These three apps are worth comparing for several reasons. GoodNotes is the best selling note-taking app in the App Store. Notability is now the second, after years of dominating the market. Apple Notes in iPadOS 14 has improved dramatically. It is shaking the note-taking app market. It has become almost usable.
It’s difficult to know which app will work best for you unless you know what each app offers or lacks. That is why we have listed all the 152 features in the three apps.
GoodNotes has the most features of the three apps. That doesn’t necessarily make it is the best one for you. Each note-taking app has categories of features to compare. To pick the right app for yourself, you need to decide the features that matter to you the most. Is it page customisation? PDF-reading capabilities? Multi-tasking? Once you’ve answered those questions, you can better choose the app offering what you care about the most.
| Features | GoodNotes | Notability | Apple Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
 |  |  |
|
| Price | $7.99 for iPadOS, iOS and macOS | $8.99 for the iPadOS & iOS $4.99 for macOS In-app purchases in their Notability shop (optional) | Free |
| Size | 299MB | 272.5 MB | 21.8 MB |
| No. of notebooks | 22 | 388 | 79 |
| Documents & data (Excluding app size) | 540 MB | 228.9 MB | 299.9 MB |
| Developer | Time Base Technology Limited | Ginger Labs | Apple |
| Type of app | Handwriting note-taking PDF reader | Handwriting note-taking | Handwriting note-taking |
| Supported OS | iPadOS, iOS, macOS | iPadOS, iOS, macOS | iPadOS, iOS, macOS, web app |
| Page sizes supported | A7-A3, GoodNotes Standard, Letter and Tabloid | A4 only | Vertically infinite |
| Different page orientations | ✔ | − | − |
| Number of page templates | 22 | 4 | 3 |
| Number of page colours | 3 | 15 | 1 |
| Add custom paper to app's library | ✔ | − | − |
| Multiple page selection | ✔ | − | − |
| Different page templates in one notebook | ✔ | − | − |
| Page rotation | ✔ | − | − |
| Automatic creation of notebook titles | − | − | ✔ |
| Pen tools | Ballpoint, fountain, Brush | Ballpoint, fountain, dashed & dotted | Ballpoint |
| Pencil tool | − | − | ✔ |
| Pen tool sizes | Variable 0.1-2.0mm | 12 fixed | 5 fixed |
| Ink type | Vector | Vector | Raster |
| Adjust pen tool opacity | − | − | ✔ |
| Zoom window has pen tools on its toolbar | − | ✔ | − |
| Zoom tool Auto-advance | ✔ | ✔ | − |
| Zoom window has margin tool | ✔ | − | − |
| Zoom window has navigation tools | ✔ | ✔ | − |
| Zoom in & out of pages | ✔ | ✔ | − |
| Text input | Keyboard, Scribble | Keyboard, Scribble just got added | Keyboard, Scribble |
| Text format | Resize, recolour, bold, italic, underline, strikeout | Resize, recolour, bold, italic, underline | Bold, italic, underline, strikeout |
| Text box customisation | ★★★★★ | ★★★ | − |
| Text box rotation | ✔ | ✔ | − |
| Support for custom fonts | ✔ | ✔ | − |
| Favourite text formats | − | You can save three | Preset for title, heading, subheading, body, monospace |
| Interactive checklists | − | ✔ | ✔ |
| Numbered lists | − | ✔ | ✔ |
| Unnumbered lists | − | ✔ | ✔ |
| Indentation tool | − | ✔ | ✔ |
| Text alignment | ✔ | − | ✔ |
| Adjust line spacing for your text | ✔ | − | − |
| Highlighter goes behind ink | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Highlighter goes in front of ink | − | ✔ | − |
| Highlighter visibly overlaps | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Erase per pixel | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Erase per stroke | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Eraser sizes | 3 fixed | 12 fixed | Variable |
| Erase highlighter only | ✔ | ✔ | − |
| Auto deselect eraser | ✔ | − | − |
| Resize, cut, copy, delete, change colour, rotate selected handwriting | ✔ | ✔ | Does not resize or rotate selected notes |
| Change thickness | − | ✔ | − |
| Selectively pick handwriting only | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Selectively pick text only | ✔ | Tap on text | ✔ |
| Selectively pick image only | ✔ | Tap on image | ✔ |
| Selectively pick everything with lasso tool | ✔ | − | − |
| Insert space between notes | − | − | ✔ |
| Drag & drop | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Move selection between pages of the same notebook | − | ✔ | ✔ |
| Duplicate selection | − | ✔ | ✔ |
| Smart Selection in iPadOS 14 | − | − | ✔ |
| Add photos | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Add web links | − | ✔ | ✔ |
| Audio recording | − | ✔ | − |
| Add GIFs | − | ✔ | ✔/− |
| Add sticky notes | − | ✔ | − |
| Add stickers | − | ✔ | − |
| Add web clips | − | ✔ | − |
| Import documents | ✔ | ✔ | − |
| Add videos | − | − | ✔ |
| Add tables | − | − | ✔ |
| Attach PDFs | − | − | ✔ |
| Add scans | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Save scans as | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Save scans as image | − | ✔ | − |
