By device
Best note-taking apps for Chromebook
On a Chromebook the web app is the app. What separates the good ones is whether they still work when the wifi drops halfway through a lecture.
Top pick: Microsoft OneNote, at 8.7 out of 10 on this ranking. The best free handwriting notebook if you are already in the Microsoft world. Old-fashioned in structure, but it never asks for your card.
What we weighted
A web app, not a landing page
The full product in a tab, not a viewer for the desktop version.
Offline in the browser
Keeps working on a bad connection and syncs up afterwards.
Free or close to it
These are school machines more often than not.
Every app keeps its site-wide score, but the order here is a separate fit reading built from those three needs, so it is not the same list you get on the home page.
Microsoft OneNote
An infinite paper notebook that has quietly been free for twenty years.
For chromebook: Offline support, Cloud sync, Export.
Students and Windows users who want free handwriting plus typing on one page.
Fit
7.8 overall
Free
Notesnook
Zero-knowledge encryption without giving up a modern editor.
For chromebook: Offline support, Cloud sync, Export.
People who want Evernote-style notes with Signal-style privacy.
Fit
7.2 overall
$4.49/mo
Craft
Documents that look designed before you touch anything.
For chromebook: Offline support, Cloud sync, Export.
People who share their notes and want them to look good.
Fit
8.1 overall
$10/mo
Joplin
Open source, end-to-end encrypted, and it syncs wherever you tell it to.
For chromebook: Offline support, Cloud sync, Export.
Privacy-minded people leaving Evernote who want to control the storage.
Fit
7.5 overall
$3/mo
RemNote
Take notes and generate the flashcards in the same keystroke.
For chromebook: Offline support, Cloud sync, Export.
Medical, law and language students who live in spaced repetition.
Fit
7.9 overall
$8/mo
Zoho Notebook
A free Evernote-shaped app from a company that sells other things.
For chromebook: Offline support, Cloud sync, Export.
People who liked old Evernote and refuse to pay for it.
Fit
7.2 overall
Free
Amplenote
Notes and tasks that argue with each other until your day is planned.
For chromebook: Offline support, Cloud sync, Export.
People who want their notes to produce a daily plan.
Fit
7.5 overall
$7.99/mo
Heptabase
Notes on whiteboards, for when the outline is not the shape of the idea.
For chromebook: Offline support, Cloud sync, Export.
Researchers and students mapping a subject they do not understand yet.
Fit
7.8 overall
$11.99/mo
Notion
The all-in-one workspace that swallowed the note app category.
For chromebook: Cloud sync, Export, Dark mode.
Teams and organisers who want documents, tasks and databases under one roof.
Fit
8.5 overall
$12/mo
Supernotes
Every note is a card, and cards were built to be shared.
For chromebook: Offline support, Cloud sync, Export.
Small teams and couples who share notes constantly.
Fit
7.5 overall
$10/mo
Questions chromebook ask
- Which note apps work offline on a Chromebook?
- Google Keep is the dependable one, because it keeps working in a browser tab with no connection and syncs when the wifi comes back. Most of the others treat offline as a desktop feature, which on a Chromebook means falling back to the Android app.
- Can I use Obsidian on a Chromebook?
- Through the Android app or a Linux container, yes, and neither is pleasant. If the machine is a Chromebook first, pick something built for the web.
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