Nov 1, 2021

The search for a perfect note taking app

A note taking app is essential: meeting notes, quick how-tos, sketches of ideas call for a simple and convenient tool. While note taking seems like a straightforward task, there is a surprising variety of programs, and it's difficult to find a perfect one.

So far I've had good experiences with Bear, Joplin, and Emacs with Org Mode. However, none of them came close enough to perfection for me to stick with it and forget about others. In this post, I explain what I like and do not like about each of them.

As a side note, why not Evernote, ome of the most popular apps out there? I tried, but it did not click for me at all. Two primary reasons: it felt like it tried to do too many things at once (for notes, I value simplicity), and it is necessarily tied to its own hosting service (paid or not).

What I'm looking for

  • Simple, inobtrusive, elegant interface, which allows focusing on the content.
  • Basic formatting support (including monospaced code fragments). Ideally done through a markup language (Markdown or similar), so things like emphasis, lists, URLs and code snippets can be entered using keyboard only.
  • Possibility of synchronisation between devices, so the notes can exist independently from a machine where they were typed.
  • Support for independent hosting providers, so registering yet another account with the app creator is not necessary (distinction between app and service).
  • Raw text storage (or at least export), so it's easy to read notes without the app or move them to another one.
  • Export capabilities, so it's easy to generate e.g. a PDF when needed.
  • Useful search ability, so it's easy to find an old note.

Bear

Website: https://bear.app/

Pros

  • The most elegant interface I have encountered so far. From fonts and colours to display layout, everything seems well thought out. The sidebars can be hidden with a simple shortcut, leaving a perfectly simple, distraction-free slate of text. The text is width-limited on a page for optimal readability. Header levels and bullet points are subtly displayed in the left margin.
  • Editing is markdown-based. Formatting is applied live in the same window, and visual presentation is clever (eg. most formatting symbols are kept gently blended with the background).
  • Provides ready-made themes, including classics such as Solarized, Dracula and Nord.
  • Organises notes by tags, replacing the more common structure of notebooks.
  • Exported PDFs look nice, supports many different formats.
  • Being MacOS native, uses iCloud in the background for storage, which eliminates the need for additional hosting.

Cons

  • MacOS native, won't work outside Apple ecosystem.
  • Fully functional version is paid in a subscription model, $15 per year. There is a free version, which lacks some of the features listed above.

Joplin

Website: https://joplinapp.org/

Pros

  • Free and open source, most of the codebase is MIT-licensed.
  • Editing is markdown-based. Unlike Bear, the default view has two panels, one with markdown (with syntax highlighting), the other with fully rendered text.
  • Can synchronise with Dropbox, OneDrive, NextCloud, generic WebDAV and others. Provides optional encryption for transport and storage.
  • Provides ready-made themes (also including Solarized, Dracula, and Nord) and the ability to select fonts.
  • Exports to PDF and others (I haven't tested export though).
  • Available across platforms, including mobile.

Cons

  • The two-panel markdown view eats up space. With side panels shown, the view is cramped, and with them hidden it still requires a sizeable part of the screen. It feels like it has been designed with fullscreen use in mind.
  • The UI is busier then Bear's.
  • Looks like it tries to be a replacement for Evernote.
  • Uses AppImage on Linux (there are no official packages, snaps, or flatpaks) and the best way to install is through their own install script.
  • Bug fixes may take time. Recently, changes in Let's Encrypt certificates required an update to an underlying library which largely disabled synchronisation for a few weeks. However, changes were communicated quickly, everything is back to normal, and such breaking changes are rare occurences anyway.

Emacs + Org

Website: https://orgmode.org/

Pros

  • The most ascetic of them all.
  • Uses org syntax, natively supported in emacs, which works quite nice for notes. A case can be made for org over markdown, at least from some angles.
  • Org files are text files which you can organise and manage the way you want to. While emacs has a lot of native functionality for them, they are not emacs-specific and can be written in any editor.
  • Everything is done with keyboard only.
  • Synchronisation with any hosting solution (including Nextcloud) is easy to achieve using rclone, an external command-line tool.

Cons

  • Since emacs is a world on its own, org + emacs probably won't appeal to people who aren't using emacs already.
  • Emacs has a lot of org-specific behaviour. While this may be a good thing, it also means that there is a lot to memorise.
  • There is no standard way for managing note collections. Some people on the Internet suggest having one huge file with collapsible headings. I prefer to have one note in one file, but it makes searching harder. There may be some extensions for managing many files, but for now I rely on a date-slug names and directory listing.
  • Synchronisation is not built in, so it requires additional software and is an action on its own.