Best note taking apps for Mac

From its maker: Your relationship as a living tree. Journal, shared calendar, pinboard and bucket list for iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch.

Oh My Notes is a floating Today layer: notes, to-dos and reminders that sit above every app, even in fullscreen. Notes are plain Markdown files you own, and Pro can keep them in your own folder or Obsidian vault. Free to try, with Pro from $7.99. No account.

Folio is a native study app: notebooks on a shelf, rich text pages, PDFs you can annotate, AI flashcards scheduled with FSRS spaced repetition, quizzes and exams, and a study assistant that talks about your notes. Its listing is written in Spanish. It costs 5 euros.

LocalEditor is a local workspace for notes, sketches and coding projects. You work in your own folders, alongside your AI agents, and every file stays yours. It is $20, and its maker names Obsidian and Zed as the apps it replaces.

DraftKey adds Tab autocomplete and draft rewriting to any Mac app. Start typing an email, a note or a commit message, accept suggested words with Tab, and keep going. It is $4.99 once, for Apple silicon with macOS 14 Sonoma or later.

LensNote is an AI note taker for recorded lectures, meetings and long videos. It captures each distinct slide once, pairs it with what was said, and writes a key message per slide, plus a transcript, summary and action items. No bot joins your calls. It is a subscription at $30 a month, with a 14-day trial.

LocArk is a local-first workspace for Markdown notes, password records and an inbox, stored in a folder you choose and encrypted with a master password. Core features work offline, and there is no hosted cloud sync. Notes are free; Pro adds kanban boards and mind maps for $4.90 a year or $24.90 lifetime. It runs on macOS 12 Monterey or later, Intel and Apple silicon.

LokalBot records meetings without a bot joining the call, then transcribes and summarizes them on your Mac. It can also search your meetings and, if you turn it on, what you saw on screen. Processing runs locally by default. It is free and open source, for Apple silicon with macOS 15 Sequoia or later.

Sonder is a free, open-source Markdown editor. It opens your own folder of .md files, so there is nothing to import or export, and adds a Focus Mode plus the AI tools you already have. It works offline and needs macOS 14 Sonoma or later.