Have you tried obsidian Obsidian
It is a free app. You can create .md files and load folder to read. It has apps for android and ios but doesn't have sync in free version . You can manually sync the folders using google drive or one drive and it will open in phone. I tried their android app.
It takes some time to setup but i feel it is ok.
I coincindently been also going through the journey of finding a note taking app that resonates with me recently too, and I finally settled on obsedian. I had been already using it to edit md files(a quick cursory Google search gave this as one of the better md editors on mobile) so I was pretty familiar with the UI already. It was one which had best performance on my phone(notion sucked at that btw).
I'd say the initial process of choosing a location for a vault is the most daunting task in getting started. After that you can basically chose your own path. I had to learn none of its quirks and basically currently just use text styling, and headings as the "advanced features". The polar opposite to this use is someone like CGP grey(youtuber) who has all shorts of connections between each of his files and custom keybindings to add footers utilising tag based searching to get to something absurdly specific.
You can use obsidian sync to get your notes synced btw desktop, but since I usualy take most of my notes on mobile, I never bothered with it and just set up G-drive syncing. They could have definitely put a rather simple integration for that, but they didn't.
All in all, I won't recommend upending your workflow if you settled on Joplin(it's pretty good too) but if you haven't, don't sleep on this one
- A former Google keep user
