The best free note-taking apps
A good note app should keep your thoughts in a format you control and make them easy to find again later. The tools below are free and, for the most part, open source, storing notes locally or syncing them the way you choose rather than locking you into one company’s cloud. They range from fast plain-text editors to full personal wikis, so there is something here whether you jot the odd reminder or build a sprawling second brain. Every app is linked to its verified download on this site.
8 apps from our catalog
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Free
Stores notes as local Markdown files and links them into an interactive graph, making it a favourite for building a connected personal knowledge base.
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Free
Cross-platform, open-source notes and to-dos with optional end-to-end-encrypted sync and a handy web clipper for saving pages.
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Free
A powerful personal wiki with a deep, hierarchical note tree, scripting and the option to self-host for access anywhere.
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Free
A plain-text and Markdown notepad with to-do lists that pairs well with self-hosted storage for privacy-minded users.
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Free
A cross-platform take on the classic Notepad++, ideal when you want fast, no-fuss text editing on more than just Windows.
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Free
Handwriting and sketch note-taking with PDF annotation, great for stylus users and marking up documents.
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Free
A command-line and local web note-taking, bookmarking and archiving tool for people who live in the terminal.
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Free
A fast, keyboard-friendly notes manager for macOS and iOS that keeps your files as plain text you own.
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