14 Best Note-Taking Apps for Students for 2024

Take better notes in class or bring ideas together in one base. These note-taking applications are perfect for students that need an all-round notes day-to-day.

Looking to be more productive in class with note-taking?

Students collect class notes, PDFs, presentations, ideas, research titles, and millions of links across a typical study day. That's enough to make your head explode if you're not using some app or system to bring that all into one location.

Many students have apps like Apple Notes, Google Keep, or maybe even notebooks, which are good but might not be able to provide the large-scale function our curated list of best student-focused note-taking apps can help with.

Leveling up your notes app in university or college is probably one of the best investments you can make during your studies. Let's explore the best apps for it!

What makes a good student note-taking app?

The best student note-taking apps are low-cost & tailored for study.

When we picked these tools, we ensured these attributes were reflected in the recommended note-taking apps. But why? Low-cost apps keep the bills down for students eager to invest in their future and on a student budget.

Tailored for study is essential, as many of the tools selected are chosen for their student-focused features, allowing you to study, manage flashcards, and maximize your time at college.

How do we evaluate and test apps?

Tool Finder has been reviewing software for over 10+ years.

Our team carefully reviews the tools, software, and apps featured here and provides valuable insights to help you decide which is best for you.

We've reviewed over 750+ apps and tools across the years and have a following on YouTube of over 415,000+ subscribers who rely on us to help them choose the perfect tool for them. These rules and regulations help us to establish the best reviews, insights & guides for you:

• We do not do paid reviews.
• We include affiliate links, but this doesn't affect our rankings.
• We recommend the best tools for the job and are trusted by you to do that.

For more information about our affiliate & how we make money, explore here.

Recommendation

RemNote

RemNote

RemNote is an advanced note-taking app popular with students for creating flashcards.

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What is RemNote?

RemNote is a note-taking application popular with students who want to revise and study for exams. Its features include flashcards, PDF annotation, and bidirectional linking, which are standard in PKM apps.

RemNote is popular with students for their note-taking abilities and ability to create flashcards for deeper learning, but is it your next note-taking application? Let's see.

Why is RemNote a good note app for students?

RemNote is one of the best student note apps because it is, at the core, designed for students with flashcards, unlimited notes, and an app on all devices. Inside RemNote, you can instantly create a note and turn it into a flashcard.

RemNote also packs powerful PDF annotation (Pro feature) and connection to notes, meaning you can connect to any presentation or PDF your lecturer sends. This makes for an easy experience, but you can also annotate it to add more value. You get 3 PDF note annotations as part of your free plan on RemNote.

RemNote is best for more intense student note-takers and is excellent for structured note management. A little education is required, but this is the best of our list for all-around student note-taking management.

RemNote Pros

• Unlimited flashcards
• Easy-to-use features
• Can extend to PKM use for post-college
• Analytics for flashcards insights
• Way to add daily notes for journaling

RemNote Cons

• It can be expensive for a premium
• Many people might find it overwhelming

Tips for Being Productive in College

Here are some healthy and productive tips for college & university study:

• Establish goals in your personal, academic, and professional life
• Identify your most productive times for studying
• Maintain a healthy balance between work, study, and personal life
• Use calendar apps to block out specific study times
• Create a visual schedule that balances study time with daily activities

Recommendation

Supernotes

Supernotes

A beautifully-designed note-taking tool that was originally developed for students.

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What is Supernotes App?

Supernotes is a note-taking app that allows you to easily create, share, and manage notes with your team. It is popular with students and the PKM note-taking community and has recently been featured in free AI note-taking apps.

Supernotes wants to be your base for notes by providing a new approach to note-taking with notecards, no more folders, and a better way to collaborate on notes on the go.

Why is the Supernote app a good student notes app?

Supernotes provide us with a firm base for your notes. It has grown on many people using things beyond student note-taking thanks to the clean, minimal nature of the app and the focus on notecards instead of constant folder organization. This makes it easier to connect notes using backlinks and to share notes with other students.

Collaborative notes are one of the gem features of Supernotes. Students can take notes and share them with other students using Supernotes, too. This makes life so much easier when missing a lecture (intentionally or not) and sharing those notes after it happens.

Supernotes are a great note-taking tool for students as they provide a collaborative environment in which to work on their notes. Productivity tools like this are super necessary for students to embrace. They are easy to use and allow easy sharing and note access. They also allow for easy editing of notes, making it easy for students to keep their notes organized and up to date.

Supernotes Pros

• Security-focused
• Offline and fast-loading notes
• Comes with all apps (including Linux)
• Independently developed tool
• Premium pricing isn't crazy

Supernotes Cons

• The free plan limits you to 100 notes.
• Can be overly complicated for some people

Recommendation

Evernote

Evernote

Evernote is a note-taking application with tasks, calendar and AI features inside.

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What is Evernote?

Evernote is a note-taking application that was first built in 2000. It is available on iOS, Android, macOS, web, and Windows. Professionals and individuals use it to take notes, add tasks & manage calendar notes in one.

