7 Best Free Note-Taking Apps in 2026 (What Free Actually Includes)

If you want the best note apps free of charge in 2026, seven are worth your time: Obsidian, Notion, Apple Notes, Google Keep, Joplin, Simplenote, and OneNote. All seven are genuinely usable without paying — but “free” means something different in each one. Obsidian gives you everything except sync, Notion caps file uploads at 5 MB, and Apple Notes quietly eats into your 5 GB of iCloud storage.

This list spells out exactly what each free tier includes, where the walls are, and who each app actually fits — so you don’t move 400 notes into an app and then discover the catch.

Free note apps compared

The 7 best free note-taking apps in 2026

1. Obsidian

Obsidian stores your notes as plain Markdown files in a folder on your device. No account required, no server involved — the app reads and writes local text files, and everything else is built on top of that.

That architecture is the whole pitch. If Obsidian disappeared tomorrow, your notes would still open in any text editor.

• Local-first storage — notes are Markdown files you can back up, version, or grep like any other folder
• Bidirectional linking — type [[ to link notes together, then see every backlink automatically
• Graph view — a visual map of how your notes connect, useful once you pass a few hundred notes
• Community plugins — over a thousand free plugins covering kanban boards, calendars, spaced repetition, and more
• Free for commercial use — since late 2023 you don’t need a license to use it at work

Best for: anyone building a personal knowledge base they plan to keep for a decade.

The honest drawback: sync is where Obsidian gets you. The official Obsidian Sync service is a paid add-on. You can sync free through iCloud Drive or by pointing the vault at a cloud folder, but multi-device setups — especially involving Android — take fiddling that Notion or Keep users never think about.

2. Notion

Notion is a workspace builder that happens to be a good note app. Pages can contain databases, kanban boards, tables, and embeds, all nested inside each other.

The free plan is generous for individuals: unlimited pages and blocks in a personal workspace. The limits appear when you collaborate — invite teammates into a free workspace and you hit a block cap that effectively works as a trial.

• Databases everywhere — turn any list of notes into a filterable table, board, or calendar view
• Templates — duplicate a meeting-notes or reading-list structure in one click
• Web clipper — save articles straight into a database from the browser
• Real publishing — any page can be shared as a public web page on the free plan

Best for: people whose notes shade into project tracking — reading lists, trip plans, content calendars.

The honest drawback: the 5 MB per-file upload limit on the free plan rules out storing PDFs, recordings, or high-res images of any real size. And because Notion is cloud-only, offline access remains unreliable — open the app in airplane mode and pages you haven’t visited recently may simply not load.

3. Apple Notes

Already on your iPhone.

Apple Notes has quietly become one of the most capable note apps anywhere, and it costs nothing beyond the device you already own. Recent versions handle scanned documents, PDF markup, tables, tags, linked notes, and collaborative editing.

• System-level capture — swipe from the lock screen corner on iPad, or ask Siri to start a note
• Document scanning — the camera flattens and crops paper documents into searchable notes
• Search that reads handwriting — searches text inside images and handwritten notes
• Smart folders and tags — auto-collect notes by tag, date, or checklist status
• Locked notes — protect individual notes with Face ID or a password

Best for: anyone fully inside the Apple ecosystem who wants capable notes with zero setup or new accounts.

The honest drawback: it is Apple-only in every way that matters. There’s no Android app and no Windows app; the icloud.com web version works but feels like a fire escape, not a front door. Your notes also count against iCloud storage, and the free tier is 5 GB shared with your backups and photos — heavy scanning fills that faster than you’d think.

4. Google Keep

Google Keep is a corkboard of sticky notes: short text notes, checklists, voice memos, and photos, arranged in a colorful grid. It syncs instantly across Android, iOS, and the web, and it’s completely free with a Google account.

Keep is not trying to be your second brain. It’s trying to catch the thing you thought of in the car.

• Location and time reminders — a note can ping you when you arrive at the grocery store
• Grab image text — pulls text out of photos, which turns whiteboard shots into editable notes
• Labels and colors — lightweight organization that takes seconds, not planning
• Direct Google Docs export — send any note to Docs when it outgrows Keep

Best for: quick capture — shopping lists, fleeting ideas, photos of things you need to remember.

The honest drawback: Keep has no folder hierarchy and no real document structure, so past a few hundred notes it becomes an archaeological dig. Notes count against the 15 GB of storage shared across your Google account, though text notes barely dent it. Long-form writing belongs elsewhere.

5. Joplin

Joplin is the open-source answer to Evernote: notebooks, tags, Markdown notes, attachments, and a web clipper, with apps on Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS. Every feature in the app is free, permanently, because the project is community-driven rather than freemium.

