Learn about 7 more of the best note-taking apps to try in 2022, including some you might not have heard about.

A while ago we posted about 6 Best Note-Taking Apps in 2022. Your reaction was fantastic and we got some great suggestions for lesser-known apps.

So now we’re back with 7 more awesome note-taking apps to boost your productivity… including some you might not have heard of before:

1. Obsidian — Connected notes

2. Ulysses — Focused writing for Apple users

3. UpNote — Classic note-taking in beautiful design

4. Inkdrop — Markdown notes for devs

5. FSNotes — Open source notes app for Apple

6. Napkin — Connected notes with NLP

7. Heptabase — Infinitely connected notes

Without further ado, let’s dive right in!

1. Obsidian — Connected notes

Obsidian was the most-requested app after our last post. It’s a new note-taking app that pushes the boundaries of what a note-taking app can do. Available for all operating systems — Android, iOS, macOS, Windows, and Linux — this app covers a broad range of note-taking needs.

Obsidian combines customizable, organizational features with a user-friendly Markdown editor. The app is also extendible, with over 500 community plugins, custom CSS themes, a graph view, and the ability to share backlinks.

Strengths

• Highly customizable — Obsidian offers wide-ranging customization options. You can turn features on or off to suit your needs, and even write your own plugins.

• Knowledge graph — Obsidian lets you create links between pages, which helps you easily navigate between your knowledge. It lets you see the connections between your notes in graph graph view.

• Reliable data structure— Obsidian is built around Markdown and a simple file/folder structure. Even if the app disappears, you’ll still have all your data in a readable format.

• Works offline — Obsidian stores your data locally so you can continue using it when you’re offline.

• Cross-platform — Obsidian is available on most popular platforms, from Android to iOS, Windows, and Linux.

Weaknesses

• Text-based — Obsidian focus on text. If you’re highly visual, it might not be the best choice for you.

• Fiddly image support — While you can embed images within your notes, there’s no drag and drop functionality and you’ll have to use Markdown syntax.

Pricing: Free for personal use. Paid tiers for advanced features start at 25$ (one-time).

2. Ulysses — Focused writing for Apple users

Ulysses has been around for a while. It’s one of the most powerful note-taking apps in the Apple ecosystem. Available for Apple users only, this robust note-taking app is geared towards people who want to do some serious writing.

Strengths

• Focus mode — Ulysses is based around focused views that let you get into the flow and write text with minimal disruptions.

• Output templates — Ulysses offers different output styles and publishing formats to choose from, based on your markup input.

• Fully-featured writing app — If you’re looking for an app to handle longer texts like blog posts or even novels, Ulysses offers advanced text-management features that will help you out.

Weaknesses

• macOS and iOS only — The Ulysses app is exclusive to the Apple computing platform.

Pricing: Ulysses does not have a free plan. Licenses cost $5.99 a month or $49.99 for an annual license.

3. UpNote — Classic note-taking in beautiful design

UpNote is a beautifully-designed note-taking app that helps you organize and give direction to your thoughts and ideas.

Available for Android, iOS, Windows, and macOS, UpNote offers features to keep your work organized, such as a note filter, note pinning, and quick access to notes.

Strengths

• Offline mode — UpNote offers offline mode so you can continue work when you’re not connected to the internet.

• Cross-platform — UpNote is available on many platforms — from Android to iOS, Windows, and Mac

• Additional features — UpNote also includes a range of other features like dark mode, a web clipper, focus mode and more.

Weaknesses

• No fancy connection features — Compared to more “visual oriented” apps that show connections between notes (like Obsidian or Heptabase), UpNote focuses on more “traditional” UIs. Ultimately though, it depends what you’re looking for.

Pricing: There’s a limited free version with up to 50 notes (more of a trial really). However, Premium licenses go for a very reasonable $0.99 per month or $24.99 for a lifetime deal.

4. Inkdrop — Markdown notes for devs

Inkdrop is a powerful note-taking app that focuses on developers who combine code and text. Available for Android, IOS, Windows, and Linux, Inkdrop offers syncing capabilities and supports Markdown and code syntax highlighting.

