Obsidian
A notes app that works on a plain folder of Markdown files.
Instead of OneNote, Google Keep, Notion
Screenshot from obsidian.md, taken 2026-10-23. The images belong to their makers and are shown to help you recognise the tool. Ask us to remove one.
Obsidian's best decision is that your notes are just Markdown files in a folder on your own computer. If the company disappeared tomorrow, every note would still open in any text editor, which is why it scores full marks on Lock-in and Longevity.
The app itself is closed source, so Power suffers, and the plugin ecosystem can turn note-taking into a hobby of configuring note-taking. Sync and publishing are paid add-ons, though free alternatives work fine.
For comparison, we also reviewed Microsoft Word (15/30) as a benchmark.