Simplenote is an Evernote alternative application that supports markdown application. You can use this app for iOS, macOS, Windows, Android, and Linux. Alternative products to Milanote4 alternative and related products to Milanote. The notes app for creative work. The notes app for creative work. For the research, thinking and planning behind your next great piece of work. Monday.com Gantt view.

Still using a spreadsheet for project planning? You’re missing out and wasting time. Here are 12 of the best project planning software you need to know and start using today.

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One key thing that successful companies do is track and plan every single aspect of their business.

This includes everything from marketing to sales to the entire business strategy. They set S.M.A.R.T. (simple, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely) goals, break down the goals into projects, and the projects into smaller tasks and subtasks.

After that, they strategically assign tasks to the team and track progress. They then use the project data they get from the entire process to set better future goals and assess the time they will take.

In the past, executing tasks such as these took a while, as you mainly did it through spreadsheets. But if you are still using spreadsheets to plan out your project, you are losing out on time as there are several project planning software tools out there. These can help you with everything from planning out your goals and tasks to tracking your progress.

If you try to look for the perfect tool online, it can take a while as there are hundreds of them to wade through. This is why I have researched the best project planning tools out there and listed their specialties below to make it easy for you to pick your favorite.

1. Project Manager

A complete project management software with planning features

Source: Project Manager

As the name suggests, Project Manager is a project management software. But they also have some of the best project planning software features. You get started here by creating a task list. You can either create the list from scratch or import an MSP file.

After that, you can write a task description and add tags. This description will make it easy for your team to understand the task, and the tags will make it easy to find the tasks. You can then invite team members, add their availability, and assign tasks.

It makes it easy for you to monitor your progress with easy to understand graphs. Use them to modify the projects to increase productivity and to plan better future projects.

And to make it easy for you to visualize the project timelines, Project Manager offers a Gantt chart view. There’s also a kanban board view for task updates.

Pricing: Starts at $15 per user/month and goes up to $25 per user/month.

Does Project Manager offer a free trial? Yes, 30-day free trial available.

2. Plutio

One of the best project planning tools for freelancers

Source: Plutio

Businesses with several employees — that’s the target audience for most project planning software. The pricing plans and features don’t suit individual users. So, if you are a freelancer like me or have a small team, you might prefer using Plutio.

Plutio has all the necessary project planning features. These include creating projects and tasks, setting start and end times, assigning tasks, and communication features.

You can also use it to send professional proposals and for time-tracking. This can come in handy whether you want to track how your team performs or if you charge by the hour.

Plutio can also be used to send professional invoices to your clients after the project ends. You can receive payments via PayPal, Stripe, or bank account.

These are just a handful of Plutio’s key features. It has various other ones, such as forms and surveys, chart widgets, calendars, contracts, comments and groups for client and team collaboration, etc.

If you get Plutio, you can cancel the other software you might be using for invoicing and accounting. This will save you some money.

Pricing: Starts with a Pro plan that costs $15 per month and goes up to a Team plan that costs $30 per month. The Team plan costs $360 annually. But you can get it for $199 on Appsumo.

Does Plutio offer a free trial? Yes, a 14 day trial is available.

3. MindMeister

A mind mapping tool that doubles as project planning software

Source: MindMeister

Are you a visual thinker? If you like to picture things visually, you will like MindMeister. It’s a very user-friendly mind mapping tool. What I like about MindMeister is that it is online. Unlike most of the mind mapping tools out there that you need to download.

It has several customizable mind map templates, themes, and layouts for creating beautiful mind maps. You can upload background images, too.

You can also share mind maps with team members. They can either view them or make edits. It has some basic project planning features that let you assign tasks, set due dates, and track progress. It directly integrates with MeisterTask. This is a project management tool that can help you get the most out of your project plan mind maps.

Pricing: It has a Basic plan that lets you create up to three mind maps. To create unlimited mind maps, you will need to upgrade to the Personal plan, which costs $2.49 per month. Their most expensive plan is the Business plan, which costs $6.29 per month. It has many more features.

