Best Note-Taking Apps for Mac of 2025

Plottr allows you to easily arrange (and rearrange!) your scenes, plots, character arcs, and plots. This makes it easy to find your way to the end of any story. Plottr automatically creates a clear outline of your story that you can review, edit, then export as a base for your manuscript. You don't need to start from scratch. Plottr has over a dozen templates (and growing) that are based on proven storytelling techniques to help you move your story from concept to execution. The fun doesn't stop there. Plottr makes it simple to begin writing once you have completed your story outline. Simply export your files to Plottr and let your creative muscles go to work!

Microsoft OneNote serves as your personal digital notebook, allowing you to arrange your notes into organized notebooks, which can be further divided into sections and pages. Its intuitive navigation and search features ensure that you can effortlessly locate your notes whenever you need them. You can easily enhance your notes by typing, highlighting, or adding ink annotations for a more personalized touch. With OneNote accessible on all your devices, you’ll never lose track of a brilliant idea that comes to mind. While great minds may not always think in the same way, they can collaboratively share their ideas and co-create within OneNote’s versatile platform. You have the ability to categorize content across notebooks, sections, and pages, while important notes can be prioritized using 'Important' and 'To-Do' tags. Whether using a stylus or your finger, you can freely draw out your thoughts and make annotations on your notes. Additionally, you can record audio memos, embed online videos, and integrate various files to enrich your notebooks. The OneNote Web Clipper allows you to save web content effortlessly with just one click. You can also share your notebooks with colleagues, friends, and family for collaborative purposes. Educators can utilize OneNote to structure lesson plans in a way that makes them easily searchable, while staff can compile a resource library that’s shareable. Moreover, students are encouraged to take handwritten notes and create diagrams, fostering a more engaging learning experience. This multifaceted tool not only enhances organization but also promotes creativity and collaboration among its users.

Notion is a comprehensive all-in-one workspace that empowers teams to write, plan, collaborate, and organize everything in one place. The platform offers a wide range of tools to create documents, manage tasks, and build detailed project roadmaps, allowing teams to work smarter, not harder. Notion's AI-powered features assist with summarizing lengthy documents, drafting content, and providing quick answers to questions related to ongoing projects. The platform's high degree of customization gives users the flexibility to set up workflows, build templates, and tailor the workspace to their needs, making it ideal for teams of any size. Whether it's managing a project timeline, tracking goals, or maintaining a shared knowledge base, Notion provides a flexible and powerful solution for improving collaboration, communication, and overall team productivity.

Experience the ultimate note-taking application that seamlessly integrates across all your devices. Different formats for different types of notes are essential, and every Note Card type is meticulously crafted to enhance the note-taking experience tailored to your needs. Whether you're jotting down thoughts, creating lists, recording audio, sketching ideas, or snapping photos, the Text Card is your perfect companion for capturing memories. You can easily and securely share your notes with friends and colleagues, allowing for collaboration only with those you trust. This Notebook is designed to be indispensable, as it syncs effortlessly to the cloud and across all your devices, ensuring that your notes are always backed up and current. With a commitment to privacy, we never sell your information or rely on advertisements. Our business model is founded on prioritizing your interests while effectively securing and managing your data, giving you peace of mind as you take notes. Enjoy the freedom and security of a note-taking app that truly understands and meets your needs.

Notes serves as an excellent platform for capturing fleeting ideas or for storing extensive notes that can include checklists, images, web links, scanned files, handwritten notes, and sketches. Additionally, the integration with iCloud ensures that all your devices remain synchronized, granting you access to your notes wherever you are. This seamless connectivity allows you to stay organized and productive no matter the circumstance.

Integrate handwriting, photographs, and typed text within a single note to vividly bring your projects to life. Utilize an extensive array of note-taking and drawing tools to ensure every detail is captured effectively. Notably, you have the ability to add and annotate PDFs in Notability, making it an ideal platform for organizing work, school, and personal information seamlessly. Explore the diverse tools available to craft aesthetically pleasing, hand-drawn notes and illustrations. Adjust, rotate, and change the color of your sketches and ideas until they perfectly align with your vision. Once you’re satisfied with your creation, easily organize your notes to ensure that you can quickly access the information that is most important to you. Dive deeper into specifics or embrace the broader context by merging sketches, outlines, and text. You can then effortlessly share your notes with colleagues or study partners through various platforms such as Google Drive, AirDrop, Email, and Dropbox, creating a collaborative environment for enhancing productivity. Sharing your creative process with others can also inspire new ideas and approaches that enrich your projects.

