I’ve bounced between Evernote, Notion, OneNote, Apple Notes, and Obsidian, and every time I think I’ve found the best note-taking app, I end up switching again. My notes are now scattered across multiple platforms, and it’s making work and personal organization harder. I need help choosing a note-taking app that’s easy to stick with long term, works across devices, and won’t make migrating notes a nightmare later.
I stuck with Obsidian.
Reason was simple. My notes stopped being trapped in one app. They sit as plain markdown files in folders I own. If Obsidian dies, your notes still exist. For me, taht mattered more than fancy features.
What made me stay:
- Fast local search.
- Works offline.
- Easy backlinks.
- Files are portable.
- Plugins exist, but you do not need 50 of them.
Why I left the others:
Evernote got bloated.
Notion felt slow for quick capture.
OneNote was fine, but export felt messy.
Apple Notes was smooth, but too tied to Apple.
My setup is boring on purpose.
Inbox note.
Daily note.
Projects folder.
Reference folder.
Archive folder.
If you keep switching, pick the app with the best export story. Then force a 6 month freeze. No testing. No migrations. Your problem sounds less like features and more like trust. Obsidian fixed taht for me.
I ended up committing to Apple Notes, which is probably the least exciting answer in a thread like this.
I get why @codecrafter landed on Obsidian, but I actually think ‘plain files first’ is overrated for a lot of people. Most note-taking failures are not export problems, they’re capture problems. If an app makes it frictionless to throw stuff in instantly, you’ll actually use it. If it turns every note into a tiny system design project, you’ll drift again.
That was me with Notion and Obsidian. I spent more time tweaking structure than writing anything useful. Real clown behavior on my part tbh.
Why Apple Notes won:
- stupid fast on phone
- scans docs well
- quick checklists
- solid search
- locked notes for sensitive stuff
- zero temptation to ‘build a second brain’
Is it portable? Nope, not really.
Is it elegant? Also nope.
Do I use it every day without thinking? Yep.
That became my metric. Not ‘best features.’ Not ‘future proof.’ Just: does this app reduce resistance enough that I consistently dump ideas, receipts, meeting notes, random life admin, all of it, into one place?
If you keep switching, I’d stop asking which app is best and ask which app you resist the least. That answer is usually less cool, but way more stable. Sometimes boring wins, and yeah, taht annoyed me too.
I finally stuck with OneNote, which is funny because it was never my “favorite” app.
My slight disagreement with @codecrafter: I do think portability matters more than people admit, just not enough to outweigh daily usability. If your system survives only while you’re excited about it, it’s not a system.
Why OneNote held:
- freeform pages are great for messy thinking
- better separation between work/personal/reference stuff
- decent web clipping
- strong for meeting notes and long-form dumps
- works well across Windows, web, phone, tablet
Why I did not stay with the others:
- Notion felt too deliberate for quick capture
- Obsidian was great in theory, high maintenance in practice
- Apple Notes is excellent for speed, but I wanted better organization for larger piles of notes
- Evernote just felt like a tool I used to love
Pros of OneNote
- flexible layout
- solid search
- easy hierarchy
- good handwriting/stylus support
Cons of OneNote
- can get visually chaotic
- sync occasionally feels weird
- exported notes are not as clean as plain markdown
- mobile experience is fine, not amazing
My rule now: one app for 90 percent of notes, not one app for every possible note. That mindset stopped the switching more than any feature did.