Effective note-taking is essential for maximizing productivity, whether you’re in a lecture, collaborating in a team meeting, or diving into deep research. The challenge often is about managing countless ideas scattered across various apps, documents, and voice memos.
Enter NoteGPT, an AI-powered note-taking app that brings many features to the table, from summarizing YouTube videos and extracting information from PDFs and articles to generating mind maps that visually organize your thoughts. With these capabilities, NoteGPT can streamline your note-taking process and enhance information retention.
However, despite its capabilities, it falls short of meeting every user’s requirements. Fortunately, plenty of NoteGPT alternatives (free and paid) offer AI-driven note-taking, better organization, and customization.
This blog post explores the 10 best alternatives to supercharge productivity.
- What Is NoteGPT?
- Limitations of NoteGPT
- NoteGPT Alternatives at Glance
- The 10 Best NoteGPT Alternatives to Use
- 1. ClickUp (Best for AI writing, note-taking, and doc management)
- 2. Evernote (Best for keeping ideas and tasks organized across various projects)
- 3. Microsoft OneNote (Best for organizing detailed multimedia notes with flexible formatting across devices)
- 4. Notion (Best for task organization, project management, and team collaboration)
- 5. Google Keep (Best for quick notes, organizing with labels, and setting location-based reminders)
- 6. Bear (Best for taking notes offline with rich markdown support and easy tagging)
- 7. Simplenote (Best for simple, fast, and cross-platform note-taking with effortless syncing)
- 8. Zoho Notebook (Best for creative, multimedia note-taking with vibrant designs)
- 9. Obsidian (Best for building a web of ideas and concepts)
- 10. Roam Research (Best for organizing interconnected ideas and complex research tasks)
- Get AI Writing, Note-Taking, and Doc Management—All in One Place with ClickUp
⏰ 60-Second Summary
Here’s our list of the 10 best NoteGPT alternatives to help you make the most of your notes:
- ClickUp: Best for AI writing, note-taking, and doc management
- Evernote: Best for keeping ideas and tasks organized across various projects
- Microsoft OneNote: Best for organizing detailed multimedia notes with flexible formatting across devices
- Notion: Best for task organization, project management, and team collaboration
- Google Keep: Best for quick notes, organizing with labels, and setting location-based reminders
- Bear: Best for taking notes offline with rich Markdown support and easy tagging
- Simplenote: Best for simple, fast, and cross-platform note-taking with effortless syncing
- Zoho Notebook: Best for creative, multimedia note-taking with vibrant designs
- Obsidian: Best for building a web of ideas and concepts
- Roam Research: Best for organizing interconnected ideas and complex research tasks
👀Did You Know? The ancient Greeks used wax tablets for note-taking, where they would write with a stylus and then smooth the wax to reuse the tablet—the world’s first reusable notebook!
What Is NoteGPT?
NoteGPT is an AI-powered note-taking tool that streamlines learning and information capture. Its intuitive, user-friendly interface helps users effortlessly extract key insights.
The NoteGPT Chrome extension makes summarizing long YouTube video content, PDFs, presentations, images, and web articles easier.
Here’s what makes it stand out:
- Content summarization: Quickly summarize YouTube videos, documents, images, and books into concise summaries, focusing on key points
- AI diagram creation: Generate mind maps, sketches, diagrams, and flowcharts to visualize ideas and improve understanding
- AI chat assistant: Get detailed explanations of complex topics through AI-powered chat
- Timestamped transcripts: Generate transcripts with timestamps for long videos with just a click
- Chrome extensions: Access YouTube Summarizer and Web Summarize directly from your sidebar or embedded panel
NoteGPT pricing
- Basic: $2.99/month per user
- Pro: $9.99/month per user
- Unlimited: $29/month per user
Limitations of NoteGPT
While NoteGPT offers powerful AI-driven note-taking and YouTube summary features, it has some limitations:
- Content type restrictions: Best suited for digital text and YouTube video summarization but struggles with highly visual or graphic-heavy materials
- Limited customization: Users wanting highly personalized AI summaries or manual control may find options lacking
- No collaboration features: Lacks real-time or asynchronous note-sharing, making group projects and collaborative learning difficult
- Learning curve: Beginners may need time to navigate its interface and maximize features
- Limited workspace integration: Cannot directly summarize or access data from internal workspace tools
These challenges highlight the need for a more flexible AI note-taking tool alternative for better knowledge management.
