Note-taking apps

In the past few months I've been going around finding a good note-taking app.
For some people, it's easy as picking the these proprietary services (not that they're not good), or the 'popular' ones promoted and being feed into society.
Like everyone else, I have my preferences and criteria.

After comparing and testing several for myself, I ended up using Trilium Notes.
It was really a close battle between Obsidian vs Trilium Notes.
I really don't think anyone could go wrong choosing either one.
The way I see it now:
If you don't like tinkering - use Obsidian.
If your mindset is more 'adventurous' - use Trilium Notes.
One thing for sure - you need to try them both and see which one fits your need, no wrong choice between the two.

I'm listing out the ones I've tried and this is just a post to give my take on it. Each one with a link goes to their respective website/info, for your reference - who knows, maybe you're also looking for a note-taking app to settle down on.

Here are the note-taking apps that I've been testing:

M$ OneNote (100% crappy & lazy choice):

This one shouldn't even be on the list in the first place.
But since I'm working for one of the company that signed a blood pact with M$ services (like many other companies out there, total lockdown, 100% doom and gloom), well, it just make sense for me to at least give it a try.

It's an opportunity for me to squeeze in a little hate-post for M$ like what everyone is doing on the internet these days. I mean, I gave it a try for 3 days (...and really hated it).
If you're in Tech, I don't really have to explain why I didn't choose OneNote.

It's from M$, what do you expect? So in a typical modern-Microsoft-fashion, I found that it lacks a LOT of features - even basic features that are on every other note-taking app, but not in OneNote.

For example, there's no option to create code blocks. I'll give you a perspective. It's just mind-boggling how a feature like inserting a code block is widely available on Microsoft Teams, even on its 1:1 chat, but, it's not available on OneNote. Heck what are you doing M$? Time and time again.

I can't call it anything else - if you have (or maybe are) using OneNote, try a different note-taking app. You'll soon see that it's really not designed for users. It was never even thought that way. It's more to fish the corporate businesses (not its users!) with the outer design & first-look impression etc.
Look, I understand that if your personal computer is running Windows, any Microsoft services would be shove in your head somehow anyway, heck, it might be under your bed when you wake up in the morning. I guess for others that actually do use it, I'm here to tell you that you're left behind on a lot of things. I'm not talking about stuff that people chase every year to be the first, I'm talking about basic needs that a note-taking app should have in 2025.

Also - there's no OneNote client for Linux or macOS, it's just PWA-based, data stored in M$ data centres, no option to self-host even as a backup. Sorry, not sorry.

Joplin (The basic choice):

One of my favourite - simple & workable.
It has options to sync with the popular cloud storage, even on OneDrive (with encryption that can be enabled).
The encryption is done on the client-side, before it gets uploaded to your cloud storage provider. And when it gets downloaded, it also decrypts on the client side.
So you can think of this as more like "local-first approach" which I think is really awesome.

Why I didn't end up choosing it, is because. the Markdown Editor that it uses in the app lack some intuitiveness (for me personally).
Again, it's not due to Markdown Editor, nor am I jabbing Joplin - it's just the way that Markdown Editor works in Joplin.

While I was using it though, I did notice that it does have another type of editor that I can change to, but I get a prompt saying that the other editor doesn't support certain things. Those are the only real reasons I put in Joplin just down below the level of Trilium Notes & Obsidian.

Joplin is free + open-source at its core, which is a plus for users.
Multiple platform supported - Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android.
It even has an official extension called 'Joplin Web Clipper' for browsers.
I can see myself getting used to using Joplin if I have to (who knows, maybe in the future?), I feel quite comfortable when I was using it.

Obisidian (Can't go wrong!):

This note-taking app is so popular among Linux users believe it or not, and so it's no surprise that some people thought Obsidian is an open-source solution.
But no - it's actually proprietary (the good kind, if there's a word to describe it).

In another world, I can see myself using Obsidian - I really do. I gave it a try for one month and l really like it.
In terms of features, it's just complete. I'd dare say the best-looking one.

But I didn't end up sticking with Obsidian - for several reason, one of which - its Sync feature is actually a paid option.
Having said that - if you want a completely free alternative option to sync your notes on Obsidian - there's a plugin called 'RemotelySave' in which you can sync your notes using some popular cloud storage services. There's also a plugin called Self-hosted LiveSync - in which you can just self-host - spin it up on Docker and you're good to go. Another option? Sync it with Git - it's crazy how this is a feature, free backup lol!

Obsidian clients are on every major platform including Linux, Windows, macOS, Android, iOS - I mean what more could you ask right? Seamless syncing.

Seriously, if you're looking a note-taking app, give Obsidian a go - you'll see what I mean. And if you don't mind paying for a note-taking app, I'd say choosing Obisidian native sync is not a bad choice at all. It's only like $4 USD per month, and it's NOT like it's Microsoft/Google/Amazon or any of the peeping Big Techs.

For me personally though - it comes down to its core license cost to the user:
Free + Open-source (Trilium Notes) vs Freemium-ish+proprietary (Obsidian).
Plus I don't like being tied to anything anymore in the world of internet.

Trilium Notes (Why I have chosen this):

Right - if you've tried the Obsidian app and you've never tried the Trilium Notes app - it's definitely worth checking out. The client works out of the box (locally). I can say - you'll feel right at home if you're used to Obsidian (in fact, TriliumNotes offers a lot more advanced features that I'm going to talk about here).

You see - Trilium Notes is free + open-source + features, which is ultimately why I end up using it, and I love it. The best way for me to describe the experience of using it:

Trilium Notes is like an advanced, futuristic, modern & clean-looking version of Joplin, combine with features like you see on Obsidian, and more.

Similar to Joplin - it's got that local-first approach. If you need sync features, you're going to have to self-host (that's me right there), or, deploy an instance on an 'Always-Free'-tier services like what GCP or Azure offers if you dare, or, cheap VPS.
It doesn't do 'sync your notes to your popular cloud storage' (also me, right here).
In fact, there's a service called trilium.cc - which you can deploy your own Trilium Notes instance at $3.50 per month.
I went with self-hosting-free option though, as I don't see the need for me to deploy a paid instance anywhere.

Similar to Obsidian - the experience is much alike + more. It uses WYSIWYG Editor at default, as well as full support for Markdown Editor, so you can switch back and forth. The notes structure is my favourite - sort of of like a 'tree-hierarchy' approach to it, while Obsidian is more like 'notes-inside-folders' approach.

Now, there are downsides to everything.
Currently, it doesn't have any iOS client, at all - though the mobile-view PWA is pretty well designed. In fact, it doesn't even have an official native Android client. It does have a third-party open source Android client, called TriliumDroid.
I don't even have TriliumDroid installed on my mobile - the mobile-view PWA is already more than good enough for me to operate & use it.

Again - the way I see it, this is still the 'adventurous' mind-set option, fits perfectly for me. The tinkering part is only to make sure your notes sync with other clients you may have. If you're only using it on one client, say a computer, and you don't need to sync anything - it just works out-of-the-box anyway! Over time, I'm betting there'll be some community project out there creating a client for iOS and also a native-client for Android.