Does MindMeister offer a free trial? Yes, free plan available.

4. Monday.com

One of the most popular project planning tools

Source: Monday.com

Do you manage large teams and have a larger budget for project planning software? Then you should check out Monday.com. You can use it to manage up to 200+ users. It also has smaller plans for up to five uses.

This tool is best for businesses that want to go all in. It has a very intuitive drag and drop interface that makes it easy to plan projects and manage a team.

To organize projects, it offers a board-based feature like most project planning tools. But along with this, it also offers whiteboards. Your entire team can collaborate on these boards. It even integrates with Zoom to help you communicate via video conferencing.

It also has automation workflows that can help automate some tasks and reduce the amount of time you put into managing teams.

Pricing: The basic plan starts at $49 per month. This includes 5 users. Their largest plan is the enterprise plan, which has more features and higher limits. You will need to contact them for the price. If you find it expensive, you can check out Clickup and Wrike.

Does Monday.com offer a free trial? Yes, a 14 day trial is available for the pro plan.

5. Milanote

A visual Asana and Trello alternative

Source: Milanote

Milanote is the project planning tool for creative projects. It’s perfect for marketers, designers, agencies, and creative directors.

Your creative team can get started with a project with the brainstorming tool. It provides a drag and drop infinite virtual canvas. Here you can add notes, images, videos, and tasks.

It has various other tools like the mood board, whiteboard, mindmaps, storyboards, product roadmaps, etc. These can help you organize all the mise en place before you begin the project.

After you have all the information, you can use the project management tool to plan out the project, assign tasks, and begin executing it with your team.

The boards for your project plan are also very visual. You can upload your photos here, or you can import images from Unsplash — Milanote directly integrates with it.

Pricing: It has a free plan which lets you create unlimited boards. But It has some restrictions such as the number of files you can upload. For unlimited usage, you will need to upgrade to the paid plan. It costs $12.50 per user per month.

Does Milanote offer a free trial? Yes, free plan available.

6. Ideanote

Helps project managers brainstorm better ideas

Source: Ideanote

Ideanote is the software you use in the early stage of planning a project or task. It’s a very advanced tool for collecting ideas from your teams.

You get started by picking one of their 100+ idea-collection templates to create a mission. You can share the mission with your staff, either with a link or via email. They can then share their innovative ideas.

People can also comment, rate, and assign ideas. This will make it easy for you and your team to brainstorm and pick the best ideas.

You can also monitor activity to measure your team’s engagement during the idea generation process. This will help you identify the top innovators and movers at the company.

Their team is regularly adding new features. You can even submit ideas to their roadmap.

Pricing: The pricing for Ideanote starts at $249 per month and goes up to $2899 per month. But you can get a lifetime deal for just $59 on Appsumo. There are also lifetime deals for bigger plans.

Does Ideanote offer a free trial? Yes, a 7-day free trial is available.

7. Project Insight

One of the best project management software with free project planning features

Source: Project Insight

Just like the other tools, Project Insight is a project planning software that lets you create projects and tasks and invite team members. It also has collaboration tools that can help you communicate better.

But one place where it standouts is integrations. It integrates with other tools such as Trello, Slack, Quickbooks, Salesforce, Zendesk, etc. This makes it easy for you to view all your activity in one place and use project data to develop a better project execution strategy.

Pricing: The project planning subscription is free to use. You can invite unlimited members too. Their paid plans start at $35 per user/month.

Does Project Insight offer a free trial? Yes, free trial available.

8. Hansoft

Agile project management solution

Source: Hansoft

Hansoft is an agile enterprise-level project planning tool. You can use it to manage 10,000+ users.

It lets you combine multiple planning methodologies under one platform. The different methodologies available are kanban, scrum, and Gantt charts. You can switch between these viewing options depending on the project and team preferences. There are also waterfall and agile method hybrids.

You can track the progress of your project using easy to understand graphs.

These are just a few features of this sophisticated tool. This is not the best tool for freelancers and small teams. But it is perfect for large businesses looking to scale projects.

