OneNote

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
OneNote
Score 8.2 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft's OneNote is a digital note-taking app, supporting photos, annotating, web page clipping, emailing, and synchronizing notes across devices.N/A
Pricing
OneNote
Editions & Modules
Microsoft OneNote
Free
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
OneNote
Free Trial
No
Free/Freemium Version
Yes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup fee
Additional Details—
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
OneNote
Considered Both Products
OneNote
Chose OneNote
I’ve used Wrike and OneNote within the last two years. However, I honestly prefer to use Notion because it’s just much more user friendly.
Chose OneNote
I can use OneNote on my android devices and have it linked to my windows system without a problem
Chose OneNote
Mostly chose OneNote because it comes for free with the Microsoft suite. Google Keep is easier but I use it for personal, not a business.
Chose OneNote
Evernote worked really well for this - Better than OneNote, but no Pabbly integration which I was switching to. Google Keep is ok, but more for doing sticky-note type notes (even if big ones) rather than sorting a large number of notes. I've also used Nimbus Note - This …
Chose OneNote
OneNote has more features and capabilities, where most organizational-related apps are nothing more than to-do lists with little room for details or follow-up.
Chose OneNote
OneNote has its strength rooted in the ability to create and manage notes whereas some of the other players in the market address more niche needs, such as Notion. OneNote absolutely can facilitate note taking, semantic organization, sharing and collaboration, but if you are …
Chose OneNote
Both applications have excellent/good mobile apps that will handle document scanning, pictures, and the like, so it's largely the same there. Overall, I'll continue to use OneNote because it is free.

Chose OneNote
I’ll be honest, once I met OneNote, I knew my search was over. I found a software package that could do everything I needed and more. Pen and paper are helpful but not searchable, not private, not easily shared. Your notebook can be misplaced or stolen. You cannot use it to …
Chose OneNote
OneNote can be easily accessible to anyone as long as they have permission to. It is also cloud based.
Chose OneNote
Evernote is also a great product that I had used for years. However Evernote limits you with many various things when you don't have a premium subscription. So this makes one note really great for many use cases, and for many various teams. I think one note is a clear choice …
Chose OneNote
I have used Evernote, but in my current organization, everyone uses Onenote. I live and breathe by this program and entirely rely on it for managing my work.
Chose OneNote
I tried organizing various online hard drive storage products like Dropbox, iCloud and Google Drive and One Drive. However, I like the visual aspects of OneNote when I save a document or webpage. It's simpler and I am able to know immediately if I have found the item I am …
Chose OneNote
We do not use the cloud version of OneNote because of security concerns and licensing. We like OneNote because it is similar to other Office applications, which lowers the hurdle for adoption by other users in the organization. Because of Microsoft's decision to move OneNote to …
Chose OneNote
Integration with other Microsoft Office products is much better with OneNote than any other note-taking tool. It's also crucial to have cloud-based syncing because I have used other products that only do local storage and you lose a lot of important information if that software …
Chose OneNote
The only real product that I can directly hold in juxtaposition to OneNote is Evernote. OneNote ultimately wins that battle because of its zero cost. It compares like for like in most other ways to Evernote, with the exception of its organizational system. If you intend to …
Chose OneNote
OneNote is so easy to learn especially for users that have worked in Excel and Word. The ability to quickly hyperlink and post documents into OneNote is why we selected it. OneNote is already part of Office 365 so it made financial sense as well to utilize the product. OneNote …
Chose OneNote
I chose OneNote on the recommendation of a colleague. I found that OneNote is more useable than Evernote, although both are very good. Both products organize your notes in the same way, so it could also just come down to familiarity with OneNote, but I really like how the …
Chose OneNote
OneNote is great if you enjoy the Office suite. It integrated well into the already established workflow of the Office suite. It is a bit lacking in the app side of things, but that might be due to the ingrained idea of having a keyboard while using Office products and making …
Chose OneNote
OneNote is best for business needs. Evernote tends to be better for individual needs in my experience. If I am taking notes in a meeting or on a call, Evernote serves the purpose just fine. OneNote is a better platform for "meatier" projects and workbooks which is what our …
Chose OneNote
OneNote has quickly become my notetaking software of choice. It integrates seamlessly with the programs I use on a daily basis for work. Perhaps if I didn't have the program through Office 365 I would still consider Evernote. I find that OneNote has decent search functionality. …
Chose OneNote
As far as I'm concerned, OneNote is the 'go-to' note-taking application. Evernote is not helpful and it's also confusing. OneNote has so much more functionality, putting Evernote to shame. Once I started using OneNote, Evernote became a thing of the past.
