I’ve spent years searching the web for freeware PIMs. I’ve been obsessed with the thought of finding the perfect free personal information manager, and I’m not alone. There are tons of freeware PIMs out there. Most of them are rubbish but don’t worry, I’ll narrow it down for you.

In my quest for PIMs I put particular emphasis on the following aspects; and bear in mind that when I rate my PIMs it’s primarily the database function that I’m concerned with, not so much the calendars and schedulers:

• Searchability This is at the the essence of a good PIM. As the database grows you simply must have a good search engine.
• Rich text formatting (RTF) Large texts are very heavy to get through if you’re unable to format them a little bit - stuff like bold titles, italics, bulleted lists and numbering.
• Customization You need to be able to customize the way you want to organize your information, tags or categories.
• Export option You don’t want to tie your documents to one application only

Applications like KeyNote have been around for a long time, and it’s decent freeware. The problem with KeyNote and its likes are the limited search options. You can only search it one word at a time, and to find to the one you’re after you could end up scrolling through the entire database. That’s a waste of time.

A relative newcomer among freeware PIMs is ZuluPad, a Wiki-like application. It instantly creates new documents from the keywords you choose, wiki-style. Excellent premise - but the search function, once again, is way too poor. All in all it’s probably my favorite idea for a PIM, and for smaller hierarchies of information it’s good enough. But for 30+ entries you need to find something else.

OK, on to the list. There are only three PIMs on this list. Now don’t be disappointed. Bear in mind that I’ve tested everything that exists out there. My object here is not to overload you with information - it’s to give you the absolute best.

And these are the best of their kind and they’re my ultimate choices. They’re different in size, complexity and design - I use them all, but for different purposes.

• OpenPim is very light. It’s intuitive and you can start jotting down your information immediately. Good search function - you get a short view of all nodes containing the specified word or phrase. You can choose from four categories: Contacts, Links, Passwords and Notes. All information is stored in classic tree-style and folders. Very neat. The downside: No exporting. I primarily use OpenPim for my passwords and other brief bits of information.
  
  
• Evernote (free version) is probably the best-looking of the three. You can organize information according to tags and easily retrieve information. I use Evernote to write articles, bits of prose, lyrics for my songs, that sort of thing - not so much for lists and directories. I could use it for those purposes but instead, I use my overall favorite application:
• Neomem is as close to a database application as you get. You can customize it to store almost any kind of information in just about any way you like. It’s definitely the most comprehensive information manager you’ll ever find out there for free.

  Which also means that it’s a bit complicated to use, and certainly not for everyone. But if you’re an information/organizing freak like me, this will be your favorite. I use Neomem for organizing my movies and CD collection - right down to which musician participates on which song on what album. You can go into as much detail as you want to. Excellent search results. The design is kind of old-fashioned, though.
  

There you go. Good luck with organizing your information. And if there’s freeware out there competing with these three not listed over at this guy, I would be delighted to know!