Toolradar Research
Note taking software statistics 2026
First-party data on the 180 note taking tools Toolradar tracks: 83% free tier, and Notion Calendar at 3.80 from 14,150 reviews against Fathom at 4.90 from 7,187.
Founder, Toolradar & Dupple
Key findings
What the data shows.
- 01
180 note taking tools tracked, holding 58,481 aggregated third-party reviews. (Source: Toolradar directory, September 17, 2026.)
- 02
83% offer a free tier, one of the highest free-access shares outside IDEs. (Source: Toolradar directory, September 17, 2026.)
- 03
Notion Calendar sits at 3.80 from 14,150 reviews. Notion AI sits at 3.90 from 13,925. Fathom sits at 4.90 from 7,187. (Source: Toolradar directory, September 17, 2026.)
- 04
Evernote holds 10,296 reviews at 4.40. (Source: Toolradar directory, September 17, 2026.)
- 05
The median paid plan starts at $7 a month. (Source: Toolradar directory, September 17, 2026.)
About the research
How we built this report.
Toolradar tool database. Editorial review with weekly pricing verification.
2026. Snapshot taken September 17, 2026. Refresh due Dec 17, 2026.
Public scoring rubric. See how we rate for the full criteria.
Creative Commons BY 4.0. Quote, link, and reuse with attribution.
Note taking is free-first, and the workspace default does not own satisfaction. Toolradar tracks 180 tools holding 58,481 reviews. 83% offer a free tier. Notion Calendar holds 14,150 reviews at 3.80. Notion AI holds 13,925 at 3.90. Evernote holds 10,296 at 4.40. Fathom, a meeting-notes specialist, holds 7,187 at 4.90. The notebook everyone already opened sits below the recorder people installed on purpose.
Every figure below is computed from the Toolradar directory on September 17, 2026. The live dashboard is Note taking statistics. The buyer ranking is best note taking software.
How large the category is
We track 180 published tools, or 1.7% of the 10,619 tools in the directory. 92% (166 of 180) were added to Toolradar in 2026. "Added" means added to our directory, not founded this year.
A $7 notes seat is the personal plan. The team wiki is a different tier.
How these tools are priced
17% of the 180 tools are paid-only. 83% offer a free tier or freemium plan (149 tools). 22% are fully free.
n = 180 tools, September 17, 2026How note taking software are priced
For the 50 tools that publish a paid tier, the median entry price is $7 a month and the mean is $33.
n = 50 tools with a published paid tierEntry price distribution
The catalog-wide median entry is $20 (software pricing statistics).
How these tools are rated
77 of 180 tools carry a rating (43%). Those ratings rest on 58,481 reviews. Unweighted mean 4.41. Review-weighted mean 4.19.
n = 77 rated toolsRating distribution
The most-reviewed tools on September 17, 2026:
| Tool | Rating | Reviews |
|---|---|---|
| Notion Calendar | 3.80 | 14,150 |
| Notion AI | 3.90 | 13,925 |
| Evernote | 4.40 | 10,296 |
| Fathom | 4.90 | 7,187 |
Source: Toolradar directory, September 17, 2026.
Fathom has half of Notion Calendar's reviews and sits more than a point higher. A single-job meeting tool beats a calendar bolted onto a workspace.
The highest-rated tools with at least 150 aggregated reviews:
| # | Tool | Rating | Reviews |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fathom | 4.90 | 7,187 |
| 2 | Bluedot | 4.80 | 223 |
| 3 | Fellow | 4.70 | 2,438 |
| 4 | Boostnote | 4.70 | 277 |
| 5 | Nabla | 4.50 | 700 |
| 6 | XMind | 4.50 | 585 |
| 7 | Noteable | 4.50 | 535 |
| 8 | Scrivener | 4.50 | 292 |
| 9 | Evernote | 4.40 | 10,296 |
| 10 | Otter.ai | 4.40 | 608 |
Fathom leads at 4.90.
Review volume by platform:
| Review platform | Tools with a profile | Aggregated reviews | Mean rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| G2 | 70 | 46,425 | 4.64 |
| Capterra | 20 | 11,035 | 4.45 |
| Trustpilot | 9 | 786 | 3.33 |
| SourceForge | 9 | 223 | 4.29 |
| TrustRadius | 1 | 12 | 4.50 |
Three tools worth comparing are Fathom, Evernote, and Notion Calendar.
How often pricing moves
Our pricing tracker logged 12 pricing changes for these tools in 2026, 0 of them applied.
How this data was measured
Every figure in this report is computed live from the Toolradar directory on September 17, 2026, covering the 180 published tools we categorize under Note taking. Pricing model is read from each vendor's official pricing page. The entry price is the cheapest positive monthly tier a tool publishes. Ratings and review counts are aggregated from third-party platforms (G2, Capterra, Trustpilot and others), not from Toolradar's own reviews. The leaderboard floor is 150 aggregated reviews. This is a directory snapshot, not a survey.
Cite this report
- APA: Corneloup, L. (2026). Note taking software statistics 2026. Toolradar Research. https://toolradar.com/reports/note-taking-software-statistics
- MLA: Corneloup, Louis. "Note taking software statistics 2026." Toolradar Research, 17 Sept. 2026, toolradar.com/reports/note-taking-software-statistics.
Browse the full category on the best note taking software page, or explore all of Toolradar Research.
Cite this report
Use the data, credit the source.
Released under Creative Commons BY 4.0. You may quote, link, and reuse the data with attribution.
More research
What Toolradar has stored: reviews and logos
57 of 10,667 published tools have at least one Toolradar review. 6,602 have a stored external-review payload. 4,065 have neither. 180 published tools have no logo file.
How fresh Toolradar prices are
On September 22, 2026, 7,331 of 10,667 published tools had their pricing re-checked in the last 30 days. 3,334 have never been checked. One check is older than 90 days. The median price lives on another page. This page is the age of the check.
Free trial share of software tools 2026
2,885 of 10,667 published Toolradar tools have a stored free-trial flag (27%). The free path is a different cut: 5,834 tools (55%) are free, freemium, or open_source. Among Paid listings, 1,433 of 4,786 (30%) carry the trial flag.