GoodNotes vs Notability: which one should you consider?

GoodNotes is an app for iOS and macOS devices that lets you take notes. It is made to feel like writing on paper, and it has many tools for handwriting, typing, and drawing. Users can make digital notebooks and add notes to PDFs or other documents with GoodNotes. It has features like text recognition, shape recognition, and handwriting search, which make it easy to organize and find content in notes. GoodNotes also syncs with iCloud so that you can access your notes from any device.

Notability is another popular app for taking notes that works on both iOS and macOS. It has everything you need to take notes, such as tools for handwriting, typing, and drawing. Users of Notability can make their own notebooks and dividers to organize their notes. It lets you add notes to PDFs, documents, and images, and you can also record audio that goes along with your notes. Notability also has powerful search tools that make it easy to find specific notes. It has options for syncing with iCloud or other cloud services, so users can get to their notes from more than one device.

GoodNotes vs Notability Pricing

With the free version, users can make up to three notebooks. The free version has most of the features of the paid version. But the free version doesn’t have some features, like handwriting recognition and email import. GoodNotes’ full, paid version costs $8.99 one-time payment. There are no other monthly subscription fees or hidden microtransactions. GoodNotes used to be a paid app, so users had to pay the subscription fee before they could download it. But in April 2022, GoodNotes changed that by putting out a new free plan. Notability Classic can only be used by certain people.

Notability Plus costs $2.99 a month or $11.99 for the first year, and new users can sign up for it. The free plan lets you try out the app in a way. You can only make a certain number of changes to a document each month. You can check how many changes you have left in the settings menu. Users can only get the Notability Classic plan if they bought the app before November 21, 2021. That’s when Notability switched from a one-time fee model to a subscription model, which caused a lot of buzz online. The Classic plan gives you access to any premium content you buy before November 2021 for the rest of your life and backs up your files automatically to iCloud.

GoodNotes vs Notability Comparison table

GoodNotes vs Notability Customization and Templates

Users of GoodNotes can customize the way they take notes in a variety of ways to suit their needs. GoodNotes can be used for a variety of note-taking needs because users can select from templates like lined, graphed, dotted, and blank pages. Users of GoodNotes can customize their pen and highlighter styles, color preferences, and line thickness to suit their individual needs. Users can also import their own templates to make templates that are unique to their way of taking notes.

Notability has fewer ways to change things than GoodNotes. For example, there aren’t as many templates and there aren’t as many ways to choose between lined and graph paper. But Notability makes up for this by giving you more options for making your own notes. Notability lets users import PDFs or images and add handwriting or annotations to their notes to make them fit their needs. So, making notes that are just for them and are personalized. Notability also lets users make and change shapes that can be used to make charts or diagrams.

GoodNotes vs Notability Features

Notability has a user interface that is easy to use. You can choose from 12 different pen widths, 4 different pen styles, and a huge range of colors. The favorite toolbar is one of my favorite parts of Notability. Once you’ve set up a pen the way you like it, you can add it to your favorites toolbar. This will give you a set of ready-made templates that you can use quickly instead of having to change them all over again. You can move the favorites bar to any edge of the screen and even make it go away completely. If you use a lot of different colors to make things stand out while taking notes, the favorites toolbar becomes a very useful feature very quickly.

The Lasso tool is another tool we really like in Notability. With it, you can copy parts of a note, turn handwriting into text, change the style and font color of the copied part, turn the copied part into a sticker that you can use later, delete the copied part, or enlarge, shrink, or rotate it. When you open more than one note at once in GoodNotes 5, tabs let you switch between them. Notability doesn’t have this feature, but we like it, especially when I’m working on more than one note at the same time.

Like Notability, you can also open notes in a split screen. Even though it has the feature, it doesn’t open different copies of the app like GoodNotes does. GoodNotes doesn’t have a favorites tab, which is something I really miss. But you can save three pen settings ahead of time. With only three pre-set sizes, you can’t change the size of your erasers like you can with Notability. But I think most people don’t really care because the sizes are different enough. You can, however, draw a straight line with your highlighter, which is not possible with Notability. This makes annotating articles even better.

GoodNotes vs Notability Layout

When you open GoodNotes 5, you can choose between a list layout or a grid layout that shows all of your notes, folders, and notebooks in a quick and easy-to-read way. This has to do with how GoodNotes wants you to make and organize your notes and notebooks and it makes perfect sense. You can also tap on the name of a file or folder to get to more menu options. At the bottom of the GoodNotes app, you’ll see a menu with the search tool, a place for your shared documents, and a quick way to get to the note pages you’ve marked as favorites.

You may also be able to access the GoodNotes Community through a tab in the lower right corner of your screen, but not all users have this option yet. Notability does things in a different way. When you open the app, your subjects, which are like folders, will be on the left sidebar. On the right, the notes you’ve put in those subjects are shown as either a list or a grid. You can add dividers that work like toggles and can be collapsed to help keep your workspace clean and organized. You can create new subjects for your notes and use dividers to separate them, but that’s about it. It’s a simple, straightforward method that works well. This makes it perfect for people who like layouts that are more simple or sparse.

GoodNotes vs Notability Backup and Restore

Users of GoodNotes can easily recover any notes that have been accidentally deleted or lost as a result of losing their device by automatically backing up and restoring their notes. User notes are automatically saved to iCloud by GoodNotes, ensuring their security. Users can then get their notes back from there if they lose their device or accidentally delete them.

Notability lets users set up automatic backups and restores so that their notes are always safe and easy to find. It saves the user’s notes in iCloud so that they are easy to get to from different devices. Notability also automatically backs up users’ notes to cloud storage services like Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive, giving users more ways to protect and find their notes. Both GoodNotes and Notability let you back up and restore your notes in similar ways. But because Notability works with more than one cloud storage service, users have more ways to protect and find their notes.

GoodNotes: Pros and Cons

Notability: Pros and Cons

Which one should you consider?

Overall, you can’t make a bad choice either way. GoodNotes and Notability are both great apps for taking notes on your iPad. All of The Werk Life Shop’s digital planners can be used in both GoodNotes and Notability. Both note-taking apps have a variety of features that help you stay organized and creative when using your digital planner.

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