Best Alternative for OneNote

[Cireeric]

Over the years I always collected my notes, knowledge and a lot of useful resources in my commonplace book on OneNote. It was really helpful to keep track and re-visit all the stuff I learn and now with the update to the windows11 version I cant use the old version anymore and the new made my commonplace book totally messy and doesnt work as well and easy in my opinion.

What is the best alternative? I mostly valued that it was so easy and quick to use and worked and synched effortlessly between my phone and pc.

[bazera]

Have you tried Notion? 

Some people like Obsidian

https://obsidian.md/

[UnbornTao]

3 minutes ago, bazera said:

Have you tried Notion? 

Some people like Obsidian

https://obsidian.md/

Obsidian, definitely.

[Cireeric]

@bazera No, never tried Notion.

Thx guys, I will check them both out!

[Ramanujan]

obsidian is the king

[LordFall]

Love Obsidian it's the top software IMO. Notion is a shady company known to sneakily charge credit cards after you try cancelling and none of their data is encrypted so they read everything you store on there. 

[shenanigans]

I don’t like obsidian. Not the most convenient and requires lots of maintenance. Kinda like Linux to Windows, etc. Unless you’re actively pushing the upper limits or are super technical with your notes, you’re kinda just better off with good ol reliable OneNote, etc.

Edited March 16 by shenanigans

[integration journey]

1 hour ago, LordFall said:

Love Obsidian it's the top software IMO. Notion is a shady company known to sneakily charge credit cards after you try cancelling and none of their data is encrypted so they read everything you store on there. 

Why do you like about obsidian? 

[Cireeric]

17 hours ago, shenanigans said:

Unless you’re actively pushing the upper limits or are super technical with your notes, you’re kinda just better off with good ol reliable OneNote, etc.

Yeah, I also liked the simplicity of OneNote. But I find the new win11 version less elegant and also my notes didnt travel well to the new version, many notes lost and my commonplace book is a whole mess. 

[TimStr]

Also had the same problem with OneNote 3 years ago.

As a preamble: Get a software that you want to interact with on a daily basis and stick to it for at least 1-2 years (the longer the more you will get out of it). What you choose is actually not as important as sticking to it for a while. The software will not vastly improve your productivity or note taking skills (despite what influencers might tell you). But constantly switching or just not using it will cripple them in the long run.

In regards of the specific app: This is a higly personal choice, as there are many different styles of note taking. Here is a good take on that by Tiargo Forte, using the gardner, the librarian and the architect as note taking archetypes. (Don't fall for his building a second brain scheme though):

Here is a extremely comprehensive overview of most softwares out there. Give yourself a week or so to try a bunch of them and then pick one:

For me, as I am more of a "gardener note taker", the best option is Logseq. I was also using Obsidian in the past but found myself constantly abandoning it. Logseq is a little bit more unpolished/techy but gets work done way faster for me, than Obsidian, as everything is chronological by design. What I also like about both these softwares is that they store your notes as a collection of markdown text files on your computer. This essentially means, that the software doesn't lock your notes in, like Onenote does, but you can access those notes at any time as files using any basic text editor.

If you end up going with Obsidian, you might wanna check out this Onenote to Obsidian migration tool:
https://help.obsidian.md/import/onenote

If you like the simplicity of OneNote, you might like something simple like Trillium, Notesnook or Evernote.

People mentioned Notion. It is cloud based by default, which is a big red flag for me! You're personal knowledge is too important to not have a copy on your own machine.

Edited March 18 by TimStr

[Cireeric]

On 17.3.2026 at 4:20 PM, TimStr said:

Also had the same problem with OneNote 3 years ago.

As a preamble: Get a software that you want to interact with on a daily basis and stick to it for at least 1-2 years (the longer the more you will get out of it). What you choose is actually not as important as sticking to it for a while. The software will not vastly improve your productivity or note taking skills (despite what influencers might tell you). But constantly switching or just not using it will cripple them in the long run.

In regards of the specific app: This is a higly personal choice, as there are many different styles of note taking. Here is a good take on that by Tiargo Forte, using the gardner, the librarian and the architect as note taking archetypes. (Don't fall for his building a second brain scheme though):

Here is a extremely comprehensive overview of most softwares out there. Give yourself a week or so to try a bunch of them and then pick one:

For me, as I am more of a "gardener note taker", the best option is Logseq. I was also using Obsidian in the past but found myself constantly abandoning it. Logseq is a little bit more unpolished/techy but gets work done way faster for me, than Obsidian, as everything is chronological by design. What I also like about both these softwares is that they store your notes as a collection of markdown text files on your computer. This essentially means, that the software doesn't lock your notes in, like Onenote does, but you can access those notes at any time as files using any basic text editor.

If you end up going with Obsidian, you might wanna check out this Onenote to Obsidian migration tool:
https://help.obsidian.md/import/onenote

If you like the simplicity of OneNote, you might like something simple like Trillium, Notesnook or Evernote.

People mentioned Notion. It is cloud based by default, which is a big red flag for me! You're personal knowledge is too important to not have a copy on your own machine.

Wow, thanks for your comprehensive answer! Im still kinda procrastinating with making the transition, since Im a bit frustrated that my notetaking system is a mess right now, but I for sure will since I got a lot of value out of my commonplace book over the years. When I make the time I will watch the videos, Tiago is great!

[mmKay]

Obsidian by far. The canvas feature is amazing for visual thinkers. That alone is worth it as your life management system. 

 

Used one note 2013 for almost a decade, Notion for about a year. Never felt right for my personal needs.

And I absolutely don't trust Notion for some reason. I feel there will inevitably be the big 2028 Notion scandal or something.

They have way too much venture capital. I predict it's gonna be an Evernote 2.0 disaster 

Edited 1 hour ago by mmKay

[Joshe]

2 hours ago, mmKay said:

The canvas feature is amazing for visual thinkers.

My favorite feature.

If you've always been drawn to whiteboards and infinite canvases, you likely have non-linear cognition. And your preference for these things is your mind recognizing a compatible workspace for your thinking. Infinite canvases let you build and hold entire structures at once, which allows you to zoom into individual parts for analysis, and then zoom back out to see how it coheres with the whole. 

[Basman]

Never managed to find an alternative to Onenote that I liked.

[UnbornTao]

42 minutes ago, Basman said:

Never managed to find an alternative to Onenote that I liked.

Ew. Propietary format by Microslop.

[Basman]

3 minutes ago, UnbornTao said:

Ew. Propietary format by Microslop.

Oink 🐷