By device
Best note-taking apps for mobile
Plenty of note apps are a desktop tool with a phone client attached. These are the ones where the phone is a real place to work, on either platform.
Top pick: Grape, at 8.8 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
Both phones, equally
An Android app that gets the same attention as the iOS one, rather than a port.
Capture in seconds
Widgets and voice, because standing up is the normal posture here.
Survives a tunnel
Offline writing with sync that resolves cleanly afterwards.
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 mobile: Home screen widgets, Offline support, 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
Day One
A journal that has been quietly perfecting one job since 2011.
For mobile: Home screen widgets, Offline support, Cloud sync.
Anyone keeping a personal journal who wants it to outlive the app.
Fit
7.7 overall
$49.99/yr
GoodNotes
Handwriting on a tablet, done better than anyone else.
For mobile: Home screen widgets, Offline support, Cloud sync.
Students and anyone whose thinking happens with a stylus.
Fit
8.0 overall
$9.99/yr
Zoho Notebook
A free Evernote-shaped app from a company that sells other things.
For mobile: Home screen widgets, Offline support, Cloud sync.
People who liked old Evernote and refuse to pay for it.
Fit
7.2 overall
Free
Craft
Documents that look designed before you touch anything.
For mobile: Home screen widgets, Offline support, Cloud sync.
People who share their notes and want them to look good.
Fit
8.1 overall
$10/mo
Noteshelf
Handwriting on every platform, with an AI that reads your pages.
For mobile: Home screen widgets, Offline support, Cloud sync.
Stylus users who are not on an iPad, or not only on an iPad.
Fit
7.5 overall
$9.99/mo
Microsoft OneNote
An infinite paper notebook that has quietly been free for twenty years.
For mobile: Home screen widgets, Offline support, Cloud sync.
Students and Windows users who want free handwriting plus typing on one page.
Fit
7.8 overall
Free
Evernote
The original everything-bucket, now considerably more expensive.
For mobile: Home screen widgets, Offline support, Cloud sync.
Researchers and clippers who live on the web and want everything searchable.
Fit
7.1 overall
$14.99/mo
Google Keep
Sticky notes that sync everywhere and never get in the way.
For mobile: Home screen widgets, Offline support, Cloud sync.
Quick capture, lists and reminders rather than a knowledge base.
Fit
7.1 overall
Free
Notion
The all-in-one workspace that swallowed the note app category.
For mobile: Home screen widgets, Cloud sync, Voice recording.
Teams and organisers who want documents, tasks and databases under one roof.
Fit
8.5 overall
$12/mo
Questions mobile ask
- Which note apps work on both iPhone and Android?
- Notion, Evernote, OneNote, Obsidian, Google Keep, Joplin, Notesnook and most of the rest. The notable exceptions are Apple Notes, Bear and GoodNotes, which are Apple only.
- Do I need the desktop app at all?
- For capture and reading, no. For reorganizing, long writing and anything involving a table, the desktop app is still where the work happens.
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