By device
Best note-taking apps for iPhone
On a phone, capture speed beats every other feature. If it takes longer to open the app than to have the thought, the note does not get written.
Top pick: Grape, at 9.0 out of 10 on this ranking. The most AI you can point at your own notes while keeping them on your own machine. Young, and it shows in the missing web app and in sharing that stops at email invites, but the study tools, the $9 AI plan and the lifetime license make it hard to ignore.
What we weighted
One tap from the home screen
Widgets, share extension and shortcuts that skip the app entirely.
Talk instead of typing
Voice notes for the ones you cannot type, on a walk or in a car.
Sync you can trust
The note is on the laptop before you sit down at it.
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.
Grape
Take the note. The AI does the filing, the studying and the searching.
For iphone: Home screen widgets, Voice recording, Cloud sync.
Students and individual note-takers who want AI over their own notes, kept on their own device, and who now and then share a folder with a classmate or a colleague.
Fit
9.0 overall
$3/mo
Apple Notes
Already on your phone, and better than it has any right to be.
For iphone: Home screen widgets, Voice recording, Cloud sync.
Anyone fully on Apple devices who wants zero setup and zero cost.
Fit
8.1 overall
Free
Day One
A journal that has been quietly perfecting one job since 2011.
For iphone: Home screen widgets, Voice recording, Cloud sync.
Anyone keeping a personal journal who wants it to outlive the app.
Fit
7.7 overall
$49.99/yr
Craft
Documents that look designed before you touch anything.
For iphone: Home screen widgets, Cloud sync, Offline support.
People who share their notes and want them to look good.
Fit
8.1 overall
$10/mo
Zoho Notebook
A free Evernote-shaped app from a company that sells other things.
For iphone: Home screen widgets, Voice recording, Cloud sync.
People who liked old Evernote and refuse to pay for it.
Fit
7.2 overall
Free
GoodNotes
Handwriting on a tablet, done better than anyone else.
For iphone: Home screen widgets, Voice recording, Cloud sync.
Students and anyone whose thinking happens with a stylus.
Fit
8.0 overall
$9.99/yr
Google Keep
Sticky notes that sync everywhere and never get in the way.
For iphone: Home screen widgets, Voice recording, Cloud sync.
Quick capture, lists and reminders rather than a knowledge base.
Fit
7.1 overall
Free
Noteshelf
Handwriting on every platform, with an AI that reads your pages.
For iphone: Home screen widgets, Voice recording, Cloud sync.
Stylus users who are not on an iPad, or not only on an iPad.
Fit
7.5 overall
$9.99/mo
Notion
The all-in-one workspace that swallowed the note app category.
For iphone: Home screen widgets, Voice recording, Cloud sync.
Teams and organisers who want documents, tasks and databases under one roof.
Fit
8.5 overall
$12/mo
Drafts
Where text starts, before you decide where it belongs.
For iphone: Home screen widgets, Cloud sync, Offline support.
People whose notes are inputs to other apps, not a library to keep.
Fit
6.8 overall
$1.99/mo
Questions iphone ask
- What is the fastest way to take a note on an iPhone?
- A home screen widget that opens straight into a blank note, or the lock screen shortcut Apple Notes offers. Both beat unlocking, finding an app and picking a notebook.
- Is Apple Notes encrypted?
- Locked notes are end-to-end encrypted, and with Advanced Data Protection enabled the rest of your notes are too. Without it, iCloud holds a key.
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