| Rotate scan | ✔ | − | ✔ |
| Crop scan | Before adding to notes | Before adding to notes | Before and after adding to notes |
| Export scan only | ★★★ | ★★★ | ★★★★★ |
| Draw regular shapes | ✔ | ✔ | Some |
| Draw irregular shapes | ✔ | ✔ | − |
| Draw arrows | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Draw curved lines | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Autofill has same colour as shapes border | ✔ | ✔ | no autofill for shapes |
| Autofill has different colour as shapes border | ✔ | ✔ | − |
| Adjust autofill opacity | − | − | − |
| Adjust shape after drawing | Now you can | ✔ | − |
| Duplicate shapes | − | ✔ | ✔ |
| Snap to other strokes | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Snap to page lines & grids | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Adjust border thickness | − | ✔ | − |
| Horizontal scrolling | ✔ | ✔ | − |
| Vertical scrolling | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Seamless vertical scrolling | − | ✔ | ✔ |
| Handwriting overlaps across pages | − | ✔ | − |
| Automatically add new pages | − | ✔ | Infinite canvas |
| Multitasking | Multiple instances, Slide over, Multiple tabs | Note Switcher | Multiple instances, Slide over |
| Max. number of notes open at a time | More than 2 | 2 | More than 2 |
| No. of active windows per session | Both instances | 1 | Both instances |
| Access to other notebooks | All notebooks in the app from either instance | 10 most recently opened | All notebooks in the app from one instance |
| Recognise hyperlinks | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Deactivate hyperlinks when using the Apple Pencil | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Create hyperlinks | ✔ | − | − |
| Export hyperlinks | ✔ | − | − |
| Recognise outlines | ✔ | − | − |
| Export outlines | ✔ | − | − |
| Bookmark pages | ✔ | ✔ | − |
| Tag pages | − | − | − |
| View annotated pages only in your PDFs | − | ✔ | − |
| Password-protect PDFs when exporting | − | ✔ | − |
| Convert handwriting to text | ★★★ | ★★★★★ | − |
| Supported languages | 17 | 23 | System language |
| Data detection | − | − | ✔ |
| Search through handwriting | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Search through scans | ✔ | ✔ | Only titles |
| Search through imported scans | − | ✔ | − |
| Search text on images | − | ✔ | − |
| Organise search results | Notes, outline | − | − |
| Change user interface in dark mode | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Automatically switch switch paper & ink colours | − | − | ✔ |
| Presentation mode | ✔ | ✔ | − |
| Create Flashcards | Experimental feature | − | − |
| Add tables | − | − | ✔ |
| Folder widgets | − | − | ✔ |
| Create new notebooks from locked iPad screen | − | − | ✔ |
| Lock folders | − | ✔ | − |
| Lock notebooks | − | − | ✔ |
| In-app store | − | ✔ | − |
| Exporting formats | PDF, Image, GoodNotes | PDF, Image (Jpeg/PNG) Note, RTF | PDF, PNG |
| Export specific pages | ✔ | ✔ | − |
| Attach audio recordings | − | ✔ | − |
| Add margin around PDF when exporting | − | ✔ | − |
| Exclude annotations when exporting | ✔ | − | − |
| Export zipped images | ✔ | − | − |
| Export single images | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Collaborate on notes | ✔ | − | ✔ |
| Collaborate by sending email invitation | − | − | ✔ |
| Collaborate by sharing link to notebook | ✔ | − | ✔ |
| Highlight changes made to document | − | − | ✔ |
| Receive notifications when someone changes document | − | − | ✔ |
| Collaborate on folders | − | − | ✔ |
| Auto backup to Dropbox | ✔ | ✔ | − |
| Auto backup to Google Drive | ✔ | ✔ | − |
| Auto backup to OneDrive | ✔ | ✔ | − |
| Auto backup to Box | − | ✔ | − |
| Auto backup to WebDAV | − | ✔ | − |
| Auto backup to Evernote | − | − | − |
| Auto backup in Native format | ✔ | ✔ | − |
| Auto backup in PDF format | ✔ | ✔ | − |
| Auto backup in RTF format | − | ✔ | − |
| Auto backup in PDF & Native format | ✔ | − | − |
| Auto backup specific folders | ✔ | ✔ | − |
| Auto backup specific files | ✔ | − | − |
| View backup queue/line | ✔ | − | − |
| Pause/cancel backup | ✔ | − | − |
| Settings for user interface | ★★★★★ | ★★★★ | ★★★ |
Wow. This is awesome. Thanks. I have a question. The data size in Goodnotes is an issue in all devices? Can you check? Can it be solved?
Yes, GoodNotes generally makes big files. There is not much users can do to change it though. It’s something to do with the coding of the app. The developers are working to try improve that, let’s hope they will figure it out soon.
I love the pencil tool in the apple notes app. Do you know if any other note taking app has that? All I’ve seen is pen variations and markers but nothing like that pencil.
Noteshelf and ZoomNotes have pencil tools.