Microsoft OneNote vs Notejoy (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, we pick Microsoft OneNote: it is third in our ranking of note-taking apps, and it grades higher too, 3.8 against 2.6.
Checked Oct 5, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 · graded Oct 10, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA
Microsoft OneNote grades higher on value for money, the free plan, features and ease of use. They get the same grade on platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Microsoft OneNote
Microsoft's free digital notebook for typed, inked and audio notes
Notejoy
Shared notes app for teams, with real-time editing
Which one is for you
Pick Microsoft OneNote if
- Fits if you already have a Microsoft account and want free notes on every device
- Works for writing by hand with a pen or stylus and typing on the same page, or for Class Notebooks in schools
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you want notebooks kept on your own hard drive, as only the Windows desktop app can do that
- Tight if your free 5 GB is already full of OneDrive files and Outlook attachments
- Not for you if you're on Linux and want a real app, because there it's browser-only
- Watch out: App Store reviews repeatedly complain about notes slow to sync to another device
- Watch out: the Microsoft 365 trial needs a card and converts to a paid plan, and its AI is for the owner only, with usage limits
Pick Notejoy if
- Fits if a small team wants one shared notebook for meeting notes
- Works for schools and nonprofits buying several seats
Look elsewhere if
- Tight if you stay free: 5 notebooks, 10MB per file and 100MB of storage
- Skip it if you need offline access or note history, which are paid only
- Watch out: end-to-end encryption, including attachments, is on a premium plan, so check which
- Not for you if you want to share on Solo, as it allows one user per library
How we grade them
| 3.8GPAMicrosoft OneNoteExcellent | 2.6GPANotejoyGood | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | AOneNote itself costs nothing on every platform it supports, in a category whose middle plan is $6 a month. The paid route, Microsoft 365 Personal at $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year, is less a notes upgrade than 1 TB of storage plus Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook with Copilot. | CSolo is $5 a month on yearly billing, between the category's cheaper quarter and its $5.99 middle. Pro is $10 a person, and Team is $100 a month for unlimited users. |
| Free plan and trial | BThe app is free in full on Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android and the web, with no features held back. The cupboard is the catch: a free Microsoft account has 5 GB, shared with your OneDrive files and Outlook.com attachments, and plenty of people have hit that already. | CFree for up to 5 users per library and 3 team libraries, but only 5 notebooks, 10MB per file and 100MB of library storage. |
| Features | ATyped text, pen or stylus ink, pictures, video and voice on one page, voice transcription, dictation in 27 languages, document scanning that pulls the text out, a free Web Clipper for Edge and Chrome, and shared notebooks. Class and Staff Notebooks for schools are something rivals don't offer. | CReal-time co-editing, quick find, a web clipper and embeds from Google Drive, Slack and others. Offline access, history and end-to-end encryption are paid, and Solo can't share notes. |
| Ease of use | A4.71 from over a million App Store ratings, which is the top mark on our scale. Reviewers say the notebooks-and-sections layering keeps subjects apart. Sync is the grumble: repeated complaints about notes slow to reach another device. | BNo store rating on record. It's a notes app you sign into and start typing in, with nothing to build first. |
| Platforms and integrations | AWindows, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android, the web and a browser clipper, tied into OneDrive, SharePoint, Word and Excel. That's the full set. Linux gets the browser version only. | AWeb, Mac, Windows, iPhone, Android and a web clipper, with embeds from Google Drive, Microsoft Office, Zoom, Gmail, Trello, Slack and HubSpot. |
| Best for | free notebooks on every device | shared notebooks for small teams |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Microsoft OneNote and Notejoy. How we grade
Price against what you get
Microsoft OneNote starts at $8.33 a month when paid by the year and scores 4.0 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Notejoy starts at $5 a month and scores 3.0.
Microsoft OneNote scores higher, and starts $3.33 a month higher: the question is whether the extra is worth that to you. Of the other note-taking apps on the chart, none scores higher than Microsoft OneNote for less, and 7 score higher than Notejoy for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Notejoy is end-to-end encrypted, according to its own site.
- Microsoft OneNote also covers transcription and dictation.
At a glance
| Microsoft OneNote | Notejoy | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | $9.99 per month, or $99.99 per year (Microsoft 365 Personal) | $5 per month, billed annually (Solo) |
| Free plan | OneNote is free to download and use on every supported platform. A free Microsoft account includes 5 GB of cloud storage, shared with OneDrive files and Outlook.com attachments. | Up to 5 users per library, 3 team libraries, 5 notebooks, 10MB per file upload and 100MB of library storage. |
| Free trial | 1-month free trial of Microsoft 365. A credit card is required, and it converts to a paid subscription unless canceled. | None listed |
| Web | ||
| macOS | ||
| Windows | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Browser extension | ||
| Made by | Microsoft | Notejoy |
| Price read from | microsoft.com | notejoy.com |
| Checked | Oct 5, 2026 | Nov 12, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Microsoft OneNote
- A free Microsoft account stops at 5 GB of cloud storage, shared with OneDrive files and Outlook.com attachments.
