The 7 best Google Keep alternatives in 2026
Updated September 2026
Google Keep is the notes app most people never chose — it came with the account. This is what to use when the sticky notes stop being enough, or when you want your notes somewhere Google isn’t: seven apps ranked on free tiers, desktop apps, encryption, and how cleanly you can leave again.
Keep is good at what it does: free, instant, checklists, timed reminders, shared lists, voice notes that transcribe themselves. People leave it for six specific reasons. Formatting stops at bold, italic, and two heading sizes — no tables, nested lists, or links between notes. Labels, not folders: one flat pile of cards, fine at fifty notes and hopeless at two thousand. No desktop app — on a Mac or PC, Keep is a browser tab. Everything lives in a Google account, without end-to-end encryption. The new features need a Gemini subscription: Keep Live, the voice mode Google shipped in September 2026, is Android-only and requires an AI Plus, Pro, or Ultra plan. And reminders got simpler — location reminders were retired in late 2025, leaving only timed ones. If none of those bother you, stay; Keep is free and it works. If one does, the list below is ranked for that reason.
At a glance
| App | Best for | Price | Runs on |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apple Notes | iPhone and Mac users who want zero setup | Free with your iCloud storage | Mac, iPhone, iPad; iCloud.com elsewhere |
| Simplenote | Keep’s lightness on every platform | Free — sync, backups, and sharing included | Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android, web |
| Notesnook | Keep’s features with end-to-end encryption | Free; Essential $19.99/yr, Pro $49.99/yr | Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android, web |
| Microsoft OneNote | Windows and Microsoft 365 users | Free, with OneDrive’s 5 GB | Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, web |
| Joplin | Open source, with sync you control | Free, open source; Joplin Cloud optional | Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android |
| Obsidian | People who have outgrown sticky notes | Free core app; Sync $4/mo billed yearly | Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android |
| Locus | Notes that never leave one Mac | Free while in development | Mac only — no phone app |
1. Apple Notes
Best for: iPhone and Mac users who want zero setup · Free with your iCloud storage
If you carry an iPhone, the best Google Keep alternative is already installed. Checklists, pinned notes, tags, and shared notes are all here, plus what Keep never had: real folders, tables, scanned documents, and notes locked behind Touch ID or Face ID. Quick Note on the Mac and the Control Center shortcut on iPhone are as fast as Keep’s widget. Moving in is easy — Notes on the Mac imports the HTML files a Keep export produces, and exports to Markdown or PDF. The limit is the obvious one: no Windows or Android app, just iCloud.com in a browser. Prefer notes that never leave the machine? Use the “On My Mac” account; we cover it in where Apple Notes are stored.
2. Simplenote
Best for: Keep’s lightness on every platform · Free — sync, backups, and sharing included
The closest thing to Keep’s spirit on this list: small, fast, free, and everywhere — including native Windows and Linux apps, which Keep has never offered. Notes sync in real time, tags and pins organize them, Markdown is a per-note toggle, and version history lets you step back through edits. The limits are deliberate. Simplenote is text only: no images, attachments, colors, or reminders. If your Keep is full of photographed receipts and whiteboards, look elsewhere. It is also an account-based service run by Automattic, so your notes leave Google for another cloud — a different privacy trade, not the absence of one. Our Simplenote Markdown guide covers the editor.
3. Notesnook
Best for: Keep’s features with end-to-end encryption · Free; Essential $19.99/yr, Pro $49.99/yr
The best pick if you are leaving Keep for privacy but still want your notes on every device. Notesnook encrypts notes on your device before syncing, so the company cannot read them, and its apps and sync server are open source. The free plan is unusually usable: unlimited notes on unlimited devices, notebooks, tags, note colors, reminders, app lock, and a web clipper — with caps of 50 notebooks, ten active reminders, seven colors, and 50 MB of attachment uploads a month. That is the closest feature match to Keep here, encryption added. The trade is the same as any encrypted service: notes live inside an account as an encrypted database, not as files you can open elsewhere. It imports Google Keep exports directly.
4. Microsoft OneNote
Best for: Windows and Microsoft 365 users · Free, with OneDrive’s 5 GB
The obvious answer if your life runs on Windows. Where Keep is a pile of cards, OneNote is a bookshelf — notebooks, sections, and free-form pages you can type, draw, and clip into. It is free on every platform and syncs through OneDrive, so notes follow your Microsoft account everywhere. Two warnings: it is a lot of app for a grocery list, and export is its weak spot — pages save as PDF, with no clean Markdown or plain-text exit. The Mac version is also the thinnest of the family, which is why we wrote a separate OneNote alternative for Mac page.