It is famous for note-taking and has a traditional format for collecting and organizing notes. Bending Spoons acquired Evernote and are the developers and owners.

Why is Evernote still one of the best note apps for students?

Powerful search, powerful PDF management, and powerful extended abilities with tasks and calendar management. This is more of a notes app for students, but beyond that, think of Evernote as a notes app for life, allowing you to store work project notes, meeting notes, and lightweight tasks, too.

Evernote used to be the hottest app for student note-taking purely because of the ability to add attachments to notes. However, one feature that still appears to student note-takers is the ability to capture notes into notebooks with the Evernote Web Clipper. It remains a brilliant notes app clipper for capturing links or snippets from pieces you're researching, searching for links and references three times as easily.

Advice: Evernote is much more extensive if you go over the limitations. The more powerful features like tasks, search, offline, and large uploads are locked under premium. So, while the free plan is good, it will only take you so far (yes, that is a line from Oppenheimer).

Video: Evernote Review

Here's everything you need to know about Evernote in 2024:

Evernote Pros

• Easy to use
• Bring all your tasks, notes & calendar in one
• Comes on iOS, Android & all desktop
• Comes with popular Web Clipper on browser
• Bending Spoons has been actively developing

Evernote Cons

• Much pricier than before

Recommendation

Microsoft OneNote

Microsoft OneNote

Note-taking and organising app perfect for students, academics and general notes.

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Quick Facts

• Pricing: Free
• Features: Sketching notes, tabs for organization
• Popular with: Education and academic settings

What is Microsoft Onenote?

Microsoft OneNote is a digital note-taking app that allows users to create and organize notes flexibly and intuitively. This is part of the Microsoft 365 ecosystem.

Why is OneNote one of the best free note apps for students?

If budget is your concern, look no further than Microsoft OneNote. It offers the best free notes app for students, hands down. The notes experience allows you to take notes in a tab format, giving your notes app almost a ring-binder feel. It also has a solid iPad and Microsoft Surface apps, meaning you can make notes and sketches all in one.

We always recommend Microsoft OneNote when managing your notes with a Microsoft account. Suppose your school, university, or college offers a Microsoft for Education plan tied into your email. In that case, you are highly likely to have OneNote with free access and storage, so we recommend taking advantage of that.

Advice: Microsoft OneNote is practical and offers an excellent free experience. It isn't for everyone. Some people don't like their notes being in the Microsoft ecosystem, but for many, it'll hit the nail on the head for an upgraded, more focused Microsoft Word-like notes application that meets the bill.

Recommendation

Goodnotes

Goodnotes

Goodnotes is a iPad focused note-taking application with AI and handwriting tools.

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What is GoodNotes?

GoodNotes is a digital note-taking app that allows you to handwrite or type notes on a virtual paper using the Apple Pencil on iPads or other iOS devices. It offers an intuitive and distraction-free environment for taking organized notes for work, study, or personal use. GoodNotes uses styluses to help make you more productive on the go.

GoodNotes wants to manage your notes visually with handwriting notes. It is popular amongst Apple users with Apple Pencils and iPads, but it now comes on web, Android, and Windows devices, too.

Why is Goodnotes one of the best note apps for students?

Goodnotes has had a big facelift in the last year and is much more focused on AI note-taking, meaning better handwriting support, typed notes, and beyond. Goodnotes works wonders for taking sketch notes and recording lectures or audio files to revisit essential notes you've made.

Goodnotes offers good levels of customization for notebooks, including stickers, templates, and even a big store (locked under premium). This level of customization appeals to many students wanting a BuJo-style notes app with sketch abilities.

Advice: If you don't have an iPad, there's no point in looking at Goodnotes, but if you do, this will be one of the best investments at the low cost of $9.99 for a year.

Goodnotes Pros

• Ideal for those who use iPads
• Works well with styluses to make sketch notes
• The reasonable $9.99 per year pricing
• Popular for students

Goodnotes Cons

• It might not be for everyone

Recommendation

Bear Notes

Bear Notes

Bear Notes is a minimal, markdown note-taking application perfect for iOS and Mac.

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Quick Facts

• Pricing: Free, $2.99 per month or $29.99 yearly
• Features: Hashtags, editor abilities & offline modes

What is Bear Notes?

Bear Notes is a note-taking application that uses markdown. It is available on iOS and macOS and is built natively for easy use. Users store ideas, capture quick notes, and organize them using Bear's unique hashtag folders.

Students commonly use Bear to organize their notes, and those who like simple, minimal note-taking apps use markdown. Apple has praised Bear Notes for their build quality.

Why is Bear Notes a good student note-taking app?

Bear Notes is a solid iOS and macOS app for handling notes. Many people like Bear for its markdown abilities, and for students looking for something more than Apple Notes, Bear Notes is an excellent option.

