Notes on paper, mobile phone, or PC are well-known methods to write a reminder, minutes of meetings, or project plans. Notes in all forms are essential for business organization processes, which is why the market software makes them more effective.
These tools can be integrated into other Project Management Tools or be by themselves a perfect tool for team collaboration and communication about project changes. We have already reviewed 12 note tools; in this article, we will go further and review other top 10 alternatives to Evernote.
It will be digital note tools and fully functional tools for team collaboration and full-cycle project management.
What is Evernote?
Evernote is well-known for making and keeping in order notes, to-dos, tasks, and schedules of all projects in one tool. You can access it offline and still keep your ideas organized; all notes will be synced when you do it online.
With Evernote, you can make personal backgrounds and customize the workspace with notes, tasks, scratch pads, calendars, and recently captured information from websites or documents. This beautiful app is not only for work; it can help you organize your life with home tasks.
Features:
- Possibility to add notes and tasks text, images, PDFs, scans, audio, scans, web pages, or other documents (as attachments).
- Easy capturing all ideas with various work, life, or school templates.
- Saving web pages with comments – arrows, highlights, or text boxes.
- Organization of tasks by project, due date, and assigned person of the flag.
- Connection of calendar to your notes with reminders and the possibility to open a note with the required information simultaneously.
- Customizable workspace with many available widgets of different sizes and arrangements.
- Possibility to save the content of a website or make a screenshot in one click.
- Organization of ideas, tasks, and to-do lists with keywords.
- Integration with many apps: Google Drive, Slack, Teams, and SalesForce.
- Notification and reminders even when you do not use Evernote.
- Free version
- Automatic synchronization through all devices
- Powerful search capabilities
- Offline access on mobile phones or desktops
- Connection to Google Calendar
- Changing backgrounds
- Document scanner
- Easy search in images or documents
- Tasks delegation
- Handwriting recognition (11 languages)
- Expensive paid plans
- Scans are not available separately, only in the app
- Group chat is poor
- No auto-save feature
Evernote has many useful features for project management and note-taking, but you may not like its limited free version, or the paid subscription is overpriced. You may need more creative templates, better group chats, and the possibility of making a Gantt table. So, there could be numerous options to have other features or work in different environments, so we collected 10 top alternatives to help you find the best tool.
Dropbox Paper
Dropbox paper is one of the note tools from the Dropbox family. This application is available only for subscribers on Dropbox.com. The tool has very straightforward navigation for creating only new notes based on one’s own or ready templates. The paper provides a workspace for single users and teams for collaboration. You can easily invite reviewers for free of your notes if they have an account on Dropbox. This is the most accessible project management tool.
Features:
- Availability of more than 20 high-quality templates for notes (meeting notes, launch plan, creative brief, project plan, social media plan, etc.).
- Possibility to create your own template.
- Notes are stored in your Dropbox storage.
- Functional mobile application with the possibility to create/edit/comment notes and share them with your team.
- Offline mode is available only for mobile users for papers that have been opened in online mode.
- Automatic synchronization after you switch to online mode.
- Organization of notes into folders (possible even on mobile phones).
- Possibility to count words, characters, and emoji.
- Easy notes highlighting, adding screenshots, and drag/drop images.
- Automatic insert of current time/data/ by shortcuts.
- There are no other options besides the free version, even for business purposes.
- Free
- No limits on notes quantity
- Occupies minimum storage place
- Mobile application for Android and iOS
- Notifications of changes in your Paper account in the mobile app
- Fast switch between personal and work account
- Tools with team collaboration – real-time editing, to-dos, calendar, mentioning of email addresses
- Easy search for notes
- Sharing folders for business purposes
- Detailed guides for all features
- You need a Dropbox account
- Limited functionality
- Offline papers are available only in the mobile app
- No spell check
nTask
Opposed to simple note creation in Dropbox Paper, nTask can do much more – it is an all-in-one project management tool. It proposes tools for remote collaboration, including sharing documents and notes, a view of the calendar, and document storage in real-time. nTask has numerous integrations for easy streamlining any project – Zoom, Google Calendar, Microsoft Teams, Dropbox, Outlook, and many more. If you need a powerful feature more than just notes and document creation, nTask is a good solution.
