“### 🥇 Microsoft OneNote – Best all-rounder”
“- Organise notes into subjects, notebooks and sections.”
“- Quickly type lecture notes.”
“- Add images, diagrams and screenshots.”
“- Import lecture slides and PDFs.”
“- Highlight and write directly over PDF printouts.”
“- Access cached notebooks offline.”
“Cost: Free for the core app.”
“- Can feel slightly cluttered.”
“- Notebooks generally rely on OneDrive synchronisation.”
“- PDF annotation isn't as flexible as a dedicated PDF editor.”
“### 🥈 Obsidian – Best for fast, organised notes”
“- Extremely flexible note organisation.”
“- Stores notes locally on your laptop.”
“- Works completely offline.”
“- Supports Markdown.”
“- Links notes between different subjects.”
“- Thousands of community plugins.”
“Cost: Free for personal use.”
“- Takes some time to customise.”
“- PDF annotation isn't its strongest feature.”
“- Official cloud synchronisation costs extra.”
“### 🥉 Joplin – Best free, open-source alternative”
“- Completely free core application.”
“- Works offline.”
“- Organises notes into notebooks.”
“- Supports attachments and images.”
“- Markdown and rich-text editing.”
“- Supports optional encrypted synchronisation.”
“Joplin is genuinely offline-first, meaning your notes remain accessible on your laptop without an internet connection.”
“- Interface is less polished.”
“- PDF annotation isn't as convenient as OneNote.”
“- Synchronisation requires configuration or a paid service.”
“### 4. Xournal++ – Best for PDF annotation”
“- Highlight PDF documents.”
“- Write handwritten annotations.”
“- Add comments and diagrams.”
“- Annotate lecture slides.”
“- Export annotated documents as PDFs.”
“Cost: Completely free and open source.”
“One limitation: it saves annotations separately in its native format unless you export them into a PDF.”