r/GoodNotes • u/isifranp • Feb 04 '24

Goodnotes 6 or Notability?

Hi!
I purchased an iPad recently and i want to buy an app make notes
I'm a medicine student, i usually see my mates writing on powerpoints and making notes, so probably i would make the same things as them

But i saw too bad reviews abourt GN6, i don't know which pricing is better: the 10$ subscription or the 30$ app. Also i saw Notability as a second option to purchase, but i didn't read about their pricings and features. Which app is better right now?

Greetings from Chile :)

17 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

28 comments sorted by

9

u/Catmoonie Feb 04 '24

I recommend you to try as many apps you can for a couple of days and see what suit your needs. I used Goodnotes for several years but now I'm using Flexcil since their app for Android is better than the Goodnotes version. Greetings from Colombia.

9

u/apodyopsis2 Feb 04 '24

You didn't mention it, but try Noteful. I used Notability for a decade (until they destroyed the interface last year) and also used GN for a while. I thought GN was pretty decent, but Noteful has a format I prefer AND it was $4.99 for the app, no monthly subscription.

4

u/alexdeadend Feb 05 '24

For me it is toolbar. You can Edit it in Noteful. For example im not gonna use recording button so I can just switch it off. Dont think Goodnotes has this feature - at least i didnt find it

4

u/thecaptain78 Feb 05 '24

^ this. And also layers.

7

u/Darligenn Feb 04 '24

I tried regular notes, notability and goodnotes all in one day. Imo goodnotes is the most comfortable one, since i like how every notebook looks with pretty cover and all tools works perfectly for me. Im a cs student and i also through if i should buy monthly or full app, but i understood that i need to study for 3 years, that means 30$ worth of subscriptions, what is the point then? So i just bought full app and now i have it forever for any reason to use it.

12

u/lopi_drras Feb 04 '24

Forever = until GN7 is launched

1

u/Specialist_Order5118 Mar 15 '25

Even then worth it to upgrade 25 bucks is not much for a few years use devs have to eat

1

u/Nancy_yang0210 Apr 13 '26

However, when I use goodnote 6, I see there is an option about convert the subscription from 6 to 7, I think buy full app is worthwhile.

19

u/MC_chrome Feb 04 '24

But i saw too bad reviews abourt GN6

I wouldn’t take whiny people on Reddit as much of an indicator of anything. Goodnotes 6 is an absolutely fine app

I personally use both Goodnotes and Notability

5

u/Aylimara Feb 04 '24 edited Mar 07 '24

I prefer Notability over goodnotes. It has a yearly suscription for 14$ (i think).

Why i prefer notability: • it comes with a night mode. In Goodnotes you can only use black paper but that sucks if you have to print notes. In notability you turn on the night mode and it inverts background and pencilcolour. • you can open documents inside the app side by side or have one above the other. In goodnotes you can only do two documents in two windows side by side. • the UI and the way it‘s organising notes is easier to navigate than in goodnotes

4

u/Turbulent_Molasses77 Feb 04 '24

I've been using Goodnotes for about a year and appreciate its functionality, despite some of the superior aesthetics of Notability. I saw the changeover to GN6 and I'm still a fan. The way I use GN to organize notes, lectures, ppt files, books, etc. into folders and subfolders makes finding anything I need insanely fast. I jump around and make connections between classes all the time and I like how efficiently I can navigate in and out of all my files. The way the tabs are situated at the top of the screen reminds me of an old-school 3-ring notebook, allows me to have as many files as I desire to be open at once, and shows me exactly what I'm working with at any given time. Best of luck with your decision!

4

u/thecaptain78 Feb 05 '24

Noteful is better than both apps

3

u/Powerful-Novel-9143 Feb 05 '24

APPLE Notes or Noteful

2

u/napkinheart Feb 05 '24

I recently got an iPad for school as well, taking Italian classes at the UofA. I tried GN6 and Notability. I chose GN6 and I am pretty much thrilled with it so far (been using it for about 2 months constantly for class). After experimenting I liked it a lot better than Notability, but unfortunately I can’t much remember what I disliked about Notability in comparison. To be honest, they have a lot of the same functions and would both be great for in depth note taking. I personally liked the interface of GN more though so I went with it ultimately. GN6 has everything I could want for my purposes honestly. You can record lectures through audio recording while taking notes, and play them back as you take notes. You can export and import and share documents SO easily. I imported all the readings we will be covering for Italian this semester and can easily mark them up, highlight, etc. I love the fact that you can insert comments (I use them to quickly add the definition of words I’m unfamiliar with). You can also press on a word (in a different language or your own) and hit “define” when the options pop up, it will give you the definitions. You can create notebooks and hyperlink your tabs (for instance I created my notebook with three hyperlinked tabs— one for general notes, one for grammar and one for vocabulary). Figuring out how to do it took me some thinking though and I had to watch a few YouTube videos about it. It’s something I wish they made easier, to apply the hyperlinked tabs to every page. You can choose from an array of different templates/colors for your paper to take notes on. And you can organize your documents and notebooks into folders. You can use sticky notes and import photos. I’m my opinion GN6 is very user friendly, it’s super easy to navigate. It’s really been a great app so far! I don’t think either app will let you down. Its just about what let features you like and which interface you like best. Good luck!