Outline is a top-notch note-taking application designed to enhance productivity on your Mac, iPad, and iPhone. It enables users to effortlessly capture, structure, and synchronize their notes across multiple devices. With complete compatibility with OneNote, importing and exporting notes is a breeze. You can enhance your notes by annotating PDFs, incorporating images, and maintaining organization through folders and tags. Whether you favor cloud storage or prefer to keep your notes locally, Outline provides adaptable storage solutions. Elevate your note-taking abilities and take command of your digital workspace with the robust features this app offers, making it an indispensable tool for anyone looking to optimize their workflow!

Obsidian serves as a robust knowledge management tool that operates using a directory of plain text Markdown files stored locally. Much like the way our minds shift from one concept to another, your second brain should mimic this non-linear pattern. In Obsidian, the process of creating and navigating "connections" between notes is seamless and intuitive. Cultivate your notes with care, and at the end of your day, take a moment to appreciate the intricate web of knowledge you've created. Personalization in note-taking is key, and if you've experimented with various applications but always felt something was amiss, Obsidian offers a refreshing alternative. Designed to be highly customizable, it features 22 essential plugins and 149 additional community-created plugins, allowing you to tailor your toolkit and get started in just a few minutes. Furthermore, when Obsidian reaches version 1.0, you'll have the option to integrate third-party plugins or even create your own, opening up endless possibilities. In today's landscape, where cloud services are vulnerable to sudden changes or shutdowns, relying on proprietary formats and facing potential data lock-in is the last thing you need. With Obsidian, your information remains securely within a local folder, giving you peace of mind and complete control over your data. This ensures that your knowledge remains accessible and safe, no matter what the future holds.

Capture stunning, easily searchable handwritten notes and seamlessly arrange all your documents and notebooks in a centralized hub. With advanced OCR technology, GoodNotes allows you to locate everything you've written with ease. It enables you to search through handwritten notes, text from PDFs, titles of documents and folders, as well as typed text and outlines. You can create notes and illustrations using your finger or a stylus on digital pages and imported files. Additionally, you can incorporate images, typed content, and precise shapes, adjusting their size and order as needed. GoodNotes breaks free from the constraints of traditional paper, providing a unified platform for all your documents. You can swiftly import files from PDF, Word, and PowerPoint to annotate or start fresh with a blank notebook for note-taking. It simplifies the organization and management of your documents, ensuring that none are ever misplaced. Capture ideas while on the move and annotate pictures effortlessly. Thanks to iCloud synchronization, your notes are always accessible across all your devices, giving you unlimited sheets of paper right in your pocket. With GoodNotes, the possibilities for creativity and organization are truly endless.

No matter if you are working together in the moment or navigating different time zones, Notejoy ensures that your coworkers feel as if they are right beside you. Utilize Notejoy's incredibly speedy quick find feature and robust search capabilities to locate precisely what you need. The platform offers adaptable workspaces tailored for both clients and projects. With versatile team libraries, you can create environments for internal groups, external client teams, or any mix of collaborators. Engage in real-time collaboration to maintain a single conversation and a unified version of your work. Team libraries can accommodate various sizes and configurations, organized by company, project, clients, and more. You can manage who has permission to view, comment, and edit your documents, allowing for controlled access. To help you keep track of what’s trending and actively being developed, content digests provide essential updates. Work together seamlessly, sharing and modifying content in real-time to ensure everyone is informed. Additionally, you can easily share files, link resources, and engage in discussions to keep projects progressing smoothly, fostering a more cohesive and productive team environment.

