How we make this list: we compare pricing pages, product documentation and public user reviews. Ratings come from G2, Capterra or Trustpilot, with the date we checked them.
Key takeaways
- Joplin is the most complete free replacement, open source with unlimited notes and your choice of sync.
- Obsidian is free for personal use and stores notes as plain Markdown files you own outright.
- Notion's free plan suits individuals who want notes plus databases and shared pages.
- Apple Notes and Google Keep cost nothing and win on speed and zero setup for their platform users.
- The real cost difference between free note apps is sync and storage, not features.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Best for | Starting price | Free plan |
|---|
 Joplin | Full featured free notes with your own sync | Free | Yes |
 Obsidian | Personal knowledge base in plain files | Free | Yes |
 Notion | Notes with databases and sharing | Free | Yes |
 Apple Notes | Fast free notes on Apple devices | Free | Yes |
 Google Keep | Quick capture and reminders on Android | Free | Yes |
 Standard Notes | Encrypted notes with a long term archive | Free | Yes |
 Logseq | Outline style notes and daily journals | Free | Yes |
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We review this list regularly. Vendors can request a listing, send updated pricing or ask about featured placement.
The best free alternatives to OneNote in 2026
#1Joplin
Best for: Full featured free notes with your own sync4.8/5 on
G2 (5 reviews, checked Oct 2026)
Visit joplinapp.org
Starting priceFree
Free planYes
Joplin is the closest thing to a straight free replacement for OneNote's job. It keeps the notebook structure people know, adds tags and to do notes, clips web pages, and holds as many notes as your storage allows, because the app itself sets no cap. Notes live in an open format, and export is straightforward, which answers the control complaint directly.
The compromises are polish and setup. Joplin looks like the open source tool it is, and while sync works through common cloud storage, you configure it yourself; the optional Joplin Cloud removes that step for a few dollars a month. For anyone leaving OneNote over control or structure rather than cost, Joplin is the first install to try.
What we like- Open source and free with no note limits, notebooks, tags, to dos and a web clipper like the classic note apps, end to end encryption available for synced notes, syncs through Dropbox, OneDrive, Nextcloud or its own cloud
Watch out for- Interface looks plainer than commercial rivals, sync setup through third party storage is a manual step, optional Joplin Cloud costs extra if you want its hosting
#2Obsidian
Best for: Personal knowledge base in plain files4.5/5 on
G2 (13 reviews, checked Oct 2026)
Visit obsidian.md
Starting priceFree
Free planYes
Obsidian stores your notes as ordinary Markdown files in a folder on your device. That single decision answers most reasons people leave OneNote: no proprietary store, no account required, no company able to change the terms on your archive. The app itself is free for personal use, and its linking features turn a pile of notes into something closer to a personal wiki.
What you give up is convenience. Syncing between phone and computer means using your own cloud folder or paying for the official Sync add on at about $4 a month, and sharing a note with a colleague is clunky. Businesses need a commercial licence. For a personal archive you intend to keep for decades, Obsidian is the strongest free choice here.
What we like- Completely free for personal use with no feature caps, notes are local Markdown files readable in any editor, linking and graph views connect notes into a knowledge base, hundreds of community plugins extend it freely
Watch out for- Sync is your problem unless you pay for Obsidian Sync, collaboration is weak beside Notion or OneNote, setup and plugin choices overwhelm casual note takers
#3Notion
Best for: Notes with databases and sharing4.6/5 on
G2 (13,834 reviews, checked Oct 2026)
Visit notion.com
Starting priceFree
Free planYes
Notion's free plan is aimed at individuals and it is generous in the ways that matter: unlimited pages and blocks for personal use, the full database toolkit, and sharing with a handful of guests. People leaving OneNote's fixed notebooks for something more flexible usually land here, because a note can also be a row in a project tracker without changing apps.
The lines are drawn at files and history. Uploads stop at 5 MB on the free plan, deleted or changed pages are only recoverable for a week, and a team quickly outgrows the guest limits. It is also a cloud only product; your notes are Notion documents, not files. Individuals who live in shared, structured workspaces will not mind. Archivists should pick Obsidian or Joplin.
What we like- Free plan gives individuals unlimited pages and blocks, databases turn notes into trackers, wikis and projects, sharing and publishing pages is built in, apps on every platform with a strong web version
Watch out for- Free plan caps file uploads at 5 MB and page history at 7 days, guest and team limits push growing groups to paid plans, notes depend on Notion's cloud with no local file access, overkill for plain quick notes
Starting priceFree
Free planYes
For anyone inside the Apple ecosystem, Notes is the free alternative that requires no decision at all. It is already on the devices, opens instantly, scans documents, takes handwriting and quick audio notes, and syncs across them over iCloud. Recent versions added tags, smart folders and better attachments, closing much of the gap to paid apps for everyday use.
The ceiling is the ecosystem wall and export. There is no proper Windows or Android app, only a limited web view, and moving a large library out later is painful because notes are stored in Apple's formats. If your devices are all Apple and your notes are personal, it is the easiest free swap on this list. Mixed platform households should look at Joplin.
What we like- Installed already on every iPhone, iPad and Mac, quick capture, scanning and handwriting all built in, folders and tags keep it simple to organise, syncs through iCloud with 5 GB included free
Watch out for- Apple devices only in practice, no real Windows or Android app, formatting and organisation stay basic, notes are hard to export in bulk to other tools
Starting priceFree
Free planYes
Keep is a sticky note wall, not a notebook, and it is best judged as one. For shopping lists, quick reminders, voice memos in the car and photos of whiteboards, nothing here is faster, and it costs nothing with the Google account most people already have. Its reminders can fire by place as well as time, which the bigger apps still do clumsily.