👀 Did You Know? Taking notes while watching videos boosts retention by up to 50%, transforming passive viewing into active, productive learning.
NoteGPT Alternatives at Glance
Here’s a quick overview of each tool’s strength and the audience it’s built for. Whether you’re optimizing efficiency or igniting creativity, there are AI tools for every need!
Tool | Use case | Best for |
ClickUp | Combines project management and note-taking with its advanced AI features | Freelancers, startups, teams, enterprises |
Evernote | Organizes tasks, ideas, and resources | Professionals, students, and researchers |
Microsoft OneNote | Offers creative and flexible ways for creating condensed summaries | Teams, educators, and artists |
Notion | Builds interconnected workflows and wikis | Freelancers, startups, and teams |
Google Keep | Quick and straightforward for capturing notes | Personal users and task-oriented people |
Bear | Minimalist writing with advanced tagging | Writers, students, and Apple users |
Simplenote | Focused on distraction-free writing | Minimalists and personal users |
Zoho Notebook | Creates multimedia-rich notes | Professionals, students, and businesses |
Obsidian | Visualize the relationship between your notes | Researchers and creative thinkers |
Roam Research | Organizes complex research and tasks | Academics and authors |
The 10 Best NoteGPT Alternatives to Use
Looking for a smarter NoteGPT alternative to take notes, summarize video files and text, and boost productivity? Check out these 10 AI-powered tools, each designed to fit your needs.
1. ClickUp (Best for AI writing, note-taking, and doc management)
ClickUp, the everything app for work, combines project planning, organization, and collaboration in one tool.
The best part of using ClickUp is ClickUp Brain, an AI-driven assistant that simplifies content creation, automates task updates, and generates meeting summaries. ClickUp Brain taps into your workspace, pulling data from tasks, projects, and documents to create spot-on summaries.
Use this AI to take meeting notes, save time, capture accurate summaries, and outline action items.
Need notes from a meeting?
ClickUp’s AI Notetaker captures every single detail from the meeting. It automatically captures key insights, decisions, and action items and streamlines the workflow by providing clear, actionable summaries that connect discussions to ongoing projects.
Transform your note-taking and document management with ClickUp Docs, where asynchronous collaboration is easier than ever. Unlike NoteGPT, ClickUp allows you to share notes with your team.
Use the ClickUp Notepad to jot down thoughts, organize them with checklists, and turn them into actionable tasks (all with rich formatting options like colors, headers, and bullet points) to make your notes visually appealing and easy to follow.
ClickUp also offers a range of customizable note-taking templates to get you started. The ClickUp Meeting Notes Template is your go-to for turning those daily stand-up meetings into action.
If you’re looking for a way to centralize all your team’s knowledge. The ClickUp Knowledge Base Template is your digital library, organizing everything from FAQs to essential resources in one convenient space. It makes sharing and accessing critical information quicker and simpler than ever.
💡Pro Tip: Try the Cornell Method for taking notes! Divide your page into three sections: notes, cues, and a summary. After taking notes, add questions in the cue section and summarize key points at the bottom.This note-taking strategy boosts retention and makes learning easier. Use the ClickUp Cornell Notes Template for deep learning!
