Best note-taking apps for Windows in 2026: offline, private and open source picks

What is the best note-taking app for Windows?

There isn't one winner, because people mean different things by "best". Here's the short version:

• OneNote: best free all-rounder, and the pick if you write with a pen.
• Obsidian: best for Markdown files on your own disk and a huge plugin library.
• Notion: best for teams, wikis and databases, if you are fine living in the cloud.
• Joplin: best open-source app that also runs on your phone.
• Standard Notes: best for end-to-end encrypted notes on every device, including the web.
• Koru: best for a private, offline desktop workspace with free, encrypted sync between your own computers.
• Evernote: best for web clipping, tasks and capture, if you'll pay for it.

How did we pick these apps?

We started from the apps people actually search for alongside "note taking app for Windows", then judged each one on the same questions:

• A real Windows app. A desktop app you install, not only a website.
• Offline use. Can you open and edit your notes with no connection, and how much of them?
• Where your notes live. On your device, on the company's servers, or both.
• Price in 2026. What the free plan allows and what the paid plans cost.
• Open source. Whether you can read the code that handles your notes.
• Sync and leaving. How your other devices get your notes, and how you get them out.

We didn't score apps on features we couldn't confirm from their own pages, and we left out apps that are no longer actively developed. Simplenote's own help page, for example, says it is no longer in active development, so it isn't in the main list. More on that in Koru as a Simplenote alternative.

How do the best Windows note-taking apps compare?

Side by side, as each company describes its own app:

1. OneNote: the best free option for most Windows users

OneNote is free, it's made by Microsoft, and it may already be on your PC. Its pages are free-form: you can type, paste images and draw anywhere, and its ink support is still the best here if you take notes with a pen on a Surface or another touchscreen laptop.

One thing to check: OneNote for Windows 10 reached end of support on October 14, 2025 and is now read-only, so you can open and export notes in it but not edit or sync them (Microsoft Support). The app to use now is OneNote on Windows, from the Microsoft Store or Microsoft 365.

Notebooks live in OneDrive or SharePoint, and every version keeps a cached copy so you can keep working offline; changes sync when you reconnect (Microsoft Support). The Windows desktop app is also the one version that can open notebooks stored on your PC (Microsoft Support). Sync and the mobile apps need a Microsoft account, and 5 GB of OneDrive storage is free.

Pick it if you want a free app that runs everywhere, or you write by hand. Skip it if you want your notes off Microsoft's cloud or in an open format. More in Koru as a OneNote alternative.

2. Obsidian: best for Markdown files and plugins

Obsidian is free for any use with no sign-up. Your notes are Markdown files in a folder on your disk, which means any text editor can open them and they work offline. Obsidian says its apps collect no telemetry. Thousands of community plugins and themes let you turn it into almost anything.

Sync is where you choose. Obsidian Sync costs $4 per user per month billed annually and is end-to-end encrypted with AES-256. Or you can sync the folder yourself with OneDrive, Syncthing or Git, which is free but means you fix it when it breaks. The app's code is not open source.

Pick it if you want plain files you control and like customizing your tools. Skip it if you want a polished experience without setting anything up. More in Koru as an Obsidian alternative.

3. Notion: best for teams, wikis and databases

Notion is a workspace for pages and databases, and it shines when several people share it: project trackers, team wikis, content calendars. The Free plan is unlimited for one person; Plus is $10 per member per month, and the full AI features come with Business.

Notion lives in the cloud. Since August 2025 the desktop and mobile apps can work offline, but only with pages you've downloaded one by one; paid plans also download recent and favorite pages automatically, subpages are not included, and a database brings only its first 50 rows (Notion Help). It isn't available offline in a browser at all.

Pick it if you work with a team and want databases. Skip it if you need everything available offline or want your notes off a company server. More in Koru as a Notion alternative.

4. Joplin: best open-source app with phone apps

Joplin is free and open source under the AGPL, with apps for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS, plus a web clipper for Chrome and Firefox. Notes are Markdown, stored on each device, and work offline.

You pick the sync: Joplin Cloud (from 2.40 EUR a month billed yearly for 2 GB), or a service you already have, such as Nextcloud, WebDAV, Dropbox, OneDrive or S3. End-to-end encryption is available in every app, but you have to turn it on, and the master password cannot be recovered. The desktop app is built on Electron, so it is heavier than a native app.

