Best Free & Paid Personal Knowledge Management Apps (PKM) for Note-Taking
Note-taking has become much more advanced and now allows for much deeper note-taking, thought expansion and networked thought to occur using powerful note apps called PKM apps, or Personal Knowledge Management Apps. PKM apps have become increasingly popular as you can do three things that aren't within traditional note-taking tools like connecting notes together, graph views and backlinks that better resurface the notes you take for use in the future. The objective of PKM apps is designed to better help you to collect the most important thoughts, notes, journal entries and ideas all in one place building out a network of thoughts. PKM apps are recommended and used by folks like Tiago Forte, Anne-Laure Le Cunff and Nick Milo and consist of apps like Obsidian, Reflect Notes & Tana as some PKM tools.
Craft is a personal and team documents application that creates beautiful docs.
Reflect Notes is a networked thought note-taking tool for notes, daily notes & tasks.
Scrintal wants to be a way to brainstorm your mind and capture your ideas & thoughts.
NotePlan is a unique note-taking app with a focus on calendar and tasks in one.
Tana is a powerful PKM note-taking app designed for advanced note-taking & beyond.
RemNote is an advanced note-taking app popular with students for creating flashcards.
Heptabase is a networked thought note-taking app designed for deep thinkers.
Recall AI wants you to summarize news, docs, media for recall and organization later.
Bear Notes is a minimal, markdown note-taking application perfect for iOS and Mac.
A beautifully-designed note-taking tool that was originally developed for students.
Notesnook is an E2E note taking application with a focus of privacy and security.
Thunk Notes wants to host your notes connected and organized in one location.
PKM Apps & Tools
Understanding PKM Tools Further
What are PKM Apps?
Personal knowledge management apps, better known as PKM apps, are used to take ideas, thoughts, and notes in one place and use networked thought to connect notes together to better bring them into a system like your brain, interconnected.
Why are PKM apps popular?
Connecting notes is much better with PKM apps and tools. They can connect notes using backlinks, block references, and graph views to visualize notes more effectively.
How do I start a PKM note-taking system?
Some of the best starting points are using systems like the Second Brain or concepts talked about like Zettlekasten to begin the structure of your note-taking PKM setup.