iPad Note Taking

Notes are, by definition, snippets of information— more like a fragment than a whole sentence. Note taking apps, then, are apps designed to help you capture thoughts or ideas quickly and easily, not edit or compose long form documents like your favorite text editor or write daily journal entries. There are a large number of apps that could potentially fall under the umbrella of “note-taking”; however, this AppGuide is for apps devoted to text notes, not text editors (e.g., IAWriter, Pages, or DocumentsToGo), handwriting apps (we covered those in a different AppGuide), or apps designed for use with Dropbox (those were also covered in a separate AppGuide). The remaining apps were evaluated based on their connectivity, speed, organizational options, export options, and reliability. The resulting collection should have something to please everyone.

Essential Apps

Notable Apps

Decent Apps

Good Apps With Untraditional Note Formats

  • Free

    Sticky Notes for iPad

    by tewks

  • Free

    Sticky Notes with Alarms and Sharing

    by TapFactory

  • $2.99

    abc Notes - Checklist & Sticky Note Application

    by ALSEDI Group

  • $3.99

    Trunk Notes

    by Apps On The Move

    Trunk Notes is a personal wiki that has too many features to be characterized as merely a note taking app. Its functionality will reward anyone who puts in the effort to master it.

Notes With Sound Recording

  • $4.99

    AudioNote - Notepad and Voice Recorder

    by Luminant Software, Inc

  • $4.99

    SoundNote

    by David Estes

  • $5.99

    Audiotorium Class & Meeting Notes

    by App Apps, LLC

  • $1.99

    Notorium Notes - Text Notes with Dropbox & TextExpander integration. Great for school or meetings!

    by App Apps, LLC

Apps that Sync with Companion Mac apps

  • $9.99

    Yojimbo for iPad

    by Bare Bones Software, Inc.

    Yojimbo is essentially a portable snapshot of the information you have in your Yojimbo Mac app; it syncs the notes on your Mac to your iPad via Wi-Fi. Unfortunately, the iPad version only supports copying text and emailing notes, not editing or adding to your documents. Yojimbo for Mac is an excellent app with impressive functionality, and iPad users can only hope that BareBones enhances the iPad app to include a more streamlined syncing process or creates an iOS-specific version. Until then, this app is only for those who use Yojimbo extensively on their Macs, want to take their information with them, and don’t mind a manual syncing process.

  • $10.99

    DEVONthink To Go

    by DEVONtechnologies, LLC

    DEVONThink ToGo is a well-organized app that is designed to work with the developer’s powerful Mac app. Although the app can be used by itself, the developer itself notes that this “does not unfold its full potential.” The app allows you to edit your notes on any device and then sync to your other devices via local Wi-Fi. The app supports full-text search of notes, labels and flags, and includes an innovative “location view” that shows your notes as pins on a map based on where they were created. Each note can be shared via email or the “open in” function. These functions aren’t enough to set the app apart from its competitors, so at this point it’s really only for those who use the developer’s Mac products and want a mobile companion.

  • $29.99

    Circus Ponies NoteBook

    by Circus Ponies Software, Inc.

    Circus Ponies NoteBook offers most of the features of the Mac app on the iPad, as well as the ability to sync notebooks with your Mac via Dropbox. Although the app is well-designed and has lots of features, it is a bit sluggish and more expensive than other apps in the Guide.

Other Apps