Pricing: Starts with a free plan which allows up to 5 users. You will need to contact them for details about the larger plans.

Does Hansoft offer a free trial? Yes, free plan available

9. Airtable

A visually appealing task management tool

Source: Airtable

Airtable is a very visually pleasing tool that makes it easy to organize and plan your work.

It has several templates that simplify creating and managing plans. You can find templates for projects such as creating a content calendar, launching a product, user feedback, etc.

You can page through categories and find the most relevant templates.

Another feature you have to check out is blocks. It helps you create better workflows for your team. Blocks also contain visualizing and formatting tools that can help you build better projects and track insights.

There are also partner blocks. These are integrations with popular tools such as Loom, Typeform, and Pexels.

Pricing: It starts with a free plan. Their lowest paid plan is a $10 plan. You get higher limits with this. But it doesn’t include blocks. To use blocks, you will need to upgrade to a bigger plan.

Does Airtable offer a free trial? Yes, free plan available.

10. TeamDeck

One of the best project management software for digital agencies

Source: TeamDeck

TeamDeck is a resource management tool for software houses and digital agencies. You can use it to plan projects, assign, and measure performance. It has a simple calendar view.

You can add your team members’ details, such as availability and expertise, to the dashboard. This makes it easy to see who is available and assign tasks to the right people. It can also help you plan future projects and check if you can take on more clients.

The performance tool also lets you track data in real-time. You can use it to charge clients the right amount if you are billing by the hour.

Some other essential features you might want to check out are its leave management solution, time off approval workflow, ability to share insights, and more.

Pricing: It only has one plan that costs $3.99 per team member/month.

Does Team Deck offer a free trial? Yes, 7-day free trial available.

11. Hibox

A project planning tool with free task management features

Source: Hibox

Are you interested in a more intuitive, AI-powered project planning tool? Then Hibox might be right for you. Just like the other tools, you can use it to create tasks, assign tasks, set due dates, and track progress.

Your employees can also communicate with you through video chat through the dashboard. There’s also a built-in group video chat feature to help you communicate. And there’s no need to download any software. You directly do it online. You can also share your screens.

Along with all of this, you get an AI assistant. This bot will assess your activity and make suggestions such as tasks you need to create and the right people to assign.

Pricing: It has a basic free plan for basic task management. For adding the integrations and for video conferencing, you will need to upgrade to the next plan, which costs $4 per user/month. It also has a $8 per user/month plan for enterprises.

Does Hibox offer a free trial? Yes, all sign-ups have a 14-day trial of the Pro plan.

12. Hive

An ideal solution for project managers

Source: Hive

Hive is a project planning tool with multiple view styles. These include calendar, kanban, and Gantt charts. The main benefit of this is that different teams will prefer different view styles. So, you can create projects with different views for different teams.

Along with this, it has other features such as automated workflows, summary views, action templates, forms, time tracking, etc. It simplifies complex project management and planning tasks.

And just like other project management tools, it has communication and analytics features.

It integrates with other tools like Jira, Google Drive, Slack, and Dropbox that help you share information and boost your productivity.

Pricing: It has a $16 per user/month plan, but you have to pay extra for some of the add ons. It also has an enterprise plan for large organizations.

Does Hive offer a free trial? Yes, free trial available.

Go get yourself a project planning software

Which of the above project planning software did you like most?

As you can see above, there is a lot of excellent Saas project planning software out there. Picking one can be a hard task as it not only needs to work now but also years from now when you scale your business. So, choose meticulously. Maybe you can try out a few before you pick one.

Also, check out the AppSumo store. You can find some excellent project planning and management tools here for a fraction of the price.

Note-taking is personal. It has as much to do with how your mind works as it does with what you’re taking notes about and why you’re taking them in the first place.

Still, search for the best note-taking app and you’ll invariably find Evernote at the top of most lists.

Some notes are for sharing. Some are a reminder. Some are taken and never looked at again.

