Home ‣ The 6 Best Mac Apps for Taking Notes in 2023

The 6 Best Mac Apps for Taking Notes in 2024

The act of taking notes is a personal one. Consequently, the feature set one should seek in a notes app is heavily based on their interests and demands. Apple Notes, the default notes program for Macs, has some useful features, but it is far from flawless and leaves you wanting more. Consequently, there is a demand for third-party note-taking applications.

best note-taking apps for mac
IMAGE: Walling (Unsplash)

However, given there are a variety of Mac notes programs available on the App Store and elsewhere, locating the ideal notes app might be difficult.

To facilitate this, we have compiled a list of the top note-taking applications for Mac.

Check out the best Mac Apps for Taking Notes

Our suggestions take into account the most significant aspects of note-taking, such as cross-platform compatibility, security and privacy features for notes, and the convenience of use of the software.

1. Simplenote: Best Mac Notes App for Minimalists

simplenote
IMAGE: Simplenote

Simplenote is one of the most simple note-taking programs for Macs. It’s small and convenient, making it easy to jot down thoughts and ideas.. Checklists can be created with this tool, as well as notes in markdown format.

Since Simplenote is a cross-platform notes app that can be used on non-Apple devices, you can sync your notes across all of your devices. Simplenote can also be accessed via the web if the necessity ever arises.

Simplenote’s note history is one of its best features. This function keeps track of all the different revisions of a note and allows you to restore a version at any time. You may also share your notes so that other people can contribute on them if you wish to discuss with someone else or share an idea.

It’s easy to organize and find notes in your notes list with tags in Simplenote, which allow you to categorize comparable notes together. It even has a built-in search function that makes discovering your notes or searching for a specific term among all your notes quite simple.

Free | Download: Simplenote

2. Bear: Best Apple Notes Alternative

bear note-taking app for mac
IMAGE: Bear

Bear is unquestionably one of the best-looking Mac note-taking programs. If you’re looking for an alternative to Apple’s Notes, you can think of it as an app with support for markdown, a more efficient way to organize notes, and a more customized and advanced text editor.

In Bear, you can choose from a large variety of fonts to design your notes if you’re into typography. Aside from that, you can customize the app’s look and feel by selecting from many themes. Using Bear’s focus mode, which puts your notes in full-screen view, helps you concentrate and focus on your work. As a result, distractions are eliminated.

A powerful markup editor with support for over 150 programming languages is also included in the Bear package. That means you don’t have to bother about formatting when you’re writing code snippets in your notes. Another useful Bear feature is the ability to include photographs in your notes, which can liven up otherwise dull notes.

Automatic syncing is another benefit of using Bear. Notes will instantly sync across all of your devices if you use the app on your iPhone or iPad as well. In addition, the software offers cross-note linking, allowing you to quickly refer to other notes and categorize them using hashtags.

Although Bear is free to use, the premium plan gives you access to features like encryption and locking of your notes.

Free (Offers in-app purchases) | Download: Bear

3. Notion: Best App for More Than Just Note-Taking

notion for mac
IMAGE: Notion

Notion is not your usual note-taking app. It has nearly all the necessary note-taking features, as well as a few additional functionalities that broaden its use case and enable you to use it for journaling, project management, wikis, and databases.

All interactions inside Notion occur on a page. A page is the location of all Notion blocks, including text, graphics, tables, and lists, among others. You can arrange these blocks as you see appropriate using drag-and-drop. Compared to other note-taking applications, this is a truly unique feature that gives many customization options and fundamentally alters how Mac users take notes.

Notion’s versatility extends its uniqueness by allowing you to utilize it for more than simply note-taking. If you’re searching for notes software that allows you to create collaborative checklists, databases, and sheets in addition to casual notes, then Notion is the way to go.

Notion offers templates to help you get started quickly with the type of notes you want to take; integration support to help automate actions; a web clipper to save anything from the internet into your workspace; and sharing and collaboration support to allow you to collaborate with your peers/teammates.

