- Hey, what's going on guys?
So it has come to one of those
fairly infrequent points in my life
where I start to reevaluate some of the tools
that I'm using to get my work done.
And this time around my critical eye has fallen
on the apps that hold my thoughts and machinations.
I like that word, it's a good word, machinations.
Anyway, yes, it is time to talk about note taking apps
because after about a full week of let's be honest here
far more research than I should have done for this topic.
I am now ready to present to you
my top 10 note-taking apps in 2019.
Now before we dive in
I do want to talk a little bit about my criteria
for this list.
First, the apps on this list
primarily use text as their input method
because I can type a lot faster than I can write
and I want to be able to type and get data out
at the speed at which I think.
So while we're gonna talk about apps
like Evernote and OneNote
which can support drawing to an extent,
we're not gonna focus on apps
that primarily use hand writing as their method of input
like Noteshelf 2 for the iPad.
Plus a lot of those apps
have integrations with Evernote anyway.
Secondly, every app I'm gonna talk about here
has some form of cross platform availability.
Not every app on the list is available on every platform
but nothing on this list is available on only one OS.
And finally criteria number three
which I find to be the most important criteria,
I don't think an app is the note-taking app
unless it combines its note-taking or editor area
with its UI for browsing files or notes.
I think this is crucial for note-taking app,
because I'm constantly referencing different notes,
searching for things,
and I want to have all that available in one window.
So that means apps like Google Docs
and Microsoft Word, Dropbox Paper
are all not going to make the cut here.
Though I do have to admit the Dropbox Paper in particular
has probably the best writing experience in writing app
that I've ever tried.
Though we do have one app on this list
that does come very close to that level of greatness.
So stay tuned for that app.
Before we get to that one though,
we do have to go to the other entries on my list.
And where better to start than with Evernote.
Yes, Evernote.
The granddaddy of syncing note-taking apps.
I've been using Evernote
for darn near nine years at this point
and I have to admit that it's a very powerful tool
that I basically can't get myself to break away from.
Its got a pretty capable rich text editor,
the ability to share notebooks with other people.
It's got tags, the ability to save searches
and a ton of different integrations with other apps.
It also features optical character recognition
which means that you can scan in images with text
and it can make that text searchable
and you can also annotate images in the app as well.
But for all its strengths, Evernote frustrates me,
and that's primarily because
you cannot create nested hierarchies of notebooks.
You can do notebooks and you can notebook stacks,
but that's it.
Now some people out there,
like the writer Michael Hyatt for example,
advocate using a tag based structure
to gain that hierarchy instead.
But that doesn't really work
because on the Evernote mobile apps
those tags are not going to show in their hierarchy,
they're all alphabetical, so it kind of breaks down.
Still, Evernote is incredibly powerful,
it's available on basically every platform.
And because of those reasons I am continuing to use it
at least for certain parts my work flow,
even though I have many other options in 2019.
Speaking of other options, let's now talk about OneNote.
Microsoft OneNote is probably
the closest competitor to Evernote in terms of features
as you're gonna find similar image support,
optical character recognition,
the ability to annotate images
and honestly the editor area
is a lot more flexible and customizable than Evernote is.
Additionally, Microsoft OneNote is free, like actually free.
The only way you'd ever pay for Microsoft OneNote
if you decided to upgrade your OneDrive storage
as that's the only way the ever charge you money,
they just use OneDrive for their storage.
That being said, I personally just can't get into OneNote.
I know a lot of people out there love it,
it's incredibly powerful which is why it's on my list,
but it doesn't work for me
because you cannot sort notes within your notebooks
by date modified, date created or alphabetically.
You can only drag them around
like they're actual note cards or pages in a notebook.
And that combined with limited tagging capabilities
and the same number of organizational levels of hierarchy
as you get in Evernote, you don't get more,
it makes OneNote kind of a no go for me personally.
That brings us over to Bear,
which is an absolutely beautiful app
that I wish that I could use
as a daily driver in my work flow.
