Best note-taking apps

Six apps that will help you record, store and keep track of your all‑important thoughts

One of the best things about the iPad is its convenience and portability, which is why it’s a great platform for taking notes. The size, shape and screen are ideal for scribbling, wherever you are, and the arrival of high-quality styluses such as the Apple Pencil can deliver a paperlike experience, backed up by the iPad’s connectivity and media capabilities.

There’s more than one way to take a note, though. Some of us are scribblers; others, touch typists. Some of us scrawl comments on photos; others prefer to record information using voice memos. Some of us are all about the text; others mix and match every kind of media. As a result, the App Store is packed with apps promising to deliver the perfect note-taking experience, in a variety of different ways.

The apps we’ve looked at here run the gamut between simple handwriting apps and do-everything writing environments where you could plan, research and write the Great American Novel. These are all very good apps, but their differences mean they’ll appeal to very different people and excel in different ways. Some are ideal for grabbing thoughts on the go, while others are better suited to a desktop life. Some wear flowers in their hair; others are dressed for the office.

If you intend to do a lot of handwriting, we strongly advise you invest in a good stylus, or Apple Pencil if your iPad is compatible. Good doesn’t necessarily mean having to spend a lot: we’ve had good results with inexpensive, simple styluses. Badly made models, especially ones with small points, can be a false economy; you’ll spend so much time correcting tracking errors and missing lines that you’d be better off typing instead. With a good stylus, handwritten notes are wonderful; with a bad one, they’re almost impossible.

Whatever your preferred input method, take note of how we rate the top jotter apps available.