OneNote Reviews & Insights

Score8.4 out of 10

927 Reviews and Ratings

Community insights

TrustRadius Insights for OneNote are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, third party data sources.

Pros

Ease of Cross-Device Switching: Users have appreciated the seamless transitions between devices for project brainstorming and content development. This functionality enables users to work efficiently without disruptions, contributing to a smoother workflow.

Instant Saving and Password Protection: Many users value the instant saving feature and password protection, ensuring secure storage of important information. The combination of these features provides peace of mind regarding data security while streamlining the saving process.

Versatile Media Integration: Reviewers highlight the versatility of adding various media types like graphs, pictures, recordings, and videos for comprehensive idea capture. This diverse range of media options allows users to create dynamic and engaging content within their notes, enhancing creativity and information retention.

Reviews

74 Reviews

A good option when switching between WFH and Office

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

June 20, 2025

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

When switching between WFH and Office environments it’s important that I have a way to access the notes I take in an environment vs the other. In addition, it’s quite nice to have sub categories to organize the notes per a topic (e.g. epic, feature, tool, etc) plus pages with specific topics relative to each epic, feature, tool, etc. e.g. meeting A about Feature X, discussion B about Tool Y. Having extra features like check boxes are quite helpful as well. Another thing I like is that the paragraphs are not linear which means you can create a new paragraph anywhere.
Another great approach is to share notes for one-on-ones because it brings a dynamic page to collaborate.

Pros

Shareability
Loose paragraphs
Cloud access

Cons

The UX can be a bit hard to understand on the first usages
Loose paragraphs need to be understood before taking full advantage
Screenshot shortcuts are conflicting with other tools sometimes.

Likelihood to Recommend

Having the content stored on cloud helps when switching between environments like when working from home versus working in the office.
Sharing one-on-one notes is quite handful because trackable items can added with a checkbox. Lots of iconography are available to make the content more accessible / engaging / readable.
The loose paragraphs that you can add anywhere are useful once you understand how to use them but it can be annoying sometimes until you get the hang of it.

Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology (10,001+ employees)

Vetted Review

3 years of experience

OneNote - the obvious choice for work note taking

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

June 10, 2025

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

OneNote serves as a personal notebook to make sure that you are able to make notes.
It can come handy in many ways.
While mostly it is for notes relating to work, for example meeting notes, plans, etc, but more importantly, it also serves as a safe and secure place to allow you to add more personal notes, whether they are notes from one-on-ones with colleagues, or general personal planning.
It also helps that there are apps for nearly every device, be it a Windows machine, a Mac, an iPad or your phone.

Pros

Note taking
Note syncing (offline)
note organisation

Cons

Note organisation allows you to create drop down menus or folders, but it only goes down one level, and note more.
It would be good to have more templates for iPad note taking. Like lines on a paper, etc.
Ctrl Tab or Alt Tab to shift between notes

Likelihood to Recommend

If you are already using Microsoft Office 365 products at your work place, use of OneNote is pretty much a no brainer. The only reason to use an alternative would be if you already have a library of notes in some other product. Otherwise, I think OneNote is the most obvious choice at no extra cost.

Verified User

Manager in Engineering (51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

5 years of experience

A must-have for digital note-taking

Rating: 8 out of 10

September 20, 2024

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I use OneNote for all sorts of note-taking. This includes meeting minutes, brainstorming ideas, to-do lists, etc. By leveraging OneNote's features such as collaboration and integration with other Microsoft tools, it enables us to improve our overall productivity and streamline our workflows. Creating dedicated notebooks helps with categorizing everything for efficiency.

Pros

Handwriting recognition
Separate notebook creation for different categories of notes
Sharing with coworkers
Integration with other Microsoft tools

Cons

Integration with Outlook could be better
Better version history could simplify tracking changes
Advanced filtering would help find the right notes faster
Template library could be expanded

Likelihood to Recommend

OneNote is well-suited for all sorts of note-taking, whether it's meeting minutes or class notes. It also works well as a personal journal. For creative individuals, it works great as a sketchbook. On the other hand, it does not have advanced formatting options and is not the best for collaboration on complex documents.

Verified User

Employee (11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

3 years of experience

My Software Preferences

Rating: 4 out of 10

Incentivized

May 5, 2023

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We used it for content development within Teams. Separated out different projects in the tabs etc. it was alright, the only thing that was tricky is that the syncing wasn’t as real time as we would’ve hoped.

Pros

Content Development
Project Brainstorming
Organization

Cons

Syncing issues
More formatting options within it, like Notion has
More variation in content boxes

Likelihood to Recommend

Well suited for Marketing teams who cannot invest in more robust programs like Notion. If you need something easy and really simple that’s integrated into Teams.

Verified User

Professional in Marketing (501-1000 employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience

OneNote - The best way to organize and create your ideas and documentations.