Sometimes a note is a quick thought, jotted down on-the-go on a mobile device. Other times your notes are prepared at length at your computer over a large project, meeting, or study session.

Evernote is fine, generally-speaking — but you’re not just anyone, and your notes aren’t just any notes.

To find the best Evernote alternatives, we tested and used over 30 apps, reviewed top threads on Reddit, and consulted reviews on G2 to hear what the community had to say.

It’s not all just Evernote vs OneNote anymore. There are a slew of great note-taking apps, each with a key advantage over Evernote depending on what you are doing.

The best note-taking apps that aren’t Evernote:

• Hugo - Best meeting notes app
• CacoonWeaver - Best speech-to-text notes app
• Milanote - Best whiteboard-style notes app for creatives
• Bear - Speediest markdown notepad for iOS & Mac
• Typora - Best distraction-free notes app
• Workflowy - Infinite expandable bullet points
• OneNote - Best free option (not just for Microsoft lovers)
• Boost Note - Best note-taking app for developers
• Google Keep - Best note-taking app for Google fanatics
• Ulysses - Top-of-the line notes for serious writers
• Notability - Best notes app for iPad with Apple Pencil
• Nebo - Best note-taking app for Surface with Surface Pen
  

Why Evernote is no longer the gold-standard for notes

For many years, Evernote was on top of the note-taking game. With its sleek, comfortable interface, enjoyable mobile experience, and easy way of organizing with folders and stacks of folders, Evernote dominated the note-taking world after the iPhone’s original launch in 2007.

However, over the last 4+ years, Evernote has undergone a series of problematic changes, introducing bizarre new products in an attempt to expand its reach. They also changed the free plan in ways that have driven away users by crippling key features unless you pay.

Evernote remains a great product in many ways. It syncs across devices, offers a handy web clipper, and can even search handwriting.

But in trying to be all things to all people, the notes app market has opened up, offering a slew of note-taking apps that are going to appeal to more specific groups of people looking for more specific solutions.

What’s not on this list?

With note-taking apps, you need to be able to quickly take notes. Speed is of the essence. That means not having to waste time organizing and saving your files. You also need to be able to easily search your notes to find information.

Of course, you can take notes almost anywhere you can write.

Some people use the cells in a spreadsheet. Others use word processing apps like Google Docs or Microsoft Word. Authors may prefer to jot down notes inside the tools they are already working in, like Scrivener. You can also take notes in project management software like Asana, or collaborative docs like Dropbox Paper.

None of these, however, beat the speed and simplicity of a dedicated notes app.

So in this post, we’re only looking at tools that are primarily for notes. Full-on word processing tools aren’t in the running, nor are project management tools or CRMs that happen to have a notes function. (Ulysses might be a minor exception, as it can be both a notes tool and word processor depending on how you use it.)

With that, here are the best note-taking tools in 2020 that aren’t Evernote.

Hugo - Best meeting notes app

For iOS and in your web browser. (Android, iPadOS, and macOS are on the horizon)

Plenty of note-taking apps are good generally-speaking, but taking notes in meetings poses some unique challenges. Fortunately, Hugo is purpose-built for meeting notes at work.

First, staying organized. Hugo centralizes and organizes all of your meeting notes with the help of your calendar. Notes are associated with your actual meetings, so you basically don’t have to worry about categorizing anything. (You can always add tags if you want to.) This works with G Suite, Gmail, or Office 365 calendars.

Plus, Hugo also integrates with over 20 other apps used for work. It syncs notes to your CRM (e.g. Salesforce), pushes tasks to project management tools (e.g. Jira), and works seamlessly with video conferencing tools (e.g. Zoom).

The Chrome browser extension gives you access to your notes from any page in your browser, which means you don’t have to dedicate your screen to note-taking during a video call. Just open and close the Hugo drawer when you need to check your agenda or jot a note down.

Hugo isn’t designed to just help you (although it will). With accounts for teams, collaborative note-taking, and a library of 80+ meeting note templates, everyone in your organization can use Hugo to centralize your meeting notes together.

