The best note-taking apps, according to hackers
33 note-taking apps were recommended on Hacker News between November 2025 and November 2026. We rank them by how many separate people recommend each one, and 7 earn the Hacker Approved badge.
Top picks
The three most recommended note-taking apps with the badge. Each figure is 25 people. RecommendsCriticizes One comment
Great knowledge base for AI agents
A note app built on a local folder of plain Markdown files, with backlinks and a rich plugin ecosystem that works well with AI agents; critics flag risky community plugins and weak collaboration.
Agenda, TODOs, tables, tags built in
A plain-text Emacs system for notes, TODOs, agendas, tables and literate programming that people find more capable than Markdown, though it's tightly bound to Emacs and poorly supported elsewhere.
Syncs to your own server
Free, open-source notes app with Markdown, to-do lists and end-to-end encryption that syncs to your own WebDAV, Nextcloud or S3 server. Critics find it heavy and say its data is not plain Markdown files.
All 33 note-taking apps, ranked
Select a column heading to sort. Approval share is recommenders out of everyone who gave an opinion; the tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs. Months counts the months, out of 13, in which someone recommended it.
| Rank | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Obsidian | 447 | 145 | 76% | 12 | 1 yr13 owners | Approved |
| 2 | Org mode | 175 | 37 | 83% | 12 | 10 yrs16 owners | Approved |
| 3 | Notion | 91 | 123 | 43% | 12 | 7 yrs4 owners | — |
| 4 | Logseq | 52 | 28 | 65% | 11 | — | — |
| 5 | Apple Notes | 39 | 35 | 53% | 12 | — | — |
| Tied 6 | Tolaria | 34 | 7 | 83% | 2 | — | — |
| Tied 6 | Files.md | 34 | 16 | 68% | 1 | — | — |
| 8 | Joplin | 29 | 9 | 76% | 10 | — | Approved |
| 9 | Ledge.sh | 24 | 5 | 83% | 3 | — | — |
| 10 | Microsoft OneNote | 21 | 31 | 40% | 10 | — | — |
| 11 | Google Keep | 17 | 4 | 81% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Tied 12 | Trilium Notes | 16 | 0 | 100% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Tied 12 | Infinite canvas notes in the Poincaré disk | 16 | 0 | 100% | 1 | — | — |
| 14 | Bear | 14 | 9 | 61% | 6 | — | — |
| 15 | Atomic personal knowledge base | 13 | 7 | 65% | 3 | — | — |
| Tied 16 | SilverBullet | 12 | 2 | 86% | 6 | — | Approved |
| Tied 16 | Lightwave notes app | 12 | 7 | 63% | 3 | — | — |
| Tied 16 | Simplenote | 12 | 6 | 67% | 3 | — | — |
| 19 | Goodnotes | 11 | 9 | 55% | 7 | — | — |
| Tied 20 | Evernote | 10 | 68 | 13% | 7 | 8 yrs9 owners | — |
| Tied 20 | org-roam | 10 | 3 | 77% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Tied 20 | Anytype | 10 | 7 | 59% | 6 | — | — |
| Tied 20 | Active note-taking system for 1-1 meetings | 10 | 6 | 63% | 1 | — | — |
| Tied 20 | Joonote | 10 | 4 | 71% | 1 | — | — |
| 25 | Hubbele | 8 | 4 | 67% | 2 | — | — |
| Tied 26 | HelixNotes | 7 | 0 | 100% | 4 | — | — |
| Tied 26 | Workflowy | 7 | 4 | 64% | 3 | — | — |
| Tied 28 | Notational Velocity | 6 | 1 | 86% | 4 | — | — |
| Tied 28 | Standard Notes | 6 | 3 | 67% | 3 | — | — |
| Tied 30 | CherryTree | 5 | 2 | 71% | 5 | — | — |
| Tied 30 | AS Notes VS Code extension | 5 | 1 | 83% | 5 | — | — |
| Tied 30 | Orgzly | 5 | 2 | 71% | 3 | — | — |
| Tied 30 | Brainio | 5 | 0 | 100% | 1 | — | — |
How we rank
Rank is the number of separate people who recommend a product in a Hacker News comment over the past year. Someone who praises the same note-taking app in five threads counts once.
The badge goes to note-taking apps that at least 10 people recommend, with recommenders outnumbering critics at least 2 to 1, recommended in at least 4 of the 13 months.
Rankings are never for sale. We may earn a commission when you buy through our links. It never changes the order.