The phrase "Notion alternative for note-taking" hides a decision you have not
made yet. Notion is a database-backed workspace where a note is really a page
of blocks living inside a hosted account. When people go looking for something
else to take notes in, they are usually reacting to one of three specific
things about that setup: it feels heavy for quick capture, it keeps their
writing in a proprietary format they do not control, or they are paying (or
about to pay) for structure they do not use. Which of those is bothering you
decides which alternative is actually better, and the tools below are not
interchangeable.
The real split
Two questions predict almost everything. First, where do your notes physically
live: as plain files on your own device, or as blocks inside someone else's
hosted app? That answer sets how portable your notes are and how hard it is to
leave later. Second, what does the free tier actually let you do, because in
this category "free" ranges from genuinely unlimited to a thinly disguised
trial. Everything else, the templates, the sync, the collaboration, sits on top
of those two facts. So the products below are grouped by the kind of buyer they
suit, not ranked, because the "best" one depends on which of the two questions
you care about more.
Obsidian: if you want to own your notes
Obsidian is the cleanest answer to the lock-in complaint. It "stores your notes
locally as plain text Markdown files," uses "open file formats, so you're never
locked in," and works offline because your notes sit on your device rather than
on a server. For personal use it is free with no sign-up and no feature limits.
The paid parts are optional add-ons, not a subscription you need to write notes.
Sync, which adds cross-device syncing with end-to-end encryption and version
history, is $4 per user per month billed annually, or $5 month-to-month. Publish,
for turning a vault into a website, is $8 per site per month annually, or $10
month-to-month. Organizations are asked to buy a commercial license at $50 per
user per year. The trade-off is that you assemble your own stack: the base app
is a local editor, and sync, collaboration, and publishing are pieces you add
and pay for only when you need them. For a single knowledge worker who wants
speed, privacy, and an exit, that is usually the right shape.
Logseq: the open-source outliner
Logseq serves the same "I want to own my data" instinct but for people who think
in bullets and linked blocks rather than documents. It describes itself as "a
privacy-first, open-source platform for knowledge management," is licensed under
AGPL-3.0, downloads for free, and stores notes locally in Markdown and Org-mode
files. If you want the local-file portability of Obsidian but prefer an outliner
where every bullet is a block you can reference, this is the closer fit. The
honest trade-off is maturity: a smaller ecosystem and rougher edges than the
commercial tools, which is the usual cost of open source.
Evernote: capture and search, if the free cap works
Evernote invented the "clip anything, find it later" workflow that a lot of
people actually miss about note-taking, but its free tier is no longer a place
to live. The free plan is capped at 50 notes and a single notebook, syncs across
only one device, and includes 1 GB of storage, plus limits of 5 spaces, 20 tags,
and 200 attachments. In practice that makes free Evernote a trial rather than a
long-term home, so the deciding question is whether its capture and search are
worth a paid subscription to you. If web clipping and powerful search are the
features you are really shopping for, budget for a paid tier from the start; if
they are not, the free-tier ceiling will find you fast.
OneNote and Apple Notes: free and already installed
If the complaint is simply that Notion is more tool than you need, the answer may
already be on your machine. All supported versions of OneNote are free to
download and use, with certain premium features unlocked by an optional Microsoft
365 subscription. It ships as free standalone apps on Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad,
and Android, which makes it the cross-platform free option. Microsoft 365
Personal, at $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year, adds extras such as Ink Replay,
Researcher, and Math Assistant, but you do not need it to take notes. OneNote's
freeform canvas suits people who want to drop text, images, and ink anywhere on a
page.
Apple Notes is the same idea inside one ecosystem. It is free for Apple users,
with storage counting against your iCloud allowance (there is a 5 GB free tier),
and it syncs the same note across Mac, iPhone, and iPad through iCloud. The catch
is the boundary: there is no Windows or Android app and no web app, so it is only
a serious option if every device you use is Apple. Between the two, the deciding
factor is not features, it is which ecosystem you live in: cross-platform points
to OneNote, all-Apple points to Apple Notes, and both cost nothing.
Craft: polished documents for sharing
Craft is the pick when the notes are going to be seen by someone else. It leans
toward beautiful, structured documents rather than a sprawling personal wiki. The
free plan allows up to 1,500 blocks across all your documents, 1 GB of storage,
a 25 MB media upload limit, and 7-day version history, with a paid Plus tier
lifting the block and storage caps. The 1,500-block ceiling is the number to
watch: it is generous for occasional documents and tight if Craft becomes your
daily driver, which is exactly the line between its free and paid tiers.
What to check before you commit
Pricing and limits in this category move, so treat every figure here, mine
included, as something to confirm on the vendor's own page before you buy.
- Price the tier that has the feature you need, not the entry tier. Obsidian Sync, Craft's unlimited blocks, OneNote's premium tools, and any real Evernote use all sit above the free line.
- Find the free-tier ceiling and decide if you will hit it. Evernote's 50-note cap and Craft's 1,500-block cap are the ones most likely to surprise you months in.
- Check portability before you have data to move. Plain-text local files, as in Obsidian and Logseq, export trivially and travel with you; hosted apps require an export step you should test during the trial, not after a year of notes.
- Count your devices and platforms. Apple Notes is Apple-only, free Evernote syncs just one device, while OneNote and Obsidian span operating systems.
A reasonable default
For an individual who wants to own their notes and keep an exit, Obsidian is the
lower-risk default: free, local files in an open format, with sync added only if
you actually need it. If you live entirely inside Apple, Apple Notes is free and
already there; if you are cross-platform and want free, OneNote is the equivalent
that costs nothing. Reach for Craft when the notes are documents other people
will read, and for Logseq when you want Obsidian-style ownership in an outliner.
Keep Evernote on the list only if its capture is the specific thing you are
buying, because its free tier is now a trial rather than a home.
And if what you actually miss is Notion's databases rather than its notes, that
is worth noticing: the honest answer may be that you do not want a note-taking
app at all, and you should keep the workspace and fix the workflow instead.
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