Freenotes®

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. [R1] 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.
2. [R3] 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.
3. [R6] 5/5 · US Everything you need to help you study! (FOR FREE): I love this so much! It has and will continue to help me understand how to stand, and even mak e me want to study because I actually know what I’m learning. I love that it has so many options and all of them for free! What? I can put the notes into my own words so I can comprehend them better. Such a helpful app!
4. [R10] 4/5 · US Amazing app but…: Don’t get me wrong, I love this app, I’ve used it ever since I got into college, when it was barely starting and it was free (which for a college student it’s amazing to see) When I came back to it, I had to star paying for it, I am still using the free plan but I don’t know how long I will last for. This app is still great and I still recommend it
5. [R140] 3/5 · US Pros and cons: Pros: probably the fastest and most accurate and smoothest handwriting-to-text conversion of this sort of app. Cons: - the launch splash screen is a long splash and gets really annoying after the third time and the principles of Apple design discourage that sort of thing. - The Tools interface is too busy with too much stuff in it, which gets confusing. Menus have a lot of choic
6. [R9] 5/5 · US This is the best notebook: I've tried a huge number of notebook apps (probably all of them in the App Store), but this one is the best! The interface is very user-friendly. The free version is perfectly usable, but I bought the Plus version because the price is quite reasonable for all its features, and I definitely won't switch to another notebook. It's very convenient that you can personalize it to the maximum, setting it up exactly how you want. · translated
7. [R4] 5/5 · US Perfect: It used to work great. But recently I haven’t been able to use it for free. Is there a way to watch ada again and continue using the app for free?
8. [R7] 2/5 · US Not satisfied: The name is free note but I need to pay seriously not satisfied with this app poor application
9. [R8] 1/5 · US Free notes more like Greed notes: Change your name to paid notes or something. At least we could add notes by watching ads now you changed that too
10. [R12] 2/5 · US Disappointing: I’ve used this app for years now and at first it was free. Then they added ads, however it end still useable and very nice. Now, they have added a limit on how many notebooks you can have unless u pay 9 dollars a month. I’m personally disappointed and will be uninstalling.
11. [R44] 3/5 · US Oh man it's no longer free free: It used to be awesome. But now it's no longer free free. Ppl say if you used to own it then you can get a lifetime membership, but I thought I have it and it's still not working? Man I pained 1.99 for this year, not too sure about 9.99 next year tho. Sadddd
12. [R50] 3/5 · US Love this app however: I got a new iPad and i used to have a account when it was actually free. (I hate that you have to actually pay for it now) but when I made the account I got premium. When I learned that you had to pay for it after I redownloaded it I had though, “no big ill log on with my account where i have premium already” and i did that. However I don’t have it anymore even after i logg
13. [R158] 3/5 · US Take my long life active: Why you change my member to plus this is not fair
14. [R265] 3/5 · GB I’m so gutted: I’ve just seen someone’s review where they said that they didn’t have to pay bcs they used this before the paid feature. I was using this when it was free and I still got charged spin actually so upset that this turned into a paid app because it was genuinely such a godsend. Oh well.. 😕
15. [R15] 1/5 · US Free for life?: This was the best writing app out there. I used this for years. It’s now a bloated adware app.
16. [R204] 3/5 · US Errores con los anuncios: En algunas ocasiones ves los videos y no dan crédito. Cuando se te acaban si no lo compras vas a tener problemas. Estaba pensando en comprarlo pero tengo miedo de que me de problemas también y mejor prevenir. De lo demás muy bueno para uso de la libreta en la universidad. Si no lo compras tendrás anuncio con cada movimiento que hagas en la app.
17. [R5] 2/5 · US I can’t login to my account: Can you help me?
18. [R43] 1/5 · US Lost my Profile: I had this app since 2023/2024. I’ve used it for a very long time. When I went to use it again, I’ve lost my profile. I haven’t received an email to reset my password and I now have to pay this account before using it again. I don’t have an issue with paying however, the app told me that I had the app free forever. Now I have to pay and have a limit on the use of this app. I will
19. [R54] 1/5 · US Lost my account despite signing up for lifetime: When I signed back into my account despite me signing up for the lifetime access, it later kicked me out then said I had to upgrade
20. [R11] 2/5 · US Handwriting beautification is meh: Was really excited to use the handwriting beautification..bummed that it doesn’t make all the letters/ words the same size. Also impossible to use it with math equations
21. [R708] 3/5 · AU Decent App: Only allowed 3 free notebooks, AI is limited in free edition but ChatGPT integration is nice. Handwriting beautification is often wrong, and it requires hard work to look properly good. Supports Apple Pencil okay.
