🗒️ Best Alternatives to Apple Notes 📝

I’ve been researching replacement to Apple Notes that:

• Export to Markdown (without plugins), including GitHub-flavored.
  • Seamless import into dev.to, GitHub Projects & Discussions. I want to drop it in verbatim, and have to fix zero Markdown.
  • Would be cool if it synced to these destinations, like TinaCMS does.
• Publishes to Web (HTML), but allows 100% Anonymous access.
  • Apple Notes requires a login with an Apple account.
  • Google Docs also sometimes recipients log in.
  • I need to send links to friends and family who don’t have a GH account.
• Doesn’t get blocked by restrictive firewalls.
  • Google Docs** **sometimes does. I had that problem recently while job hunting. Several employers saying, “Sorry. Can’t open the Google Doc link. Can you send a PDF?”
• Doesn’t break images when published
  • WebP support
  • PNG
• Decentralized - Not tied to Evil Corp’s infra.
• Muti-Plat for recipients - May have to share notes with folks running Windows / Linux. But being able to publish to the Web solves that problem.
• Inexpensive
• MacOS native - native ARM binaries. No Java. Mac-native ones are:
  • Bear
  • Craft
  • Goodnotes
  • Notability
  • OmniFocus
  • OneNote - Wha? M$ one is Mac native?
  • Taskade
  • Things
• Standard KB Shortcuts
  • Command 1 - H1
  • Command 2 - H2
  • Command 3 - H3
  • Hyperlink - Command K
  • etc
• Excellent GUI and UX - designed by real designers, not programmers.

Ruled Out

• Google Keep - Can only publish via Google Docs. No Markdown.
• Google Docs - Np Markdown Export. Sometimes requires a valid Google acc for recipients, and the right permissions set.
• MS OneNote - No Publishing to anonymous users. No Markdown export.
• MS Loop - $2,000/mo for a feature-crippled mess!? No thanks, M$. I realized it's brand new.
• Natabilty - iPen centric.
• GoodNotes - iPen centric
• Asana - No Markdown. Steep learning curve. Hellish UX. Not an Agile tool. Too costly. Like Jira, can’t assign multiple users to a task.
• Evernote - $129/yr
• Monday - Not a Notes app. More a PMS centered around Epics & Sprints.
• ZenKit
  • Pros
    • Low barrier to entry
    • Slick UI
    • Markdown
  • Cons
    • The is 90% a PMS.
• Standards Notes
  • Pros
    • Minimalist
    • Security focused
  • Cons
    • No Markdown on Free one. $90 / yr for MD.
    • Not MacOS native
• Things
  • More Todo List than Productivity Platform
  • $50 base price? Yeah, no.
• GoodNotes - Mac native! No MD support
• Notabiltiy - Mac native! No MD support
• OmniFocus - Mac native! No MD support
• TaskAde
  • Pros
    • Markdown - Import Export
    • AI powered
    • Slick UI
  • Cons
    • Not a lot of Export Formats
    • No Syntax Highlighting

Evaluated

ClickUp

Score: 10/10

https://clickup.com/

Pros

• Anonymous access to published things.
• Project management features are more extensive than Notion.
• "ClickUp is the best parts of Notion and Asana".
• Markdown export
  • Exported MarkDown pastes into GitHub nearly seamlessly. GH blocks external images. You have to reupload them.
  • Imports into Dev.to seamlessly.
  • Hosts the images at their service. Images don’t break when you paste the Markdown verbatim into Dev.to and other services that don't block External refs. Really cool feature. No other Notes app does this.
• Great Syntax Highlighting
  • Better than Notion
• Whiteboard
• Extremely rich Add-on set - You can most likely find any feature in ClickUp that your meets your needs, from Task management to Time management.
• Vast Integration Set - “For those functionalities that this feature-loaded software lacks, you will find an Integration for it. ClickUp is preferred by companies of all sizes from any industry and not just a niche audience.”
  • “Provides a library of functionalities for any company pertaining to any industry.”
• Great for solo workers - “Huge fan base among solo users for managing daily activities and not just teams.”
• Views, like Boards, Lists, Gantt, Workloads, Boxes, Tables, Calendars, Activity, and Mind maps.
• Custom Tags and Statuses
• Custom Permissions
• Good support
• UI Designed by real Designers - Feels Apple'y. Good use of space, etc.
• Thousands of Templates - Better looking than Notion, and literally everything can be templated:
  • Checklist
  • Subtask
  • Task
  • List
  • Spaces
  • Folder

Cons

• No PDF import - Apple Notes only exports PDF (or Markdown via a non-Apple app). You have to manually copy and paste all your Notes. It loses your Headings, text formatting (Bold, Italics) and Images, but sustained Lists and Links. I ported 167 notes in about a day and a half.
• Default typeface is a little small - I just Zoom it one level with Command +.
• Commercial - Could be selling your data. Altho, they claim to not be doing anything sketchy with it.
• Dashboard isn't as good as Notion
• The very powerful/flexible Templating can be annoying - Templates have to be their own Project. When you want to edit a Template you have to apply the Template to an active project, then change that project, then save that project as new template to override the old template.
• Cross-Linking between Tasks and Docs isn't as nice as Notion.

Notion

Score: 9/10

https://www.notion.so/

Pros

• Anonymous access to published things!
• Markdown export
  • Markdown export imports into GitHub fairly seamlessly, other than breaking images.
  • Imports into Dev.to fairly seamlessly. Breaks images.
• Cross-linking between Tasks and Docs is easier than is in ClickUp.
• 20% of The Market Uses
• DB, Galleries, Tables, Lists, Kahban boards
• Can build almost anything with it.
• Dashboard better than ClickUp.
• Syntax Highlighting
  • Simple, 3-color style.
• Templates easier to change than ClickUp

Excellent application. I like it second best to ClickUp.