During the pandemic, Hugo is offering free accounts to teams of up to 40 users. If you sign up during this period, you’ll get to keep that pricing even after the pandemic is over.

Hugo Pricing:

• Free plan: Yes
• Paid plan: $6/user/month for teams 11+

ALSO: Take a look at this guide to taking amazing meeting notes.

CacoonWeaver - Best speech-to-text notes app

Compatibility: iOS (iPhone/iPad)

CacoonWeaver is the best way to collect audio notes for iOS. Pop open the app and transcribe your ideas, thoughts, memories, and dreams. To organize your notes with voice commands, just say something like, “Cacoon Shopping” and the app will automatically put your notes in the Shopping category.

Unlike other note-taking apps where you need to enable dictation to record an audio note, and then carefully watch to make sure your text is going in correctly, CacoonWeaver records your audio and transcribes at the same time.

You can play back your notes, or read them back, which gives you the peace of mind to know that no matter what, your information won’t be lost, and there are no limitations on the max length of an audio recording.

CacoonWeaver also keeps track of where you had ideas, showing you blips on a map.

The UI is clean and minimalistic for distraction-free recording and offers custom push notifications and nudges to help you be your best self.

Because it is still in its debut phase, CacoonWeaver is currently free and keeps your data private and secure. The app claims to be in beta but it is fully functional and in better shape bugs-wise than a lot of other apps you’ll find on the AppStore.

CacconWeaver Pricing:

• Free app: Yes
• Paid plan: N/A

Milanote - Best whiteboard-style notes app for creatives

Compatibility: Desktop apps for Mac and Windows, plus mobile apps for iOS and Android

The Next Web calls Milanote “the Evernote for Creatives” and it’s easy to see why creative directors, filmmakers, photographers, marketers, and designers of all kinds enjoy using it.

Unlike most note-taking apps, Milanote takes a highly-visual approach, allowing you to organize your ideas and projects in visual boards. Collect images, videos, text, and tasks all together on your screen.

If your creative process includes activities like mood boarding, brainstorming, storyboarding, or mind-mapping, the visual canvas offers a flexible and delightful experience.

Milanote works for teams and clients too, with build-tin commenting, sharing, and notifications. Plus, you can download a high-quality, printable PDF of any board.

You can try Milanote free with no time limit, although it is limited to 100 notes, images, or links (and only 10 file uploads). After that, it’s $9.99 for unlimited storage

Milanote Pricing:

• Free plan: Yes
• Paid plan: $12.50/month when billed monthly, $9.99/month when billed annually.

Bear - Fastest markdown notepad for iOS & Mac

Compatibility: iOS (iPhone/iPad) and Mac

For Apple fans looking to upgrade beyond Apple Notes, Bear offers a good balance of features, design, convenience, and software speed. If you’re coming from Evernote, for example, it’s so fast, you’ll notice the difference immediately.

From your very first note, Bear’s design shines, treating you with elegant typography and theme options which include multiple dark modes.

Bear's speed isn't just for writing notes, either. Searching in the app also runs fast, with minimal delays when searching notes.

With many advanced markdown options (or is it markup?), Bear works great if you like to format as you type. Hybrid markdown support means you can see the formatted text as you’re typing, although if you’re not a regular user of markdown, you might not enjoy the experience at first. You can easily export these nicely-formatted notes to HTML, PDF, and TXT.

It also has quick shortcuts, such as for finding today’s date, and supports checkboxes to help with to-dos. Built-in tagging is powerful and allows you to create tags anywhere in a document that are automatically captured in the sidebar.

Bear uses iCloud to speedily sync notes between iOS and Mac with a Pro membership. Still, some users complain that this should be a free feature like it is with most other note-taking apps.

Bear is rated 4.5 out of 5 on G2 Crowd with positive reviews from many note-taking app power users, such as consultants, software developers, and UI/UX designers. The biggest complaint about Bear is a lack of helpful or effective support.