• Sync on your terms — free sync through Dropbox, OneDrive, WebDAV, or your own server
• End-to-end encryption — notes can be encrypted before they ever touch a sync service
• Evernote import — reads ENEX exports, which made it the classic Evernote escape hatch
• Web clipper — save full pages or simplified articles from Chrome and Firefox
• Plugins and themes — a smaller ecosystem than Obsidian’s, but growing

Best for: people who want Evernote-style organization without a subscription and without trusting a single vendor’s cloud.

The honest drawback: the interface is functional rather than pleasant, and first-run setup — choosing a sync target, enabling encryption, waiting for the initial sync — asks more of you than any other app here. Joplin Cloud, the maintainer’s hosted sync, is paid; the free path means bringing your own storage.

6. Simplenote

Simplenote is the only app on this list where the free plan is the whole product. Made by Automattic (the WordPress company), it’s plain-text notes with tags, instant search, and sync across every major platform — and all of it is free, including features other apps charge for.

Version history is the surprise. Drag a slider and watch a note roll back through every save.

• Everything included — sync, history, publishing, and collaboration, with no paid tier waiting
• Version history — scrub backwards through a note’s edits, free
• Markdown support — write in Markdown and preview the formatted result
• Publish to web — turn any note into a shareable public link
• Genuinely everywhere — Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, and the browser

Best for: writers and minimalists who want frictionless text sync and nothing else.

The honest drawback: plain text means plain text. No images, no attachments, no tables, no drawing. If you ever need to paste a screenshot into a note, Simplenote is the wrong tool — and that’s by design, not neglect.

7. Microsoft OneNote

OneNote is a freeform digital binder: notebooks divided into sections and pages, where you can click anywhere on an infinite canvas and start typing, drawing, or pasting. It’s free with a Microsoft account on every platform, and the free version is nearly the full product.

• Infinite canvas — place text boxes, ink, and images anywhere on the page, not in a single column
• Best-in-class handwriting — pen support on Surface and iPad is the strongest of any app here
• Deep hierarchy — notebooks, sections, section groups, pages, and subpages for people who like structure
• Office integration — clip Outlook emails to notes, embed Excel ranges, sync with Teams
• Audio recording — record a lecture while typing notes against the timeline

Best for: students and stylus users, plus anyone already living in Microsoft 365 at work.

The honest drawback: free notebooks must live in OneDrive, and the free OneDrive tier is 5 GB. Sync conflicts also remain OneNote’s oldest sore spot — edit the same page on two devices in quick succession and you can end up with duplicated or misordered content that you have to reconcile by hand.

How to pick between them

Match the app to the shape of your notes, not the feature list.

If your notes are an archive you’ll query for years, that’s Obsidian or Joplin — local files, no vendor lock-in. If your notes are tasks and plans in disguise, that’s Notion. If they’re thirty-second captures, Keep. If they’re handwritten, OneNote. If they’re prose, Simplenote. And if you own three Apple devices, the answer was probably preinstalled.

One practical test: export ten real notes from your current system and import them into your top two candidates. The app that makes those ten notes feel at home usually wins. Feature checklists don’t predict that; using the thing for a week does.

Also check the exit before you enter. Obsidian, Joplin, and Simplenote hand you your data as plain files. Notion exports to Markdown and CSV, with some structure loss. Apple Notes and Keep are the hardest to leave cleanly — worth knowing before your note count hits four digits.

FAQ

What is the best completely free note-taking app?

Simplenote and Joplin are the only two here with no paid tier hiding features. Simplenote wins if you only need text; Joplin wins if you need notebooks, attachments, and a web clipper. Obsidian is also fully free on one device — you only pay if you want its official sync service.

Is Obsidian really free?

Yes — the app itself is free for both personal and commercial use, with no feature limits, and community plugins cost nothing. The paid products are add-ons: Obsidian Sync (official multi-device syncing) and Obsidian Publish (hosting notes as a website). Many users sync free through iCloud or another cloud folder instead.

What’s the catch with Notion’s free plan?

For solo use, very little: unlimited pages and blocks in a personal workspace. The two real limits are the 5 MB per-file upload cap and a block limit that kicks in once you invite collaborators into a free workspace. Notion AI is also a paid add-on.

Which free note app is best for handwriting?

OneNote, and it isn’t close among the free options. Its ink engine, shape recognition, and handwriting search are the most mature, and it works with the Surface Pen and Apple Pencil. Apple Notes is the runner-up for iPad users, with handwriting that’s searchable and convertible to typed text.

Are free note apps safe for private information?

Joplin is the strongest choice — it offers end-to-end encryption, so the sync provider can’t read your notes. Apple Notes lets you lock individual notes behind Face ID or a password, and standard iCloud notes are encrypted in transit and at rest. For anything truly sensitive, prefer an app where encryption keys stay with you rather than the vendor.