Notes on Notes Apps (2023)
The output of my evaluation of notes apps: tested nine options, sticking with OneNote. A few comments in a thread.
- Nothing, paid or free, ticked every box I wanted. Could not 'pay my way out' to the ideal option.
- The import/export landscape for notes beyond text (rich text, attachments, etc) seems to have regressed. In ye olden days when Evernote was a dominant player (and, to be fair, made a decent format in ENEX) the pathway was straightforward - get your notes to ENEX (perhaps with a temporary Evernote account), then your new service would likely import it. Various services have scaled back their import options, including Evernote (you can get around with an old .exe).
- Notion was perhaps the hardest to evaluate. It has a good web version, Windows and Mac apps (no Linux), few (relevant) caps on the free accounts, powerful templates, etc. You could run all sorts of businesses largely on Notion. But, it felt too heavy/busy for my needs.
- If you're willing to stick to plain text or Markdown there are all sorts of options, from Google Keep to Obsidian/Joplin/Bear/Standard/etc. That didn't fit my needs.
- The final four were OneNote, Evernote, Notion, Apple Notes. Notion addressed above. Apple Notes, being Apple + data, had quirks, such as importing everything with a December 2010 date. Evernote was a strong contender but feels in flux (in process of being acquired). OneNote is currently one of the ugliest options (refresh expected in Q2) and isn't great with export, but ticks the rest of my boxes for $0.