Notes may be web clippings, photos, typed markdown, scanned documents, audio logs, sketches, handwritten notes, or diagrams. In order to be inclusive of all needs, we haven't limited our selection to plain or rich text apps. We favor apps with unique features or those that are the best examples of their kind.

We've tried to find the best note taking apps to satisfy our main criteria, regardless of the approach taken by that app. It doesn't make a lot of sense to compare a free app that's light on features by design with a pricey heavyweight, particularly when both approaches have their merits. In any case, no single app is perfect for every use case. If you've previously written off the iPad as an effective drawing or handwriting tool, it might be time to try again. The strides Apple has made with its Pencil stylus on the iPad Pro has not gone unnoticed by app developers.

And that microphone allows your device to double as a dictaphone, with many note taking apps supporting audio.įor a more tactile experience, why not try hand-writing your notes? Most note taking systems support touch-based scrawl of some type, and others rely on it. Snapping images or scanning documents with your phone or tablet and storing them in an easily searchable digital archive is a good habit to form. Typing a note on your iPhone or iPad might not be the fastest method of entering text, but it's the best option you have when you're away from a keyboard.

For more details on our process, read the full rundown of how we select apps to feature on the Zapier blog. We're never paid for placement in our articles from any app or for links to any site-we value the trust readers put in us to offer authentic evaluations of the categories and apps we review. We spend dozens of hours researching and testing apps, using each app as it's intended to be used and evaluating it against the criteria we set for the category. All of our best apps roundups are written by humans who've spent much of their careers using, testing, and writing about software.

Free notes app