Bear Notes allows you to organize your notes by focusing on hashtags and note regular notebooks, meaning you can create nested hashtags perfect for multiple spanning notes. This means that a note with a revision for an exam that spans numerous classes could be connected to various places. You can use the sketch abilities on the iOS app to better handle ideas and thoughts you're bringing together.

Bear Notes has one of the best note-taking experiences for macOS users. It is lightweight and provides one of the better Mac experiences, and it was the winner of the Apple Design Award in 2017 for just this.

Video Tutorial: Bear Notes Review

Bear Notes Pros

• Comes with a markdown editor
• Really reasonable pricing per year
• Easy to use for all types of note-takers
• Well-developer and respected developer
• Bunch of themes and app icons to customize

Bear Notes Cons

• It might be too basic for some
• Limited to iOS and macOS devices

Recommendation

Notion

Notion

Notion is an all-in-one workspaces for notes, projects, tasks, documents & calendar.

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Quick Facts

• Pricing: Free, starts at $10 per month
• What it does: Daily journal, planning, notes, team wiki & more
• Popular for: Small-medium teams using a wiki, individuals planning, students
• Alternatives: Anytype, xTiles

What is Notion?

Notion is an all-in-one productivity app for notes, project management, tasks, and calendar management. It is available for macOS, Windows, web, iOS, and Android. Although it is a complex tool, users can use the no-code layout to build workspaces for any scenario.

Notion has been a popular Evernote alternative.

Why is Notion good for student productivity?

Notion is a flexible and customizable workspace that can be useful for student productivity when organizing tasks, events, projects, notes, documents, and more.

You can use templates to help get you started, and there are probably tons of templates available to suit your study needs, depending on the topic or class you are taking. Notion does come with a learning curve; however, once you understand the basics of adding databases, linking pages, and adding elements, you can create a great workflow.

So, if you want to create a visual place that makes sense, Notion might be an excellent choice to boost student productivity.

More Student Note Apps

These are some more recommended tools thsat could work well in university and college for planning notes and building a research library.

Anytype

Anytype is a privacy-focused, open-source, note-taking application for notes & PKM.

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Notion

Notion is an all-in-one workspaces for notes, projects, tasks, documents & calendar.

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Lunatask

Lunatask is an encrypted to-do list app for habits, notes & journal entries.

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Capacities

Capacities is a note-taking application with no folders and a focus on objects.

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Craft

Craft is a personal and team documents application that creates beautiful docs.

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Simplenote

Simplenote is an efficient light note-taking application and a Bear alternative.

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Obsidian

Obsidian is a locally stored note-taking application with millions of PKM fans.

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Advice from Francesco D'Alessio (ex-student)

Why should students take notes?

As a former university student, one of the critical lessons I learned was that I cannot store everything in my brain. This was paramount from concepts in books I'd read, like Getting Things Done by David Allen and Tiago Forte's newly formed concept, Second Brain.

"Your brain should be a thinking tool, not a storage tool" is a quote from David Allen's book, and this quote has always stuck with me as an effective way to think about how your brain uses knowledge and information.

So, students think of it this way: the more you store in a notes app, the better—the more your brain can be freed up for thinking through a problem or concept, and the more insightful results you'll have in the long term. This changed how I felt about notes and can activate authentic learning for many people trapped in "your brain needs to store all this."

Why do I need a productivity app as a student?

Productivity apps can help you better manage stress by relieving your mind of tasks. They can also help you remember the essential things and allocate time to coursework and group activities for university or college.

Using them can mean the difference between success in your topic.

Personalized Picks

What is the best note-taking app for my student life?

We've narrowed down these tools to specific student situations that we'd recommend against; they range from being a PhD student to looking for a cheap note app.

What is the best student note-taking for iPad?

Goodnotes is the best tool for iPad users at college and university. It maximizes the use of the Apple Pencil, which can be used to make notes, sketches, and more on the iPad.

Goodnotes

Goodnotes is a iPad focused note-taking application with AI and handwriting tools.

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What is the best note-taking for PhD students?

We recommend RemNote as the best note-taking app for students taking courses longer than three years or pursuing a PhD. Its combination of power features for study, revision, and interconnected notes best suits the needs of researchers and students.

RemNote

RemNote is an advanced note-taking app popular with students for creating flashcards.

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What is the best free student note-taking app?

Want to save a buck? Well, in this case, Microsoft OneNote might be your best option. It works wonders for managing your digital filing cabinet, and with Sketch, you can make notes more interactive if you have an iPad or tablet device.

Microsoft OneNote

Note-taking and organising app perfect for students, academics and general notes.

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What is the best Mac notes app for students?

The build quality of Bear Notes presents a great experience for students looking for a better way to take notes on their new Macbooks as they start university. The low fee of $29.99 makes it a light yet approachable way to take notes that can be shared and exported to other people for use later on.

Bear Notes

Bear Notes is a minimal, markdown note-taking application perfect for iOS and Mac.

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