Cons

• Markdown export breaks images
  • Doesn’t host the images for you like ClickUp.
• Lackluster Syntax Highlighting
• Horrible light-gray Link color with no underline nor hover. Very hard to tell what's clickable. No setting to change it, nor a plugin.
• Weak Collaboration features - "ClickUp is a bit more collaborative than Notion".
• Weak Project Mgmnt features - Missing Gantt charts with dependency visualization, Goals, OKRs, time tracking, and estimates.
• Slowest app in the Category
• Complicated - Notion’s selling point is customizability, however this openness is also a problem. This extensive customizability makes onboarding difficult as it can be overwhelming for novice users. It's hard to establish a consistent workflow team-wide.
  • “Feels bloated due to the ton of functionalities that it provides, which is more than what's required, overwhelming and cluttered.”
  • “Too many customization options which add to the overwhelming experience that this app radiates”
• Cramped GUI designed by Engineers
  • “User Interface is intuitive but very complex and so has a steep learning curve that makes onboarding a nightmare”
  • “Initial setup is incredibly challenging with high risks of messing up processes due to the complex design”
  • “Agile capabilities but lacks the finesse of a dedicated, full-fledged agile tool like Zepel does.”
• 60+ templates included - Have to rely on Community support for more.
  • Only Blocks and Pages (in a Databases) are templatable.
• Commercial - Could be selling your data. Altho, they claim to not be doing anything sketchy with it.
• No whiteboard

Bear

Score: 9/10

https://bear.app/

Pros

I’m already in Love. This is a developer’s dream. You write in actual Markdown, but you don’t see the Markdown while you type. It renders as beautiful WYSIWYG document. So export to Markdown-based systems is effortless. I think it stores it as Markdown. There is no conversion process.

• Seamless import to dev.to and GH. Just fix image links.
  • If check “Export Attachments”, It does export the images to a subfolder, and leaves them whatever format they were.**
• Syntax Highlighting
  • 150 programming languages.
• Easy on the eyes.
• Themes - 4 included. Pro plan gives you more.
• Beautiful UI
• Beautiful Typography
  • Ligatures!
• Mac Native!
• WebP support
• PNG
• Standard KB Shortcuts
  • Command 1 - H1
  • Command 2 - H2
  • Command 3 - H3
  • Command K - Hyperlink
  • Apple Notes doesn’t support this for Headings. I have to take my hands off the KB, grab the mouse, and click an icon to make Headings.
• iCloud Sync - keeps Notes in sync with other computers. Cool.
• online reviewer, "Feels like a combination of Evernote and Apple Notes."
• Ver 2 coming out soon.

Cons

• Images break. Gotta re-attach them upon Publishing.
  • Big win for ClickUp. Only one that hosts them at their service.
• No Cloud service to publish things to as HTML docs like ClickUp, Notion, and Joplin have.
• No Anonymous access to your Public notes.
• Win to Notion, Joplin, and ClickUp.

Joplin

Score: 8/10

https://joplinapp.org/

Pros

• Public published notes. No login required!
• Centered around Markdown - stores its Notes in MD.
• GitHub Flavored MD
• Excellent Syntax Highlighting. May be the prettiest of the lot.
  • The Aritim Dark theme looks very similar to my beloved “Tomorrow Night” in VSC, Terminal and Nova.
• Advanced Markdown. Chemical Formulas, Math, Videos, PDFs Diagrams, and Audio.
  • Ligatures
• Images don’t break when you publish to their Joplin Cloud service.
• Flexible Syncing features not tied to EvilCorp: Joplin Cloud, S3, WebDav, NextCloud, DropBox, Local FS, OneDrive
  • Really compelling! Using a local WebDav share on my MacMini, and expose it thru the Firewall. Point my MacBook at it.
• CLI client
• Full access to the CSS it uses, to override UI look. It must be written in Electron.
• Plugins
• Kahban board

Cons

• Not free. Base plan is $1.50 / mo. Acceptable, given those public-Hosting features it supports.
• GUI is lackluster but acceptable.
• No KB Shortcuts for
  • Command 1 - H1
  • Command 2 - H2
  • Command 3 - H3
  • But Command K - Hyperlink is there
• Development activity looks slow.
• Not Mac native

Craft

Score: 10/10

https://www.craft.do/

Pros

• Mac Native
• Decent Markdown - Worked in GH and dev.to. But Pro version has better MD.
• Public Publishing
• Similar to Notion
• Ascetically pleasing
• Apple ecosystem centric
• Many reviews say this is their 2nd favorite to Notion.
• Increble UI - best of the lot.
• The documents it creates are stunning.
• Syntax Highlighting is amazing!
• YouTube Embed

Cons

• ?

Considering

Mem

https://get.mem.ai/

Pros

• AI assistant. Really cool.

Obsidian

https://obsidian.md/

For gardener-style notetakers.

• With the right plugins, you deck this thing out like ClickUp.

References

• https://noteapps.info/apps/compare?note_app=goodnotes%2Bjoplin%2Bobsidian%2Bstandard_notes&selected_group=import_export
• https://www.smartkarrot.com/resources/blog/clickup-vs-notion-which-might-be-better-suited-for-your-organization/

Comments

[Rodney Lab]

Thanks for putting together such a complete list, must have taken you some time. Also, welcome to dev.to!