7 Best Notetaking Apps to Help You in Your Business. And the winner is .....!

For many of us compulsive note takers, the days of multiple notebooks, diaries and post-it notes stuck to walls and computer screens is practically over. The days of the last 10 year's diaries and a multitude of unread notebook boxed in garage or some forgotten storage room are long gone. The rise of digital notebooks has lifted note-taking and recording to another level.

It provides the opportunity to create searchable notes and the ability to sort ideas into workable solutions. But with so many options available, particularly for mobile devices, which should you use in your business that will give you the best value and the widest range of functionality?

Over the past few years, I have loyally used the same note-taking app, which has done a great job for me and sync's very nicely across all my devises.

However, in a recent chat with a client, I was challenged to try the platform they use and to make a comparison. They challenged me to find which was the best.

So I decided rather than just look at the 2 platforms, why not do a comprehensive review of all the app's I can find and find out whether the one I use is the best for me. So here is what I have found. These are the top 7.

However, firstly let me set out the criteria I have used to down what turned out to be a massive list.

• As a mainly Android and Windows user, the app needs to be compatible across various operating systems, which automatically excludes the exclusively iOS / Mac and the exclusively Android / Windows options like Paper and Bear.
• Secondly, as much of my note taking is done on my phone, the platform must work seamlessly with my mobile devices.
• There must be immediate syncing from mobile to desktop and desktop to mobile which excludes the mobile-only apps or the desktop-only app's like Typora.

These criteria do not take away the value of these platform's, but in order to be the best for me, these are the criteria that need to be met.

So, what then are the top 7 apps that meet these criteria and which is the best?

• Evernote

When it comes to note-taking apps, Evernote could be considered the granddaddy of them all and is likely one of the most popular around today.

And yes, it is the one I have used for years, in spite of it's obvious failings, shortcomings and lack of pricing choices. (There are only 3!) It has served me very well and has honestly very seldom let me down.

It does have great integration with Outlook, Google Drive and Slack (if you are on the premium or business plans). The features are though fairly limited if you use the free option, but if its purely note taking on your phone or other mobile device and you don't need any of the more advanced features, free is good.

On the paid platforms, you have almost unlimited syncing and storage space, web clipper, offline access, video, audio, and voice-to-text. All great time-saving options.

You can attach PDF's, files and documents, forward emails, share notes and notebooks and turn notes into presentations very easily. The search function works relatively well and there are major updates being beta tested at the moment

It is also the platform I use for creating all my courses, write books and create content.

It has been the right platform for me for many years, but is it still?

• OneNote

OneNote is a very powerful, feature-packed and user-friendly, though-collecting platform which is intuitive and robust, particularly if you use Office 365. It allows for very good and flexible note creation as well as supporting Microsoft Surface Pen and Apple Pencil and is available across all devices.

As it uses OneDrive for Cloud storage, sharing across other Microsoft platforms is simple, but if you store your notes locally you could have multiple versions which are not synced.

Its strength is in the flexibility of the note creation, which allows you to separate notes not only into notebooks but into colour-coded sections within each notebook. Voice and video can be added as well as embedded URL's from online sources like YouTube.

And it has fantastic integration with Cortana and Siri allowing for speech to text transcription and there is a fairly useful web-clipper.

Its major downfall is the lack of syncing immediately across all my devices. But not a bad choice if you are primarily Windows-based.

• Google Keep

Google Keep is a completely free notetaking platform within the Google suite or G-Suite of products and services. It integrates with other services within the suite but is fairly limited in its features as a notetaking app.

There is no functionality to create separate notebooks but is really a quick and dirty place to scribble down ideas and thoughts. It is also limited in the number of characters available per note (20000), has no formatting and is browser based.

I have included it as it does meet all of the criteria I listed above and is unlimited in the number of notes you can create. It will also not affect your Google Drive space like Gmail and Docs.

Its stand out feature though is the speech-to-text transcription function. It uses the better-than-basic Google speech recognition software and delivers a relatively high-quality transcription. And with the Chrome extension, you can easily clip web content although not whole web pages, like other platforms

Definitely, an option if you want quick and dirty, but for detailed notetaking and recording, not my first choice.

• Notion

?Notion is kind of the new kid on the block and still finding it's feet, which means they bring updates out regularly and it's fairly different in its approach to this environment,

Like Evernote, Notion is more of an all-in-one-workspace than just a note-taking app.

It has the ability to export in PDF format, search Google Drive from within the platform, create a table of contents and has a new web clipper (although only for Firefox).

Notion has 4 price options and is available as a web app, desktop app (Mac and Windows), and a mobile app on both Andriod and iOS.

I have had a play around with Notion and it is still a bit buggy for me. It is good, but not good enough yet.

• Standard Notes

Standard Notes is an Open Source, end-to-end encrypted note-taking app, which means it is great for those private notes you don't want anyone to find or have access to, but may need regularly.

It has 2 pricing options, always-free and a few quid a month, the ability to sync to all your devices and has a fairly large number of extensions for an additional fee.

And that is about it. It is a note-taking app, but why it makes this list is the high-level of encryption.

• Slite

Slite is a note taking app which is primarily focused on team collaboration, with a minimalist look and feel, but I did find the Android app a bit iffy.

Its main competitor is probably Evernote Business, but it does lack many of the features of Evernote Business, like video and voice-to-text. If they are there, I could not find them.

There are great integrations with Slack, Google Calenders, Trello and Asana and these do work well and seamlessly. One feature that it does have which most other note-taking apps lack is templates which allow you easily to get started without first having to work out what your page should look like or contain.

There are 2 price points, but the paid for storage space is fairly limited and for heavier business use is insufficient.

Probably not my first choice.

• Dropbox Paper

Dropbox Paper is a free app which can be accessed either through your Dropbox account or through your Google account which makes it easy to log in and is accessible to all your devices. It's simple to use and does not require any geekiness, coding, special background software, etc.

The focus is primarily on team collaboration and the ability to easily share documents, files, images, etc seamlessly with other members. The ability to invite people into your space is useful and seems to work really well.

However, there is no ability to save different versions and the export functionality is very limited. There is a mobile app, but it has a large range of limitations and seems very buggy. The mobile app also seems unable to save offline for syncing when broadband or 4G is again available.

It also seems confused as to what it wants to be. Is it a note-taking app or is it a Google Doc's competitor? I'm not sure to be honest.

And the winner is ...... Evernote (In my opinion!). Why?

Although it has a number of shortcomings, it still provides the broadest range of options and features, most of which are applicable to a wide array of business types. It is a tool which has shown its durability and is stable in most circumstances and environments.

And as I mentioned earlier, they are doing some major updates and beta testing in the background which you could find out more about by following this link.

(BTW: I am NOT an affiliate of Evernote so have nothing financially to gain here.)