5. Joplin
Best for: Open source, with sync you control · Free, open source; Joplin Cloud optional
Not pretty, but free, open source, and honest about where your notes are. Notebooks, tags, Markdown or rich text, attachments, to-dos with alarms, a web clipper, and plugins. Sync is what sets it apart: you pick the target — Joplin Cloud, Nextcloud, Dropbox, OneDrive, S3, WebDAV, or a folder on disk — and end-to-end encryption is optional on all of them (enable it on one device and finish a full sync before adding the next). For Keep migrations, Joplin imports HTML files, which is exactly what Takeout produces; colors and pins are lost, text and checklists survive.
6. Obsidian
Best for: People who have outgrown sticky notes · Free core app; Sync $4/mo billed yearly
Not really a Keep replacement — it is what people move to once Keep has taught them they like taking notes. The core app is free with no sign-up, and notes are plain Markdown files in a folder you own, so they outlive the app. Links between notes, tags, folders, a canvas, and a huge plugin ecosystem follow. The honest cost is attention: Obsidian asks you to make decisions about structure and plugins, and quick capture on a phone is slower than Keep’s one-tap widget. Keep’s export is HTML, so convert it to Markdown with one of the small open-source converters first. We compared it in depth in Locus vs. Obsidian.
7. Locus
Best for: Notes that never leave one Mac · Free while in development
Ours — judge this entry accordingly. Locus is the fourth path beyond “another cloud”: an app with no cloud at all. It is a native Mac notes app with a block editor, quick capture from the menu bar, templates, page history, daily backups, and Markdown import and export; there is no account, no sync service, and no analytics, so nothing leaves the Mac unless you export it. It is also the opposite of Keep in one important way — Mac-only, with no phone app — so it is the wrong tool for a grocery list you check in the store and the right one for the ideas you never wanted in a Google account. Keep’s HTML export needs a quick conversion to Markdown first. Local-first notes explains the model, and menu bar notes covers the Keep-style capture reflex.
Get your notes out of Keep first
Whichever app you pick, export before you switch — Keep has no in-app export, so the path runs through Google Takeout. Deselect everything, select only Keep, and download the ZIP. Each note arrives twice: as an HTML file any browser opens, and as a JSON file holding the plain text, timestamps, labels, and the checked state of every list item. Attachments, colors, collaborators, and pinned or archived state come along. Three things trip people up: deleted notes are not included, so restore from Trash first; archived notes are included and easy to forget; and work or school accounts may have export switched off by an admin. Then move twenty notes — one with a checklist, one with an image, one shared — and see what survived before you move two thousand.
How we chose
We make Locus, so we held the list to tests that can’t be gamed in our favor: can you capture a note in seconds on a phone and a computer, does it handle checklists and reminders, is the free tier a home rather than a trial, and can you leave with your notes in a format another app reads. Then the question Keep users rarely get to ask — where do the notes live, and who can read them? If that last question is the one that matters to you, our best private notes apps roundup ranks the same field on privacy alone, and Locus vs. Apple Notes is the honest next step for anyone who picks the default and later outgrows it.
Questions people ask
What is the best alternative to Google Keep?
It depends on which wall you hit. For iPhone and Mac users, Apple Notes: preinstalled, real folders, locked notes, and it imports Keep’s HTML export. For Keep’s lightness on Windows and Linux too, Simplenote. For Keep’s colors, reminders, and checklists with end-to-end encryption, Notesnook. For notes as files you own with no account, Obsidian — or, on a Mac, Locus.
Is there a free alternative to Google Keep?
Most of the good ones are free. Apple Notes, Simplenote, OneNote, Joplin, and Obsidian’s core app cost nothing and are not trials. Notesnook’s free plan is real but capped on attachments and reminders. Locus is free while in development. Standard Notes didn’t make the list because its free tier is plain text only — no checklists — though it is worth a look if you want end-to-end encryption and mostly write.
Does Google Keep have a desktop app?
No. On a Mac or PC, Keep is a browser tab at keep.google.com plus a Chrome extension for saving links; Google ended the standalone Chrome app in 2021. Every app above has a native Mac app; all but Apple Notes and Locus have a native Windows app too.
Which Google Keep alternative works without a Google account — or any account?
All seven work without Google. Three work without any account at all: Obsidian needs no sign-up because notes are Markdown files on your device, Apple Notes works locally with the “On My Mac” account, and Locus has no account by design. Simplenote, OneNote, Notesnook, and Joplin Cloud each need an account because they sync through one.
How do I export my Google Keep notes?
Through Google Takeout: deselect everything, select only Keep, and download the ZIP. Each note arrives as an HTML file and a JSON file, with attachments, colors, labels, collaborators, and pinned or archived state included. Deleted notes are not — restore anything from Trash first. Apple Notes and Joplin import the HTML directly; Notesnook has a Keep-specific importer; Obsidian, Simplenote, and Locus need a quick conversion to Markdown or text.
Is Google Keep being discontinued?
As of September 2026, Google has announced no plan to shut Keep down — it shipped the Keep Live voice feature, a Google Messages integration, and editor updates this year. People look for alternatives because of Keep’s limits and its ties to a Google account, not because it is going away.