Main features:
- Tools to set project budget, plan resources, and work capacity for effective project management.
- Document sharing with the team members.
- Vast opportunities for task management – create and assign tasks and sub-tasks and set due dates.
- Visualization of all project characteristics with workflows, statuses, tasks, due dates, times, budget, and other metrics.
- Transfer emails into tasks on the Kanban board.
- Pre-build templates for numerous tasks.
- Easy definition of project critical path for your projects using project management tools.
- Provide different access rights to your team members and guests with project or task permissions.
- Possibility to calculate time your team spends on specific tasks (timesheet monitoring).
- Possibility to identify project risks by making a custom risk matrix and performing a risk assessment.
You have the possibility to download nTask with free subscriptions – basic (free), Premium (starting $3/month), and Business (starting $8/month). The price depends on your team size and the inclusion of project management tools. If you do not like these plans, you can send your requirements to the sales team for customization; a special price and features will be proposed.
- Free trial for 7 days
- Mobile applications for iOS and Android
- Charts visualization
- Progress metrics
- Kanban boards
- Different access levels
- Risk assessment graphs
- Two-factor authentication
- 24/5 technical support
- Real-time team collaboration
- Too many features
- No proper guidelines and FAQs
- The mobile version has less functionality than the desktop version
- Only the beta version of advanced reporting
ProofHub
ProofHub is another tool to deliver projects to success and on time. With this tool, you can plan your business, collaborate with your colleagues, organize files and documents, prepare reports, and keep track of project workflow. ProofHub is trusted by well-known companies such as NASA, Tripadvisor, Disney, Marriott, and Boeing. This tool is helpful for marketing, task management, operation, product development, remote work organization, and boosting sales.
Main Features:
- Documents review and commenting, including approval of documents and files in a few clicks.
- One-time or regular task/task creation with connection to the calendar and team member assignment, transfer emails into tasks, or import from other files.
- Build and edit the workflows of your team from the early days of project life to the end and set dependencies in order.
- Preparing project reports with data about task completion, resource, and time utilization.
- Creation of agenda based on essential tasks and meeting notes, set of priority levels (up to 5).
- Multiple task reviews within one or several projects – table, Gantt, board, or calendar.
- Setting notifications on the most important tasks and being informed about delays.
- Setting restrictions for specific IP addresses protect your project information.
- Share documents and files, make announcements, notify about essential changes, and make other celebrations in your team.
All stored data is protected with SSL encryption; infrastructure has several protection layers, including storing last login data and tracking activity logs.
ProofHub has two subscriptions not dependent on the user’s quantity – essential ($45/month) with only core features and ultimate control ($89/month) with all features and 100 GB of storage space. In the unlimited version, you will get functionality like many other paid apps, but it is all-in-one and much cheaper.
- Free trial
- User friendly
- Centralized team workspace
- Smooth chat
- Automatic back up
- High level of security
- Integration with other apps
- Private task lists
- Notifications
- Multilingual interface
- Expensive
- The mobile version has less functionality than the desktop version
- Poor custom support
- Lack of files organization in folders
Hive
Hive is a well-recommended tool for managing projects from one place; it can replace such software as Clickup, Asana, or Monday. You can consolidate all your notes, documents, approvals, deadlines, calendars, and reminders in one tool. The complete list of unlimited features is presented on the official websites, and it covers almost all the necessities of each team member (even a top manager).
Features:
- Many ways of project representations: Kanban, Gantt, Table, Calendar, Team actions, Progress Chart, etc.
- Customizable project hierarchies – create sub-projects.
- Addition to images, videos, documents, or other files to projects.
- There are several possibilities for communication with the team- via shortcuts – video chat, chat, Zoom, or Google Meet (via shortcuts).
- Setting deadlines at the end of the day, week, or month will add a time tracker to your action card.
- Creation of individual project calendar for scheduling meetings, meeting project tasks, and reviewing workspace activities.
- Personalization of team workspace with company logo, notifications, and customizable templates.
- Possibility to proof documents, images, videos, and URLs for management control.
- Possibility to track and share within your team or organization.
- Reducing working time by automatically auto-filling timesheets, auto-setting tasks, and synchronizing the most-used apps.
