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Image generated by ChatGPT<\/em><\/p>\n There\u2019s just no knowing when inspiration will strike. On a train in rush hour, in the middle of making dinner, or like a bolt out of the blue at 3am. And when it does, you\u2019re going to need to note it down. As David Allen, productivity guru and creator of the Getting Things Done<\/a> time management method, famously says: \u201cThe mind is for having ideas, not holding them\u201d. Fortunately, our list of the best note-taking apps for Mac<\/strong> in 2026 is here to help.<\/p>\n The list below is designed to help you record valuable information for a later date. It will also help you clear out unnecessary mental clutter and distill your thoughts, and become your most focused and productive self. Whether you prefer to represent your ideas as mind maps or charts, handwrite your notes on a digital canvas, or use AI to do all the organizing for you, we\u2019ve got a macOS note-taking app that\u2019s right for you.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n TOC<\/p>\n The best Mac note-taking app is the app you want to use. It should work the way you do \u2014 as a seamless extension of your mind and thought patterns. It needs to feel intuitive, engaging and helpful. However, it might take a little trial and error to find the right one. <\/p>\n As you start your hunt, keep the following key criteria in mind:<\/p>\n Considering how your chosen app uses AI is also important. In remarkable ways, AI can enhance your note-taking experience by offering valuable writing support. Apple\u2019s built-in Apple Intelligence Writing Tools<\/a> are a good example. Since Writing Tools works wherever you write, including third-party apps and websites, it can offer writing suggestions, tone adjustments and automatic summaries in your note-taking apps, too.<\/p>\n Apple Intelligence<\/a> can also capture audio recordings and produce transcripts. Just hit record in the Notes or Phone apps and Apple Intelligence will generate summaries for you to see the most important information at a glance.<\/p>\n Looking for more advice on how AI can enhance your working life? Refer to our articles on Apple Intelligence on Mac<\/a> and the Best AI Apps for Mac<\/a>.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve divided our list of the best notes apps for Mac<\/strong> into several categories:<\/p>\n Image: <\/em>Craft<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Craft is best described as an Apple native version of Notion. It blends elegant design with powerful functionality, offering a refreshing approach to digital note-taking. Its block-based editor allows you to arrange text, images, and other media with ease, while maintaining a distraction-free environment. Craft really excels with its exceptional exporting options and its integrated AI assistant. Recent updates have added a tags system for organizing pages, blocks, and tasks, plus a Web Clipper for saving content from the web directly into your notes. However, its relatively young ecosystem means the advanced features you\u2019re likely to find in more established competitors are still being developed.<\/p>\n Pros:<\/strong><\/p>\n Cons:<\/strong><\/p>\n Price: <\/strong>Craft<\/a> has a free plan. It also has a Plus plan for $8 per month, a Family plan for $15 per family per month, a Team plan for $50 per 25-member team per month, and a Business plan for $250 for the entire team per month, all billed annually.<\/p>\n Image: <\/em>Bear<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Bear offers a refreshing combination of simplicity and sophistication to note-taking with its clean, tag-based organization system. Its elegant Markdown capabilities deliver a great writing experience, which is enhanced by beautiful typography and themes. Recent updates have introduced callouts for highlighting important information, math formula support, and a refreshed design. Its intuitive interface makes capturing and organizing your thoughts effortless, while its Apple ecosystem integration means everything synchronizes seamlessly.<\/p>\n You can track how much time you spend on Bear<\/a> in Timing.<\/p>\n Pros:<\/strong><\/p>\n Cons:<\/strong><\/p>\n Price: <\/strong>Bear<\/a> has a free plan available. Its Pro plan costs $29.99 per year.