Take a look at https://noteapps.info/. Not sure who created it but it's a super-solid resource.

I had the same thoughts and doubts as you. Notion is a great and powerful tool, but for me it’s overwhelming a little bit for everyday usage mostly to save your stuff and notes.

Apple notes it’s not that powerful but I think it is enough powerful for most people. Simple, fast, free of charge, allows to share notes and folders with someone. For me - this is the best choice

There is a learning curve with obsidian BUT what you get out of it is full control of your notes in a format that can be used pretty much anywhere. It is a good app with a good community around it.

i think its just easy to use tbh and very simple and stores my notes locally on my laptop , and lets me actually focus on taking notes plus a lot of helping plugins in it, i tried notion but i found it overwhelming tbh ,

Obsidian

When I open a note in obsidian can I go at the bottom quickly? I use apple notes I have to scroll down to the end

i use onenote!! has the organisation system you’re looking for (separate notebooks, folders, pages, sub sections) and syncs across all devices :)

For 95% of people, Apple Notes will do everything they need. Note that I didn't say "want", I said "need" :)

Good-notes is pretty solid, the free version only gives u three notebooks but in my opinion, that would be fine. I would also recommend using free form, it is an infinite canvas and so what i do is use free form to write random things in lectures and then organize them in the goodnote notebooks. It is also free

If you type out your notes, I would so recommend Opennote.com; they've been a literal lifesaver for the past couple of months. Automatic flashcards based on my own notes, and it connects to my GDrive too and it's free with a pro version thats pretty cheap

Search for "infinite canvas" on the App Store. With all the power that iPads have now, people are moving from linear apps like notability to infinite canvases.

Here's a rundown of the most popular apps, pick one based on what you like

Apple Notes + Freeform : Great for quick note taking or as a rough book to just scribble down ideas. Not that good if you want an organised notebook for class or if you want to do a bunch of drawing

GoodNotes 6 : Was once great, now is kinda littered with bugs and their subscription is annoyingly overpriced.

Nebo : Great app especially for their infinite canvas, also has a subscription, but includes some flashy AI stuff like note summary, look up and quizzing. Works best if you have neat handwriting/type

Noteful : Cheap and gets the job done. Unfortunately it lacks OCR if you want to search handwritten notes. Layers and tags are a big plus for organisation.

Kilonotes : Free tier offers upto 7 notebooks with unlimited pages, great set of writing tools, can make flashcards directly from the notes themselves and really good OCR

Obsidian

- Strong accent on note linking

- Local files

- Simple markdown format

For learning, hands down paper notebooks. Writing has a better reinforcement mechanisms for your brain. 

onenote :)

Pen and paper ,

When you’re writing notes by hand vs typing them—or rewriting them later to reword or better understand the material—different parts of your brain are involved, and that affects how well you learn and remember the content.

Writing by hand (pen and paper) activates areas like the sensorimotor cortex (hand movement), the visual cortex (recognizing shapes and spatial layout), the hippocampus (memory formation), and the prefrontal cortex (attention and organization). It also engages the cerebellum, which helps coordinate fine motor actions.

The key benefit is active encoding—you’re summarizing, organizing, and thinking as you write. Research shows that handwriting leads to stronger memory retention because it slows you down and forces you to process the information more deeply. (One popular study on this is Mueller & Oppenheimer, 2014—“The Pen Is Mightier Than the Keyboard.”)

Typing or using a notes app mostly uses the prefrontal cortex (planning and organizing), the motor cortex (finger movements), and the basal ganglia (for routine actions like fast typing). While typing is faster, it’s often more shallow, especially if you’re just transcribing. You’re less likely to rephrase or mentally process what you’re typing, unless you’re intentionally doing so.

Rewriting and rewording notes (especially by hand) is where deep learning happens. You’re actively pulling from memory processing language and using the prefrontal cortex for organizing and rephrasing. You’re basically forcing your brain to re-understand the information in your own words, which strengthens connections and improves retention.

If you want to actually understand and remember what you’re studying, the best method is to: Take notes by hand Reword or rewrite them later (this is when you would type up your notes) Review them periodically

Obsidian

Noteful is best app and lifetime subscription only USD 5. Contain many templates.

As far as I know Notability and Goodnotes are the preferred apps, if its a one time purchase just pay via apple it will use your sim card and then send you a receipt

Goodnotes

Don't overlook freeform, digital whiteboards are so intuitive when you get the hang of them. As much space as you could want in any direction, Copy and paste any element you want, Draw your perfect planner setup and copy up a whole year of it, Put your notes in flow chart form and collate it into text right there in the same space. I've found it insanely useful for getting my mindspew down on something.

Notes+ is completely free and has some templates as well

Nothing for the Android front?

Found one called Osmo (getosmo.com) that’s amazing for online meetings, especially long ones. Not exactly like the traditional note taking apps like you mentioned above where you have to type down everything. Looks like they use voice tech to save you from doing it all with your hands

I'm using notion.

Obsidian, it's frocking awesome

These ones are similar to Bear and Notes:

• Simplenote
• Bear
• Spaces
• Taio
• Noto
• Paper

I use an iPad with an Apple Pencil
handwriting using the Notability app (Apple Notes also works)
backed up by a pen and paper notebook

Also important; note storage and organization
and data backups

I use Clutter for almost anything I work on. It's much easier to retrieve information on Clutter than on any traditional page-based note-taking systems.

Logseq

Obsidian

Google Keep or One Note

I'm a messy guy, the type who gets a lot of things I wanna write down but never get the time to actually organize what I write, I've tried the solution available but none fit my criteria, either too complex or missing a key functionality, so I built my own solution.

Notability is pretty good

Obsidian.md is the best! Give it a try

I'm a fan of Google Keep.

Have a look at UpNote.

It supports Markdown and has a lovely interface.

Logseq, multi platform, open source, free

Notion + https://2anki.net/ intead of Remnote. It's free, plus you have no storage problem.

I stick with notion because it's free, multiplatform, and I have no storage limit.

Plus Notion seems to be the most durable because it has lots of users and a big community.

I'm kind of bouncing back and forth between Notedrafts and Noteful.

Notes is the obvious choice since it has the most features that you would normally be paying extra for. What features are you looking for?

I just use Procreate straight out

Kilonotes

I use Notes and Notability.