If you’re a fan of Microsoft OneNote but often wish there was more—more privacy, stronger organization, better collaboration—get ready. After trying dozens of alternatives, I came across Notesnook. This note-taking app takes everything you love about OneNote and speeds it up to eleven. Think of it as OneNote on steroids, offering an encrypted, feature-rich environment that respects your data while boosting your productivity.
Here’s how Notesnook delivers a truly powerful, personal and portable note-taking experience that I can’t recommend enough.
Great theming engine
A bunch of shades to choose from
The user interface is not the strong suit of open source software. After all, developers often focus and prioritize features over UI design. Notesnook used to look old, but a recent makeover has changed the game. It looks modern, fresh, and keeps up with the next generation of note-taking software. The new layout is clean and uncluttered, with elements thoughtfully placed and typography on point.
Notesnook’s visual appeal goes far beyond a simple refresh. Unlike OneNote, Notesnook’s theme engine is not limited to light and dark themes. It offers a custom theming engine where I can change the look of the entire app with different accent colors in one click.
Support for Markdown
Fly with your notes
Notesnook offers a standard, intuitive, rich text editor toolbar. It’s perfect for existing OneNote users and those times when I just want to quickly bold a word, italicize a phrase, create a bulleted list, or add a heading without thinking too much about the underlying code. It’s just what you’d expect from any modern word processor.
But for me, and I’m sure for many power users, the real magic happens with Notesnook’s robustness. Markdown support. As someone who frequently writes technical notes, code snippets, or simply prefers the speed of formatting with a keyboard, Markdown is a game changer. I can type **bold** for bold text, # Title for a top-level title, or – ( ) for a checkbox, and Notesnook renders it just fine. The combination of a user-friendly toolbar and Markdown support is the best of both worlds.
Reminders support
A critical bug in OneNote
Reminders aren’t just a nice-to-have, they’re an absolute must in any modern note-taking app. And this is one area where Notesnook really shines and puts OneNote to shame. After all, records are not just static repositories of data. They are often related to things I need to do or remember. I can easily set a reminder on any note with a specific date and time and even repeat them for weekly appointments and monthly invoice reminders.
It’s not meant to replace a dedicated task manager like Todoist or TickTick, but it gets the job done with timely alerts. With OneNote, I have to rely on a third-party app to remind me of something I’ve written.
Better note-taking
With stickers and favorites
While OneNote’s method of organization gets the job done, Notesnook takes the whole experience to the next level with tags, favorites, and colors. Like Evernote, it follows a tagging system to categorize my notes. For example, if I’m planning my trip, I might have an entry for ‘Europe Itinerary – Summer 2025’ and #travel, #planning, etc. I can add tags like
In addition to tags, Notesnook offers favorites for quick access. When I’m working on a client project, I create a special note for all the project details and bookmark it for one-click access. This simple feature reduces navigation time and keeps my most relevant information front and center.
And then there is the option to assign a color to the notes. This may seem like a small aesthetic detail, but for visual thinkers like myself, it’s a useful addition to at-a-glance organization.
Seamless sharing
Even with those who don’t have a Notesnook account
Monograph is another great feature that provides a secure and flexible way to share notes without sacrificing control. I often need to share sensitive information, such as a summary of a client meeting or a personal thought that I only want to share with a trusted person. With Monographs, I can take any record and turn it into a secure, shareable web link.
I can enable self-destruction as well as password protection to avoid prying eyes. It gives me complete comfort when sharing sensitive information.
Open source solution
And End-to-end encrypted
Notesnook takes a superior approach to OneNote when it comes to key aspects of trust and data security. It absolutely is open source and offers true end-to-end encryption by default. The entire code base of the program is open for anyone to check. And with E2EE, no one (not even Notesnook) has access to my private thoughts and notes.
A true OneNote alternative
It’s no secret that Microsoft has been slow to add new features to OneNote. If you’re tired of the Windows manufacturer’s tedious approach and want to explore alternatives, start with Notesnook. Of course it’s not perfect. I would like to see support for basic math calculations and drawing tools (or digital whiteboard) in future updates.
Me too on my trip Tried replacing OneNote with Notion. But my transition didn’t go well due to the lack of offline mode, fast saves, and below-average mobile apps.