But Bear is a Mac and iOS exclusive
and that's kind of a bummer
because I also use Windows on a daily basis
alongside my Mac and iPhone.
That being said,
if you are a Mac and iPhone only kind of person,
Bear is definitely worth your consideration.
This is primarily because unlike Evernote and OneNote,
Bear has a beautiful hybrid markdown editor.
And if you're not familiar with markdown,
it's a markup language
that allows you to format your text as you type
by putting different symbols around your text.
So for example, you can put two stars around a word
to bold that word.
Now a lot of markdown editors force you
to write in plain text
and then you can only preview your formatted text.
But Bear doesn't do that,
it actually format your text as you write
which I really really like.
Additionally, Bear also has
a pretty interesting organizational system
that does let you create
as many levels of hierarchy as you like
and they use tags to achieve this.
By typing hash tags in your document
and then using slashes to create additional tags beyond it
you can create your own organizational structure.
Now some people don't like having tags
right in the editor window like that
but some people might not mind that.
And I also have to give a shout out to their archive feature
which lets you archive notes and take them out of search
and your organizational hierarchy but not delete them.
Of course if you are an Apple exclusive kind of person
then we do have to consider Apple's own notes program.
Mainly because it's free and unlike Bear,
if you happen to not have access
to an Apple computer at some point
or you're a part-time Windows guy like me,
you can at least access your notes at icloud.com.
Now though Apple Notes doesn't have
the awesome hyper markdown capabilities of Bear
or some other apps we're gonna talk about,
it does have really nice formatting tools.
And to my eyes, the default formatting
looks better than it does on Evernote.
Additionally, yep, you guessed it,
you can indeed create your own
nested list of hierarchical folders
and I love that feature.
Moving on to the next item on our list,
we are now at Google Keep
which is a pretty nice and simple note-taking app
that's available in the browser
and also on pretty much all of your devices as well.
Now when I was testing Google Keep
the number one word
that kept coming up to my mind was simplicity,
it's a very simple note-taking app.
Very simple but effective formatting options
and you can even change the background color of your notes
to visually distinguish them.
The problem for me though
is there's only one level of tags that you can create,
you cannot create a hierarchical level
of basically anything,
so there's no hierarchical organization.
So I guess if you're gonna use Google Keep
as a note-taking app,
you're gonna want to rely mostly on their search function.
And I guess with it being Google,
that search function is probably pretty good.
But that being said,
since it lacks true organizational hierarchy,
I don't see this as a viable alternative
to Evernote or OneNote or anything more complex.
But if you want a scratch pad for taking notes
and setting reminders for later,
Google Keep could be a good bet.
That brings us over to Notion.
And I know a lot of you guys were waiting for me
to talk about Notion.
It's definitely the app
that I get the most questions about these days
and for good reason, because notion is stupidly powerful.
It's definitely the most flexible tool on this list,
allowing you to layout pages however you want,
create an infinite hierarchy organization on the sidebar
and even interlink between pages easily.
It's also got a great hybrid markdown editor
that's very similar to the one you're gonna find in Bear,
though it does have some quirks
that keep me from really loving it,
such as the fact that you cannot precisely select text
if it goes outside a single block of information.
But my gripes about the editor aside,
Notion can do things that no other app can do,
that's mainly because the combination
of a couple of different features.
First, their table feature is actually a database feature,
so every row in a table actually links to its own page
And secondly, they've got a templating feature
that allows you to make basically anything into a template.
And I have combined these two features to build Notion out
into an incredibly powerful video management platform
that has made our editing process so much smoother.
So in one area of the app
I've got a database with all of our videos
who's sponsoring them, their publish dates,
all kinds of good information like that.
But if you click into any video
you'll see there's a very well laid out template
that allows for us to create
a B-Roll database, a script
and also has some checklists
that are automatically populated
every single time you do a video.
So for very complicated processes
like going through the publishing process,
we can just go to that automatically generate a checklist
and make sure nothing gets left behind.
