The most capable genuinely free note app that works everywhere. OneNote gives you a free-form canvas, type or draw anything anywhere on the page, organised into notebooks, sections and pages like a digital binder. It handles Apple Pencil and stylus input well, which makes it a real option for iPad handwriting too.
The interface is busier than Apple Notes and it is tied to a Microsoft account, but it is free with no meaningful limits and runs on Windows, Mac, iPad, Android and the web. For a free notebook that follows you across every device, it is the standout.