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Ask HN: Alternatives to Evernote?
Given the amount of people asking for alternatives in the Evernote thread making the waves right now and since I’ve been looking for one for a while now, figured I ask what others use.
OneNote, Simplenote, org-mode seem to be some popular ones.
- dmn757 13y agoProbably not nearly as feature packed or maintained, but Google Keep (https://drive.google.com/keep/ https://drive.google.com/keep/) is an option.
- StuieK 13y agoHere is a crowdsourced list: http://www.slant.co/topics/697/~what-is-the-best-cross-platform-note-taking-tool http://www.slant.co/topics/697/~what-is-the-best-cross-platf...
- contextual 13y agoDefinitely check out Springpad: https://springpad.com/about https://springpad.com/about For me, I've been using Basecamp for practically everything. It's so useful and reliable, and the mobile site has the best most functional interface I've ever used.
- frossie 13y agoThe problem with these (and all the other alternatives I've seen in this post so far) is that they ignore the one thing that locks people into Evernote despite the bugs, poor interface etc: scanner-support and OCR. Sure, if you have your information in digital form already, there's a bunch of decent solutions, but in terms of killing the paper mountain I am not aware of anything that supports that workflow, certainly not that easily.
- firefoxNX11 13y agowhat do you mean by "killing the paper mountain"? The OCR feature of Evernote Premium?
- zaqokm 13y agoMy 2 cents :) The trouble is that there are little or no real alternatives. There are plenty of hacks like dropbox, simple note, etc but nothing with the complete functionality and cross platform capabilities which Evernote.
- AH4oFVbPT4f8 13y agoI'm a long time Evernote user and honestly, it's great for record keeping but I find it pretty awful for daily use. A huge improvement could be made by Evernote if they would support markdown within their notes. Currently the editor is very basic and can't handle functions like tables very well (creating them sure, but then adding/removing cells or sizing them is a chore) OneNote has the best editor but it's also a lot heavier than evernote. Google Keep can't be an option after what Google does with it's side projects like iGoogle and Reader.
- eswat 13y agoYeah, Markdown support would be lovely for me since I write almost everything else outside of Evernote in Markdown. I’m leery of Keep because Google has already tried this realm before with Google Notebook and shut that down.
- patrickmay 13y agoI use OmniFocus. It is relatively easy to customize it to support GTD, but it is commercial software. I believe the price is around USD 80.
- grimlck 13y agoDoes anyone know of any note apps which support Linux, iOS, Windows, and OS X. Starts up fast. For example, vi starts up fast. Works offline and online. Always syncs without a manual step. I don't care about pictures, or audio, or OCR, etc. I just want the basics to work and work perfectly.
- daGrevis 13y agoUse Vim and GitHub Gists. https://github.com/mattn/gist-vim https://github.com/mattn/gist-vim
- gvb 13y agoDropbox with plain text notes. On Android (and, I presume, iOS) it caches recently used files for offline access. If you don't access a file on your phone before going off-line it will show up in the directory listing but not actually be accessible.
- nXqd 13y agojust use your favourite text editor and dropbox. It works for me
- SkyMarshal 13y agoTomboy [1] + webnotes [2] with the notes folder automatically synced to Dropbox/SpiderOak/etc. Or Vim + VimOrganizer/vim-orgmode. [1]: https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Tomboy https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Tomboy [2]: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/webnotes-powered-by-ubuntu/id519580240?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/webnotes-powered-by-ubuntu/i... [3]: http://lifehacker.com/5839633/tomboy-is-a-free-lightweight-note+taking-app-for-all-platforms http://lifehacker.com/5839633/tomboy-is-a-free-lightweight-n...
- klint 13y agoZim and nvPY are cross-platform and save everything as plain text, which you can open and edit on iOS with Dropbox or something similar.
- Styrke 13y agoI use a folder in my Google Drive.
- eliben 13y ago+1. I also find Google Drive very convenient for this. The great search within my drive just lets me litter a large amount of new documents and not worry about it. I usually either view the most recently edited or search.
- davidjgraph 13y agohttp://alternativeto.net/software/evernote/ http://alternativeto.net/software/evernote/
- msluyter 13y agoI've been using nValt with synching via SimpleNote. nValt is pretty nice, actually - the UI is optimized for fast searching or adding notes.
- monkey_slap 13y agoSame here. Been loving nValt and saving my notes in Dropbox. Super simple, and incredibly fast.
- salient 13y agoKeep: https://drive.google.com/keep/ https://drive.google.com/keep/ https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.keep https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.and...