Pick it if you want open source on every device, including your phone. Skip it if you want sync that works without choosing and configuring a service. More in Koru as a Joplin alternative.

5. Standard Notes: best for end-to-end encrypted notes everywhere

Standard Notes is built around encryption. Its free plan includes end-to-end encrypted sync on unlimited devices, offline access and password protection for individual notes, with apps for Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android and the web. The code is open source under the AGPL.

The free plan is plain text. Rich text and Markdown (its Super notes), folders and the web clipper need Productivity at $90 a year; Professional, at $120 a year, adds 100 GB of encrypted file storage. Sync goes through a Standard Notes account, or a server you host yourself.

Pick it if encryption on every device, including your phone and a browser, matters most. Skip it if you want rich formatting for free.

6. Koru: best for a private, offline desktop workspace

Koru is my app, so here's the plain version. It's a free, open-source (MPL-2.0) workspace for notes, documents and files, written in Rust as a native desktop app, so it opens instantly. Your notes stay in a local database on your PC. It works fully offline, and you never create an account.

Sync is device to device. Link a second computer with a QR code or a short code, and the two sync directly over iroh, end-to-end encrypted, for free. A Windows PC and a Mac link the same way. The catch is that both need to be online at the same time; Koru Cloud, an optional, proprietary service at $9.99/month for 100 GB, keeps an always-on copy if they rarely are. Free self-hosted sync is coming soon, including a headless peer you can run on a Raspberry Pi.

It imports from Evernote (.enex), Notion, OneNote, Google Docs, Markdown and TextBundle, and exports to Markdown and TextBundle. It has full-text search, #tags, saved versions you can compare, and a built-in MCP server so AI tools such as Claude can read and edit your workspace. On Windows it's a zip with no installer and no admin rights; it needs 64-bit Windows on Intel or AMD, and there's no Windows on ARM build yet.

Skip it if you need a phone app, pen input, a web clipper or shared team workspaces. Koru doesn't have those today. Tasks, peer-to-peer collaboration and calendar integration are what we're building next, and Linux is on the roadmap. Pick it if you want your notes private, offline and on your own computers. Download Koru for Windows.

7. Evernote: best for capture and web clipping, at a price

Evernote is still a strong capture tool: a web clipper, search that reaches into images and documents, tasks, a calendar and AI features on paid plans, with apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android and the web.

The free plan is now very small: 50 notes, one notebook and one device. Starter costs $99 a year (or $14.99 a month) for 1,000 notes and 3 devices, and Advanced costs $249.99 a year (Evernote Help). Your notes live on Evernote's servers, with offline access in the apps, and the app is proprietary.

Pick it if you clip a lot from the web and want tasks and notes in one paid app. Skip it if price or privacy is the reason you are looking. More in Koru as an Evernote alternative and our post on Evernote's 2026 price increase.

Which Windows note-taking apps work fully offline?

Obsidian, Joplin, Standard Notes and Koru keep all your notes on your PC and work with no connection. OneNote keeps a cached copy of cloud notebooks, which works offline for notes you have already synced, though some features need the internet. Evernote's apps also offer offline access to notes that live on its servers, and Notion works offline only for pages you download.

If privacy is the main reason you are choosing, look at where the main copy of your notes lives. In Obsidian, Joplin and Koru it is on your own device, and sync can be end-to-end encrypted. In Standard Notes it is encrypted before it leaves your device. In OneNote, Notion and Evernote the company's servers hold your notes. Our private notes page explains what Koru does and does not encrypt.

Which note-taking apps for Windows are open source?

Joplin (AGPL-3.0), Standard Notes (AGPL-3.0) and Koru (MPL-2.0) are open source, so anyone can read and build the code. Obsidian is free but closed source. OneNote, Notion and Evernote are proprietary. Koru's code is at github.com/koruworks/mono.

How do I switch note-taking apps on Windows?

Export from your old app first, before you cancel anything. Then check what the new app can import. Koru imports Evernote .enex files, Notion export zips, OneNote notebooks, Google Docs, Markdown and TextBundle, and every import except Google Docs runs offline on your PC. Each importer's details are on the imports page.