Best note-taking apps for linked notes and PKM
Backlinks, graph views and block references, for people building a second brain rather than a filing cabinet.
Top pick: Obsidian at 8.4 out of 10. The safest long-term home for a personal knowledge base. Budget a weekend for setup, and accept that AI here is bring-your-own. Compare it with RemNote.
Obsidian
Plain markdown files on your disk, with a plugin ecosystem bolted on top.
Win / Mac / iOS / Android / Linux
Best for: Long-term thinkers who want to own the files and are willing to tinker.
$4/mo
RemNote
Take notes and generate the flashcards in the same keystroke.
Web / Win / Mac / Linux / iOS / Android
Best for: Medical, law and language students who live in spaced repetition.
$8/mo
Heptabase
Notes on whiteboards, for when the outline is not the shape of the idea.
Win / Mac / Linux / iOS / Android / Web
Best for: Researchers and students mapping a subject they do not understand yet.
$11.99/mo
Capacities
A studio for your mind, organised by object type instead of folders.
Web / Mac / Win / iOS / Android
Best for: Knowledge workers who think in people, sources and projects.
$12.99/mo
Tana
Supertags turn loose bullets into a structured database as you type.
Web / Mac / Win / iOS / Android
Best for: Systems thinkers who want a personal database, not a notebook.
$10/mo
AFFiNE
Docs and an infinite whiteboard that are the same document.
Web / Win / Mac / Linux / iOS / Android · Open source
Best for: People who want Notion plus a whiteboard, on their own server.
$8.90/mo
Amplenote
Notes and tasks that argue with each other until your day is planned.
Web / Win / Mac / Linux / iOS / Android
Best for: People who want their notes to produce a daily plan.
$7.99/mo
Joplin
Open source, end-to-end encrypted, and it syncs wherever you tell it to.
Win / Mac / Linux / iOS / Android / Web · Open source
Best for: Privacy-minded people leaving Evernote who want to control the storage.
$3/mo
Octarine
Local markdown files, a clean editor and one payment.
Mac / Win / Linux / iOS
Best for: Obsidian-minded people who would rather buy a finished app than build one.
$79 once
Supernotes
Every note is a card, and cards were built to be shared.
Web / Win / Mac / Linux / iOS / Android
Best for: Small teams and couples who share notes constantly.
$10/mo
Anytype
Notion-shaped, but the data is encrypted and lives on your machine.
Win / Mac / Linux / iOS / Android · Open source
Best for: People who want a Notion-style workspace without the cloud.
$99/yr
Logseq
A journal-first outliner with flashcards baked in, over local files.
Win / Mac / Linux / iOS / Android · Open source
Best for: Daily journalers and students who want linked notes plus revision.
Free
Reflect
A networked daily journal with GPT and Whisper wired in.
Web / Mac / iOS / Android
Best for: Daily journalers who talk more than they type.
$10/mo
Bear
The best-looking markdown editor on Apple platforms.
iOS / Mac
Best for: Writers on Apple hardware who want markdown without the tinkering.
$2.99/mo
NotePlan
A markdown vault and your calendar, living in the same window.
Mac / iOS / Web
Best for: Mac and iPhone planners who want their notes and their day in one app.
$12/mo
Roam Research
The app that made backlinks mainstream, now outrun by its imitators.
Web / Mac / Win / iOS / Android
Best for: People already deep in a Roam graph who do not want to migrate.
$15/mo