I have been reviewing a lot of Microsoft software and services as of late. I reviewed OneDrive not long ago which is part of the Office365 package. I recently reviewed the Outlook Mail App. I thought now would be a good time to compare both Microsoft OneNote and Apple Notes.

I use Microsoft OneNote over Apple Notes daily, I personally think this is part of a workflow habit but when using Apple Notes I find that at times it’s aimed to heavily towards Apple iPhone users, and rightfully so it’s Apple product and they think everyone should have an iPhone.

One issue that comes into play when using Apple Notes is using an Android you can’t see the images right in Apple Notes which can make things kind of a pain. The other issue is there is no way to just share a link to Apple Notes the only people you invite will be able to access your notes. Products like OneNote and Google drive have link sharing that anyone with that link can view or edit a doc and you cannot find that link online. Security by obscurity is not the best form of security but there are certain things that just having a shareable link are good for on daily basis. Things that don’t need to be secure and things you need to send easily OneNote defiantly does do sharing better than Apple Notes.

I find OneNote to be easier and better at organizing of information with its tab, section, and notebook layout. You can very easily see what changes were made by other users using the notification section and see what you were recently working on using the recent section.

OneNote and Apple Notes both let you add Photos, Lists, and Notes. Both apps offer photo integration and check off style lists plus note taking nothing is different about either of these two products in that respect. OneNote stores in OneDrive while Apple stores in iCloud both are saving to the cloud in either event. Apple Notes does have the drawing or writing feature which is a cool and a fun feature not available in OneNote. Apple has a leg up with this feature because OneNote does not even offer a feature like this in any form.

One thing I would love to see with OneNote would be with an iPhone plus and a stylist to be able to write notes like you could do with Apple Notes, that would be a great feature for Microsoft to add. I am not sure if that will ever happen but it would be a great addition to OneNote.

Both Apple Notes and Microsoft OneNote have desktop apps for both Windows and Mac. Apple you must have iCloud installed to use Notes on a Windows PC which is no big deal. Both products have a cloud-based system for those that do not or can’t install desktop apps. Again both products are even in this category.

OneNote and Apple Notes both integrate well with their sister products. OneNote has great integration with the entire Office package. Apple Notes integrates well with Pages, Numbers, and Keynotes. Both products have issues with integration with company owned products.

I have to say from someone who really likes Microsoft products I think these two pieces of software are evenly matched. Yes, Apple Notes lags in the sharing department but OneNote does not have the handwriting recognition piece that Apple integrated with Notes. Both products are evenly matched for the most part and usage comes down to person preference on what you would rather use daily both are great.