Consolidate your tasks, notes, and calendar seamlessly in a single platform. Leverage the versatility of Markdown to swiftly generate tasks, incorporate options for recurring to-dos, easily reschedule tasks, and utilize tags and mentions. Enhance your efficiency with natural language inputs and the autocompletion feature for tags, mentions, and links. Whether it's meeting notes, reference documents, or spontaneous thoughts, keep all your information organized in NotePlan. You can arrange your notes in any manner you prefer, whether through simple folders, a digital Bullet Journal, or an interconnected Zettelkasten system. Everything is stored locally and accessible across all your devices. Maintaining a daily note empowers you to manage your agenda, both for today and tomorrow. Outline your tasks, document and interlink your notes, and even allocate time blocks directly in your calendar. You can view your calendar at a glance, plan for the future, or reflect on the past. All content in NotePlan is saved as plaintext Markdown files, which can be easily accessed with any text editor, ensuring you retain full control and are never confined to a singular system. This flexibility guarantees that your work remains adaptable and manageable, no matter the circumstances.

Your innovative platform processes images, articles, and websites, automatically tagging them for easy access in the future. You can store a variety of items such as images, links, notes, videos, quotes, PDFs, and articles—anything you wish to keep for later reference. This functionality is accessible from your web browser, computer, or mobile device. Importantly, all of your saved content remains private; no one else can view what's stored in your personal space. MyMind serves solely as your private retreat for thoughts and ideas, providing a comforting sense of relief. We prioritize maintaining the privacy and integrity of your information, ensuring that our operations are handled by a dedicated team that operates independently. Without investors or stakeholders, our focus remains solely on serving you. Unlike many corporations, we respect your privacy by refraining from tracking your activities or displaying intrusive advertisements. Your mind should be a sanctuary of trust. Notably, 85% of the notes we collect are brief, often less than 140 characters, capturing fleeting thoughts and reminders that arise during your day-to-day life. This emphasizes the futility of organizing extensive documents or folders, as quick insights often hold more value. Ultimately, our goal is to streamline your mental organization in a way that feels secure and efficient.

Remio is an innovative platform for personal knowledge management, focusing on effortless information capture, organization, and retrieval. It simplifies the process of collecting ideas, research, and web highlights, ensuring everything is stored privately on your device. Using AI-powered recommendations and smart organizing features, Remio blends information into useful, structured knowledge, making it easy to access and apply. Upcoming features like smart writing and deep search will further enhance productivity by offering automatic summaries and tailored content suggestions. Ideal for professionals, students, and researchers, Remio helps keep ideas organized and easily accessible without the clutter.

Discover the ideal outlining application designed for your greatest creations, where exceptional concepts are gathered, developed, and brought to life. Dynalist combines rich features with an uncomplicated interface, ensuring that necessary tools appear only when required, avoiding unnecessary clutter. Experience it firsthand in the demo, where you can hide any panes to concentrate solely on outlining and structuring your thoughts. There's no need to feel overwhelmed by the capabilities; they are all intended to assist you in achieving your finest work. Embrace the potential of this app and unlock your creativity without distractions.

Write! serves as a sophisticated platform for crafting notes, to-do lists, writing projects, and various texts. Featuring an intuitive design, it integrates all the essential functionalities of a traditional word processor without the clutter. With productivity-enhancing tools like customizable autocomplete, an advanced spellchecker, unlimited undo options, and productivity tracking, your writing efficiency will soar. The streamlined writing interface ensures that your thoughts flow effortlessly as you compose. You can be confident that your documents are secure and easily retrievable, as they won’t be lost again. Accessible from any device, you can pick up your writing right where you left off. Furthermore, Write! allows for the storage of an endless array of documents at no extra cost. Organizing your writing projects is a breeze with the use of tabs, sessions, and folders, which facilitate easy navigation among different tasks. Switching between writing sessions instantly alters the tab group you’re focused on, enabling quick context shifts. Additionally, you can publish your documents online with a distinct URL, making it simple to share via email or social media platforms. Any modifications made to a shared document are instantly reflected online, ensuring that collaborators always see the most current version. In this way, Write! not only enhances individual productivity but also fosters seamless collaboration.

