Productivity · head to head
Microsoft OneNote vs Milanote
Microsoft OneNote
Productivity
Microsoft's free-form notebook, free with a Microsoft account and synced through OneDrive
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
Milanote
Productivity
Board-based visual workspace for creative planning, free up to 100 items for the whole account
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: Microsoft OneNote notes live in a proprietary notebook format on OneDrive or SharePoint and the only exports are a OneNote file, a PDF or a Word document, produced section by section, so a large notebook is effectively unmovable to any other tool.; Milanote the free plan caps the entire account at 100 notes, images or links and 10 file uploads rather than capping per board, so one properly worked project exhausts it and the tool stops working rather than degrading gracefully.
- They diverge on capability: Microsoft OneNote covers Free-form page canvas, Milanote covers Infinite board canvas.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Microsoft OneNote and Milanote actually diverge.
| Attribute | Microsoft OneNote | Milanote |
|---|---|---|
| Platforms | Web, IOS, Android, MacOS, Windows | Web |
| Founded | 1975 | Unknown |
Identical on both: starting price (Free), pricing model (freemium), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Productivity).
What each one covers
Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.
Only in Microsoft OneNote
- Free-form page canvas
- Notebook hierarchy
- Indexed handwriting
- Audio recording
- Web clipper and Outlook capture
- Shared notebooks
- Cross-platform clients
- Tags and cross-notebook search
Only in Milanote
- Infinite board canvas
- Mixed content
- Nested boards
- Templates
- Web clipper
- Shared boards with comments
- Mobile apps
- Free plan
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Microsoft OneNote
- Handwritten notes on a pen tablet that you still need to find months later by searching for a word you wrote.not Milanote
- Lecture or meeting notes where a recording needs to line up with what you were typing at the time.not Milanote
- A team already inside Microsoft 365 that needs a shared notebook without buying anything or seeking approval.not Milanote
- Collecting mixed material such as screenshots, clippings and sketches on one page, where a document editor would force a linear structure.not Milanote
Milanote
- Moodboards and visual references for a branding or design project, gathered from the web and arranged for a client review.not Microsoft OneNote
- Storyboarding a video or planning a shoot, where the whole sequence needs to be visible at once.not Microsoft OneNote
- Structuring a book, script or long article by physically moving sections around until the order works.not Microsoft OneNote
- A shared board where a small creative team reacts to work in progress without the overhead of a project tool.not Microsoft OneNote
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Microsoft OneNote
- Notes live in a proprietary notebook format on OneDrive or SharePoint and the only exports are a OneNote file, a PDF or a Word document, produced section by section, so a large notebook is effectively unmovable to any other tool.
- Personal notebooks consume OneDrive quota, which is 5 GB on a free Microsoft account, so a notebook full of scans, images and recordings quietly exhausts the whole account including the space Outlook needs for mail.
- Sync happens at section level and conflicts are resolved by placing both versions on the page, so simultaneous edits to a large or media-heavy section produce duplicated content that somebody has to merge by hand.
- Search behaves differently across clients, so what the Windows desktop app finds inside handwriting, images and attachments is not necessarily what the browser or mobile version finds, and the same query gives different answers on different devices.
- There is no relational structure, no database and no properties, so anything that needs a table of records with fields has to be maintained by hand or moved elsewhere, and OneNote's own tables cannot be queried or filtered.
Milanote
- The free plan caps the entire account at 100 notes, images or links and 10 file uploads rather than capping per board, so one properly worked project exhausts it and the tool stops working rather than degrading gracefully.
- The value of a board is its arrangement, and arrangement is the one thing export does not carry, so a PDF gives you a picture and a text export gives you the words while nothing reconstitutes the board in another tool.
- Pricing is per person and the tool spreads naturally to reviewers and clients who only look and comment, so a team plan ends up covering people who never create anything.
- There is no database layer, no properties, no filtering and no dependency tracking, so a project that starts on a Milanote board has to be re-entered somewhere else the moment it acquires owners and dates.
- Offline support is minimal, so a board full of references is effectively unavailable without a connection, which is a real problem for a tool aimed at people who work on location and in meetings away from a desk.
Pricing, plan by plan
Microsoft OneNote
FreeNo published plan breakdown. See the Microsoft OneNote review.
