Tiago Forte surveys thousands of students on note-taking apps. Evernote, Notion, Roam Research, and Obsidian account for 75% of users. He maps each app to a note-taking style: Evernote for librarians, Notion for architects, Roam and Obsidian for gardeners building networked notes.
Questions this video answers
6,519
Evernote 38%, Notion 23%, Roam 11%, None 9%, OneNote 7%, Google Docs 4%, Other 4%, Apple Notes 3%, Emacs 2%, Bear 1%.
Evernote 30%, Notion 19%, Roam 18%, Obsidian 7%, Other 6%, Apple Notes 5%, OneNote 4%, None 4%, Google Docs 2%, DevonThink 1%, Bear 1%, Word 1%, Emacs 1%, Dropbox Paper 1%.
Evernote 31%, Notion 20%, Roam 15%, Obsidian 10%, Other/Apple Notes/OneNote ~5% each, and remaining apps between 0.1%–3% (Google Docs, Bear, Devonthink, Word, Google Keep, Emacs, Dropbox Paper).
We asked 6,519 people what notes app they use. You need to have an app that works for your personality and your practices, otherwise you just won't use it. But the reality for most people is there's another even more pressing question. What note taking app is everyone else using? First, let's look at our oldest data from August 2020. We had only 10 options for this survey. First place out of those 10 we have Evernote, which took 38% of all the votes. Second place was Notion, representing 23% of the students surveyed. Third place was Roam Research, coming up with 11%. Another 9% of students said that they hadn't picked a note taking app yet. Next we had one note at 7%, Google Docs with 4% and another 4% of students claiming Other, which makes sense as we only had 10 choices for this survey. Finally, 3% reported Apple Notes, 2% Emacs, and 1% bear. The clear takeaway here is that together Notion and Evernote make up a full 60% of the note taking tools on their own. Our second survey was much more comprehensive. This was a massive cohort and we surveyed a full 2,800 plus students about their note taking app of choice. This survey and the next both include returning students to Building a Second Brain, so it reflects people who had been deeply studying note taking for a while, as well as complete newbies. In first place, Evernote had 30% of all students. Notion came in second place with 19%. Third was Roam, increasing to 18% of students surveyed, up quite a bit from the previous sample. Fourth was newcomer Obsidian with 7%, then other with 6% of students surveyed, 5% for Apple Notes, 4% for OneNote, 4% for none, 2% for Google Docs, and then 1% each for DevonThink, Bear, Microsoft Word, Emacs and Dropbox Paper. By early 2021, we can see a very clear big three. Evernote sits at number one with Notion and Roam vying for second place. That's 70% total combined across those three apps. Let's dig into the big three for a second. First is Evernote. It's the OG note taking app and at one point had 220 million reported users. That is absolutely insane. Evernote is perfect for the librarian note taking style. I talked about all of these archetypes in my last video, part one of the series. Second, let's talk about Notion. Notion has been around since 2016 and is great for teams and for personal dashboards. Third, roam research was the new kid on the block when this survey was conducted and it was the most prominent example of the new graph based or networked Notes paradigm. So it makes sense that it has such a strong showing here. Let's move on to our third survey. This was from Building a Second Brain's 13th cohort. We surveyed over 1300 new and returning students. In first place yet again, Evernote with 31% of all students. In second place was Notion with 20% of students holding strong. Rome, on the other hand, still held onto third place but dropped slightly to 15% of students, while Obsidian scooted up the charts a bit to 10% of students, up from its previous 7%. These four combined account for over 75% of the total note taking population for our 13th cohort. Next we have students who claimed other Apple Notes and onenote at about 5% of the total for each of those options. Finally holding between 0.1% and 3%, we have Google Docs, Bear, Devonthink, Word, Google Keep, Emacs and Dropbox Paper. So this is very interesting because while the Big three still exist and they're holding onto their spots, Notion and Evernote increased slightly while Rome fell a good percentage and Obsidian rose a good amount. In fact, Rome fell the exact percentage that Obsidian rose. One interpretation of this data is that the big three are actually Evernote with 31%, Notion with 20% and Networked Notes of Rome plus Obsidian representing a combined 20 with three note taking styles representing roughly even portions of the population. Okay, let's take a look at our most recent data. I recently taught a three hour workshop for anyone who pre ordered my upcoming book. While this is our smallest group size, it's also the group that's most likely to be new to digital note taking. Here's what the results look like for that poll. First place in a major upset, we have Notion with 28% of those polled. In second place we have Evernote at 22%. Then in third place we have Obsidian with 16% of total respondents. Next, we have those who responded none at 7%, OneNote at 6% and Roam at 5%. Our remaining votes were for Apple Notes at 3%, Kraft at 2% and LogSec at 1%. First of all, this is the first time I've seen a majority of second brain participants claiming Notion as their second brain applied. That's a fascinating development and it probably reflects the momentum around Notion as a company. Second, this is our second data point showing Obsidian's rise and stunningly Roam isn't anywhere close to the top three in this small sample. At only 5% of those surveyed. This suggests that Obsidian and Rome might not necessarily share the same user base, and that Obsidian represents a much larger segment of newer faces to note Taking apps Additionally, two newcomers to the networked Notes, Space Craft and Logsec make up a meaningful showing here for the first time. If you're looking to just maximize the practical utility of your notes, Evernote is the dominant app by user count. Still, if you are an architect and love to structure your information, notion is a great pick with a lot of passionate users. Third, if you're more of a gardener and you're interested in self discovery and learning, Roam and Obsidian are the two clear incumbents in the space, with Obsidian appearing to currently be on pace to grow the faster of the two. But if you're feeling like playing with some of the new entrants to the space, check out Craft and Logsec, which are the up and comers for the Gardener archetype. Finally, if all of these sound too complicated, OneNote and Apple notes have strong loyal contingents. They aren't the headliners, but you know what? They get the job done for the student archetype. In the next video of this series, I'll be taking the Notes apps that we discussed in this video and doing a quick dive into the specific features and characteristics that set each one apart. Thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next video.