<\/p>\n Image: <\/em>Ulysses<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Ulysses offers a pristine writing environment and powerful organization capabilities that professional writers and long-form note-takers love. Its library-style organization with groups and filters helps manage complex writing projects effortlessly. And its Markdown-based editor excels with a distraction-free interface and seamless synchronization across Apple devices. Ulysses recently received a major Liquid Glass redesign for macOS Tahoe, with a refreshed library, dashboard, and toolbars. While perfect for authors and journalists, Ulysses\u2019 subscription model may deter casual users who prefer a one-time purchase option for what is essentially a premium text editor.<\/p>\n Find out more about how Ulysses integrates with Timing here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Read more: <\/strong>The Best Mac Apps: Get an Instant Upgrade for your Mac (No Hardware Purchases Required)<\/a><\/p>\n Pros:<\/strong><\/p>\n Cons:<\/strong><\/p>\n Price: <\/strong>Ulysses<\/a> costs $39.99 per year, or $5.99 per month. Reduced pricing is available for students.<\/p>\n Image: <\/em>Apple Notes<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n A built-in Mac product (and, as a result, totally free), Apple Notes delivers seamless integration across all Apple devices, making note-taking effortlessly accessible whether you\u2019re on your Mac, iPhone or iPad. If you haven\u2019t used it much in recent years, you\u2019ll likely be impressed by its recent upgrades! With macOS Tahoe, Apple Notes received a Liquid Glass design overhaul alongside enhanced Apple Intelligence features including audio recording with live transcription and AI-generated summaries, plus Markdown support. With handwriting, sketching, document scanning and rich media attachments, it\u2019s surprisingly powerful and versatile. And its clean interface prioritizes simplicity while offering powerful organization through folders and tags. Apple Notes is slightly different to other Mac writing tools, like TextEdit.<\/p>\n While Apple Notes is great for rich notes and organization, TextEdit is better for quick text processing and for switching between rich and plain text.<\/p>\n Learn more: <\/strong>Automatic Time Tracking for Apple Notes<\/a><\/p>\n Pros:<\/strong><\/p>\n Cons:<\/strong><\/p>\n Price: <\/strong>Apple Notes<\/a> is free and comes pre-installed on all macOS, iOS and iPad devices.<\/p>\n Image: <\/em>Notion<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Notion is a much-loved versatile workspace that allows for structured note-taking. It combines documents, databases, kanban boards and wikis into one flexible platform, with block-based architecture that allows you to build anything from simple notes to complex project management systems. With extensive templates and customization options, Notion adapts to virtually any workflow. Notion 3.0 introduced autonomous AI Agents that can execute multi-step workflows, though meaningful AI access now requires a Business plan or higher (Free and Plus users get only 20 trial AI responses). However, its jack-of-all-trades approach creates a steeper learning curve, and can be overwhelming if you just need simple, straightforward note-taking support. It\u2019s also not a Mac-native solution.<\/p>\n Read more: <\/strong>Automatic Time Tracking for Notion<\/a><\/p>\n Pros:<\/strong><\/p>\n Cons:<\/strong><\/p>\n Price:<\/strong> Notion<\/a> has a free plan. It costs $10 per seat per month for the Plus plan and $20 per seat per month for the Business plan (which includes full AI access), both billed annually. Enterprise plans are also available.<\/p>\n Image: <\/em>Obsidian<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n If knowledge graphs suit your thinking processes, Obsidian might be the app for you. Obsidian\u2019s knowledge graphs connect your thoughts through bidirectional linking, which makes it easier to discover relationships between your ideas and build a personal knowledge network that evolves as your understanding deepens. Built on plain Markdown files, Obsidian also offers unparalleled flexibility and data ownership, and the vibrant plugin ecosystem (with over 1,000 community plugins) extends functionality to match any workflow. A recent addition is the Obsidian CLI, which lets you script and automate workflows from the command line. While newcomers might find the app has a lot to digest, Obsidian rewards persistence by helping you create a deeply personal and interconnected knowledge system. It\u2019s also offline-first.<\/p>\n Obsidian also integrates seamlessly with Timing<\/a>.<\/p>\n Pros:<\/strong><\/p>\n Cons:<\/strong><\/p>\n Price:<\/strong> Obsidian<\/a> is free without limits \u2014 including for commercial use (the commercial license is now optional). There are also optional add-on services: the Sync plan costs $4 per user per month, and the Publish plan costs $8 per user per month, both billed annually. You can also buy an optional Catalyst license ($25 one-time) to support Obsidian\u2019s development.