ClickUp best features
- Find content, comments, tasks, and conversations across your workspace with ClickUp’s Connected Search
- Integrate with Google Workspace, Slack, and other tools to streamline your workflow
- Brainstorm and collaborate visually with ClickUp Whiteboards
- Organize projects and workflows with ClickUp Mind Maps for easier navigation
- Manage and prioritize daily tasks with the ClickUp To-Do List for maximum productivity
ClickUp limitations
- New users may face a learning curve with its many time-saving features
- Mobile app covers basics but lacks full desktop functionality
ClickUp pricing
- Free forever
- Unlimited: $7/month per user
- Business: $12/month per user
- Enterprise: Contact for pricing
- ClickUp Brain: Add to any paid plan for $7/month per member
- ClickUp AI Notetaker: Add to any paid plan for as low as $6/month per user
ClickUp ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.7/5 (9,000+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.6/5 (4,000+ reviews)
What are real-life users saying about ClickUp?
2. Evernote (Best for keeping ideas and tasks organized across various projects)
Love keeping your notes organized and easy to access? Evernote is your go-to tool! It syncs across devices, so you can pick up where you left off.
Its powerful search helps you find important info in text, images, PDFs, and attachments, while the Web Clipper lets you save web pages or snippets directly to your notes.
📮ClickUp Insight: 37% of our respondents use AI for content creation, including writing, editing, and emails. However, this process usually involves switching between different tools, such as a content generation tool and your workspace. With ClickUp, you get AI-powered writing assistance across the workspace, including emails, comments, chats, Docs, and more—all while maintaining context from your entire workspace.
Evernote also simplifies staying organized with notebook stacks. If you’re working with a team, Evernote allows for easy collaboration by letting multiple people share, edit, and comment on the same notes.
Evernote best features
- Access all your notes effortlessly across mobile, desktop, or web with seamless syncing
- Transform images, audio, or lengthy videos into editable text for quick data input
- Organize your notes with headings, highlights, and lists for better clarity
- Scan through your notes faster with AI-powered search (still in beta) that understands context for more intelligent results
Evernote limitations
- Limited markdown support and no graph view for visualizing note connections
- Free version only syncs across one device
Evernote pricing
- Free forever
- Personal: $14.99/month per user
- Professional: $17.99/month per user
- Teams: $24.99/month per user
Evernote ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.4/5 (2,000+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.4/5 (8,000+ reviews)
What are real-life users saying about Evernote?
💡Pro Tip: Explore Evernote alternatives that give you more control over your notes, tasks, and collaboration—ideal for teams and solo projects alike!
3. Microsoft OneNote (Best for organizing detailed multimedia notes with flexible formatting across devices)
Whether it’s text, images, or multimedia, OneNote lets you decide how your notes take shape. Its integration with Microsoft tools like Outlook and Teams makes staying productive easy.
You can use OneNote offline to capture thoughts anytime, anywhere. For meeting notes or lectures, simply hit record and store audio directly in your notes. Customizable tags help you track tasks and key points effortlessly when organizing your notes.
Microsoft OneNote best features:
- Create multiple notebooks and organize them hierarchically for a better structure
- Use OCR to search text within images effortlessly
- Collaborate in real-time through shared notebooks for seamless teamwork
- Save web pages directly to notebooks for convenient research
- Boost productivity with Copilot (Microsoft AI) to generate summaries, draft content, and organize notes
Microsoft OneNote limitations:
- Free version offers only 5GB of storage
- Lacks advanced task management features
Microsoft OneNote pricing
- Free Forever
- Microsoft 365 Personal: $9.99/month per user
- Microsoft 365 Family: $12.99/month per user
Microsoft OneNote ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.5/5 (1800+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.6/5 (1700+ reviews)
What are real-life users saying about Microsoft OneNote?
💡Pro Tip: Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) note-taking apps capture every word in real-time, allowing you to focus on listening instead of scrambling to write.
4. Notion (Best for task organization, project management, and team collaboration)
When it comes to organizing your work, Notion stands out for its customizable databases (think tables, calendars), all designed to fit your workflow.
Whether you’re working solo or with a team, its real-time collaboration and handy templates make building an internal knowledge base effortless. It also works offline, so you can keep going without an internet connection.