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

March 9, 2023

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I use OneNote on a daily bases with my organization for meetings, tasks, ideas, technical writing, notes, reminders and schedules to name a few. It automatically saves so I don't have to along with saving a backup wherever I need it to be. I connect it to my phone so I have it everywhere I go since it is connected to OneDrive. I can add emails and pictures along with other programs into it to help me when needed. It connects to browser and server links so I know where to look up procedures. It lets me categorize my jobs and it is easy to search for them with the Search tool. I can record notes and keep them all in one place. I can share my notes with others. If I am working on a tablet I can even write my notes down in OneNote using my stylus.You can draw, sketch, highlight, and format in this program. Enter graphs and spreadsheets, presentations, along with videos. You can lock pages or folders using a secure password. I use this for my sensitive items. This program is a great knowledge base product to use for technical instructions and training. I even use it for my yearly Goals and it keeps me on track to set and complete these goals. I have never has a problem with this product that needs to be addressed.

Pros

Organizes my thoughts and ideas
Minutes on our team meetings
switches from one device to another easily and quickly
Saves instantly
Password protected pages and folders
searching for what you are looking for easily
adding graphs, pictures, recordings, videos and much more
Drawings and sketches are very easy to do from a tablet

Cons

You can't send emails or meetings from Outlook to OneNote
Recover deleted notes if there is no backup
Schedule a meeting from OneNote to Outlook
Share your OneNote book thru Teams

Likelihood to Recommend

This product is a great organizer for your tasks, thoughts, and documentation. It works great to share with your coworkers and your other devices and to have them all in one place. Password protect your folders and pages for privacy. You can insert emails, spreadsheets, graphs and charts, along with videos and pictures. It can't create a meeting to your Outlook calendar or Teams meetings.

Diane Gannon

Sr. Systems Technician in Information Technology at Air Vent, Inc (1001-5000 employees)

Vetted Review

10 years of experience

One Note - a single place to host all your meeting notes and source of truth

Rating: 10 out of 10

March 7, 2023

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

i use one note for taking call notes. have it organized and shared with my teams either via email or via teams group chat. it serves well for me to collaborate as well

Pros

Categorizing. this useful as i work with multiple stakeholders in the organization
Creating a checklist. i can conjure a checklist depending on the meeting requirement which is a really cool thing to do
ink to drawing or writing feature

Cons

can be used to integrate into power BI or MS project applications
live feed of the people who are collaborating and those who dont

Likelihood to Recommend

One note is well suited for
1. taking meeting notes
2. creating checklist
3. categorizing per department/ project
4. quick diagram creation

Verified User

Manager in Professional Services (10,001+ employees)

Vetted Review

4 years of experience

OneNote

Rating: 9 out of 10

March 7, 2023

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

OneNote allows us to take digital hand written notes with clients converting notes into the CRM easily and effectively. It allows additional notes to be inserted into previous notes, time stamps for industry compliance and best of all convert the notes to PDF at the end. It works naturally within the Microsoft Office environment and industry specific software platforms

Pros

Note taking
Handwritten notes
Convert notes to PDF easily

Cons

Sometimes notebooks and certain pages are hard to find but the search function assist with this

Likelihood to Recommend

Handwritten notes are helpful during client meetings and the best part is having the program handy without worrying about pen and paper. At the end the notes are easily converted to PDF instead of worrying about scanning.

Deon Coffey

Broker in Finance and Accounting at Coffey lending (1-10 employees)

Vetted Review

5 years of experience

OneNote: Create and organize notebooks and binders digitally

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

August 9, 2022

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Being a Managed Services Provider I need to take a lot of notes and store most of them. I wanted software that would replace having to use so much paper and than having those papers filed away which takes time and valuable space in a one room office. OneNote solves all of that by being my only note taking software as well as organizing all my notes in digital notebooks.

Pros

Simple and easy to use interface
Organize notes just like a traditional notebook binder with tabs
Able to see and use all notebooks on mobile phone

Cons

Implement MFA ability to specific notebooks instead of using a password

Likelihood to Recommend

OneNote is best for individuals or organizations that want to reduce paper and paper storage such as notebooks and binders. Also good for those that need access to such notes on the go using a mobile phone, tablet, or laptop. May not work well if the notes you have are highly confidential and contain sensitive information.

Rich Lusk

Owner at DiamondNet, Inc. (1-10 employees)

Vetted Review

Reseller

10 years of experience

OneNote: Great Organization and Collaboration Tool

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

April 26, 2022

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Onenote as a personal checklist for our organization. It is also used within the department for collaboration on projects, tracking meeting agendas and notes, and the status of projects. We use it every day within the department to keep projects on track an

Pros

Creating separate tabs and sub-tabs to help organize
The ability to copy and link pages to be shared with other members (even without OneNote access)
The ability to share Notebooks with groups within the department

Cons

Creating and editing tables could be improved. Would be helpful if rows could be hidden in tables
The table's copy & paste options are cumbersome, often resulting in incorrect cell placement

Likelihood to Recommend

OneNote helps with department-wide collaboration on projects and meetings. The notebooks sync quickly allowing multiple users to see edits and notes in real-time. The ability to add attachments, photos, and links, all in one place helps with organization. It also works very well as a task list/checklist with the ability to flag tasks that will sync to outlook and provide reminders. There is also the option to add checkboxes, images, and highlighting for visual reminders.

Verified User

Employee in Engineering (1001-5000 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience