A Google Keep alternative that feels like home

Why people look for a Google Keep alternative

Most people who move away from Keep don’t dislike it. They just don’t want years of notes to depend on a single company’s plans. Google has a long habit of closing products people used every day, from Google Reader to Google Podcasts, and in 2026 it began retiring Google Assistant on phones in favour of Gemini. Keep itself carries on, but it’s fair to want a copy of your notes somewhere you choose.

Other common reasons: wanting notes outside a Google account you might lose access to, wanting a proper export you can actually use, and wanting new features without waiting for Google to add them.

What to look for

• The same speed. Keep works because a note takes two seconds. An alternative should open straight to your notes, with no folders to decide on first.
• A board, not a document list. Colourful cards you can scan at a glance are what make Keep feel like Keep.
• Checklists and reminders that work as well as Keep’s, including repeating reminders.
• A real import. Copying notes over one by one isn’t realistic when you have hundreds. The import should keep labels, colours, pins and checklists.
• A way back out. Whatever you choose, you should be able to download everything in one go.

How Tack Notes fits

Tack Notes was built for people moving off Keep, so it deliberately feels familiar: the same board of coloured notes, pinned notes at the top, labels down the side, and a “Take a note” box ready to type into.

• Notes and checklists, with drag to reorder, indenting and ticked items moving to the bottom.
• Twelve note colours plus patterned backgrounds, and unlimited labels.
• Reminders, one-off or repeating, delivered as notifications even when the app is closed.
• Images, link previews, sharing with other people, archive and trash.
• Live sync, so a change on your phone shows on your laptop immediately.
• A one-upload import from Google Takeout that keeps colours, labels, pins, checklists, images and dates.
• A download of every note as a single file, any time, on the free plan.

All of that is free. An optional Pro plan is on the way, adding an assistant that can search your notes when you ask in plain English and create notes and reminders from a sentence.

What Tack Notes doesn’t do yet

Being honest about this saves you time:

• There’s no native iPhone or Android app yet. Tack Notes runs in any phone browser and you can add it to your home screen; an Android app is being built.
• No handwriting or drawing notes, and no voice notes.
• No location-based reminders; reminders are time-based.
• Reminders aren’t imported from Keep, so you set them again after moving.

See the full side-by-side comparison for everything else.

Other alternatives, and who they suit

• Obsidian keeps notes as Markdown files on your own device, with a huge plugin library. Great if you want to build a personal knowledge base, and more than most people need for shopping lists.
• Joplin is open source and syncs through a cloud service you choose. A good fit if you want full control and don’t mind a more traditional notebook layout.
• Simplenote is plain text, fast and free. Ideal if you never used Keep’s colours, images or reminders.
• Microsoft OneNote organises notes into notebooks and pages. It makes sense if you already live in Microsoft 365.

If what you liked about Keep was the board itself, quick notes you can see at a glance, Tack Notes is the closest match, and it brings your existing notes with you.