- YousefED 13y agoI use onenote. Its simplicity and multiplatform support resulted in a lot of "is this really a Microsoft product?" reactions by people I showed it to. Definitely recommend to give it a try
- msh 13y agoUnfortunately they don't have a osx version.
- lucb1e 13y ago> multiplatform support $ apt-cache search onenote Yielded no results for me. What is the GNU/Linux client called?
- YousefED 13y agoSorry, I was referring to iOS and Android mobile support. There's a webversion though accessible from https://skydrive.live.com https://skydrive.live.com, but I've hardly used it (so can't recommend it. Also, I suppose a desktop version is crucial for a good note taking app so I guess it's not worth trying on linux / mac).
- jkupferman 13y agoAfter getting frustrated with Evernote being slow and buggy I switched to Simplenote (http://simplenote.com/ http://simplenote.com/). It's simple, fast and seamless. You start typing and it automatically syncs your note for you. It does one thing that does it well. That being said it doesn't have all the bells and whistles that Evernote does (audio notes, OCR, etc).
- sutterbomb 13y agoSecond the vote for Simplenote. Super fast native Mac & iOS apps. Search is lightening quick too. Decent web app as well if you need it.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- mrteal 13y agoAlthough I may be an extreme case, I use Dokuwiki for notes/journals/logs. I wanted something that was OSS, as I am somewhat uncomfortable providing brain dumps to a corporate entity in exchange for a license. Wiki markup is great for quick keyboard formatting, and all data is saved in flat files, so a rsync via cron takes care of redundancy/backups. Revision control works, and I can quickly create a new user with limited access if I need to share, or export to PDF.
- acemtp 13y agoI created a project called http://dok.io http://dok.io The goal is to easily create and forget (like in gmail) small piece of info (dok). The dynamic search helps to find them if needed later. Of course it's collaborative (like a wiki) and everyone in the team can add/edit just by typing in the dok (like in asana), no edit button or whatever. Oh and behind, it's HTML5/JS with Meteor. Feedback will be greatly appreciated.
- enko 13y agoSince you asked for feedback... get a native speaker to review your copy. "leverage on" - you don't need the "on" (this is in 2 places). "Notes are information that aimed at becoming knowledge" - doesn't make sense, perhaps say "aims" instead? hierarchizations - just say hierarchies. Well, you asked : P
- acemtp 13y agoThank you! You right, I'll have to find a native speaker. I'll fix that.
- dorfsmay 13y agoText files on dropbox, using native editors is definitely the most portable solution with no vendor lock in. Dropbox's web site even has an online text editor.
- mark_l_watson 13y ago+1, couldn't agree more. I have dropbox aware editors on all of my devices, and have a good directory layout for storing and working on ideas as text files. BTW, I use the same setup so I can work on my book projects on any of my devices (using leanpub). I use Dropbox a lot for clipping web articles, taking pictures of bills and records, etc.
- paulgb 13y agoIt's not close to a full-blown Evernote alternative, but Google keep (http://keep.google.com http://keep.google.com) is my alternative.
- VMG 13y agoKeep is the first note taking app I can use without getting frustrated, precisely because it is so limited and does not feel bloated.
- middleclick 13y agoWhich is exactly how a note taking app should be.
- zabouti 13y agoI no longer trust Google to keep its own services - they've gotten rid of too many projects. On the plus side, you usually have time to download your data before the service dies.
- paulgb 13y agoStartups have an even worse track record. I switched to Google Keep when catch.com shut down.
- biggilo 13y agoBokemarks.com is a good alternative: http://www.bokemarks.com/ http://www.bokemarks.com/ Here is an invitation link: http://www.bokemarks.com/#!invited?code=bHjj1KloPRx56W http://www.bokemarks.com/#!invited?code=bHjj1KloPRx56W
- xname 13y agoIt depends on what you need. - Serious note taking for study / research or whatever requires a lot of editing: ms word or alike. - Quick saving of webpages: readability / instapaper / pocket etc. - Quick note taking for a few words: google keep - to do list: to do list apps I have tried all kinds of things and I found I have to use different apps to achieve different goals.
- kenrick95 13y agoBy owning a Surface RT, I've used OneNote for almost a semester now. For me the only minus side of OneNote is that the PDF slides from the lecturers can't be editable inside OneNote. This is because the things that are "printed" inside OneNote are images which makes the OneNote file big. But then, after trying some alternatives, I cannot find any better one. Seems that I will stick to OneNote for now.
- manojlds 13y agoAs a Windows Phone user, I have come to love OneNote as well.