Bear pricing:

• Free app: Yes
• Paid Plan: Bear Pro is $1.49/monthly, $14.99 annually with a free trial

‍Typora - Best distraction-free notes app

Compatibility: For desktop/laptop computers only (Mac, Windows, and Linux)

Typora is a slick alternative to Bear that is even more minimalist and distraction-free. The app is simple, with very little UI getting in the way. It’s also beautifully designed, with clear, aesthetically-pleasing text.

Typora has a night mode and also supports custom themes so that you can create the perfect writing experience.

It also has two cool modes. One is a unique Focus Mode that highlights the paragraph you’re currently working on, while graying out everything else. Typewriter Mode similarly highlights the center of your screen.

Many of the same advanced markdown features are in Typora, meaning that you can type up nicely-formatted notes without ever having to shift your hand to your mouse. Even so, if you want to get a little bit fancy, Typora supports tables, diagrams, mathematical formats, footnotes, code fences, and task lists.

Typora Pricing:

• Free app: Yes, during beta
• Paid Plan: Not yet announced

‍Workflowy - Infinite expandable bullet points

Compatibility: Desktop apps for Windows, Mac and Linux, plus iOS, Android, and in your browser

Do you love taking notes with bullet points?

Do you wish everything in life could be bullets — Infinite, ever-expanding bullet points, as far as the sky can reach?

Does your whole world spin around lists and bullet points? If not, would you like it to?

If the answer the above is a resounding Yes!, you’ll be in heaven with Workflowy.

The concept is simple. Workflowy lets you create infinite piles of bullet points which are also each their own document. Expand, collapse, move documents, drill in and out — it’s intuitive and natural bullet points at a scale that you may have never dreamed of.

The product works well for outlining and project organization just naturally. It’s novel, intuitive, and requires very little learning to figure out.

The only downside to Workflowy is in organizing more matrixed information. This might be more challenging, because every bit of information may not have a clear place in your stack of bullet points for where it should belong. (Contrast this with Hugo, which organizes meeting notes based on your calendar, so notes don’t live in just one particular place — they’re associated with names, companies, dates, meeting titles, etc...)

Still, for your next novel or work project, especially for people whose minds work in a certain bullet-driven way, give Workflowy a try.

Workflowly Pricing:

• Free plan: Yes
• Paid plan: $5/month

OneNote - Best free option (not just for Microsoft lovers)

For iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, and in the browser

Simple, practical, and ubiquitous for Windows and Office users, OneNote is a free note-taking app that seems to be everywhere.

Melanote

It’s a great basic option, with a familiar UI to anyone who has ever used Microsoft products like Word, and while it does most of the things Evernote does, it stands out because of one big four-letter word that starts with an F.

Free.

You get more advanced functionality here without having to pay.

In OneNote, you can add multimedia elements to your notes, such as audio, video, images, and even websites using the Webclipper browser extension. Task lists are an option, although robust task management in OneNote can be challenging because you can’t put due dates on anything.

OneNote has a large folder organization system, letting you create notebooks and sections, and nest them inside each other. The way that sections get dragged around can be frustrating — trying to move one section below another and can have it end up inside on accident — but again, for a free option, for many, this may be a minor inconvenience. Cross-notebook search is available, although there is a learning curve to finding your information.

OneNote uses OneDrive to sync across all of your Microsoft apps. If you don’t have an Office 365 subscription, you can upgrade your OneDrive to a paid plan for an increase in storage space.

OneNote Pricing:

• Free app: Yes
• Paid plan: Upgrade OneDrive for more storage space, starting at $1.99/month for 100 GB

‍Boost Note - Best note-taking app for developers

Compatibility: iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, Linux, and in your browser

Stylish, markdown-enabled, and fully open-source, Boost Note is a developer’s dream. The interface resembles Sublime, the popular text editor, with a slight skew toward taking quick and easy notes.

Boost Note highlights syntax for you and recognizes over 100 programming languages. It also supports math blocks where you can write math equations using LaTeX syntax. Themes are fully customizable.