Now like I said, I get a lot of questions
about Notion over on Twitter and on Instagram.
So if you guys want to see a more detailed
Notion video on this channel,
definitely let me know in the comments down below.
Right now the verdict is out on
if it's a great note-taking app,
but it's definitely a great organizational app in general
and it's, again, very flexible.
All right, let's talk about Standard Notes.
Now Standard Notes as far as I can tell, I could be wrong,
but I think Standard Notes is the only app on my list
that is developed by one single developer.
Given that fact, I've got to say that I'm pretty impressed
with everything the developer
has been able to accomplish with this app.
For one it is easily the most security focused app on list
as everything you write is encrypted by default
and only you can access it.
Now you'll immediately notice
that the free version of Standard Notes
is just a plain text editor.
There is a note browsing window
but you can't write markdown, there's no rich text editing,
it's just plain text.
But upgrade to their extended version
and you get a whole bunch of extensions
that you can optionally turn on or off.
There are several different editors to choose from,
including multiple markdown editors, a rich text editor
and even a code editor.
And this is really cool,
you can choose which editor you want to use
on a note by note basis.
You can create custom folders with your tags
and these are infinitely nestable
and you can even define custom searches
based on those tags or even other information
and then save those searches within the app.
Standard Notes is not perfect though.
For one, the image support is kind of lacking right now
as you have to host your images elsewhere
to have them displayed within the app.
And you also cannot drag and drop notes
between different folders or tags.
Still, I've got to say that I am pretty impressed
with what the developer accomplished so far.
Now we are on to, me taking a break
and playing with this puzzle
because, well, there's a lot of items on this list.
Alright, enough of that, let's talk about Slite.
Slite is by design a very team focused note-taking app
that could also work pretty well for a solo note-taker.
It's got an absolutely fantastic hybrid markdown editor
that I found pretty similar to the one in Dropbox Paper
which allows you to format your text on-the-fly
and also embed images and videos and even tables.
I'm also a big fan of their table of contents view
which lets you quickly zoom
to different headings within your note.
And this is something you'll find
in Google Docs and Dropbox Paper
and it's something we even built into the articles
in the latest version of College Info Geek
but it's very rare to find in a note-taking app,
so props to Slite for including it.
Now Slite also allows you to create
a nested hierarchy of notes within the app
so you can organize things.
Though the way they implement it is kind of weird
because one side you've got channels
and then within the middle part of the app
that's where you can create these collections
which are infinitely nestful.
The only problem is that you can only sort
by a recency on a channel level.
So their sorting options are a little less powerful
than other apps can offer you.
Now much like Notions, Slite is built primarily for teams,
so you can collaboratively edit
a document with somebody in real time.
There's also this great comment section
that puts comments in a nice little window
to the side of your editor, I really like that.
Slite is also available on mobile apps and on the web
and basically every platform out there.
So at least from a design perspective
it seems to be one of the best note-taking apps
that I could actually find
when doing the research for this video.
My main gripe with it right now, at least right now
is the experience of using it.
Because it can be slow at times
and I've also run to some bugs
where a text actually isn't formatted
after I've put the formatting tags around it.
That being said, Slite is a pretty new company
and I do have to admit that when I tested a few months ago
it was much slower than it is now,
so they're making big improvements
and I'm gonna be keeping an eye
on the team's progress going forward.
But that is talk about the future
and we are living in the present.
And at present, in my opinion the note-taking app
with the best organizational structure of them all
is our ninth app on the list, Ulysses.
Now Ulysses is often billed as an app
for serious novelists and writers
but I think it can also work really well
as a note-taking app.
And that's because primarily
it has that amazing organizational system
that I just alluded to.
Not only can you create a nested hierarchy
of as many folders as you want,
but when you go into a top-level folder
you're able to see the notes within subfolders
along with notes in that top-level folder as well
and I love that.
Additionally, you can define sorting options
for every single folder in the app.