22. [R369] 3/5 · GB Amazing app, But.: Adding some features as OCR that is supported by competitive apps really will change the game ,the ability to search handwriting will make a huge difference and will make sure that this app sits on the top of free note taking app. Keep up the great work.
23. [R547] 3/5 · CA Shape recognition: The shape recognition doesn't work on any shape but circles, triangles, rectangles and squares. Tried to draw a pentagon and other shapes and it corrected into a circle. Since I pay for this app, over good notes and other note taking apps, truly disappointed that simple things like this don’t run smoothly.
24. [R652] 3/5 · CA Two gripes: I cannot edit the order of images at least not in an obvious way. Also not custom shapes that you can re size like in other apps. Just ones that you can scale that are weird stickers that I’d never use. I like to use shapes to group notes for visual appeal.
25. [R18] 2/5 · US Bummed: I love this app s0 much but the stickers do not sync across devices. No matter if iCloud sync is turned on, you still have to manually add stickers. It's such a bummer but I had to switch back to goodnotes.
26. [R70] 1/5 · US Annoying :\ I would rate 0 if I could: It doesn't work whenever I try to open a new blank page; it only works if I use ruled lines. Honestly, I don't understand why the screen freezes every time I try to open a blank layout. I don't like the lines, unfortunately they make me dizzy, I just want to work on a blank page. Is that too much to ask? EDIT: I even tried to pay, to see if that was the probl
27. [R266] 3/5 · GB FreeNotes AI Pro (chat conversation inconsistency): One of the thing I noticed is that the AI can actually display explanations REALLY well, especially when using AI Search with the right prompt. The formatting, breakdowns, and explanations can genuinely look very nice and detailed, similar to what you would expect from most good AI tools. However, I noticed that during longer chats or continuous
28. [R410] 3/5 · GB Please add autocorrect: I am really enjoying this app that I literally switched from Goodnotes and transferred all my old notes from there. The only downside is that the app doesn’t have auto correct, it is on in my settings and works on any other app just simply doesn’t seem to be a function on free notes. I would really appreciate it if you guys would add autocorrect cause typing is the only thi
29. [R502] 3/5 · CA Must needed stuff: App is really amazing! But must needed stuff is like deleting current page, or adding favourite pens on side so that it’s accessible right away
30. [R125] 3/5 · US Phone cannot be used in landscape mode. · translated
31. [R17] 1/5 · US Worst update: It was supposed to be free,not it has become worst
32. [R2] 5/5 · US Grateful for note taking: Has a lot of features I really like the ink to text feature
33. [R38] 2/5 · US Hard to use: I downloaded this to take notes for college on my iPad. I’d be helpful to have a thorough tutorial of how to use it and how I can take notes.
34. [R28] 1/5 · US No longer free: I’ve been using this app for about 2 years and now they’ve implemented a subscription base where your notes are limited. So I can no longer write notes on this app without paying. The ads were annoying but this makes the app unusable. Don’t waste your time if you plan to use this app long term.
35. [R217] 3/5 · US would be five stars but..: it’s an amazing app and it’s so cute and super easy to understand but the only problem is that you actually have to pay and it limits you from many things. it’s labeled “freenotes” but it’s not necessarily free but anyways, the limit is three notebooks and i find that to be upsetting. i personally am using this app for studies and three notebooks is just not enough. also
36. [R35] 2/5 · US They Sold Out…: I started using this app two years ago for school because it was completely free at the time. I remember a year ago we were told that the original adopters of Freenotes would be able to keep all of the original features of the app even when it went freemium. Unfortunately the devs have gone against their word for whatever it was worth. I’ve been forced to subscribe for a year bec
37. [R36] 1/5 · US Used to be free: I've been using this app ever since it was free!? There was no need for an upgrade in order to continue usingbthe app! Like what the heck?! I had hopes for this app being free for those who afford or don't have money to buy a monthly/ year plan. This is a betrayal to those who have been with this app since it was free.
38. [R37] 1/5 · US Changes to the premium versions of the app: I have used this app consistently since its launch and have enjoyed all of the great features and updates introduced. Additionally, I have never had any issues with the app up until now. However, the pro version of the app has recently downgraded to the free version and the app is essentially locked behind a paywall. Though I have been a loyal user for t