- Free version
- Possibilities to create unlimited projects and tasks
- Built-in chat for communication with the team
- Recording timesheets
- Project and action templates
- Possibility to connect to more than 1,000 Third-party apps
- Individual timesheets for your team members (with autofill)
- Project reporting
- Notification customization
- Blog/demo/FAQs/videos/webinars for navigating on the Hive features
- Bad logic in reports
- Poor data management
- Not so many templates
- No possibility to export data from Hive
Monday.com
Monday.com proposes to users three products – Monday work management, Sales CRM, and Monday dev. In this review, we talk about Monday work management for project execution from idea to profitable results. It is designed for managing different projects – marketing, campaigns, events, assets or content, and creative requests. This tool proposes an excellent visual interface for team collaboration in real-time.
Features:
- Easy setting tasks and goals based on the project dates, needs and your organization capabilities using several visualization methods (Gantt, Kanban or others).
- All decisions made based on more than 30 widgets displaying the current project status.
- Project overview for all team members from leaders and managers to average team members.
- Many templates –creative requests, strategic planning, campaign dashboards, team planning or project calendar.
- Setting priorities and tracking of tasks, deadlines, project priorities from start to finish.
- 200 pre-built recipes for project automation and increasing efficiency.
- Possibility to prepare minutes of meeting with highlights and tagged actions and relevant next steps for team members.
- Connection of working documents inside your team or organization to simplify access, aligning and real-time share of comments.
- Central flexible workspace for all projects and operations.
- Possibility to upload all file types and upload many apps from the marketplace.
Monday.com subscription plan’s price depends on the number of users and required features – Basic ($10/month/per user) for organizing your team and organization your collaboration workspace, Standard ($14/month/per user) for automation sales and communication in the workspace, Pro ($24/month/per user) for getting insights of all actions and checking due dates. For all versions, a 14-day free trial is available. There is also a possibility to get a particular Enterprise subscription with all features.
- More than 200 pre-built automation recipes for improving your business efficiency
- Customizable workflows
- Easy connection with third-party apps
- Customizable templates for project management
- Wide choice of project visualizations
- Multiple projects tracking
- Easy transfer of notes into to-do lists
- Autosave of work
- User-friendly drag-and-drop interface
- Possibility to work in real-time on documents
- Free access only for student and non-profit organizations
- Expensive subscription plans based on per-seat pricing
- Integration problems with some third parties apps
- lack of tutorials for new users
Box Notes
Box Notes is a recommended tool to bring the working team together from different tools and devices and save valuable time. Box Notes provides intuitive navigation in the cloud storage with all capabilities for project execution and access worldwide. All your notes and documents are stored securely; you can edit and annotate them in real-time.
Features:
- Many templates are available for the quick start of the project to create engaging and eye-catching content; valuable tips are available for each one.
- Transfer docs into action plans with calendar
- Documents and notes classification for confidentiality to prevent downloading and sharing outside your organization.
- Tool to create interview panels, employee handbooks, and guides for new team members for the hiring process.
- Up to 30 editors can work on one document simultaneously and an unlimited number of viewers.
- Tracking of version changes with the possibility to revert to old versions at any time.
- Possibility to review created project files as video or presentation.
- Automatic notification for teammates mentioned in the action plans.
- Seamless integration with third-party apps (trusted partners)– Vmware, Cisco, Google, Microsoft, McAfee, and many more.
- Technical support in many ways – webinars, phone, email, training, community, demos, and use cases.
- Free version for individuals (single users)
- Cloud storage
- Easy formatting and highlighting
- Possibility to insert videos and images into docs
- Enterprise-grade security
- Easy sharing outside organization
- Real-time docs collaboration
- Customized templates
- Possibility to make e-signature on documents
- Built-in integration with Google Workspace and Microsoft 365
- Technical support only for teams from 3 users and higher
- Project templates only for paid subscriptions
- Limits for single file upload
- Synchronization bags
Zoho Projects
Zoho Projects is a cloud project management tool to plan projects, track deadlines, and collaborate with teams, especially remotely. Integrating it with other Zoho tools (Meeting, Mail, Connect, Cliq, Notebook) will give you a powerful workspace for all business needs. Meanwhile, Zoho Notebook is one of the most beautiful note-making apps for users of mobile and desktop devices, including Linux. The most impressive features are various templates for different types of notes – audio, photo, file, checklists, texts, sketches, etc.
