If you’re a Windows user looking for a good app that lets you take notes on your computer, then you’ve come to the right place. Unfortunately, Windows does not support as many note taking apps as Mac does, but you can still find a notes app for Windows that should fulfill your needs. You can use the best note taking apps for Windows to create to-do lists, organize projects, jot down meeting notes, and more.
In this article, we will cover 5 of the best note taking apps for Windows. These apps include both paid and free note taking apps, so you can find what you need regardless of budget.
Picking the Best Note Taking App for Windows
Evernote is perhaps the most robust note taking app for Windows. You can create custom notes using templates and sort them into notebooks. When customizing your notes, you can add images, video, audio, PDFs, and web clippings. You can even annotate the PDFs and web clippings! When looking for an old note, you can search by tag, date, title, content type, and keyword. Evernote can also find keywords located in images or handwriting.
Evernote is also the best note taking app for teams. Team leaders can create shared spaces where team members can work together on notes or post announcements. If you have a business account, you can also make your notes and notebooks visible to anyone else in the business. This way, others can offer feedback on your ideas from within Evernote.
Evernote’s free account comes with basic features and includes a 25MB maximum size for notes and 60MB monthly upload limit. You can also purchase a premium account for more features, such as PDF annotation and custom templates, and higher size limits of 200MB for notes and 10GB monthly upload. Premium costs $7.99/month. Teams can access features like shared spaces and uploads by spending $14.99/user/month for a business account.
Microsoft OneNote is the note taking app for Windows included in Microsoft 365. You can sort your notes into notebooks or add tags for easy access. When creating notes, you can add images, audio, video, and other files. You can also annotate your notes with a highlighter, typing, or ink. Finally, like Evernote, with OneNote, you can take clippings from the web and add them to your notes.
OneNote makes sharing your thoughts easy through cloud sharing. You can send your notes and notebooks to others over Microsoft OneDrive. If you work in education, you can use OneNote to share classroom materials with students. Teachers can create a shareable content library with lesson materials and assignments and share it with all of their students. Students can in turn complete homework on OneNote and turn it in.
OneNote is available as part of Microsoft 365’s personal and family plans. You can purchase OneNote alongside Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, OneDrive, and Outlook for $69.99/year. You can also purchase a family plan for 2-6 users for $99.99/year.
Simplenote is a great free notes app for Windows. You can take notes in Markdown format and publish them online. When published online, your notes can be viewed by others You can also add tags to notes for easy searching. Best of all, Simplenote saves every version of your notes so you can always go back to a previous version.
Simplenote automatically saves notes across devices, so you can access the same notes from a Windows laptop, an Android phone, or Mac and iOS devices. Simplenote is also accessible for Linux or in your browser. Though Simplenote’s formatting and customization features are limited compared to other apps on this list, its free note storage and backup are not to be missed by those who just need a simple note taking app.
Google Keep is a note taking app for Windows and other devices offered by Google. You can use Google Keep for free with a Google account. It is accessible from your web browser or as a Chrome extension. From within Keep, you can create to-do lists, notes, and voice memos. You can also store images from other documents. For easy organizing, you can color-code your notes or add a searchable label. You can even set location reminders on your notes so they’ll pop up again when you’re at a certain location, like the grocery store.
Sharing notes with Google Keep is easy with link sharing. You can copy and paste your note’s associated short link to share it with others, or add others to your note by email. You can set others to view-only or let them edit your notes. All of your notes are saved to Google Drive, so you get 15GB of storage for free.
Joplin is one of the best note taking apps for Windows that you can get for free. It is open-source software that lets you take notes in markdown format. Your notes can be organized into notebooks and sub-notebooks. You can also add searchable tags for further organizing. When creating your notes, you can attach files and images and even take web clippings. Joplin saves a complete history of each of your notes with revisions so you can always go back to an old version of a file if needed.
Joplin is usable with other note taking apps and other software. You can import notes from Evernote and sync notes with Nextcloud, Dropbox, OneDrive, and WebDAV for easy storage and sharing. Joplin also includes external editor support so you can further customize your notes in your favorite text editor. Best of all, these features are all available free of charge.
Bonus: Take Notes with Droplr
If none of the above note taking apps for Windows work for you, or you’re looking for software with more features than just note taking, then consider Droplr. Droplr is a screenshot and screen recording app that also includes note taking, code markdown, and a URL shortener. You can create notes directly from the Droplr Windows app or the Droplr Dashboard. After you finish your note, you can save it to the Droplr cloud and share it with others via a short link. You can organize your notes using boards and tags.
For more information on Droplr, feel free to check out our product page or schedule a demo. You can also try Droplr out for free for 3 days. Learn why Droplr is a top choice for individual users and businesses alike with our robust features and commitment to saving our customers time.