Notability alternatives

What reviewers actually said

Built only from these 120 real reviews (foreign ones translated). Superscripts jump to the quote here. Apple has no per-review links, so [ref] opens that app's reviews on the App Store.

1. [R3] Notability 3/5 · US This app crashes all the time: This app makes annotating very easy and has a great interface but I’ve been using it regularly for over a year and it crashes A LOT, especially when inserting a text box. It happens several times in an hour sometimes and is very frustrating because it is a paid subscription service…
2. [R6] Notability 3/5 · US App always freezing and M4 iPad overheating: I used to love this app and used it through my masters program with every class. Now, after the update, it is completely nonfunctional on both of my iPads. The app freezes almost instantly and will not let me do anything until I close and reopen it. Even then, it freezes again within seconds. I can’t work on new notes and all my old notes are inaccessib
3. [R16] Notability 1/5 · US old note shut down: cant open the old note N it keep crashing all the time
4. [R21] Notability 3/5 · US It needs fixes: The app is good, but it has many issues. It becomes very laggy at Times. Any gesture regarding images, writing with the apple pencil, dragging stickers, typing in text boxes etc. has a delay of 4-5 seconds at times despite having enough device storage available. It the past, it has deleted my notes without consent and there is nothing the tech support can do to recover them. There
5. [R1] Notability 1/5 · US Lost all my notes: Literally lost everything and all my notes r blank
6. [R25] Notability 1/5 · US Uploading and Saving Notes: I would love to to rate this 5 stars, but until now, I have never experienced the lack of having to reupload my notes, and having to figure out each one. I made the mistake of syncing the app to my iCloud. I normally use Google Drive, and so when I went to open my Notability app, the notes were gone. I figured, I can reupload them, but lo and behold: you have to upload
7. [R31] Notability 1/5 · US FIX ASAP: Please fix the app I am debating switching apps as my notes never load. Sometimes they are there sometimes they are not. I am paying for the highest subscription therefore I am thinking should be the best. Please fix it asap before I finally give up and get a new app.
8. [R12] Notability 3/5 · US bad update: reverse the apple pencil update PLEASE or give a option to change it back. it’s not more convenient it’s actually quite annoying
9. [R22] Notability 1/5 · US Fix squeeze gesture!: Recent update ruined the squeeze gesture by forcing you to interact with a palette to switch to the eraser tool instead of allowing you to auto-switch to eraser. This makes you do an odd movement with your wrist to reach and select the eraser tool, which SIGNIFICANTLY slows down your work progress. I’m seriously questioning why the palette was introduced as a mandatory featur
10. [R28] Notability 1/5 · US Update hate it: They changed the Apple Pencil connection so when you squeeze it instead of it ONLY being the eraser now you have to choose. That’s a Good Notes feature that I hate and a a reason I use note ability. Switch it back, this is so inefficient.
11. [R40] Notability 1/5 · US Bring back option to squeeze to erase on Apple Pencil: Bring back the squeeze to erase option! Pretty annoying that there is an extra step just to erase now when it was extremely simple before.
12. [R4] Notability 1/5 · US DO NOT USE THIS APP: I do not understand why I need a notability account to use this app. If you do care the personal information, not using this app. I just want an app to write the notes and keep my notes only on my device.
13. [R7] Notability 1/5 · US AWFUL: I used to use this often during school and I decided to get it on my iPad just because I wanted to use it, but I can’t even use the text box. I have to do random stuff you can only make like six or five notes before you have to pay like $15 which I wasted so much time trying to curate notes when I literally didn’t even realize I had to pay so that sucks you guys are literally just money dea
14. [R13] Notability 1/5 · US Free trial charges $100 immediately- no warning !!!!: Wanted to try the new feature to see if it was worth upgrading - instead of getting to try it I was changed immediately and I have no idea if I can get it refunded. DO NOT TRUST THIS APP!!!!!!!!!
15. [R24] Notability 3/5 · US It’s alright: It’s nice but only with the paid features. My school uses it with subscriptions but at home I use it without subscription and it’s pretty bad without paying for subscription. With subscriptions it’s pretty good tho. Unless you’re planning to pay for an app, I would just use the basic Apple notes app.