<\/p>\n Image: <\/em>Roam Research<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Roam Research also uses a bidirectional linking system, allowing you to connect ideas organically across your knowledge base. The graph view visualizes these connections, while daily notes encourage you to document your thoughts consistently. Its block-based structure helps you to reference information accurately, transforming scattered thoughts into an interconnected web of knowledge. Like Obsidian, its steep learning curve remains its biggest hurdle for newcomers who might feel overwhelmed by its non-hierarchical approach. As a result, it caters better to advanced users than beginners.<\/p>\n A note on Roam’s development pace:<\/strong> While Roam Research pioneered bidirectional linking for note-taking, its development has slowed significantly<\/a> in recent years. Feature requests from 2021 remain unaddressed, and many in the community have migrated to alternatives like Obsidian, which offers a larger plugin ecosystem and more active development \u2014 for free. At $15\/month, Roam is among the most expensive tools on this list, so prospective users should consider whether the current pace of development justifies the premium.<\/p>\n Pros:<\/strong><\/p>\n Cons:<\/strong><\/p>\n Price: <\/strong>Roam Research<\/a>\u2019s Pro plan costs $15 per month, or $165 per year ($13.75\/month equivalent) when billed annually. Its Believer plan costs $500 and is valid for five years.<\/p>\n Image: <\/em>The Archive<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n The Archive is a simple note-taking app for macOS geared towards authors who want to write more. It uses an opinionated single-folder storage system of plain text files to create flexible structures with links between notes, instead of rigid directory trees. It is designed to work well as a Zettelkasten, an external thinking system where ideas are linked organically. Fans love how blazingly fast, smooth, light and effortless The Archive is to use, and rave about its extraordinary search functionality. With its strong opinions on file storage, The Archive does have a particular way of doing things, but users can experience a flurry of advantages if they lean into it. Note that The Archive is a solo developer project, and version 2 is actively in development<\/a> with a visual refresh for macOS Tahoe.<\/p>\n Pros:<\/strong><\/p>\n Cons:<\/strong><\/p>\n Price: <\/strong>The Archive<\/a> costs $19.99.<\/p>\n Image: <\/em>Agenda<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Agenda stands out with its innovative date-focused approach to note-taking, seamlessly blending calendar and notes in one elegant package. The timeline organization makes it perfect for project planning and meeting notes, while its beautiful design enhances the note-taking experience. A recent addition is “Ask Agenda,” an Apple Intelligence-powered on-device assistant that can answer natural language questions about your notes. The premium subscription unlocks powerful features. While it\u2019s generally an advantage, you may find the date-centric structure limiting for certain types of information that don\u2019t naturally fit a chronological framework.<\/p>\n Pros:<\/strong><\/p>\n Cons:<\/strong><\/p>\n Price:<\/strong> Agenda<\/a> is free to use. There are some premium features which you can unlock by subscribing for $34.99\/year. Once the subscription ends, you\u2019ll be able to keep using all premium features released up until the end of your subscription forever. As an alternative, the Lifetime access option grants you access to all current and future premium features forever for a one-off fee of $119.99.<\/p>\n Image: <\/em>NotePlan<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n NotePlan is a calendar-focused productivity tool that bridges the gap between calendar, tasks and notes in one cohesive Markdown-based system. By automatically linking daily notes to calendar dates, it creates a natural workflow for time-based planning, while supporting backlinks for connected thinking. The clean interface stays focused on content without sacrificing power. One shortcoming is its search functionality, which is less robust than competitors, making it difficult to find specific information across a large collection of notes.