Microsoft OneNote
Ranked 10 of 33 note-taking apps by recommenders
Recommended for simple, reliable notes that sync across devices and work everywhere, with a freeform inline-box layout. Common caveat: sync glitches and conflicts when notebooks are edited on other machines.
Recommended for simple, reliable notes that sync across devices and work everywhere, with a freeform inline-box layout. Common caveat: sync glitches and conflicts when notebooks are edited on other machines.
52 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 21
- criticize it
- 31
- approval share
- 40%
Recommended in 10 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 21 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 0.6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 10 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Syncs reliably across devices
“The OneNote app sync is quick enough that I could type lecture notes on the laptop”
Comment from 4 Mar 2026 in “Apple Introduces MacBook Neo” “OneNote syncs to the cloud so I can keep my mobile and pc synced... and backed.”
Comment from 24 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: Tolaria – open-source macOS app to manage Markdown knowledge bases” “OneNote has been simple and reliable, it just works everywhere.”
Comment from 11 Dec 2025 in “My productivity app is a never-ending .txt file (2020)” Freeform inline-box notes
“people who are used to Onenote mainly like it for its inline-box style notes”
Comment from 5 Jan 2026 in “Microsoft CEO resorts to blogging in defense of AI” “It's pretty kludgy, but I like the freeform nature of it”
Comment from 3 Sep 2026 in “Reverse Engineering Unknown File Formats with ImHex” Good for meeting and lecture notes
“The OneNote app sync is quick enough that I could type lecture notes on the laptop”
Comment from 4 Mar 2026 in “Apple Introduces MacBook Neo” “I found good use taking notes in OneNote (specifically) for in-person meetings”
Comment from 28 Oct 2026 in “MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display and Touch”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Neglected, stagnant development
“It had no competitive drive in terms of functionality once MS wiped the floor with them.”
Comment from 12 Sep 2026 in “My last six months at Evernote” “OneNote being a neglected back-water app they obviously don't care about”
Comment from 9 Dec 2025 in “Microsoft increases Office 365 and Microsoft 365 license prices” “Microsoft is famous for killing something good (like OneNote)”
Comment from 20 Mar 2026 in “Our Commitment to Windows Quality” Sync delays and conflicting edits
“as soon as someone else edits something in the same spot, it creates a forked history requiring manual reconciliation”
Comment from 4 Apr 2026 in “Improving my focus by giving up my big monitor” “OneNote, for instance, has serious delays and glitches when syncing notebooks changed on other machines or web.”
Comment from 10 Mar 2026 in “Windows: Microsoft broke the only thing that mattered”
Other note-taking apps people recommend
The four most recommended other note-taking apps, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
See all 33 note-taking apps, rankedWhat people said
40 of the 59 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I found good use taking notes in OneNote (specifically) for in-person meetings”
“OneNote came and went and then came back again.”
“heavily vested in SharePoint, OneDrive, OneNote, Outlook, etc. specifically for their enterprise controls”
“the loading pages on demand is annoying”
“It had no competitive drive in terms of functionality once MS wiped the floor with them.”
“It's pretty kludgy, but I like the freeform nature of it”
“integration options for ChatGPT/Claude are limited”
“I have done OneNote, Miro, and several other canvas style apps”
“Random page crashes, refresh loops, etc, all for the crime of using firefox on a mac”
“because it's super easy to tie in AI into mark down text”
“teaches how to use an iPad with OneNote and Kahoot in 1st-4th”
“based on my experience, this is a great description of the sync implementation in many already widely deployed products”
“many apps from major vendors don't support dictation input at all (e.g. OneNote)”
“I have used evernote, ms one note and zoho notebook before, and had issues with all of them.”
“OneNote syncs to the cloud so I can keep my mobile and pc synced... and backed.”
“crap they call onenote which I unfortunately am required to use at work”
“it seems to have a bit more learning curve and needs more discipline and structure than the rest of ms office”
“as soon as someone else edits something in the same spot, it creates a forked history requiring manual reconciliation”
“Microsoft is famous for killing something good (like OneNote)”
“frustrated with notebook and task management sprawl in OneNote”
“OneNote, for instance, has serious delays and glitches when syncing notebooks changed on other machines or web.”
“tell you it doesn't work and to use Cmd+C instead, which doesn't work either”
“The OneNote app sync is quick enough that I could type lecture notes on the laptop”
“disable CoPilot, Teams and OneNote (if you don't use them)”
“the product is good (OneNote) but they put three icons on the taskbar for it and spam the rest of Windows for ads”
“I always hate when OneNote opens random text boxes when I click somewhere”
“people who are used to Onenote mainly like it for its inline-box style notes”
“it was also impossible to export OneNote locally because the newer apps only work with the cloud”
“The way I set it up I don't find myself searching for things much as I know the way it's organized”
“The web version can't even search properly in all folders.”
“I love One Note, use it for work constantly”
“there is simply too much stuff already in OneNote”
“OneNote has a nice drag/drop by line so it's easy to move lines from like Monday to Tuesday”
“It took me ages to liberate my notes from onenote cloud”
“just as you would about OneNote”
“OneNote has been simple and reliable, it just works everywhere.”
“OneNote being a neglected back-water app they obviously don't care about”
“Win 11 Settings, Excel, OneNote, Teams, core utilities like Disk Cleanup each of these use a different UI language.”
“OneNote on the other hand doesn't support a code-block at all”
“OneNote will allow you to text from images pretty easily”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.