There are essentially ~4 rough types of digital notetaking apps: the pen-based digital notebook, the keyboard-based writing-app, and hybrids that attempt both. I've got pretty extensive experience with all types. It's this history of my experience that has lead me to favor the most [[Durable File Types|durable]] methods available. | Type | Examples | Means of Input | Main Pro | Main Con | | ------------------------ | ----------- | -------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------- | | Digital Notebook | GoodNotes | Apple Pencil | Produces prettiest results and enables [[Visual Notetaking]]. | Does not scale well and vendor lock-in. | | Block-based Text Editors | Notion | Keyboard | Modularity of content allows for rapid reconfiguration & multiple views | Vendor lock-in. | | File-based Text Editors | Obsidian | Keyboard | Content is highly durable and lock-in is minimized. | The feature set is necessarily limited. | | Hybrids | Apple Notes | Both | Handles both kinds of notes | Vendor lock-in and feature bloat. | ## Digital Notebook There exist a class of apps that enable digital [[Bullet Journaling]]. These apps are almost all iPad-specific and rely heavily on the *Apple Pencil*. [[GoodNotes 5 + Notion|GoodNotes]] is probably the "main" one, but there are others. They do their best to recreate the experience of having a physical notebook with you, and have some neat tricks up their sleeve to take advantage of the fact they are digital... but more or less you're still hand-writing all your notes and doodling in the margins. Notes are non-linear and amorphous. This makes them way more interesting to look at, but also less easy to index/navigate. [[E Ink]] tablets like the "reMarkable" are also probably in here, as well. **Your notes end up looking like they were written on paper.** ## Text Editors Writing apps expect you to do your work through the *keyboard*. Most of these are also [[Markdown]] editors. They are typically either block-based or file-based. **Your notes end up looking like they were written in Word.** ### Block-Based Text Editors In block-based notetaking apps, every **paragraph** is a block, every item in a list is a block, every header, every image, **everything is a block**. All blocks have [[Surrogate Keys]], often in form of invisible [[UUID]]s. This makes content very [[Modularity|Modular]]. It separates out, to some extent, the structure of the content from how it's viewed. In order to accomplish this, all notes are stored in [[Relational Databases]] under the hood. This makes [[Only Use Obsidian Plug-ins That Retain Portability|portability]] more difficult, and makes your notes prone to vendor lock in. The most famous example of block-based apps is **[[Notion]]**. The blocks all exist in a super dynamic [[Hierarchy]], which can be represented in really nice tabular views, and pivoted to something like [[Calendars are the Most Important Productivity Tool|Calendars]] or [[Gantt Charts]]. ### File-Based Text Editors The antithesis to the "everything is a block"-based approach is the *file*-based approach. This means your notes no longer *live* in a database, but instead they live in files (and probably have metadata/relationships stored in a database). The file-based approach gives you better ownership over your data, but comes at the cost of having fewer bells & whistles. Things that [[Notion]] makes easy aren't really possible in any current file-based system. The hottest example of file-based notetaking right now is **[[Obsidian]]**. Obsidian sits on top[^1] of your existing file system. ## Hybrids Hybrids try to do both. They may favor one slight more than another, but true hybrids do exist. **Apple's Notes App**, **Microsoft's OneNote**, and to a somewhat lesser-extent **Evernote** are all decidedly *hybrid* apps, making the hybrid category probably the [[Archetype]] for most people when they hear "notetaking app". In reality there's a spectrum of "primarily keyboard-based" to "primarily stylus-based". Things like GoodNotes do *allow* for keyboard inputs, and Obsidian has plugins for [[Excalidraw]] that *allow* stylus inputs, but those are both outside their core competencies. I've long struggled with making hybrids work. By their very nature of trying to live in both worlds they struggle to feel natural or cohesive in either. For me, this is a case of [[Worse is Better]]. Methods with better [[Conceptual Integrity]] both "feel" better to me. [^1]: Technically it sits *alongside* your files, silently in a hidden `.obsidian` folder. ## [[Convergent Evolution]] Lots of competitors are coming out of the woodwork to try to blend the features of [[Notion]] and [[Obsidian]]. ![[Convergent Evolution#Notetaking Apps / PKM apps]] **** ### Source - self ### Related -