Joplin is a versatile, open-source application designed for note-taking and task management, capable of accommodating a substantial volume of notes that are systematically arranged within notebooks. Users can search for, copy, tag, and edit these notes directly through the app or using their preferred text editor, with all notes formatted in Markdown. Additionally, it supports the import of Evernote notes through .enex files, allowing for the preservation of formatted content (which gets converted to Markdown), along with resources like images and attachments, as well as comprehensive metadata such as geolocation and timestamps. Furthermore, plain Markdown files are also compatible for importation. The app offers synchronization with various cloud storage services, including Nextcloud, Dropbox, OneDrive, and WebDAV, as well as local file systems such as network directories. During synchronization, all notes, notebooks, tags, and associated metadata are stored in plain text files, which allows for straightforward inspection, backup, and transfer. Joplin is accessible on multiple platforms, including Windows, Linux, macOS, Android, and iOS, ensuring broad usability for diverse users. Overall, its flexibility and feature-rich environment make it an excellent choice for anyone seeking a robust note-taking solution.

It's easy to add your thoughts and ideas to a board with simple text editing and task management. Milanote supports all file types, including JPGs and PDFs, Word, Excel, common designs files, and many others. Everything you save in Milanote will be available for you to organize as soon you return to your computer. You can add text notes, photos from the camera, and links from your browser to organize them into visually stunning visual boards. Milanote's mobile applications for Android and iPhone are natively designed and optimized for speed. Photos taken in Milanote are automatically synced with the cloud and made available to you as soon as your computer is back online. Simple to-do lists will help you organize your workflow. You can sync tasks instantly across all your devices so everything stays on track no matter where you are. Milanote integrates with your web browser so you can instantly send any image, video, or website to your boards.

Bear is an elegant and versatile writing application designed for composing notes and literary pieces. Available on iPhone, iPad, and Mac, Bear allows you to capture your thoughts wherever creativity sparks. Stay organized with to-do lists that sync seamlessly across all devices. Connect your notes to one another, creating a cohesive body of work, while hashtags help you categorize your ideas effectively. For added security, utilize Face/Touch ID to safeguard your private notes. Whether you need to jot down quick thoughts or draft comprehensive essays, Bear is an ideal tool. Its focus mode enhances concentration, and the sophisticated markup features cater to the needs of online writers. Additionally, full in-line image support enriches your narratives and makes your writing visually engaging. With Bear, crafting your ideas has never been more enjoyable and efficient.

Concentrate on your tasks while DEVONthink expertly manages all the intricate details. It allows you to gather, structure, modify, and annotate a diverse range of documents with ease. These documents are automatically assessed, interconnected, and organized seamlessly. Furthermore, you can synchronize them across your Mac, iPhone, and iPad devices. DEVONthink maintains all your files within easily backed-up databases and displays them in multiple formats. A significant number of documents can be viewed and modified without the need to launch them in separate applications. Experience web pages as if they were stored locally among your files. DEVONthink Pro efficiently scans physical documents, making them searchable, and it can import emails and download entire websites as well. Instead of tackling the overwhelming influx of information on your own, allow DEVONthink for Mac to classify documents according to your previous filing habits. Implement smart rules to automate the filing, renaming, or processing of documents in various ways. When you need to access specific data later, you can rely on DEVONthink's rapid and adaptable search capabilities. Moreover, it can help you discover similar documents by extracting relevant keywords from the content itself, enhancing your research efficiency. This comprehensive tool transforms how you manage and interact with your information.

Noteshelf, a highly regarded digital note-taking application with a user base in the millions worldwide, is transforming the methods by which students, professionals, and creatives document their thoughts and ideas. This app enhances both productivity and creativity through a diverse array of features, such as systematic note organization, document markup, artistic sketching, bullet journaling, and extensive personalization options. A remarkable feature in this iteration is the introduction of Noteshelf AI, a virtual note-taking assistant that aids students in capturing notes more efficiently while grasping new concepts with ease. Its capability to produce elegantly crafted handwritten notes on a variety of subjects distinguishes this app, earning it accolades and favorable feedback from the global community of note-takers. With continuous updates and user-centered enhancements, Noteshelf remains committed to refining the digital note-taking experience for its diverse audience.