Despite this, Notion also has some limitations. Not being able to access notes offline is one of the most significant, and for some, it can be a deal-breaker.

Free (Offers in-app purchases) | Download: Notion for Apple M1 | Notion for Intel

4. Microsoft OneNote: Best Overall Mac Notes App

microsoft onenote for mac
IMAGE: OneNote

OneNote graphic

Microsoft’s popular note-taking application is OneNote. It is free to use and compatible with all major desktop and mobile operating systems, including Mac, so you can create and view notes on the go.

OneNote is essentially a digital notebook in which you can compose memos, jot down notes, and create doodles from any of your devices. In addition to making text-based notes, you may also save images, photos, printed papers, and files to your notes for enhanced visuals or context.

Similarly, if you own an iPad or Android tablet, you may write handwritten notes or digital drawings in OneNote, which is a feature that few other note-taking applications have. OneNote’s powerful organizing capabilities allow you to organize and quickly locate your notes using tabs, labels, and color-coding. It even allows you to pin the most important pages to the top of the list, so you don’t have to scroll to discover them.

Additionally, OneNote offers collaboration and sharing capabilities. This allows you to share your ideas or views with your friends or coworkers via notes and, when necessary, collaborate with them to receive their ideas/inputs.

Free (Offers in-app purchases) | Download: Microsoft OneNote

5. Ulysses: Best Mac Notes App for Writers

ulysses for mac
IMAGE: Ulysses

Ulysses is an Apple-exclusive Mac notes application. Its most prominent feature is its writing-centric feature set, which covers the full writing process, including grammar and style checks. In addition, Ulysses allows you to define goals for your writing sessions, allowing you to stay on track and produce more content.

We appreciate how Ulysses manages to maintain a clean, basic, and easy-to-navigate user interface despite its extensive feature set. This facilitates navigation of the app’s various menus and fosters a sense of immersion in the writing process. If you intend to write long-form content or a journal in Ulysses, the concentrated writing mode further simplifies the interface and removes additional visual aspects.

Ulysses also supports markdown, code snippets, and direct posting to a variety of CMS. It also has multiple export options, making it simple to transfer your notes to other applications. All of the captured text and notes are stored in Ulysses’ unified library. This library is synchronized across all of your Apple devices, allowing you to access and edit your notes across many devices.

In contrast to the majority of the apps on this list, however, Ulysses requires a paid subscription. Therefore, a monthly or annual membership is required to maximize its use on a Mac.

Paid | Download: Ulysses

6. Drafts

drafts app for mac
IMAGE: Drafts

Drafts is the most powerful, yet simple and user-friendly Mac application for taking notes. Its primary focus is text capture, thus any idea or concept that comes to mind is immediately saved in Drafts, after which you can select what to do with the draft later.

Everything in the Drafts app’s UI is arranged to place the sole emphasis on your new and current drafts. Essentially, you use an editor that supports markdown to generate a new document. This draft may consist of anything from simple text to executable tasks. Once captured, you can execute multiple actions on this draft.

One of the numerous features is the ability to arrange your drafts with tags and flags. However, there is the option to dictate text when your hands are not available, as well as the opportunity to check version history and export the draft in several formats.

In addition, Drafts has the possibility to execute more advanced actions in areas such as editing, markdown, processing, etc. In addition, you may develop your own custom actions or use scripting (coupled with APIs for many apps/services) to automate cross-service tasks.

Free (Offers in-app purchase) | Download: Drafts

Find the Best Notes App for Your Mac

Almost any note-taking program can help you create short notes, but issues arise when you wish to export them to other services, write them in markdown format, or simply arrange them to make them simpler to find. In addition to advanced text formatting and the flexibility to view and make notes on any device, most traditional note-taking applications lack additional features.

We hope this list will help you choose the best note-taking program for your Mac, one that includes all the fundamental note-taking features as well as a plethora of other useful features and is easy to use.

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About Author

Samuel Afolabi is a lazy tech-savvy that loves writing almost all tech-related kinds of stuff. He is the Editor-in-Chief of TechVaz. You can connect with him socially :)