Note Taking Apps for MAC
13 free Mac apps in Note Taking, including AutoDoc, Markup, and oats. Each app page lists its version, size, macOS requirement and what’s new, and the download button leads to the developer’s official source.
13 apps
AutoDocAutoDoc is a free, open-source meeting notes app that keeps the whole process on your computer. It records your screen, your microphone and the system audio of a meeting, transcribes them on the device and turns the transcript into editable notes with a summary and conversation topics. Click a timestamp in the notes and the screen recording jumps back to that moment. An Ask AI feature answers questions across all your meetings, also on the device.Productivity
MarkupMarkup is a free, open-source Markdown editor for the Mac that is built around reading. Open a folder of notes and each file is rendered as a clean document, with KaTeX math, Mermaid diagrams, syntax-highlighted code, tables and task lists, instead of a plain text box. Press E to edit in WYSIWYG mode or Command-/ for the raw Markdown source, so reading, editing and source view are always one keystroke apart.Productivity
oatsoats is a meeting notes app that lives in the Mac menu bar. You hit record, carry on with your meeting, and when you stop it hands you a transcript and a tidy Markdown summary of what was said. There is no bot to invite into the call and no browser tab to keep open: recording, pausing and stopping all happen from the menu bar.Productivity
NotenikNotenik is a note-taking app for the Mac that does more than record notes. Each note is its own plain text file, and a folder of notes becomes a Collection, so you can keep as many Collections as you like wherever you like, including iCloud Drive or Dropbox for syncing. Because the files are plain text, you can open and edit them in any text editor or Markdown editor, and your notes are never locked inside the app.Productivity
LogueLogue is a local-first workspace for documents, tasks and meetings on macOS. It has nested spaces, a block editor, typed properties, relations, wiki links with backlinks and saved views, so it will feel familiar if you have used Notion or Obsidian. It also records meetings, transcribes them, separates the speakers, writes the minutes and turns what people committed to into tasks. An AI agent works across all of it.Productivity
StikStik is a quick-capture note app for macOS. Press Cmd+Shift+S from any app and a floating post-it appears. Type your thought, close it, and you are back at work. Every note is saved as a plain Markdown file in ~/Documents/Stik/, with no account and no sync setup. Folders in Stik are real folders on disk, so you can open, move or back up your notes with any other tool.Productivity
SimplenoteSimplenote is an easy way to keep notes, lists and ideas on your Mac. The app is built around speed: open it, write down a thought, and you are done. Your notes sync across your devices for free, and as the collection grows you can search it instantly and keep it in order with tags and pins.Productivity
Standard NotesStandard Notes is an end-to-end encrypted note-taking app for keeping your notes, files and life's work in one secure place. Your notes are encrypted on your device before they are synced, so only you can read them, and sync across your devices is free, fast and works on an unlimited number of them. It runs on Mac, Windows, Linux, iPhone, Android and the web, so your notes are with you everywhere.Productivity
QOwnNotesQOwnNotes is an open-source notepad with Markdown support and a to-do list manager. Your notes are stored as plain-text Markdown files in a folder on your Mac, so they stay yours and work with any other app. QOwnNotes works together with Nextcloud Notes and ownCloud Notes: the files are synced by Nextcloud or ownCloud, and you can also use Syncthing, Dropbox or any other sync service. That way you can write on your Mac and read or edit your notes later on your phone or in the web.Productivity
NoteGenNoteGen is a local-first Markdown app built around one idea: capture first, organise later. Save a thought, a voice recording, a screenshot, an image, a link, a file or a to-do the moment it comes up, without choosing a title or folder. Later, filter your records by tag, time or type, pick the ones that belong together, and NoteGen organises them into a structured note, such as a summary, report or article, that you then edit in your own words.Productivity
Xournal++Xournal++ is a note-taking app for handwriting, made for flexibility and speed. It supports pressure-sensitive styluses and drawing tablets such as Wacom, Huion and XP-Pen, and gives you paper backgrounds for notes, scratch paper or a whiteboard. Open a PDF and write on top of it: you can select, highlight, underline or strike through text in the PDF, follow its links, and export your notes as PDF, SVG or PNG.Productivity
NotesnookNotesnook is a note-taking app focused on privacy and ease of use. Everything you write is encrypted on your device before it is synced, using XChaCha20-Poly1305 and Argon2, so only you can read your notes. It is made as a private alternative to Evernote, with notebooks, tags and a rich editor, and it syncs your notes across your Mac, phone and the web.Productivity
FSNotesFSNotes is a fast, native notes app for Mac that keeps every note as a portable Markdown or plain-text file instead of locking it in a database. You can open and edit your notes with any other app, now or years from now. It stays quick even with more than 10,000 notes, and it fits your way of working with multiple folders, external editors, iCloud Drive or Dropbox, and optional Git backups. Connect ideas with tags and [[links]], protect private notes with AES-256 encryption, and see code, Mermaid diagrams and MathJax rendered.Productivity