Microsoft OneNote is described as 'Part of the Microsoft 365 Copilot, is a digital notebook application that gives people one place to gather notes and information. It also offers shared notebooks, syncing between multiple computers and devices via Windows' and is a leading Note-taking tool in the office & productivity category. There are more than 100 alternatives to Microsoft OneNote for a variety of platforms, including Mac, Windows, Web-based, Android and iPhone apps. The best Microsoft OneNote alternative is Obsidian, which is free. Other great apps like Microsoft OneNote are Joplin, NoteLedge, Zim and sNotes – Students Notes.
Plain text notepad with markdown support and todo list manager for Linux, Mac OS X and Windows, that works together with the notes application of ownCloud.
Lightweight, self-hosted app for managing personal checklists and notes with drag and drop, progress bars, Kanban boards, Markdown WYSIWYG editor, file-based data, user management, sharing options, themes, open source, and API access.
Dynalist is a web app that lets you break down and organize your thoughts in the format of lists.
Protects your private notes with a password. Notebook PEA is a self-decrypting archive, that will never store unencrypted text on your disk.
Collaborative platform for real-time note-taking, documentation, and wikis, featuring offline editing, granular permissions, AI-assisted writing, multiple export formats, user-friendly formatting, scalable team support, customizable templates, and open-source licensing.
Provides end-to-end encrypted note-taking, file storage, and sketching with syncing across platforms, zero data collection, no personal info or passwords required, open-source code for transparency, and optional premium storage, all via native and CLI tools.
OpenBoard is a cross-platform (Linux / Windows / macOS) interactive whiteboard application. It is currently maintained by the Education Department (DIP) of the Canton of Geneva in Switzerland.
Reor is an AI-powered desktop note-taking app: it automatically links related ideas, answers questions on your notes and provides semantic search. Everything is stored locally and you can edit your notes with an Obsidian-like markdown editor.
Rnote aims to be a simple but functional note taking application for freehand drawing or annotating pictures or documents. It eventually should be able to import / export various media file formats.
HelixNotes is a local markdown note-taking app built with Rust, Tauri 2.0, and SvelteKit. Your notes are standard .md files on your filesystem - sync with whatever you want or nothing at all.
Craft offers document creation with stunning visuals, seamless navigation, and effortless sharing. Nest notes, use AI for summaries, and export in multiple formats.
Offline-first, self-hostable note app supporting rich text formatting, tag-based organization, customizable backgrounds, pinning, search, archiving, admin management, trash recovery, mobile and web access, sync, privacy safeguards, and dark or light themes.
Austria
EU
United States
France
Hungary
Bangladesh
The most important feature in OneNote, for me, is the "free-hand" writing feature on any PDF file. OpenBoard allows you to do so. It is also set up to take the whole screen with little distraction on it, so you can work and explain things to your students and collaborators.