Fantastic human, hello!
A while back, and I’d genuinely forgotten about this, Goodnotes prompted me to go back to Goodnotes 5 from Goodnotes 7. I had to say yes, because curiosity always wins with me. Did any of you get that same offer?
I took the plunge… and wow. It felt like stepping into fresh air. So now, I’m sharing what it felt like going back; what I loved straight away, what I missed, and why—painfully—I still can’t stay there.
The bottom toolbar on the homepage
The second I saw it, I smiled. Knowing me, I’m probably one of the humans who pushed for the toolbar to move to the side in the first place. I still wish the developers had gone in a direction closer to the Notability setup, where you get that clean, practical layout without digging into folders. But they didn’t… so moving the toolbar ended up feeling like we jumped out of a boiling pot into the fire.
With the toolbar at the bottom, I get more room for my documents, without the annoying, not-so-useful sidebar. It feels calmer, less cluttered, and I really miss that. It’s not just the toolbar, though. Goodnotes 5 feels more minimalist than Goodnotes 7 (in general). Even the notebooks menu… it looks simpler and straightforward. I can get in, find what I need, and move on.
Goodnotes 7 can do more, sure, but the trade-offs hit me every time. The menu feels bigger, heavier, and it covers too much of the screen for what should feel like a simple task. And here’s something I realised while using it again: even though we have custom page sizes now, I never use them. I stick to A4 every single time. For me, Goodnotes 5 still covers a lot of what I actually do.
Then there’s the old toolbar, in the workspace.
I didn’t know I had attachment issues until now, but I was delighted to see the old toolbar. It isn’t customisable, but I still prefer it—because it doesn’t put the lasso as the first tool. Petty, maybe. But there was no need to customise the toolbar in Goodnotes 5; it’s perfect. And frankly, the lasso tool bothered me a lot, clearly. I don’t want my workflow to start with selecting things. I want it to start with handwriting.
And I also prefer the white toolbar over the blue one in Goodnotes 7. It feels lighter, easier on the eyes, more “let me focus”. Plus, your pen options (thickness and colour) are more direct. I don’t want extra steps between my brain and the page. In Goodnotes 7, I often feel like I’m navigating the interface more than I’m actually taking notes. Exaggeration, sure, but not that far-fetched.
With Goodnotes 5, everything stays closer, faster, cleaner, accessible! It still brings a lot of the modern essentials. Collaboration works, so I can share notes and work with other people. Comments work too, which I love, because sometimes you don’t want to rewrite a section—you want to talk around it. And, I also like how body text can overlap with handwriting. It feels weird, yes, but it’s much more flexible than the separation we got in Goodnotes 7. I prefer that over separating the two like they don’t belong together.
But I do want to be fair
There’s one big thing missing, and it’s the one thing that could pull me back to Goodnotes 7: linking. Goodnotes 5 lets me link to websites, but it won’t let me link to other pages inside a notebook or jump between documents in the way I can in newer versions of the app. And depending on how you work, that alone might become the deal-breaker because links change everything when building your notes database.
So… would I keep Goodnotes 5 in iPadOS 26?
Yes—if I had two iPads or if I used Goodnotes as my daily notes app. Because in 2026, Goodnotes 5 feels like a better app than Goodnotes 7 for what I personally want from this kind of app. Not too many features. No AI. Just solid, old-fashioned digital handwritten notes. It works. It feels simple. It stays functional.
And now for the frustrating part; I can’t keep it, even if I want to. I need to stay current with the latest versions of the apps we cover, because that’s just part of my job. So for me, Goodnotes 5 ends up as a little time machine visit… and then I have to come back to the present.
But I want to throw this back to you. If you use Goodnotes 6 or 7 right now, would you ever consider going back to Goodnotes 5? What would make you switch?
