lags behind the desktop version.
Simplenote (simplenote.com)
Simplenote is the leanest and nimblest of the note-taking apps and services eviewed here but, unlike Evernote and OneNote, it doesn’t try to cover all bases. Notes can be organised and then searched for using multiple tags. Support for the Markdown mark-up language means you can format your notes to look interesting, although they are nowhere near as good as Evernote and OneNote’s formatting controls. Simplenote is great for accessing your notes on different devices. It also lets you email a note to anyone with a single click; share it with other Simplenote users by including their email address as a tag; and publish a note that anyone can read by sending them its web address. Unlike Evernote, there are no premium versions so you’re not missing out on any features, and all versions provide a word count (the web version of Evernote doesn’t and OneNote lacks this feature entirely).
Simplenote doesn’t let you incorporate images, and there’s no web-clipping tool to capture and display websites – copying and pasting a URL just isn’t enough.
SimpleNote is a great choice if you want text-based notes and can use Markdown. Updates have improved the Android and iOS apps but it still lacks a Windows version.
Google Keep (keep.google.com)
Keep is a handy service that stores notes on Google Drive as part of your free allowance. It’s available via your web browser, on the Chrome OS and on iOS and Android devices. As well as text, you can add photos, and audio, and create to-do lists. The only reason it doesn’t rate higher in this month’s roundup is that we remember other non-core Google apps we loved - like Notebook and Reader - that were unceremoniously dumped.
Thinkery (thinkery.me)
Thinkery is like a cross between Simplenote and Evernote. It runs in a web browser and on iOS and Android devices, synchronising notes (which can contain text, images, video, bookmarks and tasks) between them. It’s early days but we’re impressed enough so far to hope that the free version remains useful when the promised paid-for one finally arrives. For now it’s definitely worth a look.
Workflowy (workflowy.com)
This is a web service that also works on iOS and Android devices and is organised like an outliner. It’s less useful as a general note-taker and for collecting stuff from websites but if you’re at home with the format, it’s elegant, very fast and a powerful way to organise your notes. You can drill down through the lists and there’s a neat ‘instant share’ feature, which lets you collaborate with fellow Workflowy users. It’s not as flexible as the other services here but, if you like outliners, this is worth considering.