Microsoft OneNote

42 of 100 · reviews
4.7of 5 · store
1,048,312ratings on the App Store
500reviews read

An editorial reading of the saved reviews

Once a benchmark multi-platform tool, it has degraded: sync breaks regularly, search does not show progress, and the mobile version is generations behind the desktop. People with 10-20 years of history write that their patience has run out.

Screenshots

What people use it for

Microsoft 365 ecosystem users who need a shared knowledge base with colleagues on Windows. A solo user on Apple devices is better off looking elsewhere.

What reviews praise

The notebook-section-page hierarchy lets you store years of varied material in one place.
Real-time collaborative editing works without friction.
Switching between handwriting and typed text on the same page is rare and valued.

What reviews complain about

Sync hangs and conflicts: users lose recent edits and are forced to resolve collisions manually.
Search does not index parts of content and shows no progress indicator.
On Mac the app is effectively non-functional for a noticeable portion of users.

What users experience

1 excerpt from the breakdown. These are individual cases, not a verdict on all users.

OneNote is phenomenal on my phone and Windows desktop. I use it all the time. The problem is I also have a Mac laptop. OneNote used to work on the Mac, but now is unusable on the Mac because it does not reliably save changes. This means I can't trust it anymore.