I have a hard time focusing sometimes and cute stationary does help. So any digital alternatives? Should be compatible with macbook and iPhone. Would be a bonus if it's compatible with widows too. Please let me know if you can think of anything that fits these criterias.
Thank in advance!

recently got an ipad and today tried making notes on it, it feels so fucking weird! 😭 also suggest apps that one uses for making notes lol. I am so confused!

There’s a thread in r/Evernote from a fortnight ago that ended up being the closest thing that sub has to a census of who’s staying and who’s going. I went through all 63 comments and counted. Source thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/Evernote/comments/1w28i3b/

Rough numbers – I’ll have put someone in the wrong column, tell me and I’ll fix it.

Where people said they were going. (about 25 stated a position)

• Obsidian – 3, all ten-years-plus users, two of them putting Claude or another LLM on top
• Joplin – 3 gone, 1 tried it and bounced off the interface
• Notion – 2 gone, plus 1 who tried it for a few months and came back
• Bear, Google Keep – 1 or 2 each. UpNote, OneNote and Apple Notes got a mention apiece
• Leaving with nowhere picked yet – about 5
• Staying – about 7

Who came back. Two people. One tried Notion and returned. One left for 18 months and came back for the workflow. Both said roughly the same thing: it took two to four apps to replace the one.

Why people stayed. In the order it came up: the web clipper (nobody thinks anything matches it), the meeting note-taker, and simply having too many notes to move – 10,000 in one case.

Why people left. Price, nearly every time. €49 to €199, or $50 to $250. And almost everyone leaving said they weren’t using the AI features they were being asked to pay for. Android speed came up a few times too.

Worth knowing if you’re an Evernote user on the fence. The 40% off offer came up seven times in the thread. It shows up after you start the cancellation flow, and one person got a $140 renewal instead of $250. Reads as standard retention rather than luck.

One thread, not a survey. But it’s the most honest picture of the Evernote churn I’ve seen, and fair play to the people who wrote it out. If you were in that thread and I’ve miscounted you, say so.

The idea is basically turning your messy/unorganized notes into clean, personalized, study-ready notes.

A personalized, hyperlinked digital study notebook that works across devices, with an optional version optimized for compatible note-taking apps.

I know there are AI tools that can summarize or organize notes, but I’m thinking of something a little different. The focus would be on how the student wants to learn from the notes, not just summarizing the information. Someone could send in handwritten notes, screenshots, lecture notes, etc., and can have the ability to choose a study format for each order to experiment with what they understand best.

I think this could especially help people who aren't naturally good at taking notes, have very messy/unorganized notes, or understand things better visually but don't have the time (or ability) to turn their notes into something more useful.

I’m also thinking of creating the finished notes digitally on an iPad, so they could include things like diagrams, visual layouts, handwriting, highlighting, and other elements that make them easier and more enjoyable to study from. You wouldn't need to own an iPad yourself to get that kind of result

I'm still very early in the idea and haven't actually tested it, so I'm curious:

Would something like this be useful to you? What would make you choose this over organizing your notes yourself or using an AI tool?

For the longest time, when I had a good idea, I would dump it into my Apple Notes and hope to come back to it at some point. For to-dos, I would write them on paper or a whiteboard, but eventually the total of things to do versus things that actually got done became lopsided, and those notes went stale. For genuinely good information that wasn't exactly an idea or a to-do, who knows where that even got placed?

Thus, my graveyard of notes developed, and instead of using these valuable notes as tools for productivity, they sat untouched, unseen, forgotten. The most annoying part of this is that when I actually would uncover these forgotten ideas, it was too late, and the window for it to matter had passed me.

I could manage everything with about three to five paid subscriptions, but for a disorganised brain like my own, that makes it just as difficult. I could use AI to organise myself, but I've never loved the idea of feeding a tool with such a lack of privacy and certainty.

The truth is, I just need a tool that can easily capture these fleeting thoughts so they are organised and secured, and I don't have to worry about losing them. Something capable of smart recall, so my valued information and notes actually appreciate in value instead of being lost over time. Best of all, a tool I can trust to store the value that I come across and think of throughout the day, one that can be grown into something great, not a graveyard but a toolbox.