16. [R19] Notability 1/5 · US Stealing our notes for their cloud service: They're now forcing us to move to their garbage cloud service that has carve outs in their privacy policy allowing them access to notes and use for ai training. There's no opt out. Previously you could use encrypted storage on iCloud for cloud storage. Notability didn't like that. Now they're forcing everyone over to their own cloud to steal our document
17. [R36] Notability 3/5 · GB Worse with every update: Too many added layers of confusion impair the usability of what should be a simple process: compose a note, file it, back up to iCloud I don’t want or need 50 laters of confusion and AI “slop” I don’t want to be forced to use Notability cloud, I’m happy with iCloud I’m still furious that previous updates fscked all my legacy notability docs !!!!! ,,
18. [R37] Notability 1/5 · US For over a Decade: I have been using Notability forever. I paid for the full version and then I started subscribing. As a subscriber I decided to use Notability Cloud syncing. I was surprised that I could not also use Apple iCloud sync and backup. This is a deal breaker. And now, I cannot revert back to Apple iCloud sync and backup. WHY? Please allow me to do both or at least allow me to go back t
19. [R46] Notability 1/5 · US They will loose your notes/data!: While I loved the convenience and ease of using this platform to take and store notes, the platform is unreliable and they lose your data! Don’t rely on your important notes to be there from day to day! They involuntarily switched me from iCloud sync to their cloud services. When I contacted them it took me multiple times to get through to a live agent. Most of
20. [R15] Notability 3/5 · US Great for writing notes; but terrible for typing: I love and hate this app at the same time. I love using this app when taking notes with my apple pencil. However, to use it like Microsoft Word, it is absolutely buggy and frustrating. There are just way too many bugs to type with this app. (on the MacBook Pro and on the iPad both have many bugs for typing. If you want the best handwriting app, the
21. [R2] Notability 4/5 · US Please develop a way to hide the control bar (tools like pencil, scissors, etc.)!!!: I absolutely love Notability, it is very useful for me as a college music student. I take a lot of notes there, and I load music into it as pdfs to read and play off of. So far the experience has been wonderful, EXCEPT that there is no way to hide the controls at the top, which sometimes blocks some of the music.
22. [R20] Notability 4/5 · US RTL option: I’m using notability for years and very satisfied with it but recently forced to move to another app because notability do not support RTL option for specific note Please add it in your next release
23. [R26] Notability 5/5 · US Perhaps the best note taking app out there!: I have loved and used Notability for about a year now. I have tried a few other apps and none compare to how easy and slick Notability is. I am especially grateful for the PDF highlight function, saves me so much time. I have two suggestions for improvement in future updates: 1) please make it possible to remove the tool bar. I love how easy it is to
24. [R39] Notability 3/5 · GB Good but …: I really like Notability but recently not so much. Why? Because the text wrap around images feature no longer works! What happened? It was the BEST thing about this app and now this feature no longer works brings this app down to other mediocre apps. I’m gutted! And there are no outlines? Why not???? Other than that, it’s a very good app but two features that are the most impor
25. [R51] Microsoft OneNote 1/5 · US Search is broken: I’ve used OneNote for years. I love it. My note complex has become humongous. Dozens of notebooks. Hundreds of sections. Thousands of pages. Search just keeps disappointing. Unable to search for basic typed text. Search is mission critical. It is not acceptable to suck this bad. Fix it or I’m migrating.
26. [R56] Microsoft OneNote 3/5 · US Is helpful, but with opportunities: I like being able to organize my notes and the easy access. I also love the feature that lets me select the meeting the notes are about. Major opportunities are dragging info down, not working, and making a mess. The text box overlaps, spelling doesn’t work well, and when searching for keywords, it shows you the notebook name but not the tab name. Still love it
27. [R58] Microsoft OneNote 5/5 · US Wonderful application for segregating all folders and ids properly: Must have this application "OneNote" cuz it saves all data at one palce like sticky notes, folders and Ids at one place with bequtiful colours available to choose to.