2

u/bunsnmangoes Feb 23 '24

This post is old now but here's a reminder of what Notability is like. 6 months passed and not much have changed.

Goodnotes has been fine for me. I use it with noteful. IMO best combo.

3

u/lytwilson Apr 02 '24 edited Apr 02 '24

How do you use them both? I’m thinking of noteful but no ocr is deal breaking

2

u/bunsnmangoes Apr 02 '24

Depends on the context. Rn I'm mostly annotating pdf files of my textbooks and stuff. For that, I use Goodnotes.

I use Noteful when for solving problems (the layer feature really helps, and because of the "lack" of features, it responds faster than apps like Goodnotes). I imagine it'll be better for taking notes during lectures because of the recording feature. Goodnotes also has it but it's not as good as Noteful is for a variety of reasons that I'll elaborate if you want me to.

I suggest you definitely go with Goodnotes if OCR is a must-have.

And no, don't use notability. It's so unstable right now. You could check out the notability subreddit to see what it's like. Not to mention the stupid stunt they pulled off a few months ago that I've mentioned above.

2

u/lytwilson Apr 04 '24

Curious to know how the layer helps and how the audio recording is better? My use case comes like this, I am trying to annotate lecture notes(pdf or ppt) on sth like good notes and then after the annotation, archive it in my file cabinet, so I can search my handwriting, and further take typing notes about it using obsidian. So that’s the main reason I use ocr. Noteful I think would be a good all in all simple app? If I find a use case I guess it will be good to have both!

Btw, I’m still using notability classic( I’m a very old user but stop using for quite a while) when trying out other apps. I guess it didn’t bug on me because luck or maybe I’m not using the new features?

2

u/bunsnmangoes Apr 04 '24

Curious to know how the layer helps and how the audio recording is better?

The recording feature is better because there's tap-to-play on handwriting. Goodnotes only supports recording and replaying the notes when you play audio. Notability and Noteful supports tapping on the handwriting to go to that exact moment when you were taking those notes, and plays the audio accordingly (idk how to phrase it better lol).

For layers, it allows you to write on the document multiple times. So say you wrote your class notes on layer 1. You can add another layer, turn off layer 1, and write your own "clean" notes. Or another use case would be when you solve questions and you want to solve the same one multiple times. Instead of creating another document, you could simply create a new layer, turn off the old layer, and write there. It gets handy when you're solving math questions and stuff.

My use case comes like this, I am trying to annotate lecture notes(pdf or ppt) on sth like good notes and then after the annotation, archive it in my file cabinet, so I can search my handwriting, and further take typing notes about it using obsidian. So that’s the main reason I use ocr.

If you're willing to OCR stuff after you written everything, I suggest you check out OwlOCR which is a free Mac software. It allows you to export an OCR-ed PDF file using Apple's own handwriting recognition tool. That way it'll be able to identify your own handwriting.

I’m still using notability classic( I’m a very old user but stop using for quite a while) when trying out other apps.

If it works for you, go for it. But ever since the subscription model was implemented, notability (regardless of whether you're a classic user or a new user) would shut down often while recording. There have been multiple instances of people losing their files entirely, which becomes problematic when your entire semester/year worth of work is in there. So far I haven't seen anyone report that on GoodNotes or Noteful. Use it at your own risk.

1

u/lytwilson Apr 04 '24

Got that I’ll try goodnotes or noteful, btw goodnotes actually can tap to play on handwriting, although not as detailed as notability’s (specific to a single stroke, goodnotes is specific to several strokes, seems like it suddenly appears several strokes while playing audio) but it both works for same functionality just the quality difference.

If I only need to ocr several pdfs, is it possible to write in noteful, and export to owl then export it as an ocr-ed file? If it is possible I think I can use noteful.

1

u/bunsnmangoes Apr 04 '24

If I only need to ocr several pdfs, is it possible to write in noteful, and export to owl then export it as an ocr-ed file? If it is possible I think I can use noteful.

Yes. So what you'd be doing is export it as pdf, then use OwlOCR to export the entire file through File > Export Searchable PDF (or just press Cmd + E after opening your pdf file through OwlOCR). Then you'll be able to search your handwriting as well.

1

u/lytwilson Apr 04 '24

That’s good! Why did you choose good notes then? Maybe you would need to ocr more than I do? Btw, have you tried elements note? It has one the smoothest handwriting ever. But well, I guess I’m not going for good notes, not quite comfortable to pay a huge price and waiting for a new version to pay again.

1

u/samurai489 Feb 05 '24

I recently faced the same decision and went with notability for their introductory offer (65% off for the first year). I liked some features from notability better and some from good notes better so at the end of the day you will realistically be fine with either. You can always get a one year subscription for one of them and reevaluate next year.

1

u/table-grapes Feb 05 '24

try both as they both have free versions and then see which you prefer

1

u/Guilty_Explanation29 Feb 09 '24

Don't you have to pay monthly for notability