<\/p>\n Pros:<\/strong><\/p>\n Cons:<\/strong><\/p>\n Price:<\/strong> NotePlan<\/a> costs $12 per month, or $99.99 per year (equivalent to $8.33\/month) when billed annually. It is also available via Setapp<\/a>.<\/p>\n Image: <\/em>Goodnotes<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Goodnotes transforms digital note-taking with its intuitive handwriting and sketching offering. It maintains the feel of writing on paper, while offering the digital advantage of perfectly syncing across all your Apple devices. Goodnotes 7 introduced text documents with columns and tables, an infinite canvas whiteboard, and Google Calendar integration. The app excels at PDF annotation and offers customizable notebooks with searchable handwritten notes \u2014 even for those with messy handwriting! Its collaboration and sharing capabilities are a little basic, but if you\u2019re a solo note-taker, this shouldn\u2019t be a problem.<\/p>\n Price:<\/strong> Goodnotes<\/a> has a free plan (limited to 3 files). The Essential plan costs $11.99 per year, the Special Edition is a one-time purchase of $35.99, and the Pro plan costs $35.99 per year. An AI Pass add-on is available for $9.99 per month.<\/p>\n Image: <\/em>Table of Contents<\/h2>\n
What Makes for a Great Note-taking App for Mac?<\/h2>\n
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The Best Note-taking Apps for Mac: Full Reviews<\/h2>\n
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Popular and Versatile Note-taking Apps<\/h3>\n
1. Craft<\/a><\/h4>\n
![\"best_note_taking_apps_for_mac_craft\"](\"https:\/\/timingapp.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/best_note_taking_apps_for_mac_craft-770x434.png\")
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2. Bear<\/a><\/h4>\n
![\"best_note_taking_apps_for_mac_bear\"](\"https:\/\/timingapp.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/best_note_taking_apps_for_mac_bear-770x563.jpg\")
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3. Ulysses<\/a><\/h4>\n
![\"best_note_taking_apps_for_mac_ulysses\"](\"https:\/\/timingapp.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/best_note_taking_apps_for_mac_ulysses-770x500.png\")
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4. Apple Notes<\/a><\/h4>\n
![\"best_note_taking_apps_for_mac_apple_notes\"](\"https:\/\/timingapp.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/best_note_taking_apps_for_mac_apple_notes-770x501.png\")
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5. Notion<\/a><\/h4>\n
![\"best_note_taking_apps_for_mac_notion\"](\"https:\/\/timingapp.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/best_note_taking_apps_for_mac_notion-770x499.png\")
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Research and Knowledge Management Apps<\/h3>\n
6. Obsidian<\/a><\/h4>\n
![\"best_note_taking_apps_for_mac_obsidian\"](\"https:\/\/timingapp.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/best_note_taking_apps_for_mac_obsidian-770x454.png\")
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7. Roam Research<\/a><\/h4>\n
![\"best_note_taking_apps_for_mac_roam_research\"](\"https:\/\/timingapp.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/best_note_taking_apps_for_mac_roam_research-770x536.png\")
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8. The Archive<\/a><\/h4>\n
![\"best_note_taking_apps_for_mac_zettelkasten\"](\"https:\/\/timingapp.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/best_note_taking_apps_for_mac_zettelkasten-770x505.png\")
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Calendar and Task-integrated Note Apps<\/h3>\n
9. Agenda<\/a><\/h4>\n
![\"best_note_taking_apps_for_mac_agenda\"](\"https:\/\/timingapp.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/best_note_taking_apps_for_mac_agenda-770x565.png\")
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10. NotePlan<\/a><\/h4>\n
![\"best_note_taking_apps_for_mac_noteplan\"](\"https:\/\/timingapp.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/best_note_taking_apps_for_mac_noteplan-770x578.png\")
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Alternatives for Special Use Cases<\/h2>\n
If You\u2019re Looking For Handwriting-based Notes Apps for Mac<\/h3>\n
11. Goodnotes<\/a><\/h4>\n
![\"best_note_taking_apps_for_mac_goodnotes\"](\"https:\/\/timingapp.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/best_note_taking_apps_for_mac_goodnotes-770x653.png\")
<\/p>\n12. Notability<\/a><\/h4>\n
![\"best_note_taking_apps_for_mac_notability\"](\"https:\/\/timingapp.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/best_note_taking_apps_for_mac_notability-770x554.png\")
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