Free Note-Taking Apps for Holiday Gift List Planning

Free versions of Google Keep, Apple Reminders, Notion, Evernote, and Todoist can all hold a holiday gift list, and the right one depends on whether you shop alone or with family. Keep and Reminders are the strongest free picks for a shared list, because both let several people edit the same list at no cost and without storage caps that bite in December. The catch in every free plan is a limit that only shows up once the list grows.

Evernote's free tier stops you creating new notes after 50, Notion's free history reaches back only seven days, and Todoist's free plan caps you at five active projects. Knowing which wall you will hit matters more than which app has the nicer buttons.

Verification note: Program terms and availability can change. This page was checked against linked sources on November 13, 2026.

Google Keep: the simplest shared gift list

Google Keep is a free note and checklist app tied to a Google account. To share one gift list, open the note, choose the Collaborator control, and enter a name, email address, or Google Group. According to Google Keep's help documentation on sharing notes, collaborators can then edit the note's text, list items, images, drawings, and audio recordings — so a partner can tick off what they bought while you add what is still missing.

Keep also keeps personal settings personal. Each collaborator can change labels, colors, archiving, and reminders in their own view without changing the note for anyone else, which means your "Christmas" label does not clutter someone else's app. One risk deserves a note before December: if the note's owner deletes it, Google says it is deleted for everyone.

A finished gift list that one person tidies away is gone for every shopper on it. If a household shares one family group, Google documents sharing a Keep note with a Google family group in a single action rather than inviting each person separately.

Apple Reminders: assign who buys what

Apple Reminders is free on iPhone, iPad, and Mac, and its sharing model is built for splitting work. Share a list from the Share button, and Apple states that everyone you share a reminder list with can edit the list and complete items, with the owner deciding whether invitees may invite more people. Invitees have to accept the invitation before anything appears for them.

The feature that sets it apart for gift planning is per-item assignment. In a shared list you can assign a single item by typing @ and a person's name, or by using the Person button, and Apple's guide to sharing and collaborating in Reminders notes that each person sees their own items in the "Assigned to Me" Smart List. That turns a 20-name gift list into a short personal to-do list for each shopper.

Two requirements limit it. Everyone in a shared list must be signed in to an Apple Account with Reminders turned on in iCloud settings, so a relative on Android is out. Apple also notes that reminder alerts are not shared — a time or place reminder notifies only you, not the other participants.

If you need the whole family nudged on a deadline, say it in the list itself rather than relying on an alert.

Where the free plans run out

Free tiers differ less in features than in ceilings, and a gift list with photos and screenshots is exactly the kind of note that finds them. Evernote's limits are the most likely to surprise someone returning to an old account. Evernote's help center explains the free-plan note limits: an account over the limit can still view, edit, share, and export existing notes, but cannot create new ones until it is back within the limits.

So an old free account with 50 notes already in it will refuse your new gift list until you empty the trash or delete notes. Notion's seven-day page history is the quieter limitation. If a family member overwrites half the list and nobody notices for two weeks, there is no version to restore on the free plan.

• Evernote free: capped at 50 notes and 1 notebook in total, not per month, and notes sitting in the trash still count toward the cap.
• Evernote free uploads: 250 MB per month and 1 GB of storage, with only 1 connected device.
• Notion free: 5 MB per individual file upload, against 5 GB on paid plans, and 7 days of page history.
• Todoist free (Beginner): 5 active personal projects including sub-projects, with 5 people per personal project.

Sharing without buying extra seats

Notion's free plan can still host a collaborative gift list, because Notion says guests are free of charge but can only access the individual pages they are invited to. That is a genuine fit for gift planning: invite your partner to the "Gifts 2026" page and nothing else in your workspace is visible to them. Notion's pricing page lists both the guest terms and the free plan's 5 MB per-file limit, which rules out dropping in large product photos or video.

Todoist takes a different approach. Its free plan allows five people per personal project, so one "Holiday Gifts" project can carry a small family. The useful detail for anyone who tried a paid plan and let it lapse: Todoist's help center states that if a paid plan ends while more than five projects are active, the extras become view-only rather than being deleted.

Your data survives; your ability to edit it does not. If you want a shared list that outlives this December, weigh archiving over app features. A Keep note the owner deletes is gone for all collaborators, and a Notion page edited beyond seven days has no restore point on the free tier — so export or screenshot the finished list before you close the season out.

Picking one in five minutes

Match the app to the people on your list, not to the longest feature table. Before you invite anyone, check who owns the list and tell them not to delete it in January — that single step prevents the one failure mode that wipes a shared list for every person on it.

• Everyone on iPhone and you want to divide the shopping: Apple Reminders, using @ assignment and the "Assigned to Me" list.
• Mixed Android and iPhone, or a Google family group: Google Keep, shared to the group in one action.
• You want a structured page with notes, budgets, and links, shared with one or two people: Notion, with guests invited to that single page.
• You already run your tasks in Todoist and have fewer than five active projects: add the gift list there.
• You are starting fresh and plan to store lots of photos: skip Evernote's free tier, where 50 notes and 1 notebook is the whole account.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a relative on Android join my shared Apple Reminders gift list?

No. Apple requires everyone in a shared reminder list to be signed in to an Apple Account with Reminders turned on in iCloud settings. Use Google Keep for a mixed-device household.

Will a shared reminder alert my whole family about a shipping deadline?

No. Apple notes that reminder alerts are not shared — a time or place reminder notifies only you. Put the deadline in the item's text so everyone reads it.

Do I need to pay for Notion to share a gift list with my partner?

No. Notion says guests are free of charge, though they can only access the individual pages you invite them to.

My old Evernote account won't let me create a note. Why?

The free plan caps the account at 50 notes and 1 notebook in total, and notes in the trash still count. You can keep editing, sharing, and exporting existing notes, but not create new ones until you are back under the limit.