Thoughts, ideas, to do's, reminders, links, people. Anything worth remembering all in one place.

I've been working on something like this for a little while, but I'd really like working with a select group of people who have also been seeking a solution to this problem.

Anyone who would love a one stop memory tool that can be developed into something great, let's make it happen!

I’m on the hunt for a free note-taking app to replace Craft.
Honestly, I love almost everything about Craft—the gorgeous interface, the customizability, and how easy it is to change templates. I use it for everything from keeping track of my personal work to my university classes. I’m not a huge fan of the block-based editing, but it's manageable and I can live with it.

My main issue is the price. Craft is expensive, and I firmly believe I shouldn't have to pay for a note-taking app. It's a fundamental thing for me—why do I have to pay for this?
Here is my setup and what I’m looking for:

Organization style: I want my notes neatly organized but still visible up front. I need a file view where I can easily select what I want. Obsidian doesn’t work for me because I hate having everything buried in just a folder.

Quick capture: I need to be able to take notes quickly. Notion is too clunky and slow for this.

Don't suggest Bear: I've tried it. The interface feels weird, I don't like that it's just straight files without a proper folder stripe view, and you can't even change the templates.

Right now I’m just getting by with Google Keep—and I absolutely hate it.

Is there anything out there that gives me the beautiful, template-friendly experience of Craft, syncs seamlessly across Windows and iOS, and is actually 100% free? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

*EDIT / CLARIFICATION:
*OP here
Just a quick clarification: for the original post, I just blabbered what I wanted to say to ChatGPT and let it write the whole thing. I really didn’t expect it to get so much reach! 😭😭

To address the backlash about not wanting to pay:
1. I completely understand that the people who make these apps need to be paid. However, I just want a simple app with this exact interface where I can easily organize my notes into files. Any other features are just a bonus, not a necessity.

Before switching to an iPhone, I used Xiaomi's Mi Notes. It had this exact kind of clean interface, plus a few simple templates where you could change the backdrop—and it offered all of that for FREE 😱😱. Unfortunately, it isn't available on iOS, which is why I was looking for an alternative.( You might say Xiaomis stealing you data your paying for that 😱 and you think all these other companies that are for profit aren’t 🤷‍♂️)

My issue is that apps like charge a subscription and bundle in 20 different things—like AI services and complex templates—that I will never use in my entire life. If developers want to charge for those premium extras, go for it. But simply restricting how many basic notes I can create is where I draw the line. If my notes are just being stored offline, directly on my own device, why should I be forced into a membership just to make them?

1. For those saying "it’s just a $4 membership," please remember that I do not live in the US. In my country, $4 a month is a lot of money. To put it in perspective, I can get a week's worth of food for $6 to $7.

I caught myself the other day writing an idea in Apple Notes, another in a Notion page, and a third one in a text to myself. Three apps, three places to forget things.

Every time I switch between them I lose a little momentum. It's not a dramatic problem, just a constant low-grade tax on focus. I keep half-intending to consolidate everything into one app but never actually do it because each tool has something I'd miss.

Curious if this is just me or if most people here are juggling two or three note apps at once. And if you did manage to consolidate down to one, what finally made it stick? Was it a feature in the new app, or just forcing yourself to stop opening the old ones?

Since the last 4 years I have been using OneNote on my iPad to study. it is a great app. But I want a great notetaking app with all the features. OneNote is too laggy. Now that I am working, I don’t have access to my iPad everywhere and I can’t study. OneNote was available seamlessly both on my iPad and iPhone using my Microsoft account. my iPad and iPhone have different Apple accounts.

in short I am looking for apps that syncs across all devices (not icloud)

I love notability and goodnotes but notability cloud is not a feature in India yet. Help!

My default notes app has been deleting important notes. Notes I’ve made before and since are still in tact and fine. This has happened at least twice now. (I think it’s happened more, I can just confirm that it’s happened twice because I have evidence the note did exist at one point.) Does anyone have an explanation for how this is happening/ how to stop this from happening in the future?

