There are tons of Notes app available in the playstore and f-droid. I have use my fair share of them these are my best 5 recommendations. All of these are free to use and have to pay extra if you want specific features.
- All in one - Wenote - This is the most powerful note app I have used. This has memo, voice record, calendar, sync, color coding, various fonts, categories etc. Some of these features are behind a paywall. But It is a one time payment. It looks minimal and is light weight.
- All in one but foss - Joplin - This is an open-source project. Available on almost all platforms. If you want a powerful cross-platform note taking application then this is the best bet. This is Completely free but has an option of premium sync option. You can use free sync service to nextcloud and webdav.
- Security - Standard Notes - This is a note taking application that focuses on security. This is an open-source private notes app meaning your notes are end-to-end encrypted, so only you can read your notes. It has a minimal and clean UI. It has dedicated apps for most platforms and syncs your notes securely across all your devices, including your Android devices, Windows, iOS, Linux, and Web.
- Modern - Bundled Notes - This is the most modern looking Notes app on my list. It is aesthetically pleasing and intuitive. A powerful notes, lists, reminders and to-do app. Easily organise notes, lists, photos, files, and more. A google keep alternative.
- For casual use - Notally - A lightweight note taking application. A simple and elegant open source notes app. Notally is a minimalistic note taking app with a beautiful material design and powerful features. Dark mode, Completely free, Adjustable text size, Auto save and backup, No permissions required.
P.S: Obsidian is also a great Note taking tool.
Getting invested in an ecosystem you can’t self-host is a non-starter for me. Anything cloud-based is eventually going to go away or the price takes it out of reach. Also, if I can fork it, I can fix it.
Logical and understandable POV.
Personally though I can’t see it as a good reason though.
Just don’t invest too hard and be able to move if it’s possible. Obsidian.md for exanple isnt FOSS but their way of markdown makes it very easy to just use Visual Studio to visualize the markdown.
In essence: No need to go 100% after one program.
Do I need Outlook? No. Is it more convenient and the UI is (personally) better than Thunderbird? Yep. Can I change my mail app to say Thunderbird? Sure. It’s IMAP based.
Fine reason. But not everything proprierary has to be cloud based? Subscriptions creep more and more into software but it’s not like every non-(F)OSS is a cloud app now.
Pricing is another issue in itself. (I should really donate some € to the devs of some tools I use)
I donate quite a bit for things I use, Joplin and KDE being high up there. I completely buy into the idea that if I use it, its worth money, especially so if I’m not locked in.
A notes organizing system is an investment, a huge one. Migrating systems isn’t trivial, which is why I want the system i choose to be there years from now. It will be my second brain one day. A good one that I can rely on is essential and changing is not something I take lightly after having done it a couple times already.