Notion best features
- Centralize tasks, projects, and data in one hub
- Use AI for writing, insights, and data-driven decisions
- Streamline workflows with Kanban boards, calendars, and timelines
- Boost productivity with Notion AI for brainstorming, drafting, and automation
- Kickstart projects with customizable Notion templates
Notion limitations
- Customizations can be challenging to create and maintain over time
- Search functionality and navigation may lack the expected accuracy
Notion pricing
- Free forever
- Plus: $10/month per seat
- Business: $15/month per seat
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
Notion ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.7/5 (5,000+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.7/5 (2,000+ reviews)
What are real-life users saying about Notion?
Also Read: Best Obsidian Alternatives
5. Google Keep (Best for quick notes, organizing with labels, and setting location-based reminders)
Google Keep stands out for its simplicity, making it a good free Notegpt alternative for capturing and organizing thoughts on the go. You can jot down notes, color-code them for quick access, and add labels for easy sorting.
Seamless Google Workspace integration keeps everything in sync across devices.
If you want to collaborate, sharing notes takes just a tap. Whether setting a location-based reminder, creating a checklist, or recording a voice memo, Google Keep streamlines everyday organization.
Google Keep best features
- Instantly transcribe voice notes with ASR for seamless documentation
- Organize visually with color-coded labels and categorized notes
- Set location-based reminders to stay on top of errands and appointments
- Leverage Gemini AI for tailored suggestions and actionable insights
Google Keep limitations
- Lacks advanced formatting options for plain text and complex layouts
- Missing robust note-taking and project management features for large-scale tasks
Google Keep pricing
- Free forever
Google Keep ratings and reviews
- G2: Not enough reviews
- Capterra: 4.7/5 (200+ reviews)
What are real-life users saying about Google Keep?
🧠 Fun Fact: Over 500 hours of YouTube content are uploaded every minute, making it one of the most dynamic platforms for learning, entertainment, and creativity.
6. Bear (Best for taking notes offline with rich markdown support and easy tagging)
With full markdown support, Bear allows you to easily format and structure your notes, which NoteGPT doesn’t. Bear works offline, so you can take notes anytime, anywhere, while NoteGPT relies on the web for its AI-powered features.
It’s perfect for Apple users who prefer a simple, flexible note-taking approach.
Bear best features
- Capture ideas with a sleek, user-friendly interface
- Organize seamlessly with a robust tagging system
- Annotate PDFs, DOCX, HTML, and TXT files, keeping all your notes centralized
- Enjoy effortless access with automatic data sync across all devices
Bear limitations
- Lacks apps for Android and Windows, limiting device compatibility
- Advanced formatting options are available only through paid extensions
- Offers limited integrations with other tools, restricting flexibility
Bear pricing
- Free forever
- Pro: $2.99/month
Bear ratings and reviews
- G2: Not enough reviews
- Capterra: Not enough reviews
What are real-life users saying about Bear?
7. Simplenote (Best for simple, fast, and cross-platform note-taking with effortless syncing)
With a sleek, no-frills interface that lets you jot down ideas quickly, Simplenote keeps your note-taking (as the name suggests) simple! Plus, it syncs across all your devices in real time, so your notes are always within reach, wherever you are.
Unlike NoteGPT, Simplenote offers features like collaborative note-sharing, where multiple users can edit and comment on a note simultaneously.
It’s also optimized for fast, simple note creation without bells and whistles, focusing purely on content with key ideas and without complex formatting.
Simplenote best features
- Sync notes in real time across multiple devices for seamless updates
- Share and collaborate effortlessly through note editing and comments
- Stay focused with a clean, distraction-free writing interface
- Navigate effortlessly with a fast, intuitive, and clutter-free design
Simplenote limitations
- Limited formatting options
- Lacks advanced project management tools
Simplenote pricing
- Free forever
- Premium: $10/year
Simplenote ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.2/5 (30+ reviews)
- Capterra: Not enough reviews
What are real-life users saying about Simplenote?
