By device
Best note-taking apps for Mac
A Mac note app is judged on how native it feels. Electron works, but the apps people keep for years are the ones that open instantly and answer to the keyboard.
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
Opens before you finish the shortcut
Quick capture and a command palette, not a loading spinner.
Follows you to the phone
Sync that is dependable enough to stop thinking about.
Fits the system
Dark mode, shortcuts and menus that behave the way the rest of the machine does.
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 mac: Command palette, Dark mode, 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
Obsidian
Plain markdown files on your disk, with a plugin ecosystem bolted on top.
For mac: Command palette, Dark mode, Cloud sync.
Long-term thinkers who want to own the files and are willing to tinker.
Fit
8.4 overall
$4/mo
Craft
Documents that look designed before you touch anything.
For mac: Command palette, Dark mode, Cloud sync.
People who share their notes and want them to look good.
Fit
8.1 overall
$10/mo
Notion
The all-in-one workspace that swallowed the note app category.
For mac: Command palette, Dark mode, Cloud sync.
Teams and organisers who want documents, tasks and databases under one roof.
Fit
8.5 overall
$12/mo
Bear
The best-looking markdown editor on Apple platforms.
For mac: Dark mode, Cloud sync, Export.
Writers on Apple hardware who want markdown without the tinkering.
Fit
7.2 overall
$2.99/mo
NotePlan
A markdown vault and your calendar, living in the same window.
For mac: Command palette, Dark mode, Cloud sync.
Mac and iPhone planners who want their notes and their day in one app.
Fit
7.2 overall
$12/mo
RemNote
Take notes and generate the flashcards in the same keystroke.
For mac: Command palette, Dark mode, Cloud sync.
Medical, law and language students who live in spaced repetition.
Fit
7.9 overall
$8/mo
Capacities
A studio for your mind, organised by object type instead of folders.
For mac: Command palette, Dark mode, Cloud sync.
Knowledge workers who think in people, sources and projects.
Fit
7.7 overall
$12.99/mo
Heptabase
Notes on whiteboards, for when the outline is not the shape of the idea.
For mac: Command palette, Dark mode, Cloud sync.
Researchers and students mapping a subject they do not understand yet.
Fit
7.8 overall
$11.99/mo
Supernotes
Every note is a card, and cards were built to be shared.
For mac: Command palette, Dark mode, Cloud sync.
Small teams and couples who share notes constantly.
Fit
7.5 overall
$10/mo
Questions mac ask
- Is Apple Notes good enough on a Mac?
- For most people, yes. It is free, instant, encrypted when you lock a note, and already installed. You outgrow it when you want linking, markdown or an export that is not a fight.
- Which Mac note apps are actually native?
- Bear and Apple Notes are Apple only and feel like it, and Craft is Apple first even though it now runs on Windows. Obsidian, Notion and Logseq are Electron, which costs a little speed and buys you Windows and Linux.
Keep looking
Related guides
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