Note-taking

Wellnote is a relatively new free handwriting app that’s got a lot of attention on App Store. But the real question is whether it deserves that attention or if we’re all just noticing it because it’s free.

If you’ve ever searched for the best handwriting app for iPad, you already know the problem: every app looks amazing on a feature list, and then two weeks later you’re still app-hopping, your notes sit in five different places, and you don’t trust any of them enough to commit.

A while back, and I’d genuinely forgotten about this, Goodnotes prompted me to go back to Goodnotes 5 from Goodnotes 7.

Today we are answering the question: which of the two top-ranking handwriting apps (Goodnotes or Notability) should you use, if at all?

We’ve talked about the basics of Goodnotes 6… the AI features, and even items you can add to your handwritten notes. But here’s the big question: is it right for you?

We all know Goodnotes 6 is brilliant for handwriting—that’s probably why most of us downloaded it in the first place. But there’s so much more packed into the app.

In 2025, there are more handwriting note-taking apps than ever—but Goodnotes still gets most of the attention. Our database is still a work in progress, but from the apps we’ve fully analysed so far, Goodnotes stands out as one of the most complete.

On paper, Goodnotes obviously has more features. But does that actually make it a better app than Apple Notes in 2025? Have all the updates to Apple Notes culminated into something worth leaving paid apps for?

For a good user experience, you need more than just how an app looks. Sure a modern-looking app is great, but more important than that is how intuitive it is.