Notability

What reviewers actually said

Built only from these 50 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. [R4] 5/5 · US A great note taking app: I was looking for something that functioned like the native Notes app and OneNote from Microsoft for my math and engineering classes, Notability did the trick. It has near zero latency for the Apple Pencil, big fan of the math conversions, and allows pretty great customization. One thing I wish Notability had is “digital notebooks” that I can section off, similar to OneNo
2. [R7] 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
3. [R15] 2/5 · US Why would you do that?!: I used this app every day for heavy note taking. Love the templates and the handwriting is smooth and natural… BUT with this last update and the change to the pencil squeeze feature, it left me furious. I spent half an hour trying to retrain myself to adjust to having to squeeze, the select the eraser from the mini and erase but honestly, I use that squeeze to erase so fre
4. [R32] 5/5 · US I depend on Notability: I started using Notability in 2017. Before coming to Notability, I tried many other apps such as OneNote, Apple Notes and Evernote. I stuck with Notability for its intuitive simplicity and reliable note taking features. It isn’t overloaded with un necessary features and I love that about it. I used it to write along with grad school lectures, and also later to write notes f
5. [R6] 4/5 · US Great app: This app has significantly increased my ability to review sermons and test myself on the sermons
6. [R19] 5/5 · US ADHD Adult & Kid friendly: For transparency, I did not use the free version long before I saw the value in. The app itself is extremely easy to navigate. I love how easy it is to access across multiple devices. My daughter can use it on the iPad, while I am looking over my notes on the phone. The smart note transcription has helped my daughter to breakdown the content in videos teachers give her a
7. [R27] 5/5 · US Great all around!: Truly excellent note taking app. The annual subscription is honestly so worth it, especially if you’re a student. Not sponsored, just a happy customer!
8. [R35] 5/5 · US Awesome: Best for college students especially its pricing and features within it 🔥🔥
9. [R11] 4/5 · US iPhone: There are often sync issues between my iPhone and my iPad, but overall I do like the versatility as well as the utility of Notability.
10. [R2] 1/5 · US Notability Cloud destroyed years of work: I’ve been a Notability user since day one, recommending it to family, friends, and coworkers without hesitation. That loyalty makes what I’m about to say even more frustrating. After migrating to Notability Cloud, everything broke. Notes lost their formatting entirely, PDFs and handwriting are compressed and jumbled together. The app freezes constantly,
11. [R16] 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
12. [R21] 1/5 · US App no longer usable: I’ve used this app since 2012 on and off. I am no longer able to use it. The app opens and freezes to an empty note, and remains unresponsive. Hard shut downs and turning my device on and off doesn’t resolve. And yes I’m updated to the latest version. Disappointing.
13. [R24] 1/5 · US App is unusable: App crashes every 10 minutes. I couldn’t use it to jot notes.
14. [R13] 1/5 · US Notes constantly disappearing: Horrible , I’ve been using it for years and there’s been multiple times all my notes disappear. Usually they’ll load back after a whiiile but this last time I haven’t been able to retrieve my notes and I, really upset. I regret using this app so ur research this happened to others as well.
15. [R17] 1/5 · US App works great but they now forces their own their cloud sync: This app does what I need. Lets me sync to my personal drives. I use it on an iPad with a pen. Very handy but they recently forced their own cloud solution that I don’t want. Not what I signed up for and they won’t let me disable it. I don’t want all my notes on their servers. I rather have control where I want my content to live. Wil
16. [R26] 1/5 · US It lags, and never received help: This app was functioning good at the start but ever since it sync, it didn't synced completely, made me loose my notes IN FINALS WEEK for college, never received help after reaching several times, and til this day it has been so slow to edit on (it has been more than a week). Made the decision to switch to another app
17. [R5] 1/5 · US Constant Barrage of Upgrade Requests: This used to be my favorite and most-used app on iPad. Now, it generates a constant barrage of full screen upgrade requests that you constantly have to close in order to use the app. Moving on, Notability. Unfortunately. I really liked the app.
18. [R9] 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
19. [R29] 1/5 · US Constant nagging to upgrade to notability cloud: It’s getting way too annoying now, what can I do to let the notability team know that I do not want to upgrade to any cloud. Can the devs please chill on this constant banner. There used to be a time when I used to absolutely love this app, it’s horrendous now.
20. [R3] 1/5 · US Update Ruined Snap to Grid: The only reason I have stuck with notability for so long is the geometry and snap to grid capabilities. The most recent update has removed that for ellipses and circles. Rotating ellipses non longer snap to horizontal or vertical alignment when you get close - you just have to eyeball it. The same goes for aligning edges of circles and ellipses with the grid in graph pa
21. [R8] 1/5 · US DO NOT BUY: The Notability team RUINED the Apple Pencil in the latest update. Erasing no longer works properly. Can’t believe there is no setting to change it back. I can’t believe my $150 subscription went to waste overnight.
22. [R18] 1/5 · US Ruined: This was far and away the best Notes app on planet Earth for many years. They have constantly tinkered and tinkered and tinkered until they have completely ruined it. This latest “update” is a poor man’s Google Docs. The typing/formatting has completely changed and anything you paste keeps the format of the origin making this just unusable now. Such a shame. Have 1400 notes. Don’t know wha
23. [R14] 1/5 · US Usage limits on your own handwritten notes!: You have to pay to edit your own notes? Not sure when the introduced usage limits but they are ridiculous.
24. [R41] 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.
25. [R1] 2/5 · US Has had so many bugs since you added ai: App should remove ai as it’s bad for the planet and unnecessary at least give an option to turn it off as it slows the whole app down in addition to killing the planet
26. [R38] 4/5 · US MAKE AI QUIZ FONT BIGGER: I love using the AI quiz generator on both my laptop and iPad but omgggg my eyes burn from the small font off my Mac. I cannot find a way to make it bigger and it is so annoying because I want to continue using the feature but have to take frequent breaks. If i could blow up the text, I would use it for hours. PLEASE FIX THIS
27. [R36] 1/5 · US Terrible now: I’ve been using this app for years but recently it’s been so bad. Two notes I spent all day working on just disappeared out of thin air. Not on my cloud, not in my recently deleted notes. Also glitches when using Apple Pencil consistently. Switching to OneNote