Fantastic human, hello! Today we are answering the question: which of the two top-ranking handwriting apps (Goodnotes or Notability) should you use, if at all? Just because it works for everyone else doesn’t mean it will work for you. Only a comparison of the two will help you decide, so sit tight and let’s jump in.
Pricing
Goodnotes has a much simpler setup. If you’re in the Apple ecosystem, you can buy the app once for $30 and never pay again. If you want to go beyond Apple, you’ll need $10/year.
Notability, on the other hand, has a free version that limits you to note-taking and recording audio. Our subscription is expiring soon, so we’re looking forward to testing this free version—it might be all you need.
After that, Notability gives you three packages: $15/year $20/year, and $100/year if you want all the AI features. Compare that to Goodnotes, which offers the same tools for $30 (one time) or $10/year. Once we get a promo code from the developers, we’ll be sure to test these side by side.
Supported Platforms
Notability is beginning to work on its web version. It’s still in beta, and naturally that comes with issues. Once it’s stable, you’ll be able to use Notability on Windows and Android in a browser. Not the most ideal setup, but still better than none.
Goodnotes, by contrast, already works on the web, Android, and Windows, with native apps that sync your notes. For a true cross-platform experience, Goodnotes is the stronger choice.
Notebooks
Between the two, Notability has the better template library. All the unique templates for planning, worksheets, and self-care are free, which is expected from a subscription model.
That’s why the Goodnotes marketplace feels disappointing if you’re already paying a subscription. You still have to pay for the templates in the marketplace. Considering that the free templates in Goodnotes are few and not very functional; it is very disappointing indeed.
Notability also provides better line spacing in its basic templates, something Goodnotes has consistently ignored. Another Notability advantage is how easily you can save new page templates directly from your notebooks. I absolutely love that feature—we haven’t seen it elsewhere.
Goodnotes outperforms Notability with a wider range of page sizes. You can create custom page sizes, something Notability lacks. Goodnotes also lets you change the colour of lines on a page, whereas Notability only lets you change the background. Small details, but they add up quickly.
Notebook covers are absent in Notability. That doesn’t bother me, but if you care about covers, Goodnotes is the one to pick. Both apps support portrait and landscape page orientations. Both also have weak custom template support—you can’t save full PDFs as templates, only single pages. This can be limiting if you use many digital notebooks and planners.
Shapes
Both apps do well with shapes. You can draw and transform almost anything, including curves and arrows, and adjust them afterwards.
In Goodnotes, fills are fixed: you either add them when drawing, or not at all. Notability lets you toggle fills on and off later, which is more flexible.
Another limitation in Goodnotes is that you can’t change the border style of a shape once it’s drawn. Notability lets you switch easily between solid, dashed, and dotted borders.
Both apps allow resizing, rotating, and duplicating shapes. Goodnotes has a unique feature of combining individual strokes into one shape, which is rare and very useful.
Photos
Notability is still the only handwriting app that truly supports GIFs. Unfortunately, that’s not enough to make its photo handling better than Goodnotes. Neither app supports frames, opacity, or locking images. Notability restricts you to rectangular cropping, while Goodnotes supports freehand cropping as well. Goodnotes also allows stretching and shrinking images—something Notability can’t do.
Tape
Both apps handle tape well, but Goodnotes offers more colours and customisation. The one thing Goodnotes lacks is the ability to hide or show all tape at once. Notability does have that, which can be more practical.
Audio
Notability takes the lead here. Its audio syncing, playback, and editing are far superior. You can trim, merge, and fine-tune recordings. Playback even allows you to tap notes and skip through audio—a feature Goodnotes doesn’t have. In Goodnotes, audio editing is limited to renaming your recordings. That’s it.
Transcription
If you’re on Notability’s Pro version, transcription quality is poor. Worse, you need to pay $100/year to use it at its best. The developers have limited it in the cheaper versions of the app, which is a shame.
Goodnotes is far more affordable. You can edit any errors in your transcription and link it back to different timestamps in your notes—something Notability doesn’t support.
Lasso Tool
Notability loses points here because its lasso tool isn’t selective. You can only tap individual items or lasso everything at once. Goodnotes allows selective lassoing—you can target handwriting, images, shapes, or elements individually.
Handwriting editing differs too. In Notability, you can adjust colour, thickness, and stroke type. Goodnotes only lets you change colour. That may feel small, but it’s a useful feature if you like experimenting with your writing.
One odd omission in Notability: it won’t let you screenshot selected content, even in iPadOS 26. Goodnotes, on the other hand, now supports smart selection—you can create space between your handwritten notes or align your handwriting. That’s new and very powerful.
OCR
Handwriting recognition works well in both apps. You can convert handwriting, keep its size and colour, convert math equations, and search handwriting. The only difference: Goodnotes requires indexing before searching. Notability just does it automatically, without asking. Whether that feels convenient or less transparent is up to you.
iPadOS Support
Notability supports true dark mode, which very few handwriting apps do. Images in dark mode may look slightly off, but it’s not a big problem. Photos specifically can look a bit off. All the other diagrams looks great in dark mode, without any settings to play around with.
Both apps support widgets, data detection, scribble, and multitasking. But Notability doesn’t support live text input, which Goodnotes handles easily. Goodnotes also provides AI handwriting refinement—spell check, alignment, and more. Notability doesn’t.
Search
Goodnotes offers a much better search tool, with clear previews, and organised universal results.
Notability’s search is weaker. Its filters are minimal, its previews are terrible, and universal search is ineffective unless you open each notebook separately—which defeats the point of universal search.
Collaboration
The app also has no real collaboration. Sharing a read-only file online doesn’t count. But Goodnotes offers proper collaboration where you can track changes, and communicate inside the document. The only missing feature is permission control, but even without it, Goodnotes is far better here.
Exporting
Goodnotes supports exporting flattened and editable PDFs, as well as zipped images. You can also export them as individual images if you like. Notability doesn’t, but it does have unique exporting features. You can password protect PDFs, include audio recordings with PDFs in a zip file, and even add margins for annotations. That last feature is especially thoughtful.
Conclusion
We’ll save a full comparison of AI features for another day once we access Notability Plus. But based on what we’ve compared so far, Goodnotes consistently comes out ahead. Even in categories where both apps are average, Goodnotes edges past Notability. That’s hard to say, because I’ve always preferred Notability. But over the years it has become buggier, with fewer new features being rolled out, and it is now the most expensive option.
Goodnotes, meanwhile, keeps improving while staying affordable. If you value audio recording, Notability still has an edge. But for almost everything else, Goodnotes is the better choice. Which of these two do you prefer?