Notes are stored safely in the cloud, with more file system-based storage coming soon.

Boost Note Pricing:

• Free app: Yes (100 MB cloud storage)
• Paid plan: 2GB cloud storage at $3/month. Boost Note for Teams launches in June 2020.

Google Keep - Best note-taking app for Google fanatics

Compatibility: Android, iOS, and in your web browser

Google Keep is a straightforward notes app that comes as part of your G Suite or Gmail account. It offers a clean, nicely-organized UI that has most of the standard features you’re looking for in a note-taking app, without too many bells and whistles.

If the rest of your life already revolves around Google products, Google Keep may be the right pick for you.

As you create notes, they are organized on your screen visually in a corkboard style. You can change the background colors to give it a post-it notes effect. While if you take a ton of notes, this may feel haphazard, with moderate use it's colorful and fun.

You might be wondering, Why do I need Google Keep when I have Google Docs?

For some users, it may be redundant to have multiple types of Google Docs, but others may enjoy the simpler note-taking experience in Google Keep. And if your notes start to become something more than just a note, there’s always the Copy to Google Docs action to transfer it over.

Google Keep Pricing:

• Free app: Yes
• Paid plan: N/A

Ulysses - Top-of-the-line notes app for serious writers

Compatibility: Mac, iPad, iPhone

For writers and authors, Ulysses is a notes app that will replace your word processor 99% of the time. Fully-featured and elegant, it is a very power writing app.

Export in various file formats, including text, HTML, ePub, PDF, and DOCX, plus a number of export styles for professional-looking PDFs and manuscripts. You can also schedule or publish articles to Wordpress and Medium directly within the app.

Ulysses also excels at organizing, if you’re willing to set it up. With views, custom searches, filters, and tags, it’s the most organizable note-taking experience on this list (except for Hugo, which auto-organizes meeting notes based on your calendar.)

All of this functionality comes at a cost, however. Ulysses is free to try, but if you get hooked, there’s not paired down free version to stick with.

Ulysses

• Free plan: Trial only
• Paid plan: $4.99/month or $39.99 ($3.33/month) when paid annually

Notability - Best note-taking app for iPad with Apple Pencil

Compatibility: iOS (iPhone and iPad)

Combine handwriting, photos, and typing into a single note with Notability. The elegant interface is nicely-designed, letting you choose from a variety of typing and drawing instruments with ease.

Notability has a nice range of sketching tools that make it easy to recolor, scale, and adjust your ideas and sketches. You can also pick from different paper backgrounds, for example, to sketch your notes on graph paper, or more textured art paper.

Notability syncs with iCloud, Google Drive, Dropbox, AirDrop, and Email for easy sharing with colleagues and study partners.

It’s also great for annotating PDFs.

Notability Pricing:

Milanote Reddit

• Free trial: No
• Paid app: $8.99

(Note: Nebo, discussed below, is another great option that works across all tablet platforms.)

‍Nebo - Best note-taking app for Surface with Surface Pen

Compatibility: iOS, Android, and Windows

Microsoft’s Surface Pen offers a delightful drawing experience on the Surface Book, Pro, and Studio, and there’s no reason you can’t use OneNote for this purpose. The anniversary update of Windows 10 also brought the Windows Ink Workspace, which gives you three cool apps: Sticky Notes, Sketchpad, and Screen sketch.

Milanote Alternative Reddit

If you have an active pen like the Surface Pen, you might be asking, with all this greatness bundled for you in Windows, can note-taking get any better?

The answer is yes, and the other answer is Nebo.

Draw sketches and diagrams. Easily switch between your pen and keyboard.

There are tons of cool gestures that make the experience delightful, like how you can scratch out a letter to delete it, or swipe up to join two sentences together.

Getting notes out of Nebo is a breeze, with image, text, DOCX, and HTML formats available. You can also copy/paste diagrams to PowerPoint and they stay fully-editable.

Alternatives To Evernote And Onenote

Nebo pricing:

Milanote Desktop App

• Free app: N/A
• Paid app: $9.99