Milanote
Free- FreeFree
- 100 notes, images or links
- 10 file uploads
- Unlimited shared boards
- Individual$9.99/month
- Unlimited notes, images or links
- Unlimited file uploads
- Unlimited shared boards
- Team$49/month
- Unlimited notes, images or links
- Unlimited file uploads
- Unlimited shared boards
Which should you pick?
Choose Microsoft OneNote if
- You need free-form page canvas.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, IOS, Android, MacOS, Windows.
- You also want notebook hierarchy.
Choose Milanote if
- You need infinite board canvas.
- You want to start without paying.
- You also want mixed content.
Questions people ask
- Is Microsoft OneNote or Milanote better?
- Neither clearly leads. Microsoft OneNote starts at Free and Milanote at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Microsoft OneNote or Milanote?
- Microsoft OneNote starts at Free and Milanote at Free.
- Does Microsoft OneNote or Milanote run on more platforms?
- Microsoft OneNote runs on Web, IOS, Android, MacOS, Windows. Milanote runs on Web.
- Can I use Microsoft OneNote for free?
- Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
- What is Microsoft OneNote best used for?
- Microsoft OneNote is most often used for handwritten notes on a pen tablet that you still need to find months later by searching for a word you wrote., lecture or meeting notes where a recording needs to line up with what you were typing at the time., a team already inside microsoft 365 that needs a shared notebook without buying anything or seeking approval., collecting mixed material such as screenshots, clippings and sketches on one page, where a document editor would force a linear structure.. Of those, handwritten notes on a pen tablet that you still need to find months later by searching for a word you wrote. and lecture or meeting notes where a recording needs to line up with what you were typing at the time. are not what Milanote is typically brought in for.
- What can Microsoft OneNote do that Milanote cannot?
- Microsoft OneNote covers Free-form page canvas, Notebook hierarchy, Indexed handwriting, Audio recording. Milanote covers Infinite board canvas, Mixed content, Nested boards, Templates.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Microsoft OneNote: Is OneNote really free?
Yes. The application is free with a Microsoft account, with no time limit and no feature gate. What you may end up paying for is the OneDrive storage the notebooks consume.
Milanote: How long does the free plan last?
Indefinitely. It is limited by quantity rather than by time: 100 notes, images or links and 10 file uploads for the account as a whole, so it ends when you hit the cap rather than on a date.
Microsoft OneNote: Can I keep notebooks off Microsoft's cloud?
The Windows desktop app can keep local notebooks, but they will not sync to other devices and any shared access requires OneDrive or SharePoint.
Milanote: Can I export a board?
You can produce PDFs and images of a board and extract the text, but the spatial arrangement is not portable, so nothing you export reconstructs the board in another tool.
Microsoft OneNote: How do I get my notes out?
Section by section as a OneNote file, a PDF or a Word document. A OneNote package preserves a whole notebook but only for another copy of OneNote. Third-party converters exist and the page layout usually does not survive them.
Milanote: Is it a project management tool?
No. There are no dates, dependencies or workload views. It suits the thinking phase, and the work has to be handed to a tracker once it becomes a plan.
Microsoft OneNote: Which version should I install?
Microsoft consolidated onto a single OneNote application on Windows after retiring the Store version, so install the one distributed with Microsoft 365 rather than looking for an alternative.
Milanote: Do collaborators need paid accounts?
Shared boards are unlimited even on the free plan, and the paid question is about who creates rather than who looks. Confirm the current plan terms before rolling it out to a client's team.
Related pages
More on Microsoft OneNote
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- Milanote vs Brain.fm
- Milanote vs FigJam
- Milanote vs Bear Notes
- Milanote vs Samsung Food
- Milanote vs Bluedot
- Milanote vs Capacities
- Milanote vs Kami
- Milanote vs Google Workspace
- Milanote vs Bring!
- Milanote vs Akiflow
- Milanote vs Any.do
- Milanote vs Forest
- Milanote vs HEY
- Milanote vs Hubstaff
- Milanote vs Mealime
- Milanote vs MindMeister
- Milanote vs Coggle
- Milanote vs MindManager
- Milanote vs tldraw
- Milanote vs Xmind
- Milanote vs Google Slides
- Milanote vs iLovePDF
- Milanote vs Mimestream
- Milanote vs Pitch
- Milanote vs Gamma
- Milanote vs Granola
- Milanote vs Habitica
- Milanote vs iA Writer
- Milanote vs Lazy
- Milanote vs LibreOffice