TiddlyWiki serves as an innovative and interactive platform that enables users to manage intricate data structures that are not easily accommodated by traditional tools like spreadsheets or word processors. It is crafted to align with your cognitive processes, providing assistance with information that doesn't conform to standard formats. The core concept revolves around the idea that information becomes more practical and reusable when it is divided into small, semantically meaningful units known as tiddlers, which are then assigned titles to facilitate organization through links, tags, lists, and macros. Utilizing a WikiText notation, tiddlers enable a diverse array of text formatting and hypertext capabilities in a succinct manner. TiddlyWiki seeks to deliver a seamless experience in managing tiddlers, allowing users to combine and aggregate them into more extensive narratives. Ultimately, this tool empowers users to explore and express their ideas in a flexible and structured way that mirrors their thought processes.

Amanote is specifically crafted to meet the unique requirements of students, enhancing their productivity and effectiveness during lectures and study sessions. The platform significantly enhances the process of note-taking for presentations, lectures, and conferences. With Amanote, users can create clear, organized, and detailed notes directly on their course materials. This tool not only boosts productivity but also frees up personal time for users. Additionally, students can easily share their notes with peers, preparing them for upcoming exams. Amanote comes equipped with a wide array of features designed to simplify note-taking and studying. When you listen to recorded content, Amanote indicates which slide is currently being discussed, making it easier to follow along. You can conveniently export your notes alongside each slide or page to PDF format. Users are also able to incorporate mathematical or chemical formulas (using LaTeX), drawings, charts, and code into their notes, making it a versatile tool for various subjects. Overall, Amanote transforms the note-taking experience, making it more efficient and tailored to the needs of today's learners.

Boost Note serves as a dynamic and rapid collaborative environment tailored for developer teams, aiming to enhance their productivity by providing an exceptional note-taking experience specifically designed for developers. It goes beyond just a GitHub-inspired markdown interface by enabling users to incorporate diagrams using tools like Charts.js, Mermaid, and PlantUML, thereby enhancing the clarity of their documents. With the option to select from various keymaps such as Vim and over 150 customizable themes, users can personalize their Markdown editor to fit their preferences. Additionally, documents can be managed programmatically, allowing users to obtain an authentication token to access Boost Note's APIs through straightforward HTTP requests. This functionality enables the automation of documentation tasks through integrations with more than 2,000 external tools via Zapier, streamlining workflows significantly. Users can collaborate seamlessly with team members, sharing information in a manner that suits their needs, while all teams benefit from being housed in a unified workspace. The real-time editing feature permits teams to write documents together, enhancing collaborative efforts. Furthermore, users can easily review the revision history of any document and revert to previous versions with a single click, ensuring that important changes are never lost. Lastly, Boost Note prioritizes the security of vital data through detailed access controls based on the workspace, allowing for tailored permissions for each team member.

Hypernotes makes it easy to express your knowledge in a natural manner. It's easy to create, expand, and - perhaps most importantly - it's easy for others to understand. All your notes, tutorials and intranets, books and scripts, articles, research, and other materials have a new home. Everything is connected. Your knowledge is connected. You can easily create a semantic network with Hypernotes. The result? The result? Less text and more understanding. Your team is essential when your projects grow in size and become more successful. This is also true for knowledge bases. Hypernotes offers powerful task management features. You can share and assign writing-related tasks to your friends, family, and colleagues. The most important steps in content creation are not at your desk, but out there, in real life.

Some information remains consistently important, such as notes, to-do lists, and passwords—items you frequently access throughout the day. Bluenote is designed to seamlessly link your Instagrowing.NET followers while managing all your passwords and notes related to your Instagram photos. Imagine having all this essential information consolidated into one elegant application! The essence of Bluenote lies in its user-friendly interface, which saves your input as you type. It ensures that everything is encrypted instantly, with cloud synchronization just a hotkey away. The necessary data is always within reach, while all other information can be accessed with a simple click or keyboard shortcut. It features a smart search function that locates data as you type, along with sophisticated password strength algorithms that assess the reliability of your passwords. Additionally, there are many other features available, including integration with Dropbox and Tweet Boost for Twitter, a password lock, and a distraction-free full-screen mode. All of these capabilities come with built-in security and encryption, guaranteeing that your information remains safeguarded without requiring any extra effort on your part. Ultimately, Bluenote redefines the way you manage your digital life by providing a comprehensive and secure platform for all your essential data.