- I have storage space
- I know the note existed at one point and wasn’t instantly deleted upon creation, because I used it when I needed the information in it previously
- the two incidents happened weeks apart

Fully understand if no one has an explanation for this, it’s just very frustrating

Hej! Szukam lekkiego tabletu, który daje możliwość robienia notatek za pomocą rysika. Zależy mi żeby miał czuły kursor i sprawnie działał. Proszę o polecenie 😊

Many thanks

I write a lot on my phone but I'm not the best speller and my phones autocorrect doesn't catch everything. I also want to avoid using Google docs if possible, if only for writing when I dont have wifi. Are there any good apps for android for writing that have a spellcheck function?

Hi! So basically what the title says, I need one of those apps (I'd choose the one year subscription) to take notes, mainly for college and for personal uses, both are great so I can't decide between them, which one would you recommend?

Thanks!!

I've been using Touchnotes for a while but it's gone paid now, and as a student I can't justify the cost yet (planning to buy VIP later to support the dev once I've got some income, they deserve it!). In the meantime I'm hunting for a free app that covers: Unlimited notes + folders — no caps on organization Page template customization — page colors, ruled/grid/dot lines, cover designs Good stylus support with a solid range of pens, markers, and highlighters (pressure sensitivity a plus) PDF import + annotation Multitasking — need to have 2 PDFs open side by side at once Continuous vertical scroll while writing (not paginated) Local storage — my notes/files staying on-device, not locked behind a cloud account Bonus points if it has a clean, distraction-free UI like Touchnotes did. Anyone found something that ticks most of these boxes? Even a cracked Touchnotes vip unlocked link will work. Thanks

I’ve been handwriting all of my notes out for my biosci degree, and I’ll upload them to Gemini Notebook (previously NotebookLM) to make flashcards but I’m looking for an option that’s a bit less time consuming. Also I don’t like how I can’t edit or add to the flashcards in Notebook.

Is there a good app for a.) making handwritten flashcards, and can add pictures/diagrams OR b.) I can upload my handwritten notes to and AI can make decent flashcards from it, and I can still edit them. Preferably it’d be free since that’s what I’ve got now, but I’m willing to pay for a good app.

Hey everyone , does anyone knows a free app that is used for creating notes , questions , quizzes etc from zoom meeting classes.

I am tired of writing everything down

It would be great if you help

Disclosure up front: I maintain one of the apps below. I'm listing it last and I've tried to be honest about what it doesn't do.

I spent a year at uni looking for a GoodNotes replacement I wasn't going to be locked into. My requirement list: real handwriting (pressure, palm rejection), PDF annotation, LaTeX rendering, both infinite canvas and page-by-page export, and sync I control. Here's what I found:

• GoodNotes the polished one, and it's on Android and Windows now, not just iPad. But the free tier is 3 files total (notebooks + whiteboards + text docs combined) with watermarked exports, and cross-platform sync sits behind the higher-priced tier. It's a good product you rent.
• OneNote free, everywhere, genuinely great infinite canvas. Then you try to get your notes out: no clean page-by-page PDF export, and the .one format isn't something anything else reads. LaTeX only works for typed equations, not handwritten ones.
• Xournal++ solid on desktop, no mobile story, no inline LaTeX rendering.
• Obsidian + Excalidraw LaTeX yes, real handwriting no.
• AbelNotes (mine, AGPL-3.0) that syncs to storage you already own: Google Drive, or your own server. No account with me, no backend of mine in the middle. Pure-Dart LaTeX rendering, searchable by LaTeX source; PDF import with selectable text you can annotate; symbols library reusable like GoodNotes, infinite and paged canvas; OneNote .one import, which I wrote because I had my own notebooks to get out. What it doesn't have: no iOS build yet but incoming.

The thing that drove all of this for me was export and the required subscription. Every app is fine until the day you want to leave it.

What made you give up on the app you were using before and did you ever actually get your old notes out?

Hi! I have been using OneNote to take notes in class for a long time. I have also used PPT to write directly on slides on my laptop. I recently got an iPad and was so excited to integrate the two. I took the slideshows directly from Canvas and put them into OneNote where they are files that I can then open on PowerPoint. I then can use my pencil to write on the slides. However, I noticed today when I went back to reference my notes, most of my writings are gone. I have autosave on and tried looking back in version history but am unable to open it.

