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24 alternatives to Note app took me from academic probation to honor roll in one semester

Eventually it dawned on me that I needed to take better notes that I could also reference and search through later. I built GPASpike: http://gpaspike.com Download link: http://gpaspike.com/download I created my first version over Christmas break last year, and got a 4.0 in the spring. I started to notice that all my classes very heavily built upon each other and I needed a way to keep those class notes very accessible. Since all of my classes by that point were economics based, I also needed something that could easily allow for math symbols and graphs, so I built something I could draw on.…

Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. Note app took me from academic probation to honor roll in one semester launched in 2011; newer entries below may have overtaken it.

  1. 1

    I launched NumPad v1 on here a few years ago, and back then it wasn't much more than a thin CodeMirror wrapper around the calculator engine I'd written. Now I've rewritten it as a PWA that supports multiple documents, persists them to IndexedDB, and has a syncing service for paying customers. Syncing is handled by Automerge[1] under the hood, which should make it relatively easy to get document sharing working too. [1] https://automerge.org/

    2022 · numpad.io · its alternatives →

  2. 2

    The collaborative note-taking app

    2020 · supernotes.app · its alternatives →

  3. 3

    GPA and Homework app made by a student, for students

    2019 · apps.apple.com · its alternatives →

  4. 4

    Reach your goals and generate unique artwork from your input

    2021 · gpacalculator.memorymaps.io · its alternatives →

  5. 5

    Thank you for your comments, just some context: - The app is available for iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, Apple Vision Pro, and the Web. - The Web version is implemented as a Progressive Web Application that is very responsive, local first, offline first, can be installed, and is entirely free to use. - Native (hybrid) versions do not require subscription fees and have small one-time payment. - You can store your notes in Git using any Git provider such as GitHub, GitLab, or Bitbucket. However, it has the best built-in integration with GitHub. Self-hosted scenarios like Gitea are also…

    2024 · about.noteshub.app · its alternatives →

  6. 6
    Gnotes▲109

    You focus on learning, we'll take the notes.

    2019 · chromewebstore.google.com · its alternatives →

  7. 7

    Hey hacker news, I've worked on a note/wiki app nights and weekends for almost two years. While still missing some essentials and polish, I'm happy with the progress and some of my use cases: personal CRM, work notes, and a place to write/record funny things my kid says. I bought into the hype a few years ago with linking apps but quickly grew tired of spinners and steep learning curves, so I started over with a text box and my HTML skills from twenty years ago. Then Chatgpt came out, giving me the tools to add a bit of magic and dig into my stance on simplicity even more. I'd love…

    2024 · grugnotes.com · its alternatives →

  8. 8SV

    Edit: Thank you so much for taking a look at Seen! Yes, I know, it's really slow. And scrolling does not render notes instantly. And the title is a bit clickbait-y. I'll try my best to improve on it though. This is just a preview, the most basic version of Seen, and it's getting there. But, oh God, I almost got a heart attack when I opened up Vercel Analytics and saw ~1,500 page views, up from 10 or 12. Thank you again! It's such a weird experience showing something to the world for the first time as a 16-year-old and seeing so many people look at it. Hello HN! I've been working on creating…

    2025 · seen-v2.vercel.app · its alternatives →

  9. 9

    A GTK3 hierarchical markdown notetaking application with tablet support. - blackhole89/notekit

    2019 · github.com · its alternatives →

  10. 10BT

    It's blowing my mind that I could build an app from scratch in 3 hours and deploy it with the click of a button - without writing a single line of code myself CacheNotes is a browser-based note-taking app that saves your notes, threads, and AI conversations securely in your browser's local storage 100% free. No login required. You get, - simple, minimal note taking app in your browser - no login required - you can connect your claude api key for the ai integration - visualise notes and twitter threads Check it out! Would love some feedback :)

    2024 · cachenotes.kanishkdan.com · its alternatives →

  11. 11RS

    I made Really Simple Notes after getting frustrated with other note-taking apps. I found that I was spending more time formatting my notes than writing them. I like the sidebar navigation that Coda provides, but I hate how slow Coda is. I like how fast Google Docs is, but I don't like knowing that all my data goes to their servers; who knows what they are doing with my data? That's when I decided to create Really Simple Notes. It's an offline-only, no-formatting notes app with a sidebar to navigate notes. I've found that as I use it for personal notes, my productivity has increased…

    2022 · reallysimplenotes.com · its alternatives →

  12. 12WA

    After getting impatient with a "SwiftUI for Designers" course I decided to fuck around and find out. Just hours after asking my 1st question: "Are you familiar with SwiftUI?" the core functionality of this app (an exercise utility) was up and working. I've spent the past week tweaking the UI with small animations and features. It's a humble tool (local storage only) but I am nonetheless floored with how GPT has allowed me to completely skip the "learning syntax" part of development and ship something that I actually use. Not only did it lower the syntax bar virtually to 0... I've learned…

    2023 · testflight.apple.com · its alternatives →

  13. 13

    Thanks for grabbing the Student GPT Cheat Sheet!

    2025 · brodie.gumroad.com · its alternatives →

  14. 14

    I built NoteSub as a simple, offline-first alternative to Notion. No setup, just open, choose the note type... and it just makes things look good. I aimed for it to be like a social media feed, but your own notes. Would appreciate your thoughts on how I could make it more user friendly and useful. It is free to download if you want to try it.

    2025 · notesub.com · its alternatives →

  15. 15

    Back in college, I really enjoyed reading The Manga Guide to Calculus and other books in that series. Inspired by that, I recently added a feature to my app AISheets.study that lets you turn any material into a manga-styled study guide using AI. It also supports other styles like xkcd and traditional colored comic styles. The link I shared is an example I generated from Paul Graham’s essay on fundraising (https://paulgraham.com/fr.html) Still ironing out a few quirks, but I thought it’d be fun to share this with the community!!

    2025 · aisheets.study · its alternatives →

  16. 16

    100+ free student tools — no sign-up, all in your browser

    Jul 2026 · mystudyverse.com · its alternatives →

  17. 17

    Hi HN, I built an app to solve a problem I kept running into: I’d read great articles or watch insightful YouTube videos, but within a few days, I’d forget most of what I learned. Taking detailed notes felt like a chore, and I'd rarely revisit them anyway. To solve my own problem, I built Curio. It's an iOS app designed for low-effort capture and active recall. How it works: 1. Share any article or YouTube link to the app. 2. It automatically extracts key ideas as bullet points and links them back to the original context (the specific paragraph or timestamp). 3. The app then generates…

    2025 · apps.apple.com · its alternatives →

  18. 18

    The Fastest Way to Calculate Your GPA

    2025 · its alternatives →

  19. 19

    Tagline: 20 free grade calculators for students free

    Jun 2026 · gradepilothq.com · its alternatives →

  20. 20

    Free academic calculators for students – no sign-up

    May 2026 · toolpoint.online · its alternatives →

  21. 21

    Grok algorithms! This friendly, illustrated guide teaches you the core algorithms you

    2014 · manning.com · its alternatives →

  22. 22

    Smart Tools to Calculate Your Grades with Ease

    2025 · ninja138play.org · its alternatives →

  23. 23

    Upload it. Understand it. Ace it.

    May 2026 · notenestai.com · its alternatives →

  24. 24
    Noterr▲9

    Save & organize anything on internet

    2024 · its alternatives →

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Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →