Head-to-head
Coconote vs Notability
Coconote
65
Winner
Notability
Notability
70
Notability, despite recent issues, remains a more established and feature-rich note-taking app, while Coconote offers strong transcription and summarization but is plagued by aggressive monetization and reliability concerns.
Full reviews: Coconote · Notability
Notability is a long-standing note-taking app with a broad feature set, though recent updates have caused significant user frustration regarding data loss and performance. Coconote excels in AI-powered transcription and summarization but faces criticism for its restrictive free tier, high subscription costs, and customer service issues.
Head to head
Coconote Coconote is highly praised for its accurate transcriptions, detailed summaries, and the ability to turn lectures and PowerPoints into study notes, with some users calling it a 'life-saver' for meetings and classes R5R7. It also offers visuals like mind maps . However, some users report issues with math transcription and distinguishing speakers R4R12.
Notability Notability is valued for its versatility in note-taking, recording lectures, and study tools, especially for science-heavy programs . Users appreciate its sync feature across devices . However, recent updates have removed or changed features, like the ability to copy and paste in style, move text boxes with Apple Pencil, and lock folders . Users also request more editing options for tape colors and basic shapes .
Coconote Coconote is generally seen as easy to use for taking notes and managing information, with users appreciating its straightforward approach to transcription and summarization R2R5R9R11. Some users mention a desire for mass delete functionality .
Notability Notability has historically been praised for being functional, versatile, and easy to use . However, recent updates have introduced significant usability issues, including difficulty moving text boxes, changed font and page formats, hidden text ribbons in landscape mode, and a confusing new cloud update screen that prevents access to notes R60.
Coconote Coconote has mixed reviews on reliability. While many users find it effective R6, some report critical issues such as losing notes and recordings, experiencing errors, and the app not working at all R16R18R23.
Notability Notability, once highly reliable, has recently suffered from severe performance and reliability issues. Numerous users report notes disappearing or being deleted, files being moved to unorganized folders, constant crashing, freezing, and slow performance R54R57R60R62. Some also mention it heating up their iPad .
Coconote Coconote is criticized for its aggressive monetization. The free tier is severely limited, forcing users to pay after only a few notes R1R3R45. The yearly subscription is considered expensive by some, especially for a product that is not fully polished R10R12. However, many paying users feel it is 'extremely worth it' and even 'worth more than they charge' .
Notability Notability is a free app with in-app purchases, but many features are locked behind a subscription, making it 'pretty bad' without paying . The price is considered 'a little steep' by some . Recent updates have forced users into paid cloud options, effectively making the app unusable without a subscription, even for long-time users .
Coconote Coconote users report significant issues with customer service, including unresponsiveness to emails and denied refund requests, even for accidental yearly subscriptions R8R10R12R14. There are also complaints about not receiving reminders for subscription renewals R16. However, one user praised the developer's responsiveness .
Notability Notability's customer support is criticized for being unhelpful, with users reporting only AI answers and a lack of interest in diagnosing and fixing bugs . Users also complain about not being able to get refunds for issues .
Pick Coconote if
you prioritize advanced AI transcription and summarization features for meetings, lectures, or studying, and are willing to pay for a subscription despite the free tier limitations and reported customer service issues R5R7.
Pick Notability if
you need a comprehensive note-taking app with strong study tools and cross-device syncing, and are comfortable navigating potential recent bugs and subscription changes, especially if you've been a long-time user .
Evidence note: Notability has a significantly larger number of reviews, and recent negative reviews heavily skew towards critical issues like data loss and performance, which may not reflect its long-term average user experience. Coconote's reviews are more balanced between praise for its core features and strong criticism of its monetization and customer service.
Frequently asked
Is Coconote truly free to use?
What are the main issues with Notability's recent updates?
What reviewers actually said
Built only from these 100 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.
- [R4] Coconote Math missprint: Whenever it transcribes math, it won’t use the symbols for like calculus like integration symbols, and it won’t put like a fraction one above the other vertically it is prints out very weird
- [R5] Coconote Love this app!: I love using this app for any meetings, classes, or interactions that I may need to review later. Excellent translations and the summaries are really helpful!