Chose OneNote
I tried using Evernote and it is an equally usable tool, however, I prefer the interface and capabilities of OneNote. OneNote seems much easier to use and understand. I think that may primarily be because OneNote is a Microsoft application and I am very used to using Microsoft …
Chose OneNote
Because many of our organizations use Windows and Microsoft Office suite as business tools, it makes sense to choose OneNote for notetaking and storing information. Other tools don't integrate as well with the Office desktop.
Top Pros
Top Cons
User Ratings
OneNote
Likelihood to Recommend
8.1
(70 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(13 ratings)
Usability
9.5
(10 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(2 ratings)
Performance
8.8
(3 ratings)
Support Rating
8.7
(10 ratings)
User Testimonials
OneNote
Likelihood to Recommend
Microsoft
In my opinion OneNote is a must for anyone who does business. It’s versatile, stable and sustainable. It can keep private information private - like passwords. It can be used for collaborative work - like standard operating procedures. It is fairly easy to use and far superior to pen and paper. When used for meeting notes, it can be flagged with icons that are searchable - like ideas or important items. You can even create Outlook tasks on the fly
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Pros
Microsoft
  • Because of its flexibility and ability to hold different types of content (text, images, tables), it is a great tool for collecting content from different resources and organizing it in one place.
  • Technical support analysts are using sections for their support case analysis; they paste pieces of logs, screen-shots, document their steps in troubleshooting etc., all in one section, to get the full picture yet stay organized.
  • The logic of content structure; Notebook>Section>Page>Paragraph, allows you to manage and collect all needed information by the areas of the user's responsibility. For example; each of my projects has its own section, in which each page is a task.
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Cons
Microsoft
  • The table editing tools are too simplistic and lack the features found in other Office products.
  • Some content loses its rich text formatting when being pasted into OneNote. A workaround is to paste the content first into Outlook or Word and then copy/pasting that into OneNote.
  • Microsoft is moving away from a local install of OneNote, which means notebooks have to be in the cloud in Office 2019. This will actually reduce the usefulness of OneNote in some environments and opens the door to competitor products.
  • Update: Microsoft has now announced that it will continue to support OneNote 2016 through 2023. https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Office-365-Blog/Your-OneNote/ba-p/954922
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Likelihood to Renew
Microsoft
As this is not a compulsory tool in our organization, I would say all depends on the decision makers, however since this is a part of MS Office, I am sure we will have it for as long as we will possibly need it. However, I would not be so sure, if it was a separate product
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Usability
Microsoft
I find OneNote incredibly usable. I'm fairly middle of the road when it comes to tech savvy-ness. The platform was very easy to learn and explore. I like that OneNote is no clunky and offers a clean interface. This is important when it comes to deciding if a tool is usable for multiple people.
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Performance
Microsoft
Overall, I rate OneNote's performance highly. In general, notebooks, sections and pages load quickly. OneNote integrates with other apps and info ca easily be shared/copied to and from the tool to other tools. Moreover, Notebooks tend to sync quickly meaning shared notebooks are up to date almost immediately provided there are no syncing issues.
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Support Rating
Microsoft
Since it is part of Microsoft Office and used across the globe there are a lot of support options available. It's quickest to just do a google search which will have plenty of articles to help you since there are so many OneNote users but as an Office customer you also have access to Microsoft support and I have had good experiences with their support (probably because I'm with a large company who is a large customer to them).
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Alternatives Considered
Microsoft
I tried using Evernote and it is an equally usable tool, however, I prefer the interface and capabilities of OneNote. OneNote seems much easier to use and understand. I think that may primarily be because OneNote is a Microsoft application and I am very used to using Microsoft applications such as Word, Excel, etc. I also use OneNote to keep my grocery list. It does as good of a job as the grocery list applications out there, only I like the flexibility I have with OneNote and how I specifically do my shopping.
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Return on Investment
Microsoft
  • OneNote has become our organizational standard method of taking electronic notes (though some still prefer pen and paper.) It has been a zero cost outlay due to its freely available nature.
  • Its integration with other Microsoft Office products makes it easy to share notes and content between products, allowing for easy collaboration where needed.
  • OneNote's integration with OneDrive ensures that individual's notes are always safe and secure, taking away the tedious responsibility of backup from the user, and makes it happen seamlessly in the background.
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ScreenShots