It fails as a OneNote replacement for anything substantial. There is no hierarchy beyond labels, no rich formatting, and a few hundred long notes become an unsearchable scroll. Treat Keep as the capture front end many people pair with a deeper app, or as the whole system if your notes genuinely are short and disposable.
What we like- Fastest capture on this list, open and type in a second, labels, colours and location or time reminders built in, voice notes transcribe automatically, works in any browser and inside Gmail and Docs side panels
Watch out for- No notebooks or folder structure for large archives, formatting is limited to checklists and plain text, notes count against your Google account storage, long form writing and attachments are weak
#6Standard Notes
Best for: Encrypted notes with a long term archive4.0/5 on
G2 (13 reviews, checked Oct 2026)
Visit standardnotes.com
Starting priceFree
Free planYes
Standard Notes is the privacy first entry. Every note is encrypted on your device before it syncs, so the company cannot read your archive, and the free plan still allows unlimited text notes across devices. For journals, records and anything sensitive, that posture is the reason to choose it over OneNote, where your notes sit readable on a provider's servers.
The free tier is spartan: plain text only, with formatted editors, larger attachments and extended history reserved for the paid plan, which is priced as a yearly subscription. It is a deliberate trade by the makers, who sell longevity rather than features. If your notes are words you want kept privately for years, Standard Notes fits. If you clip, sketch and attach all day, it will frustrate you.
What we like- End to end encrypted by default on every plan, free plan holds unlimited plain text notes, offline access and apps on all platforms, built by a company focused on longevity of your archive
Watch out for- Free plan is plain text only, rich editors wait for the paid plan, no collaboration features to speak of, interface is deliberately minimal, which some find bare
Starting priceFree
Free planYes
Logseq organises notes the way some people think: a daily journal page, indented bullets, and links between ideas that build a graph over time. It is free, open source and local first, storing pages as plain files like Obsidian, so the control argument for leaving OneNote applies here too.
It is the most opinionated tool on this list. Writers of long, structured documents usually bounce off the outliner format, and mobile apps trail the desktop experience. Students, researchers and journal keepers who already think in outlines tend to love it. Try it with a week of real notes before migrating anything important, because the style, not the price, decides this one.
What we like- Free and open source with no account needed, daily journal and outline structure suits thinking in bullets, notes stored as local Markdown or Org files, strong linking and queries for networked notes
Watch out for- Outliner style is a poor fit if you write long documents, mobile apps lag the desktop version, sync relies on your own cloud folder or iCloud, smaller community and slower development than Obsidian
How we chose
The test for this list was the word free. An app qualified only if its no cost tier holds a realistic personal note collection without a note count cap, which is why Evernote, whose free plan stops at 50 notes on one device, was excluded with the reason stated. We then weighed how completely each app covers OneNote's jobs: capture, organisation, search, attachments and sync across the devices a US reader actually uses. Prices and plan limits come from vendor pages and trackers checked in October 2026. OneNote itself is the reference product and is not ranked here.
What to check before you move your notes
Decide where your notes will live. Local file tools, Joplin, Obsidian and Logseq, leave you owning plain files and arranging your own sync, which is the strongest position long term and the weakest for convenience. Cloud tools, Notion and the platform apps, sync effortlessly but hold your archive in their formats. Neither is wrong; picking the wrong one for your habits is what causes a second migration.
Then test the exit before you need it. Import a month of real notes into your chosen app, including attachments and any handwriting, and use it for a week alongside OneNote. Check search on your oldest material, because that is where free apps differ most. Only move the full archive once the trial week passes, and keep the OneNote copy until the new home has survived a month of real use.
Frequently asked questions
Why is Evernote not on a list of free OneNote alternatives?
Because its free plan no longer qualifies as a working free tier. It holds 50 notes in one notebook on one device, which makes it a short trial. Every app listed here holds a full personal archive at no cost.
Which free alternative is most like OneNote?
Joplin. It keeps notebooks, tags and a web clipper, holds unlimited notes, and syncs through storage you choose. It is less polished than OneNote but the shape of the work is the same.
Are these free plans free forever or trials?
They are standing free plans, not timed trials. The limits are structural: file size caps in Notion, plain text only in Standard Notes, your own storage in Joplin and Obsidian. Vendors can change terms, which is itself a reason the local file tools appeal to cautious users.
Can I import my OneNote notes into these apps?
Most accept Markdown or HTML imports, and OneNote pages can be exported through print to PDF or via OneNote's own export on desktop. Attachments and handwriting travel badly between any two note apps, so test with a sample before committing the archive.
Which free app is best for students?
Notion for shared coursework and databases, Joplin for lecture notes with attachments at no cost, and Apple Notes or Google Keep for quick capture between classes. The deciding factor is usually which devices the student already owns.
Sources we checked (0)
Is your product missing or out of date?
We review this list regularly. Vendors can request a listing, send updated pricing or ask about featured placement.
Shihab Mia · Founder, Rankite
Shihab has 5+ years in B2B and SaaS SEO. He writes Rankite's software buying guides from pricing pages, documentation and public user reviews. More about Shihab.