- [R7] Coconote Beyond thankful: I downloaded Coconote to take notes when visiting my husband’s oncologist. He has stage four cancer and I’m not able to remember everything. The doctor says this has been so helpful for me to go back and look and see the progress or if I’m missing something. I’m so thankful for this app.
- [R12] Coconote Alternatives are better: This app is not fleshed out. Alternatives do a much better job of transcribing and summarizing. It’s also way too expensive, especially for a not polished product. You won’t get a refund either. The AI seems to have a hard time distinguishing between speakers a lot. Even when one is a man and one is a woman so clearly different voices.
- [R2] Coconote taking notes: great product
- [R9] Coconote Coco note: I would recommend it’s really good for students
- [R11] Coconote Amazing: Thank you Coco!!
- [R6] Coconote excelente app: muy efectiva
- [R16] Coconote Keep loosing my notes/recordings: This is the second time that this app has lost my notes/recordings. Also, they don’t send reminders that your subscription will be renewed on such date or send notification that your subscription had been automatically renewed. For the amount of money that I spent for this app it’s very frustrating especially when you need those notes!!
- [R18] Coconote Started experiencing many errors: The app worked perfectly in the past but now i have many mishaps where i lose my recordings. It's terrible when you're relying on its ability to record meetings.
- [R23] Coconote Terrible: There say ERROR, it doesn’t work today 🤦♀️ and I made my notes there 😭 everything was deleted
- [R1] Coconote Barely can use free: Amazing app but you can barely use it for free. I mean I took maybe two notes with Coconote and after that it stopped working and it started forcing me to pay so amazing app if you want to put down some money and it is really a good app it really did help me and it made me really well just the fact that you can never use it if you don’t wanna pay it’s kind of sad
- [R3] Coconote Good but not totally free: ok so i am looking for some apps to study for my exams and this one is good i like it so much it’s better than others but it has that problem that if your in trial you can’t study more it has like a limit and you have to obligatorily pay for the anual planner and that’s kinda annoying, because normally my exams are like last minute and i download the app and it doesn’t l
- [R10] Coconote Predatory subscription process: I accidentally signed up for a yearly subscription because the pricing wasn’t clearly presented. I genuinely thought I was selecting a monthly plan. After realizing the mistake when I was charged over $100, I reached out to request a refund but my request was denied, twice. This was frustrating, especially since it felt like an easy misunderstanding that could happe
- [R8] Coconote Terrible service.: I paid in full for year subscription - I cancelled my subscription because I didn’t want to forget to cancel in the future. It claims my account will remain active until Dec. 12 but conveniently it doesn’t recognize me and customer service will not respond to my email.
- [R14] Coconote Unnecessary charge: They charged me $130 for the yearly subscription when I only signed up for a free trial. This is genuinely a freaking scam because why didn’t they notify me when it was ending. It’s a money grab and the refund policy is so ridiculous like bruh. Having to write a whole damn essay for a refund and they don’t give me anything back. I want my money back now
- [R45] Coconote Not bad but not Amazing: For me loading takes a while i was expecting this to be free but not really not many things were available as a free to play player
- [R54] Notability Beware! Cannot lock file on iPad if you switch to their cloud: You cannot lock folders/files on your iPad if you have switched to their web cloud. I migrated back to iCloud, but here’s the catch. You lose what you did on their web cloud. Think you can get them back from the *.ntb backup created while on their web cloud. Nope. Your iCloud notability won’t import your back up notes (*.ntb). iCloud b
- [R57] Notability 5 years of notes gone: I have used Notability since 2021, totaling 5 years of notes. I used this application almost every day throughout undergrad and my first two years of graduate school. With the latest update, a failed cloud save deleted every single note I have ever made. All of my years of folders are still there, but every annotated pdf, all of my class notes, and every planner I have creat
- [R60] Notability No longer useful: All of my notes have been removed from their folders and placed in in the All Notes folder. WTF. I now have to search through over 1,000 notes to find a note I want. PLEASE FIX THIS! PLUS. This update is not an improvement. I have used this app for years and you have always made it better with each update. However, this update is a major step, no leap backwards. There are NO
- [R62] Notability Insane glitch: I’ve been using this app for many years and lately it’s just been getting worse with it’s glitches it just unbearable to use some times please update these issues
Synthesized from 100 recent App Store reviews · updated July 2026 · View on the App Store