8. Zoho Notebook (Best for creative, multimedia note-taking with vibrant designs)
Bright, fun, and packed with useful features, Zoho Notebook makes note-taking feel more like a creative experience. With smooth syncing across devices, your notes are always accessible. You can even record audio notes, making it perfect for on-the-go thinkers!
With Smart Cards, organize notes into checklists, sketches, and links. Plus, you can doodle or draw directly in your notes, too.
Zoho Notebook best features
- Clip text, images, and articles directly to your notes using the web clipper
- Secure your notes with Touch ID for added privacy
- Personalize your notebooks with custom covers for a unique touch
- Keep everything organized with color-coded cards for a visually neat system
- Boost your note-taking with Zia, the AI assistant that offers smarter insights
Zoho Notebook limitations
- Limited integrations with other tools
- Viewing options can be a bit restrictive
Zoho Notebook pricing
- Free forever
- Zoho Notebook Personal: $14.99/year
- Zoho Notebook Pro: $1.99/month
Zoho Notebook customer ratings
- G2: 4.4/5 (70+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.6/5 (80+ reviews)
What are real-life users saying about Zoho Notebook?
9. Obsidian (Best for building a web of ideas and concepts)
Your notes aren’t just isolated thoughts. They’re pieces of a bigger picture. Obsidian helps you connect them like a web, turning scattered ideas into a robust knowledge base. Its graph view lets you visualize relationships between notes, while backlinks and bi-directional linking make navigation effortless.
Obsidian can work entirely offline, keeping your data private and under your control. It supports markdown for clean, portable notes and offers plugins, themes, and custom scripts to tailor your setup. However, syncing across devices requires a paid add-on.
Obsidian best features
- Organize your notes into a connected knowledge hub with bi-directional linking
- Customize your workspace with a wide range of plugins and themes
- Leverage AI assistance for smarter insights and suggestions
- Visualize and structure ideas effortlessly using Obsidian’s free Canvas plugin
Obsidian limitations
- The steep learning curve can make building the ideal structure time-consuming
- Markdown’s simplicity might not suffice for users seeking advanced design options
Obsidian pricing
- Free forever
- Commercial use: $50/year per user
Add-ons
- Sync feature: $4/month per user
- Publish feature: $8/month per user
Obsidian ratings and reviews
- G2: Not enough reviews
- Capterra: 4.8/5 (30+ reviews)
What are real-life users saying about Obsidian?
10. Roam Research (Best for organizing interconnected ideas and complex research tasks)
Ever feel like your research ideas are all over the place? Roam Research transforms scattered thoughts into a connected web, revealing relationships between notes in a way that feels natural. It’s ideal for researchers, writers, and teams tackling complex projects.
With its non-linear workspace, Roam mirrors how your brain processes information. Plus, exporting and backing up are seamless—choose from Markdown, JSON, or EDN formats to keep your knowledge portable.
Roam Research best features
- Connect ideas effortlessly with bi-directional links and tags
- Reference blocks of text across projects without duplicating work
- Visualize your knowledge with an interactive graph that grows as you think
Roam Research limitations
- No free plan is available, making it less accessible for personal use
- Limited formatting options for customization
Roam Research pricing
- Pro: $15/month per user
- Believer: $500/ per user (for five years)
Roam Research ratings and reviews
- G2: Not enough reviews
- Capterra: Not enough reviews
What are real-life users saying about Roam Research?
Get AI Writing, Note-Taking, and Doc Management—All in One Place with ClickUp
“The mind is for having ideas, not for holding them.”
This quote by David Allen perfectly captures why we rely on our notes—to free our minds for creativity and problem-solving. Great notes should do more than just capture thoughts—they should help you organize, refine, and act on them.
While tools like Simplenote and Roam Research excel in specific areas, they often miss the full picture.
That’s where ClickUp stands out. Need a place to jot down notes? Done. Want AI to refine your ideas? Easy. Looking for a way to keep everything organized without the mess? You got it. From quick notes to in-depth documentation, ClickUp brings it all together in one powerful workspace.
Why juggle multiple tools when you can have everything in one place? Sign up for ClickUp today and see the difference.