Features:
- Transfer project progress into a milestones list with compliance progress and a number of assigned tasks.
- Preparation of tasks and subtasks lists with due dates, responsible parties, duration time, and already spent time.
- Creation of a hierarchy of tasks and projects with visualization on the calendar to define the correct order of work and critical path.
- Built-in finance module for generating invoices and keeping track of expenses.
- Integrations with Samsung, IFTTT, Google Workspace, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Drive, Zapier, Doc Scanner, and other Zoho Tools (Meeting, Mail, Connect, Cliq, Notebook).
- Automated task assignment for repetitive processes with automated notifications.
- Supported migrations from JIRA, Wrike, MS Projects, Salesforce, Monday.com, Basecamp, Hubspot, and six more.
- Approval or rejection of team’s timesheets if required.
- Comparison between planned and actual project time, planned and actual costs, with the provision of differences.
- For the creation of notes and transfer them into tasks, you need to integrate Zoho Notebook – a simple app for organizing and creating handcrafting notes.
Zoho Projects has two paid subscription plans and one free for two projects and 5 GB storage space. Paid subscriptions (Premium $5/month/user and enterprise $10/month per user) differ per quantity of project templates (20 vs. 30), storage space (100 GB vs. 120 GB), and quantity of features. For note creation, you need to download the Zoho Notebook separately – free or Pro version ($1.99/month). In the Premium version, you will also receive more widgets, premium covers, and the possibility of turning emails into notecards.
- Free for 3 users
- Pre-custom fields for task creation
- Three task views – classic, plain, and Kanban
- Timesheets for loading work hours
- Resource utilization charts
- Built-in team chat
- Customizable dashboards
- Gantt charts
- Mobile app for iOS and Android
- Many educational and technical support resources
- Separate applications with management tools and notes making
- Premium support only during business days
- Lack of customizable options for workspace background
- Expensive proposal for large teams
Notejoy
Notejoy is an intuitive platform for making notes and functionality for team sharing and communication. With unlimited device synchronization, you can access it as a web version from Mac, Windows, Android, or iOS. You can easily share new information, plans, or decisions with your team. All work is arranged in the library – personal (for you) or team (department, company or smaller group).
Features:
- Drag & drop interface for additional images and other types of documents (PDFs, videos, Microsoft documents, Google docs, and audio).
- Customizable workspace with the possibility to hide unimportant tasks and distractions, change themes (6 are available), and customize fonts or sidebars.
- Possibility to make notes from any web pages in Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox or forward emails into the Notejoy app
- Organize notes in a preferable way and make links, backlinks, tags, and hashtags; the recent notes are usually on the top.
- Possibility to create a separate workspace for each team you are working with.
- Collaboration with multiple teams in real-time; view, comment, and share documents; check views and reactions.
- High security of notes with two-factor authentication, end-to-end encryption, and passwords.
- Tracking of note history with the possibility to recover maliciously or accidentally deleted notes and go back to the previous version.
- Easy integration with popular apps –Trello, Gmail, Microsoft Office, Zoom, Google Drive, Slack, etc.
- Import notes from other apps – Apple Notes, Evernote, Microsoft OneNote, and others.
There are three paid plans and one basic free version for small teams and individuals. The free version has only three libraries, not more than five users in size. The paid subscriptions (Solo $4/month, Plus $8/month per user, and Premium $12/month per user) differ per number of users in the library, storage capacities, and user management features. In the premium version, you also get a dashboard for team activity management. For non-profit organizations, Notejoy is capable of providing a discount.
- Free basic version
- Tracking of tasks
- Highlighting tools for formatting
- Offline access (view, edit and create)
- Possibility to archive notes
- Real-time editing
- Team members mentioning in documents and discussions for notification
- Domain sharing
- Quick searching
- Protection with passwords of separate notes
- Limited management tools
- No visualization tools as Kanban or Gantt charts
- Mobile version has limited functionality
- Loss of progress switching to offline mode
Todoist
Todoist has been a trusted tool for more than 10 million people for sixteen years as a task manager with tools for creating to-do lists, notes, and other project plans. It keeps track of all tasks from home and work and provides more control of your life; you will always know when and what to do. You can start this tool and upgrade it anytime to a paid version with more features.
