The 15 best cross-platform productivity apps for your phone, tablet, and laptop

Because who uses just one platform?

For most of us, our daily lives revolve around a multitude of gadgets, not all of which run the same software or are made by the same company. This hampers the ability of the devices to “talk” to each other. Fortunately, this gap has been addressed by a handful of services out there that find themselves on the most popular platforms, like Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, Linux, and the web.

If you’ve been looking for a great note-taking or productivity app that you can access on all or most of the devices you use, I’ve gathered the best cross-platform apps and services around. If you haven’t used one already, you’re about to make your lives a lot simpler.

1) Notion

Notion is one of the most flexible services in that it lets you design the way you take notes and store thoughts. Notion’s blocks — think of them as blank cards to store data in different ways — make it really easy to store data coherently, and you can even link one with another. The wide availability of third-party templates also means you can store information the right way from the get-go.

Availability: Android, Web, iOS, iPadOS, macOS, Windows

Pricing: Free for personal use. Paid plans start from $4/mo

2) OneNote

Even if you’re not heavily invested in Microsoft’s ecosystem, OneNote is a fine note-taking app that doesn’t cost a dime — and it’s available on all platforms. Insert text, images, hand-written notes and diagrams, or excel tables; it can handle varying kinds of information with ease. It doesn’t offer as many organization options and its UI could use a little polish, but it’s completely free. Note that if you're a Windows or Samsung phone user, OneNote is pre-installed on most devices.

Availability: Android, Web, iOS, iPadOS, macOS, Windows

Pricing: Free

3) Evernote

Evernote is one of the pioneers of multi-platform note-taking apps and still offers a robust experience. You can write notes, embed documents, search for text in images (OCR search), and even save online web pages. There is a free version available but you’ll only be able to make the most of the service if you cough up $8 a month.

Availability: Android, Web (Chrome Extension), iOS, iPadOS, macOS, Windows

Pricing: Free. Paid plans starting from $7.99/mo

4) Trello

Trello is based on kanban cards that visually depict work at various stages of a process using cards, from ideation to implementation. It’s extremely useful if you want to organize your student or work life, and offers a UI that’s easy to grasp and follow. There are several built-in templates you can choose from and automation will help eliminate some rudimentary steps.

Availability: Android, Web, iOS, iPadOS, macOS, Windows

Pricing: Free. Paid plans starting from $5/mo

5) Noteshelf

If you find yourself taking a lot of notes on your tablet, be it an iPad or a Galaxy Tab, Noteshelf is a must-have. It can annotate PDFs, let you jot notes, or scribble drawings, and supports Apple Pencil and other styli for a seamless experience. You can back up all your notes to Google Drive, OneDrive, Evernote, iCloud, or Dropbox.

Availability: Android, iOS, iPadOS, macOS

Pricing: Android ($5), iOS + iPadOS($10), macOS ($8)

6) Google Keep

If you’re looking for a simple, reliable app to quickly jot down notes or make to-do lists, Google’s free offering, Keep, does a pretty good job. It’s compatible with Google Assistant so you can access or create lists simply with your voice commands. Everything you store, doodles, lists, notes, voice recordings, or media, is synced across devices with the help of your Google account.

Availability: Android, Web, iOS, iPadOS

Pricing: Free

7) Todoist

If the name hasn’t gotten to you yet, this app is all about getting things done. Thanks to natural language processing, you can enter simple text like “cancel Netflix subscription Wednesday” and it’ll automatically pick up the text and date for the to-do. Todoist integrates well with third-party services like Dropbox, Zapier, Alexa, Google Calendar, and IFTTT.

Availability: Android, Web (Browser Extensions), iOS, iPadOS, macOS, Windows

Pricing: Free. Paid plans starting from $3/mo

8) Nebo

Nebo is yet another great note-taking app that’s available for both Android and iPadOS (it works great with Apple Pencil, too). You can annotate anything from PDFs to Powerpoints, or jot down notes with the help of voice and handwriting recognition — yes, it’ll convert it into text. If you’re into math, it can even help solve equations and copy equations as LaTeX, or as an image.

Availability: Android, iPadOS, macOS, Windows

Pricing: Android ($11), Windows ($10), iPadOS/macOS (Free, $11)

9) TickTick

TickTick is yet another to-do app that does its job well and finds itself on the most popular platforms. You can quickly add tasks (Natural Language Processing lends a hand) and categorize them on the basis of tags, due dates, and lists. There are some additional tools like a Pomodoro timer and a habit-tracking tool that can help you be more productive. TickTick can connect with Zapier to automatically create tasks.

Availability: Android, Web, iOS, iPadOS, macOS, Windows

Pricing: Free. Paid plans starting from $2.80/mo

10) Microsoft ToDo

Yet another app on the list from Microsoft that doesn’t charge a penny but still offers a great experience. ToDo is based on the foundations of the once-popular Wunderlist (absorbed by Microsoft) and offers a clean, user-friendly workspace. You can customize background images of every list, making it extremely easy to understand which one you’re looking at. It also integrates really well with Cortana on Windows (if you even use it) and other Microsoft ecosystem services. You can even hook it up with Zapier for task automation.

Availability: Android, Web, iOS, iPadOS, macOS, Windows

Pricing: Free

11) Standard Notes

If security is a must, Standard Notes is one of the top contenders. Every piece of text or code you write in the app is end-to-end encrypted and can be synced across devices without any additional fee. The app is more suitable to store text, code, and sheets, but you can pay to unlock more advanced features like editing history and encrypted backups.

Availability: Android, Web, iOS, iPadOS, macOS, Windows

Pricing: Free. Paid plans starting from $5/mo

12) Any.do

Any.do offers one of the cleanest UIs of any to-do apps out there and that’s perfect if you don’t like complicating things up. It has a built-in calendar to keep track of reminders and events and a daily planner to quickly let you run through the day’s to-dos. If you don’t mind ponying up a few bucks, you can even get premium features like turning WhatsApp messages into reminders and tasks.

Availability: Android, Web, iOS, iPadOS, macOS, Windows

Pricing: Free. Paid plans starting from $3/mo

13) Google Tasks

Google Tasks is probably the most rudimentary app for task setting on this list, but it stands out by being very well integrated with Gmail and Google Calendar, among other Google apps. It’s ridiculously easy to create tasks and you can sort them into different lists. You can even take help from Google Assistant and eliminate all the handwork.

Availability: Android, Web, iOS, iPadOS

Pricing: Free

14) Pocket

If you struggle to store and arrange articles and videos you discover from different platforms, on different devices, then you need to give Pocket a shot. You can curate content and sort it with the help of tags, for later consumption or just to maintain an archive. What’s great is that it’s available on most popular platforms, meaning adding content to your curation is only a share away.

Availability: Android, Web, Chrome Extension, iOS, iPadOS, macOS

Pricing: Free

15) Simplenote

The name really does justice here. If you’re looking for a no-nonsense, free note-taking app that you can use across devices, look no further. Simplenote automatically syncs all your notes, and even stores revision history in case you ever want to go back to an earlier draft. The UI is super minimal so it’s also a great distraction-free writing tool.

Availability: Android, Linux, iOS, iPadOS, macOS, Windows

Pricing: Free

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There are a lot of great cross-platform productivity tools, and I bet you use as least one on this list — or more that we left out. What are your go-to cross-platform tools, or do you lean into the ones that come bundled with your devices?

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