This app loads instantly, and creating a new note couldn't be faster. But the fact that you don't need to install it, pay for it, or create a new account to get started is, for most Mac users, more than enough of a reason to try Apple Notes first. I don't say this to put Apple Notes down-it's a very effective tool. If you have a Mac, you have Apple Notes, and that alone makes it the best note taking app for many people. There's a saying in photography: the best camera is the one you have with you. To be a solid notepad for Mac, it's not enough to put the web version of your application in a window and call it a day.Īll of the note taking apps for Mac below meet all of these criteria-and excel at many of them. Power users matter too, though, which is why features like keyboard shortcuts and flexible preferences are also valuable.Īre actual native Mac apps. The best Mac note taking app is designed with the user in mind and is easy to navigate for a beginner. You're going to take a lot of notes-you need to be able to find the right ones quickly.Īre easy to use. There should be ways to sort things: folders, tags, and/or notebooks. Bonus points if there are tools for quickly clipping information from websites or pushing text over from other apps. The best notes app for Mac should take moments to open the app and start writing. What makes a Mac notes app truly great? In our opinion, the best Mac note taking apps: Typically this means a primary window you can use to browse all of your notes, sorted into notebooks and usually arranged by dates.īut that's the bare minimum. For the purposes of this article, though, we only considered apps built with note taking in mind. You can take notes using just about any app, or a piece of paper for that matter. For more details on our process, read the full rundown of how we select apps to feature on the Zapier blog. We're never paid for placement in our articles from any app or for links to any site-we value the trust readers put in us to offer authentic evaluations of the categories and apps we review. We spend dozens of hours researching and testing apps, using each app as it's intended to be used and evaluating it against the criteria we set for the category. All of our best apps roundups are written by humans who've spent much of their careers using, testing, and writing about software.

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