Features:
- Fast creation of a to-do list based on tasks from your mind in natural language; set due dates, schedule reminders, define priority levels, or assign to the project.
- Easy delegation of tasks to family members or colleagues by moving them into projects or breaking them into subtasks, sharing them, and discussing them in the comments.
- Automatic sorting of tasks for today, upcoming, or any other customized filters.
- Separate workspaces for personal tasks and work.
- Setting productivity goals and tracking them with visualization, an archive of accomplished tasks.
- Customizable boards with Kanban-style cards.
- Possibility to connect workflow with email, calendar, or other files, including voice notes.
- Integration with numerous apps (file sharing, communication, automation, calendars, productivity, voice assistant, etc.).
- Project templates for tasks, appointments, meetings, blog posts, annual reviews, recipes, development workflows, and much more.
- Desktop app for macOS, Windows 10/11, Linux, iPhone, iPad, and Android; available as an extension for Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge, and Safari browsers; add-on for Gmail, Outlook mailbox; app for Apple and Android watches.
There are four workspace plans from Todoist – Personal Beginner plan (free) for 5 active projects and guests or Team Starter (free) for 5 active projects and unlimited admins and guests; Pro plan ($4/month) for 300 active projects and 25 guests and Business plan ($6/month) for 500 active projects and unlimited admins and users. Also, the plans differ by file upload size (from 5 MB to 100 MB), reminders, backups, and themes are available only in paid versions.
- Free beginner plan
- Customizable filters
- Addition of tasks via email
- History of team or individual activities
- Specify favorite projects
- Projects organization
- Clear overview of all tasks
- Synchronization across all devices
- Share projects
- Possibility to set repetitive tasks
- Lack of tutorials
- Lack of true Kanban features
- Security options are not clear
- Limited free version
Milanote
Milanote is a tool to organize creative visual workspaces for your ideas and projects. You can write notes or add to-do lists to your visual board. This app is recommended for designers, creative directors, writers, startups, and other creative tasks. Creative professionals from many world-known companies use Milanote, such as Dropbox, Amazon, Deloitte, Adobe, Uber, Philips, and Facebook.
Features:
- Automatic addition of all notes from offline mode during online synchronization into the Milanote app.
- Possibility to insert any file types into types– JPGs, PDFs, Excel, audio, video, photos, Word, Excel, etc.
- Online flexible whiteboard for collaboration with colleagues and friends.
- Numerous templates for mood boards, briefs, brainstorming, project plans, Marketing, Photography, Podcasting, Novel Outlines, and many more.
- High level of security with notes encryption, strict policy preventing Miletone staff from accessing them.
- Simple text editing and formatting tools with keyboard shortcuts and markdown tools for automatically making rich text.
- Automatic adaptation notes form the size of your text and the font.
- Possibility to share and receive feedback for notes and boards by your team, simple commenting tools.
- Email alerts and smart notifications for all essential changes with indicators since your last visit to your boards.
- Character profile template for visual connection of ideas and mapping relationships, stories, or character life stories.
Milanote provides three subscription plans for users – free with 100 notes,10 file uploads, and unlimited shared boards; Pay per person $9.99/month with unlimited notes, uploads, and boards; and Upgrade your team $49/month also unlimited for up to 10 people. Individual plans should be requested from the Milanote sales team for large teams.
- Free version
- Drag and drop interface
- High possibility of visualization
- Creation of mood boards
- Commenting tools
- Real-time backups
- Save of original links
- Constant saving to the cloud
- 24/7 support via emails
- Real-time collaboration
- No offline modes
- Some bags in the Chrome browser extension
- Card limits and cards per board
- Minimal free version
Conclusion
All reviewed in the article tools possess powerful features for preparing different types of notes, to-do lists, and tasks. You can share them with colleagues, set reminders, or set productivity goals. You can organize your daily life most effectively with customizable templates and workspaces. Almost all tools have free versions with limited functionality, but you can test all of them and then pay for the most convenient. Evernote, as you see, is not the only one for paperless workflows!
