Note-Taking Apps Tier List

Note apps fail in two directions: too slow to capture and too rigid to reorganise. Twelve of them, unranked, judged on capture speed, structure and how hard it would be to leave. Every entry starts in Unranked — drag or tap a tile to fill S through F, rename any row, then export the finished board as a PNG.

speed of capturehow well it handles structure laterlock-in risk

12 items pre-filled Misc template Nothing pre-ranked No sign-up

Drag items here

Unranked (12)

Notion

Obsidian

Evernote

Apple Notes

OneNote

Bear

Roam Research

Logseq

Craft

Google Keep

Joplin

Anytype

How this board is built: the 12 tiles are an editorial starting set, not an official roster and not a published ranking — every entry waits in Unranked until you place it. Item tiles are original pictograms or two-letter emblems drawn for this site rather than character artwork, film stills or club logos, so nothing here is licensed material reused from a rights holder. Tiers you set are your own judgement.

What's included in this Note-Taking Apps board

The board arrives with all 12 entries present as tiles and none of them assigned to a tier. That is deliberate: a template that opens with a finished ranking only invites you to agree or disagree with whoever made it, whereas an empty ladder makes you commit to an ordering of your own. Drag a tile onto a row, or on a phone tap the tile and then the tier you want. You can add rows for extra categories, rename the standard ones, and remove any entry you do not recognise — a list you can defend is more useful than a long one you cannot.

How to rank this Note-Taking Apps board

Rank capture speed first. If opening the app and writing a thought takes more than a few seconds, you will stop doing it, and the best-organised system you do not use is worthless. Then weigh how it handles structure later — search, links, backlinks, and whether you can reorganise a thousand notes without a migration project. Third, judge lock-in. Any app where your notes are trapped in a proprietary format is a bet on that company lasting. Finish by separating personal from team use. A shared workspace and a private notebook are different products, and the ranking changes completely depending on which one you need.

Using the board without over-thinking it

Most people finish a board like this in a couple of minutes and then reorder the middle rows for another ten. That middle is where the honest disagreement lives, so do not rush it: place the obvious top three and the obvious bottom three first, then work inward. If two entries still feel identical, that is a real observation — say so in a row note or a text tile rather than inventing a difference. When the ordering settles, export the PNG so the arrangement is saved somewhere permanent, and copy the share link if you want someone else to argue with it.

Ranking criteria used here

speed of capture
how well it handles structure later
lock-in risk

Before you share it

Put your criterion in the board title, so a reader knows whether they are looking at a favourites list or an analytical one. If the subject changes with patches, seasons or releases, add the date. And remember the share link carries tier names, colours and the tile order — uploaded photos stay on your device, so export a PNG when those matter.