- Only the Windows desktop app can keep notebooks on a local hard drive; the other versions work with cloud notebooks.
- Microsoft 365 AI features are limited to the subscription owner, with usage limits, even on the Family plan.
- Microsoft lists apps for Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad and Android but none for Linux, where OneNote is browser-only.
Notejoy
- The free plan stops at 5 notebooks and 100MB of library storage per library.
- Offline access, note history and end-to-end encryption are on paid plans only.
- The Solo plan allows only one user per library, so it cannot be used to share notes.
- The security page says full end-to-end encryption, including attachments, comes with a premium plan, so check which plan covers it.
Key features
Microsoft OneNote
- Typed, handwritten and scanned notes
- Pages hold typed text, digital ink from a pen or stylus, pictures and videos. The mobile app also scans documents and extracts their text.
- Voice transcription and dictation
- Voice transcription captures spoken notes for later review, and the iPhone and iPad app takes dictation in 27 languages, some of them in preview.
- Copilot in OneNote
- Copilot responds to prompts to draft plans, generate ideas, create lists and organize information. Microsoft 365 plans include the desktop apps with Copilot, subject to usage limits.
- Sharing and collaboration
- Notebooks are cloud-connected, so they can be shared with other people and opened on a PC, a Mac, a phone, a tablet or in a browser.
- Web Clipper
- A free browser add-on for Edge and Chrome captures web content into a notebook, where it can be edited, annotated and shared.
- Class and Staff Notebooks
- Class Notebook gives each student a personal workspace, a content library for handouts and a collaboration space. Staff Notebook does the same for school teams.
Notejoy
- Shared libraries
- Team libraries hold notebooks that several people edit together at the same time. The free plan allows 3 team libraries of up to 5 users.
- Quick find and search
- A quick-find box jumps between notes. Paid plans also search inside images and documents.
- Web clipper and apps
- Apps for Mac, PC, iOS and Android plus the web, with a separate web clipper for saving pages.
- Document embeds
- Notes link to Google Drive, Microsoft Office, Zoom, Gmail, Trello, Slack and HubSpot content.
- Security options
- Paid plans list end-to-end encryption, password-protected notes and two-factor authentication.
- History and recovery
- Paid plans keep note history and let you recover deleted notes and archive notes, notebooks or libraries.
Plans
Microsoft OneNote
OneNote$0
The standalone app on Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android and the web, used with a free Microsoft account and its 5 GB of cloud storage.
Microsoft 365 Personal$9.99
per month, or $99.99 per year
For 1 person: 1 TB of cloud storage and the OneNote, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook desktop apps with Copilot, on up to 5 devices at once.
Microsoft 365 Family$12.99
per month, or $129.99 per year
For 1 to 6 people, with 1 TB of storage per person (up to 6 TB). AI features are for the subscription owner only.
Microsoft 365 Premium$19.99
per month, or $199.99 per year
Everything in Family, plus extensive Copilot chat usage, agentic AI features for research and analytics, and more AI image creation.
Notejoy
Free$0
Up to 5 users per library, 3 team libraries, 5 notebooks, 10MB per file and 100MB of library storage.
Solo$5
per month, billed annually
One user per library with unlimited personal libraries and notebooks, 5GB storage, offline access, note history and end-to-end encryption.
Pro$10
per user / month, billed annually ($15 billed monthly)
Unlimited team libraries and notebooks, 20GB library storage, 1GB per file, view and comment-only users, plus the Solo features.
Team$100
per month for unlimited users, billed annually ($150 billed monthly)
All Pro features with unlimited users, user management and a team activity dashboard.
Ways to pay less
Microsoft OneNote
- Annual discount
About 17% lower cost with yearly billing
Microsoft 365 Personal is $99.99 per year against $9.99 per month ($119.88 over twelve months). Family and Premium show the same gap between yearly and monthly prices.
- Education
Free Office 365 Education for students and educators
Microsoft's education site says students and educators with a valid school email address are eligible for Office 365 Education, which includes OneNote, at no cost.
Notejoy
- Annual discount
Annual billing
Pro is $10 per user a month billed annually against $15 billed monthly; Team is $100 against $150.
- Nonprofit
50% off for nonprofits and schools
The help center lists 50% off annual plans for qualifying nonprofits, NGOs and educational institutions. Multiple seats are required and it is not available to individuals.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Microsoft OneNote or Notejoy?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Notejoy is cheaper to start with: $5 a month, against $8.33 a month when paid by the year for Microsoft OneNote. Microsoft OneNote starts at $9.99 per month, or $99.99 per year (Microsoft 365 Personal), and Notejoy starts at $5 per month, billed annually (Solo).
Which has a free plan, Microsoft OneNote or Notejoy?
As of Nov 12, 2026, both Microsoft OneNote and Notejoy have a free plan.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.