It's the most similar experience to writing on paper that we've found. You can use the Apple Pencil (or one of the best Apple Pencil alternatives), or just your finger. This iOS app turns your iPad into digital paper, allowing you to make searchable handwritten notes quickly and easily wherever you find yourself. To do that, we’d like to point you in the direction of GoodNotes (opens in new tab), our next pick from the best note-taking apps. If you're looking to take advantage of its powerful functionality to be more productive, make sure you're using it to jot down creative ideas in the moment. If you’ve invested in the iPad Pro, we expect you're using it for more than checking Facebook and watching cat videos. If you want more features, look to Evernote or OneNote, but if you want a simple, minimalist app for iOS that gets the job done, there’s no better option.

For example, there’s no formatting panel, just support for Markdown.

Just be aware that even the Pro version is a purposely stripped down app. That also gives you extra export options, plus the ability to encrypt your notes, password-protect them, and unlock them using Face or Touch ID. There’s a free version of Bear if you just want to take notes on your iPad, but you’ll need to pay for the Pro subscription (opens in new tab) to sync them across devices. There are apps for macOS, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch, plus a browser extension. You can attach tags, images and other files, as well as drawings created on your iPad or iPhone. As the best note-taking app for Macs and the iPad, it lets you create notes and sync them across all your Apple devices via iCloud. There’s no fussing about with folders and notebooks you just create notes and then store them. Apple products are about beautiful, intuitive simplicity, and Bear (opens in new tab) fits that philosophy perfectly.

Android completely free notes app