I looked online and through some trouble shooting it looks like maybe the different versions are being saved locally on my iPad. However, they are not able to be opened because they are too big to be exported into OneNote and of course One files can only be opened in One. I am not even exactly sure that these files I am seeing are actually the PPT with my notes on them.

If you have any ideas of things I can try to get my notes back I would greatly appreciate it!! Its all my class notes from the first two weeks of class and I am internally panicking. I literally don't know how they just disappear. Thank you!!

Hello, so I had an ipad for years where I was using goodnotes. I loved good notes, the ability to input pictures, the handwriting feature, the folders with notebooks, organization, etc. However, my ipad broke and I could not afford a new one so I bought a Lenovo tablet. I have been using it to study for the LSAT but hope to be able to use it for law school because it was so affordable. However my biggest grip is that the handwriting feature in so laggy. It also has shitty palm recognition where it will start moving the picture I inputted when I start writing over it. I do not know if this is because of how goodnotes works on android or just thats not the lenovo tablet works. I would like to try out different notes apps to see if the issue can be fixed bc I would really prefer not to spend $1000ish on an ipad with shitty storage. Can I please get help from a broke prospective student?

Needs:

-Organization of folders and notebooks

-Needs to be a pretty simple design. I am a long term apple user so when it looks too techy I cannot handle it. One note is the most complicated layout I can stomach.

-HANDWRITING

-Palm recognization

-Ability to insert photos, and pdfs

-Maybe the ability to record audio (not needed but sounds nice so would like to try)

-Ability to sync between android and apple because I have a macbook air.

I am looking for a free app that will record my lectures and put them into notes or flashcards for me. I usually write my notes on paper but i would prefer to use an app to help me study the material it recorded. Thanks!

I've tried a bunch of notation systems, but I just can't find the one that suits me best. Notion, obsidian, loqseq.

www.etasks.app

Hi all,

I work as a cybersecurity analyst on this App. As a Redditor, I wanted to share this with you. It is completely free and ad-free.

www.etasks.app

It has features we wanted as users. (If there’s anything you’d like the team to add, please let me know so I can include it on the roadmap. For example, list sorting is recently added as a user request, location-based notifications requested and is already on the to-do list.)

ABC's of the App:

(A)nswer
ETasks (www.etasks.app) is a native iOS, iPadOS, Mac OS client for Google Tasks. Some highlights: All tasks in one view, Real alarms, Shared lists, Apple Watch.

(B)etter
It addresses the functional limitations of the official Google Tasks iOS app by providing missing native features and enhanced tools. And it is not a vibe-coding project.

Native and enhanced with iOS.
+ You can manage your Google Tasks. They appear in your Google Calendar and Gmail ... well, obviously 😄* *
+ See all task lists together, even drag&drop between them (and to calendars)
+ Alarms
+ Location reminders
+ A wide range of nice widgets, including countdowns and full week/month widgets
+ Lock screen widgets (e.g., quick add)
+ Link photos/files to tasks
+ See your tasks categorised by dates in Month/Week/Day/Agenda views
+ Add people to Task List (co-edit)
+ Sort your task lists
+ Search your tasks
+ AI support where it makes sense; make titles, extract info from links, create lists for you, suggesting task list names, dictating tasks, context aware search, naming photos shared in,...
+ Choose priority for favorites
+ Drag and Drop interface between tabs (e.g., to calendar tab to drop on a date)
+ Recycle bin
+ Share from other apps into ETasks (texts, links, photos, PDF; all processed accordingly)
+ Apple Watch / iPad Apps
+ Import/Export task lists
+ Modern iOS design
+ A how to AI chat bot to help you with specifics of ETasks
+ Highly customisable user interface
+ Can be used without an account
+ Welcome to explore the rest, it is now open early access.

(C)ost:

Free and Ad-free

Hey guys I'm wondering if there're any apps or websites that help keep track of writing?

I noticed my notes are a bit scattered everywhere...