You can create custom searches, you can do tags,
there's an archive view, there's an inbox view,
there's a favorites view, there's recency views.
Ulysses basically has it all and I absolutely love it.
The biggest bummer is, just like Bear
it's only on Mac and iOS platforms.
So I can't use it unless I want to just
totally give up my Windows PC as a writing device.
So that leads us to this question.
What does a guy who uses
a Windows computer and a Mac computer on a daily basis
and who really wants a great writing experience to do?
Well in my case, the answer is to use
the last app on our list which is Typora.
Typora is a desktop writing app
that has the best writing experience I've ever had
next to Dropbox Paper.
It's got that hybrid markdown writing system
that automatically formats your writing as you type,
it's much faster than Slite.
And unlike Bear, again it's on Windows
along with Mac and even Linux.
It's also full of features for serious writers
like a focus mode that dims the text
that you're not currently working on.
A table of contents mode
for zooming between your outline headings
just like in Slite, and themes, lots and lots of themes
which you can customize with CSS if you want.
However there are some caveats.
Like I said, Typora is a desktop writing app.
There is no mobile app right now which is kind of a bummer.
The other thing is that Typora almost didn't make my list
because unlike everything else that I've talked about,
it doesn't actually store or sync your notes itself,
it's purely a markdown editor.
The reason still fits my definition of a note-taking app
is because of its file browser.
Once you've opened up a folder in the app
you can easily drill down into all the subfolders
and open up as many documents as you want.
But again the biggest downside here
is the lack of a good mobile app.
Now I don't really care too much about this
since I'm really only using Typora for serious writing,
for like finishing articles or video scripts.
But if you really need to access your Typora documents,
remember they are just markdown files
within your folder system on your computer.
So if you're using Dropbox or Google Drive,
then you can get a markdown editor
for your iPhone or Android
that can access those cloud platforms such as iA Writer.
So now it's time to come to a verdict.
Which app on this list wins?
Honestly, it is pretty hard to come
to a definitive conclusion on this
because everyone has different features they want,
different needs, different devices they use,
different budgets.
So instead of just recommending one app
I'm gonna name some winners in a few different categories
and then it's up to you to choose.
For the actual writing experience,
again, the win goes to Typora.
Slite is also pretty good,
but I'm waiting for it to get a little less buggy
and a little more snappy.
So I'm gonna be keeping my eye on that
and using Typora in the meantime.
For note organization, the win goes to Ulysses.
Again with infinite nestable folders
and tags and custom searches,
really nothing else out there beats it, at least in my eyes.
For overall capability and my general recommendation,
I still have to give the win to Evernote.
Yeah, it doesn't have markdown support
which I really really want along those nestable folders,
but otherwise it's got a ton of capabilities.
Though I do have to say that Notion in particular
is really nipping at the heels of Evernote
in the capability department.
And if you care more about those database
and templating features,
then you might actually think it's more capable.
Now I do want to make one last note here.
With all these devices and apps and capabilities we have,
it can be really easy to overcomplicate things.
Because if you're anything like me,
having all these capabilities
makes it very tempting to try and do too much.
And that's why I am once again
listening to Greg McKeown's excellent book
Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less.
This was one of my favorite books from 2017
and it's one that, at least for me is worth returning to
because it has great advice for figuring out
how to narrow down your focuses in life.
And honestly this is one of the areas
where I tend to struggle the most.
Now if you also want to get
more focused with your priorities,
you wanna start digging into essentialism,
then you are in luck,
because you can start listening to it
for free today on Audible.
All you need to do is go over to audible.com/thomas
or text Thomas to 500-500 on your phone
and you can download that audiobook
or any audiobook of your choosing for free
and you're also gonna get
a free 30-day trial of their service as well.
And once you start that trial
you are quickly going to find out
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And once you download an audiobook
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So if you want to gain the ability to learn new things
wherever you are, whatever you're doing,
whether it's going on a long bike ride
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then once again go over to audible.com/Thomas
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