Microsoft OneNote
Microsoft OneNote is a digital notebook app that holds typed notes, drawings, screenshots and web clippings in cloud-backed notebooks. It is mainly used for class notes, research organization and everyday note-taking across devices.
#27 in Productivity ToolsNote-Taking AppsFree plan
Who it's for
Best for
Students who keep class notes, slides and sketches in one cloud notebook
Writers and researchers organizing long projects chapter by chapter
Not for
Teams that need multi-device sync to hold up without losing edits
Android tablet owners who handwrite notes with a stylus all day
Features
Free digital notebook
OneNote is a digital notebook that is free to sign up for, and it runs in the browser for note-taking without a paid licence.
Sketch, annotate and highlight
Pages support free sketching, annotation and highlighting, so handwriting, drawings and marks sit alongside typed notes.
Share and collaborate
Notebooks can be shared and edited collaboratively through the share and collaborate functions of the web app.
OneNote in Education
A dedicated education section covers classroom use and school note-taking alongside the standard notebook.
OneNote for the Web
The web app opens after signing in, giving access to notebooks in a browser without installing the desktop version.
What users say
Pros
- Cloud sync keeps phone and PC notes aligned, with screenshots and multimedia pasted into the same page.
- Holds an entire book project, every chapter plus editing notes and editorial letters, in one notebook.
- Drawing practice happens on train commutes with the app open on a tablet or phone.
- Has stayed the everyday notebook on a home system for a decade, with notes kept in one place.
Cons
- Pen strokes on an Android tablet arrive about a second late, which makes handwriting feel unnatural.
- Notes fail to sync between phone and laptop, and finished work has vanished mid-project.
- Eraser strokes and undo respond several seconds late, and imported slides shift when a new pen is selected.
- The browser version runs slowly and leaves out features, including searching handwriting.
- When cloud storage fills up, deleting pages is blocked and newer apps cannot export notebooks locally.
A selection of the review sources we used:
Summarized from public user reviews and community discussions. View details
Global Traffic Rank
Top 50k
Alternatives
Rank#27 in category#1 in category#9 in category#16 in category
Free planYesYesYesYes
ProCloud sync, whole-book notebooks, long-term daily useFree, instant syncing, simple, private, quick capture, smart tagsLocal markdown files, linked notes, daily notes, fast syncMarkdown notes, nested tags, large libraries, fast iPhone capture
Weaker atAccessing notes across non-Apple platforms like Windows and Android