Strengths

• Geared towards developers — Inkdrop focuses on markdown that makes it easy to combine code with text.

• Highly customizable — Inkdrop offers 100+ plugins. It works with a large range file formats and it’s easy to customize your workspace with CSS.

• Secure — Inkdrop uses end-to-end encryption to protect your data from unauthorized access.

• Cross-platform support — Inkdrop is available for Windows, iPhone, Mac, Windows, and Linux users.

• Ability to draw sequential diagrams — When it comes to visuals, Inkdrop supports all image types and even allows you to draw sequential diagrams. It even supports mathematical equations.

Weaknesses

• Learning curve — The constant flip-side of highly-capable apps… it can take a while for beginners to get used to them.

Pricing: Inkdrop doesn’t offer a free plan. There’s a free trial period after which it costs $4.99 a month

5. FSNotes — Open source notes app for Apple

FSNotes is an open-source note-taking app for Mac and iOS users. It’s mainly focused on GitHub-style markdown notes, with lots of options and plugins.

FSNotes supports open formats (simple/text, Markdown, RTF) and respects open formats like GitHub Flavored Markdown, making it easy for users to write documents on iPhones and MacBooks. It also includes a bunch of plug-ins and features.

Strengths

• Fast and Lightweight — The app is super-fast and works smoothly with 10k+ files

• Syntax highlighting — The app allows codes to be highlighted based on the language they’re written in, making it easy for users to read. FSNotes supports over 170 programming languages.

• Access anywhere — FSNotes syncs with iCloud and Dropbox, making it easy for users to access their work from anywhere

Weaknesses

• Apple only — Only available for iOS and Mac users. No support for Android, Windows, and Linux.

• Unclear support — We love open-source, donation-based projects, but we’d be remiss not to mention that they sometimes disappear. That said, FSNotes is popular on GitHub and worst case you can export your notes somewhere else.

Pricing: FSNotes is free, though you can support the project by purchasing it on the Apple or iOS store.

6. Napkin — Connected notes with NLP

Napkin is a brand new, minimalistic note-taking application that’s still in beta (caveat: I haven’t had a chance to test it yet). It lets you capture and organize notes in an “infinite space”.

It also claims to use natural language programming (NLP) to analyze your notes and suggest connections… though having worked in NLP I’d like to see that in real life before endorsing it.

Strengths

• Simple to use interface — The napkin interface looks simple and user-friendly. It just has the main window where you can see all your notes.

• NLP — If Napkin’s NLP can actually make good connections between your notes, that would be pretty powerful.

Weaknesses

• Navigation — While navigating the app is easy, it seems you can’t move your notes around in Napkin.

• iOS only — The app is only available for iOS (plus a web clipper)

Pricing: There’s a waiting list for a free version. Subscriptions start at $10 a month.

7. Heptabase — Infinitely connected notes

Heptabase is another “infinity-space” note-taking app.

It helps users make sense of complex topics by collecting and organizing notes in a visual space. It’s an all-in-one note-taking app that helps you create notes from nothing and remember what you’ve learned even after a long time.

Strengths

• Offline optimization — Heptabase stores all your notes offline, so you don’t need an internet connection to work.

• Cross-device support — You can sync your notes across unlimited desktop devices.

• Speed — Heptabase is blazing fast, and you’ll never have to wait for your notes to load

Weaknesses

• Focused on connections — Focusing on the visual connections between notes is lends itself to a specific style of note-taking.

• Desktop only — Heptabase does not yet offer mobile apps, a serious limitation for a note-taking app.

Pricing: Heptabase does not offer a free plan. Subscriptions are $9.99 per month ($6.99 with an annual plan).

Wrapping Up

And there you have it! Seven more amazing note-taking apps to help you capture your best ideas and stay productive.

Which of the apps in this list and our previous list you choose will depend on your personal style and what you’re using it for. Obviously, your needs will be different if you’re taking study notes, writing a novel, or documenting code.

It’s exciting to see that the new generation of note-taking apps caters to all these types of needs, so there’s something there for everyone!

Let us know in the comments if there are any other tools we’re missing, and what other productivity tools you can’t live without!

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