Best note-taking apps, judged by the free plan

Product	Best for	Per month, yearly plan	The deciding fact, and the catch	Link
Obsidian	Best free plan	$4	Free for any use, with notes as local Markdown files. Syncing needs a paid add-on at $4 to $5 a month, or a DIY setup.	Visit
Joplin	Best for free encrypted sync	Free	Open source, end-to-end encrypted, free sync through Dropbox or OneDrive. Joplin Cloud is EUR 2.40 a month yearly, USD unconfirmed, with a 10 MB per-file cap.	Visit
Bear	Best for Apple users	$2.50	Pro is $29.99 a year, against $48 for Obsidian Sync. It runs on Mac, iPhone and iPad only, and iCloud sync needs Pro.	Visit

Use Obsidian. The app is free for any purpose, including commercial work, and your notes sit on your disk as plain Markdown files. Sync is optional at $4 a month on annual billing, as of November 1, 2026.

Note apps have one trick: the free plan decides when you start paying. So here they are, ranked by how long you can avoid it.

Free, and it stays that way

Obsidian. Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android, with no commercial restriction. The catch is getting notes between devices. Obsidian Sync costs $5 a month, or $4 on annual billing, for 1 GB with end-to-end AES-256 encryption. Otherwise you build something yourself.

Joplin. Same five platforms, open source, end-to-end encryption built in. Where Obsidian charges for its own sync, Joplin lets you sync free through Dropbox or OneDrive. That's the better deal if you don't mind wiring it up.

Joplin Cloud is the paid alternative, based in France under EU privacy law. Basic is EUR 2.99 a month or EUR 2.40 on yearly billing (EUR 28.69 a year). Its USD price is unconfirmed, since the vendor page showed EUR when read.

Basic gives you 2 GB, twice Obsidian Sync's Standard plan, but each note or attachment stops at 10 MB (checked Nov 1, 2026).

Free, until you own a second device

Bear. Mac, iPhone and iPad only. The free plan skips iCloud sync, so one phone and one laptop already means paying.

Pro is $2.99 a month or $29.99 a year, with a free trial. That's cheaper than Obsidian Sync at $48 a year, and your notes stay between you and iCloud, with Advanced Data Protection supported. OCR search and export to PDF, HTML, DOCX and JPG are also Pro.

No Windows. No Android. If that ever changes for you, Joplin is the one that comes with you.

Free, until you attach a file

Notion. Free uploads stop at 5 MB per file, where paid plans allow up to 5 GB (checked Nov 1, 2026). Notion's desktop page lists macOS and Windows, and its pricing page says its AI won't train on your data unless you opt in.

Notion's paid prices aren't confirmed yet, so check its pricing page before you plan around a paid tier.

Then AI. Breeze.pm, checked Sep 10, 2026, and a competitor of Notion, says credit-funded features need Business, and that Free and Plus can't buy credits. So the plan named Plus doesn't include the plus you might have come for.

Pick it for the wikis and databases. Obsidian and Joplin are better homes for plain notes.

Free, for 50 notes

Evernote. The free plan is 50 notes, 1 notebook, 1 synced device and 1 GB. Fifty. The Obsidian and Joplin pages read for this list no such count (checked Nov 1, 2026).

Evernote's plans page showed no prices when read, and its paid prices aren't confirmed yet.

A TidBITS Talk forum thread posted Jul 11, 2026 has a user reporting that existing users are being moved to new tiers. Paid plans carry a 7-day free trial.

Bear Pro costs $29.99 a year. Evernote's price isn't confirmed yet.