The app you use for your note-taking is like an extension of yourself. It houses all your important information and must be the perfect tool. With many options like Microsoft OneNote, it’s hard to pick the right tool.
OneNote is a comprehensive note-taking tool, but there are many alternative options with special features that may benefit you more. From simplistic to advanced, there’s a note-taking tool for everyone.
In this article, we list ten alternatives to OneNote, highlighting how each tool benefits its users and its key features.
What is OneNote?
Introduced by Microsoft back in 2003, OneNote is the tech giant’s attempt at digital note-taking. It’s designed to capture, organize, and share different types of information the everyday person may use.
OneNote’s standout feature allows users to create interactive notebooks—a digitized version of a physical notebook divided into sections and pages for easy navigation. The software integrates neatly with other Microsoft Office tools, enhancing its functionality:
- Users can send emails from Outlook
- Embed data directly from Excel
- Sync notebooks across all devices through OneDrive
OneNote is a good choice for note-taking, particularly for those already embedded in the Microsoft Office ecosystem. However, it is not perfect for teams needing advanced collaboration tools. It lacks project management features and chat and video features, two things that Lark has built in.
Why should you consider the alternatives to OneNote
OneNote occupies a middle ground in note-taking, being too complex for basic users yet lacking advanced features for power users.
Other note-taking apps will be a better fit unless you’re a Microsoft Office fan. OneNote fits in well with the other apps in the Office suite. However, this comes at the expense of compatibility in other areas.
While OneNote has made good progress with its Android and iOS apps, Linux support falls below expectations. Linux users can access OneNote via a browser, but there’s no desktop version available.
Integrations are another area where OneNote falls short of its competitors. Native integrations are limited with OneNote unless you use a program like Zapier to achieve more integration power.
Lastly, it’s worth considering other options if you just don’t like Microsoft. If you’re a detractor, OneNote won’t be a suitable option as it’s deeply embedded in Microsoft Office design philosophy — it looks and plays like Microsoft.
How to choose the best OneNote alternative to meet your needs
If you’re moving on from OneNote, you’ll know there are a few things to look out for with any alternative you might pick.
Here are some of the things to consider when choosing what’s best for you:
- Usability: Any note-taking app needs to work well for you. You may prioritize a clean interface with simple tagging and sorting. Alternatively, you need deep customization and collaborative features to bring your note-taking to the next level.
- Sync across devices: Switching from desktop to mobile to tablet? Syncing across all your devices is important to keep your note-taking in one space.
- Collaboration: If your whole team is working together co-authoring documents, you’ll need an app with great collaboration features like real-time editing, sharing, and access management.
- Customization: Customization — whether through themes and templates or the ability to install plugins and extensions — is an essential part of any new software tool.
- Security: If you’re dealing with personal or sensitive information, you’ll need a tool with strict security protocols. Look for tools with secure data storage, privacy control, permissions, and end-to-end encryption.
- Integrations: If you’re using other productivity tools, you may need a note-taking app that integrates with them. Alternatively, look for an all-in-one suite that replaces all the disparate tools in your tech stack.
10 best OneNote alternatives
Take control of your note-taking in the way that makes the most difference to your workflow.
Here are 10 of the best OneNote alternatives:
1. Lark: Best overall alternative
Lark is a suite of office apps capable of replacing many tools into one unified workspace. Its note-taking capabilities make it the perfect companion for large teams. Featuring a powerful document editor with rich collaborative features for co-editing, Lark is built for global teams.
Lark can translate documents and transcribe audio in seconds, so no one in the team is left out of key decision-making. With Minutes, meetings are turned into an interactive replay where users can slow down, speed up, and pause when needed. Important information can then be directly copied into your documents.
Everything is synced in real-time, so if you’re on the go and moving to mobile, all information will be ready and waiting. Lark also supports rich media. If you want to add videos, polls, graphs, mind maps, or databases, nothing is holding you back.
Key features
- Document editing and collaboration tools
- Live translation and transcription
- Low-code customization features
- Picture-in-picture while video chatting
- Lark drive provides up to 10TB of cloud storage
- Access to a range of supplementary tools like chat, video, sheets, minutes
- Create group meetings and share documents ahead of time
Pros
- All-in-one tool reducing tech stack and overall software costs
- Automatic time-zone adjustments and live transcriptions benefiting global teams
- Customizable UI allows teams to work the way they want
Cons
- More expensive for teams over 50 people than OneNote (but works out cheaper if replacing additional tools like Zoom, Slack, and the rest of the Microsoft Office Suite)
Pricing
- Free trial available for up to 50 users
- Pro tier is $12 per user per month for up to 500 users
- Enterprise tier offers custom pricing
Integrations
- Lark maintains a range of native integrations, including:
- Project management: Asana Connector, Jira Master, Trello Connector, Zapier
- Agile Development: GitHub, GitLab Assistant, Splunk Connector, Lark Translator
- Productivity: Dropbox, TodoNow, Cal.com, Zoom, DocuSign
- Everything: Lark AnyCross is a no-code tool enabling you to create your own integrations from scratch.
Lark vs. OneNote
- Lark replaces more than just OneNote; it takes over Microsoft Office and replaces it with a seamless experience.
- While note-taking, Lark facilitates chat, video conferencing, live transcription, and translation.
- OneNote primarily serves the individual, whereas Lark serves the whole team, whether five people or 500.
2. Evernote: Best for fast setup
Evernote is available nearly everywhere, including iOS and Android. However, it stopped supporting its Linux client in 2023. Getting started is quick and simple with Evernote, as you’ll be up and running as soon as you sign up. Users can sort their notes into notebooks to create quick notes using the scratch pad for better organization.
3. Notion: Best for creating databases
Notion is a versatile tool that starts as a simple note-taking application and expands into a customizable wiki with extensive database features. If your note-taking needs to extend into task management, Notion is a good option.
Notion vs. OneNote
Notion goes further and faster than OneNote with features like databases, kanban boards, and project management tools, but it comes with a steeper learning curve. OneNote is a more user-friendly tool with a more traditional notebook layout.
4. Google Keep: Best for cloud storage
Google Keep is the tech giant’s answer to OneNote and is part of the Google Workspace software suite. For users who want a free tool with more storage than OneNote, any audio or image saved in Keep doesn’t count against your Google Drive storage limit.
