External Data Connections
…mostly, files. But also Google Drive and other integrations.
I was going to put this section in the “nice to haves,” but I realized that I do put a lot documents, images, links, and PDFs into my notes. Typically as reference, usually as a way to let OCR do its magic so that finding a document and related notes is easy. So yeah, good support for links, embeds, attachments, and OCR would be great.
Sharing and Collaboration
This is a surprisingly hard area for the majority of note-taking apps to occupy: collaboration. These are text files with attachments. Why do some solutions, like Bear, Obsidian, and SimpleNote make it impossible to collaborate on not just a folder of notes, but even just one note? Or others, like (eh hem) OneNote or Craft, make it so you can only share a ‘space’ of notes for collaboration?
I also want to be clear, here: all these apps allow you to share a note. Typically, it’s a copy of the note. What I’m talking about is collaboration, the ability to work on notes with, say, a spouse.
I know there are workarounds and some solutions for something like Obsidian. I know you can collaborate on a note in Keep. There are a few solutions that do an excellent job at this, like Apple Notes and Notion. I think Microsoft Loop might be up there too. It’s been a while but I think Evernote did this well.
An extra perk: Being able to publish the note publicly online. Craft, Evernote, and Notion do a good job at this, with some having more refined features than others. Personally I love how Craft presents their online documents.
Reasonable Price
I think this is the primary reason I’m writing an article series about note-taking apps: the price structure of some of these apps make them hit-or-miss.
Recently, Craft re-architected their pricing. Generally their new model is a huge upgrade to free users: they now have a really, really good app to use with no unreasonable limitations! But for someone like me who is sharing a space with my wife, their removal of the “guest” experiences in exchange for “team members” (paid per seat, per team) means I could be paying double (or 1.5x) as much as I used to. Craft, the app that me and my wife seemed to enjoy the most together, basically just cratered our experience because of their cost structure.
In general, ideally the price to save my notes would be free, but I’m okay with paying a monthly sum for the benefit of sync and backup. I’m most comfortable at paying around $5/month, and $12/month would be stretching it. The simpler your app, the cheaper it should be (like in Bear’s case). Ideally the app would also take advantage of Apple’s family sharing. It’s just me and my wife (and let’s be honest, it’s mostly just me), so I don’t think I should have to pay crazy money.
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