 A note-taking app is a super simple idea. It's for, you know, taking notes. But when your phone is involved, there's actually a lot more you can do. Sometimes your notes are text, sometimes they're pictures or weird drawings, sometimes they're checklists, and who knows what else. A really good note-taking app can handle anything, anywhere, at any time. And that's why Evernote is the best note-taking app on the planet. And it's the best on almost any platform, too. It can be a little unwieldy at first, but it's so incredibly powerful that it'll always be able to work with whatever you're doing. If you just want to keep a list of text notes, there's great organization, tagging, and sharing built into both iOS and Android. You can also click from the web to Evernote, or take pictures, or use the Reminders feature to make a to-do list. Evernote works everywhere, which is one of its best features. And I mean everywhere. iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, the web, Windows Phone, even Blackberry. But the best thing about Evernote is when you turn it into a huge repository for everything, from great reads, to funny GIFs, to class notes, and you'll know it's all there when you want it later. Technically, Evernote is free, but for $5 a month or $45 a year, you get better offline access, better search, and more security. I pay for it just to have offline notebooks on my phone, but whether or not you do want to pay for it, Evernote is still the best note-taking app on the market. Its only real competition is OneNote, Microsoft's great note-taking app that's finally come from Windows to other platforms, too. OneNote is structured just like a standard notebook, which I like on the desktop, but it can get a little bit overdone and confusing on a smaller screen. Still, it's incredibly powerful, it's free, it syncs to lots of different platforms, and it'll take pretty much anything you throw at it. If you're not in love with the way Evernote looks or can't handle its initial learning curve, OneNote might be the perfect choice for you. The third good app on the list is Simple Note. It's crazy fast, it has really good search, and it's really seamless across platforms, but it only works for plain text. If you're just jotting down notes to self, there's nothing that's easier or faster, but you might find you need more than Simple Note offers. Beyond those three, there are literally hundreds of apps for iOS and Android, but they're usually either less functional or less enjoyable than the best three, or both. On iOS, you might try Gnotes, or Awesome Notes, or Notes Tab, or Notability, but they all offer less than Evernote. Vesper is maybe the best-looking Notes app, but without sync or support for other platforms, it's really hard to sync your teeth into. On Android, the list is even longer. Papyrus, and Write, and Scribble, and Fetchnotes. Actually, Fetchnotes has a neat tagging system that I like, but that's not nearly enough to use it. Google Keep, in particular, is a great Android app with a really useful widget, but it's still a little basic, and not nearly cross-platform enough. Cross-platform really is important. You might not have your same phone or laptop forever, but you want to keep your notes forever, and having them accessible anytime from any device is huge. Luckily, all three of the best note-taking apps work on all the most important platforms, and they all work well every day. And of those three, Evernote is simply the most powerful. It's the one most able to adapt to whatever you decide to give. If you're going to dump your whole brain into one place, and you should, make it Evernote.