28. [R64] Microsoft OneNote 5/5 · US Very friendly platform: I love all the tools that I can use and the way I can draw all my map on concept for my classes
29. [R66] Notes 5/5 · US Must have: My best friend for all things DONT FORGET
30. [R69] Notes 5/5 · US List: 1:I make a lot of list on the the app
31. [R73] Notes 3/5 · US Good for typed notes, serious performance issues for handwritten notes.: It pretty much does what it says on the tin, and is great for taking down quick notes, lists and reminders from your phone. However for longer notes I prefer to hand write them, and this app causes massive overheating and battery drain on my M4 ipad air. Putting lines on a page should not be this taxing on my tablet, and it s
32. [R83] Goodnotes 5/5 · US Free: Definitely recommend this app I love using it for planning school project dates and when they are due also very smooth with Apple Pencil and ipad
33. [R86] Goodnotes 5/5 · US The best!: The best of all apps like Good Notes. I use it daily!
34. [R92] Goodnotes 5/5 · US Don’t Know What I’d Do Without You: My entire life is organized in this app. Journal, medical records, vet records, shopping lists, creative writing, self-learning, flow charts, PDFs I need to edit, anything you can think of. I used to use OneNote for my work life. But I like the user interface here more. It’s simplified. It does all the things I want it to flawlessly. It’s wonderful to have any d
35. [R94] Notion 5/5 · US Appreciation: Game changer app, especially with tech background and base AI knowledge
36. [R97] Notion 5/5 · US my notion is amazing: this is the best platform for planning and building your projects that you will ever use. it can be so structured but also has incredible flexibility, and sharing workspaces with others is fast and easy. I have been using this tool for years and will continue to do so. the only thing I wish there was is a mind map feature within pages to allow users a visual representation fo
37. [R100] Notion 5/5 · US Journaling: Notion has always been a great place to jot down and plan my life out.
38. [R106] Notion 5/5 · US Very reliable: Using it everyday
39. [R108] Freenotes® 5/5 · US College student approved: I’m a senior in college and I can honestly say this app got me through last semester! I write notes with an Apple Pencil. The documents you create are easily downloadable to devices as high quality .pdf files.
40. [R111] Freenotes® 5/5 · US Grateful for note taking: Has a lot of features I really like the ink to text feature
41. [R114] Freenotes® 4/5 · US Good variety, minor tools missing.: I grew up using notability, so originally i was hesitant to make the switch. However it’s been about 7 months and ive been very happy with it! I do miss some things like the notability templates or the zoom box for writing. But Freenotes keeps it very easy to stay organized and I like its variability in writing tools.
42. [R30] Notability 3/5 · GB Good: I just really would like the pages not to be limited. I love the app but I had to uninstall because I had not enough pages and I don’t have the money for pro version!
43. [R35] Notability 4/5 · US Great, but…: I use this app all the time and love it. I bought it back when it was a one-time purchase, and when they moved to a subscription model I was grandfathered in with the ‘classic’ license. That’s excellent. However, the app continually tries to upsell me on the subscription, which I refuse to buy as I’ve already got too many media and storage subscriptions. I wish I could turn off that a
44. [R95] Notion 3/5 · US I Miss the Old Notion: The button for AI is large and centered on the bottom of your screen instead of a search bar like it used to be. There was also a way to turn it off prior and now there isn't. Like yes, it's an inevitable future but can the interface be less inconvenient.
45. [R98] Notion 3/5 · US SLOOWWWW: Please fix the app, it lags about and the writing is bad, we dont need AI so relax with it because its slowing up the app, please dont ruin the appppppp!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
46. [R101] Notion 3/5 · US AI chatbot feature is very buggy: Takes long to load, especially on long threads, to the point where i have to quit the app and download again.
47. [R102] Notion 2/5 · US Pls cut back use of ai: Love notion, great app. Hate that ai is shoved down your throat at every turn. Can’t click a single thing without “ai can do this for you!!” I don’t want ai to do it for me. I am here because I want to do it. Ai sucks the fun out of everything. The second I find an alternative that does not use ai is the second I drop notion like a hot potato and switch over everything.