Every free productivity & notes tier that clears our bar in 2026: 6 offers meet the criteria and 8 offers are demoted with a named reason. Recorded changes and a published ranking method. We could not confirm today's terms for 8 of them: on 6 the page we cite did not answer, and on 2 our own read did not confirm them. Each row says why.
Obsidian is a local-first markdown notes app. It is free with no limits or sign-up. Commercial use does not require a paid license; a Commercial license is optional at $50 per user per year. Sync is $4 per user per month billed annually. Publish is $8 per site per month billed annually.
Up to 9 lists. Up to 99 tasks per list. 1 calendar subscription. 2 reminders per task. Basic Pomodoro timer. Basic habit tracker (up to 5 habits). Free includes a basic calendar view; multiple calendar views and task duration need Premium (US$49.99 a year).
Fully free on Apple devices. Unlimited notes with rich text, checklists, tables, sketches, document scanning. Shared notes. iCloud sync counts against 5 GB iCloud free storage. Locked notes with password/biometric.
Unlimited cards. Up to 10 boards per workspace. Unlimited Power-Ups. 10 MB per file attachment. 250 Workspace command runs per month (automation). Unlimited activity log.
Unlimited notes with end-to-end encryption. Cross-platform sync. Plain text editor only on free. 100 MB total storage. No rich text, spreadsheets, file attachments, or note history on free tier. When we last read the page we cite for this offer, on 2026-10-25, we found a change we could not reconcile with the terms we publish, so we cannot confirm these terms today.
Fully free. Unlimited plain-text notes with cross-platform sync. Markdown support. Tags. 30-day version history. Collaboration via shared notes. Published notes with public URLs. No file attachments. The page we cite for this offer states no amount, tier or rate we can read when we last looked, on 2026-10-15, so we cannot confirm these terms today.
Fully free with Google account. Unlimited notes, lists, labels, reminders, color coding. Voice memos with auto-transcription. Image notes with OCR. Shared notes. Images use Google account storage. The page we cite for this offer states no amount, tier or rate we can read when we last looked, on 2026-10-15, so we cannot confirm these terms today.
Now sold as Superhuman Docs: coda.io/pricing redirects to superhuman.com/plans/docs. Read 2026-09-13, the Free plan is $0 and includes collaborative docs, Docs AI, connected tables, views and forms, and formulas and automations. Unlimited doc size, AI writing and editing, and 30-day version history are Pro at $12/month per Doc Maker billed annually. The page we cite for this offer does not name it when we last looked, on 2026-10-22, so we cannot confirm these terms today.
FREE - 5GB Secure cloud storage for individual use. The page we cite for this offer names the platform it runs on and not the offer itself when we last looked, on 2026-10-21, so we cannot confirm these terms today.
Notion Free is $0 per member a month. Workspaces with one member have unlimited pages and blocks, while workspaces with two or more members have a block limit. The Free plan includes file uploads up to 5 MB per file, 7 days of page history, and 10 external guests. It also includes a trial of Notion AI, basic forms, basic sites, Notion Calendar, and databases. Plus costs $10 per seat a month and provides unlimited file uploads, 30 days of page history, and unlimited guests.
Suite of 45+ business apps with free tiers — Zoho Mail (5 users, 5 GB/user), CRM (3 users), Projects (3 users, 2 projects), Invoice (5 customers), Cliq (unlimited users), Forms (3 forms), and more. The page we cite for this offer states no amount, tier or rate we can read when we last looked, on 2026-10-10, so we cannot confirm these terms today.
Database and app-building platform. Free: unlimited bases, 1,000 records per base, 1 GB attachments per base, 1 workspace, up to 5 editors and 50 commenters, 500 AI credits per editor/month, 100 automation runs, 1,000 API calls/month, 2-week revision and snapshot history, Interface Designer. Extensions, synced tables, Gantt/timeline views and expanded color/formatting are paid only; Team is $20/user/month billed annually.
Up to 5 active projects. Up to 5 collaborators per project. 5 MB file upload limit. Basic priority levels. No reminders, no labels, no filters, no calendar view on free tier. One week of activity history. The page we cite for this offer states no amount, tier or rate we can read when we last looked, on 2026-10-14, so we cannot confirm these terms today.
| Vendor | Free Tier | Key Limits | Durability | Read / catalogue date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Obsidian | Free | Obsidian is a local-first markdown notes app. It is free with no limits or sign-up. Commercial use does not require a pa... | stable | 2026-10-25 |
| Zoho Notebook | Free | A free alternative to Evernote. | stable | 2026-11-07 |
| TickTick | Free | Up to 9 lists. Up to 99 tasks per list. 1 calendar subscription. 2 reminders per task. Basic Pomodoro timer. Basic habit... | stable | 2026-11-02 |
| Apple Notes | Free | Fully free on Apple devices. Unlimited notes with rich text, checklists, tables, sketches, document scanning. Shared not... | stable | 2026-10-28 / 2026-08-16 |
| Trello | Free | Unlimited cards. Up to 10 boards per workspace. Unlimited Power-Ups. 10 MB per file attachment. 250 Workspace command ru... | stable | 2026-10-30 / 2026-10-05 |
| Standard Notes | Free | Unlimited notes with end-to-end encryption. Cross-platform sync. Plain text editor only on free. 100 MB total storage. N... | not published read not reconciled · 2026-10-25 |
2026-10-25 / 2026-10-02 |
We publish no ranking of these. Nothing we record measures popularity or generosity, so naming a best or a top few would be our preference rather than our data. We hold 6 free productivity & notes offers that clear our bar, each listed with the terms we publish and the date we last read them. Our ranking rule is published at /criteria.
6 offers meet our criteria for this category. Of those, 5 carry no recorded change to the terms we publish, and we publish no durability signal for 1. The Durability column below says which offer is in which group, and links the dated record behind every change. We withhold the class where the pricing page does not resolve or states no amount, tier or rate we can read, where we refused the last read, where the listing is gated, or where a narrowing in our records cites no source or no archived copy of the vendor's page has confirmed it. We do not rank these by how much you get, because the limits are not comparable without reading each vendor's page.