- mvkel 13y agoI use JustNotes on OS X, which is built on top of Simplenote. It syncs wonderfully and is very, well, Simple. The reason I switched to Evernote: rich text. Google Keep can't do RTF either :(
- dsirijus 13y agoFair chance is that plethora of use-cases covered by Evernote are not covered by any other alternative. OCR, Web Clipper (favorite bit of mine), audio notes, location-aware notes, sharing, cross-platform support, awesome note indexing and subsequent search, offline caching, 3rd (as well as 1st) party app ecosystem integrated with their API... You name it. Even their free as well as premium tier give you a lot of bang for buck. Which is kind of explanation of why they can get away with some issues in their service - they own the space. Period.
- oinksoft 13y agoZim is pretty decent if you like something on the desktop and like wikis. Its strength is in quickly organizing a bunch of related ideas/notes (being a wiki) but it is much faster to use than a browser-based wiki. http://zim-wiki.org/ http://zim-wiki.org/ I tend to just scribble in Vim though, or use paper and pencil.
- klint 13y ago+1 for Zim, even if you don't much like wikis. You don't actually have to use wiki markup or anything with Zim if you don't want to. You can just organize things with folders, subfolders and tags and never worry about creating links. I find it to be sort of halfway between Notational Velocity and Evernote. Like nv it stores everything as flat files, but like Evernote you can add some structure to how your organize things.
- spectrum 13y agoI also use Zim. The nice thing is that Zim uses plain .txt files without the need of a database. So you can also view and edit your notes/pages using any text editor instead of Zim itself. Making backups is also very easy this way. I keep these text files in sync across my devices using owncloud. That way I can also use it on my smartphone by just viewing the plain text. No extra apps necessary.
- gum_ina_package 13y agoHow about OneNote? They have a desktop version, tablet version, online versions, and clients for iOS/Android/WP8 as well. http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/onenote/ http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/onenote/
- HackyGeeky 13y agoI'm hooked to OneNote, started using it a year back. From what I've seen it's extremely intuitive. Creating a table is a breeze and so is the indenting.
- darcrossito 13y agoIf you just want to organize ideas or simple notes, https://workflowy.com https://workflowy.com works well.
- ncolor 13y agoMac's TextEdit (a rich text editor) has been what I've ultimately chosen after using Evernote, OneNote, SpringPad, Simplenote, Notational Velocity, and Mac's Notes.app. Let me explain some of its benefits. - Notes are placed in Finder (the file system). This is the biggest benefit. This means that I can store notes separately in folders, according to their specific purposes. For example, I can categorize my notes by project, AND store files of any type alongside them, since they're just placed in the Finder. I generally don't like using specific notes apps, because what if you want to attach a real file (not a shortcut to a file) which is of a type that's incompatible with the notes app? You can't, because notes apps can only categorize notes. That's very limited. With Finder, everything's categorized according to your own purposes, and any file type can be moved into/out of each purpose. The more I use Finder, the more I love it. - TextEdit is very simple, but also very powerful if you know how to use it. It generally has all the features of a typical notes app. It has rich text editing, and you can put in pictures as well. When you're searching for a note or its content in Finder, it'll look through all the text within the notes, not just the file names. If you want to quick look notes, just click on a note in column view. - If you use a certain note more often than others, you can use Alfred (a smart search app) to launch it really quickly just by typing its name, without needing to load an entire notes app filled with notes you don't need, and then find it yourself. - Unlike Evernote, you can easily password-protect as many notes as you like by storing them in an encrypted DMG, since this feature comes with the Mac. A downside for some people is that you can't edit your notes on a phone/tablet. For me this hasn't been a problem because I'm ten times more productive on a laptop. I can always view my files with the Dropbox app, and I can always make some quick notes on my mobile device if I ever need to. For most people, your laptop is almost always with you, and it doesn't take long to pop it open. If you're on Windows, I think WordPad would be the right way to go. Not too sure about Linux though. In conclusion, the TextEdit/Finder combo is the simplest, fastest, and most functional, notes tool that I've ever used.
- arvidjanson 13y agoIcebergs (https://icebergs.com/ https://icebergs.com/) is one of the prettier ones I've seen. Not really an avid user myself, but then again I'm not using Evernote either. Sublime+Dropbox does it for me at the moment, but would love to find a better alternative.
- urlwolf 13y agoBest multiplatform notetaker: wiznote. http://wiz.cn/index.html http://wiz.cn/index.html Yes, it's a chinese product, so the servers will be in China. Hopefully the NSA has a bit of a harder time, and the local gov. doesn't have that many people reading English notes :) Features are amazing, but more than anything I like the fact that everything is html, with headings assigned to shortcuts. Proper outlining.
- ArekDymalski 13y agoI reccomend Diigo becauseit's also an excellent bookmark organizer. I switched to it after using both Evernote and Springpad.