Jot vs Google Keep on a Windows PC

Current release: Jot is free and local-first, with typed meeting minutes. Microsoft To Do sync and a paid subscription are not available. Older posts may describe earlier plans; see the current status.

Google Keep is many people’s default notes app because it is already on their phone. Coloured cards, checklists, reminders and voice notes, synced through a Google account. It is genuinely quick on mobile.

On a Windows PC the story is different, and that difference is the reason to compare the two.

How Keep works on Windows

Google does not ship a native Windows app for Keep. On a PC, Keep runs in the browser at keep.google.com, and in Chromium-based browsers you can install it as a web app so it gets its own window and taskbar icon. Apps in the Microsoft Store with Keep in their name are third-party wrappers, not Google’s.

That means capturing a thought from another app usually looks like: switch to the browser or the Keep window, click “Take a note”, type, and switch back.

What Keep does well

• Phone and PC in sync, through your Google account.
• Location reminders on the phone, which a desktop app cannot match.
• Collaboration: share a list with a partner or a team.
• Free, with Google account storage.

If most of your capturing happens on your phone, Keep is a strong choice.

Where it is weaker on a PC

• No global shortcut. There is no system-wide key that opens a Keep box over Excel or a Teams call.
• Account required, and online first. Notes live in Google’s cloud. Offline support exists in the web app but depends on the browser.
• Notes and tasks blur together. Cards can be notes or checklists, and the distinction is visual rather than structural.

What Jot does differently

Jot is built for the PC moment: Ctrl + Shift + J opens a box over whatever you are in, one line, Ctrl + Enter, and focus returns. A date typed in plain words becomes a Windows reminder. Everything is stored in a local database on your PC, with no account. The tradeoffs of that choice are discussed in local-first software in 2026.

What Jot does not do is live on your phone. If you need a reminder to reach your phone, that has to come through another route, which we covered in reminders that reach your phone.

Which to choose

• If you capture mostly on your phone and want the same list on every device, Keep is hard to beat.
• If you capture mostly at a Windows PC, during calls and while working in other apps, a native capture key saves the switch every time.
• Plenty of people use both: Keep on the phone, Jot at the desk, with a weekly review that brings the two together.

Jot is on the Microsoft Store.

Jot is a quick-capture app for Windows: one hotkey, one line, back to what you were doing. What it is, or what is still unproven.