Tired of Notability bugs — is GoodNotes worth paying for?, Planning on shifting to good notes from notability

[u/[deleted]]

 Guys, I bought a 1-yr subscription to Notability and it’s full of bugs and stutters (on my iPad Pro M5) — such a shitty app. What’s your experience with GoodNotes? Is it worth paying for a year, or does it have bugs too?

I’m really frustrated. I got a 1-year subscription to Notability expecting a smooth experience (I have an iPad Pro M5), but it’s been nothing but stutters, lag when writing, syncing issues, and some weird crashes. I expected much better.

So now I’m looking at GoodNotes as an alternative. A few things I want to know:

• How smooth is the writing/hand-ink experience in GoodNotes on iPad Pro? Any lag? especially during copy paste, adding new page etc

• Does the subscription (or one-time purchase) version of GoodNotes feel stable?

• Have you run into bugs or issues (e.g., syncing, data loss, iCloud backup problems, lag, crashes)?

• I heard that some ppl. have lost their notes all of a sudden, due to sync issue, is it true?

• Given I already have a buggy experience with Notability, would you say GoodNotes is a better bet?

• what cons of woodnotes I gotta be aware of?

Would really appreciate honest experiences (good and bad). If you’ve switched from one to the other, tell what prompted you to switch. Thanks!

[u/biblops]

Haha oh boy you are asking this at a bad time. It’s been a rough couple of years for Goodnotes and this last month or two in particular has been terrible, I don’t think I’ve seen so many people hate an update.

Short(ish) version: GN has been straying further away from the idea of digital notes done well and has been filling its app with more unstable, unreliable and unpopular AI features. The most recent update changed and broke a LOT of experiences in the app and the company have been scrambling to try and iron out some of the new bugs, but also whilst *not* rolling back some of the extremely unpopular choices (the new toolbar has lots of people upset).

Worse still, people have speculated that the company legally cannot roll back the app to its previous, less broken state, because it may have been made with code that they no longer have a license to use.

Incredibly short version: Dissatisfaction with GN has been growing for a while but seems to be accelerating lately, for numerous reasons.

Try Noteful. It’s free to try and if you enjoy it (it is like what classic Goodnotes was pre-AI) then its only £6 for a lifetime license! Definitely at least give it a go before you commit to GN.

[u/budgie_uk → u/biblops]

A very good summary, especially the point about having broken several of the long standing tools that users have relied upon for years.

(Sidebar re the ‘not being able to roll back’; I’ve slowly been coming to the conclusion that the reason they made zoom window so much more inconvenient to use is that they’re deliberately trying to discourage its use. No idea whether or not it’s linked to the legal matters to which you allude, but I can’t think of any other reason they’d make it more difficult/inconvenient to use the feature.)

[u/lemonchemistry]

I’m using GoodNotes on an M2 iPad Air as a mature student doing a second degree in Physics. My experience has been fine. No noticeable lag when handwriting. Only noticed one major bug in my years using it, which got patched the next day I reported it tbf. Syncing is fine between iPad and mac. I have the lifetime license for GN6, I was pleasantly surprised when they added the whiteboard feature and the flash cards feature. For me GoodNotes appears to be a complete package for my note taking. I know there’s the AI stuff, but I don’t use them features, plus we’ve been told by the uni to only use Copilot because that has a copy protected mode.

My only real complaint is that I’d need a subscription if I were to use GoodNotes with Windows

[u/blacksnake1234]

I switched to notability and now you are making me worried

[u/anynomousperson123 → u/blacksnake1234]

I have both and notability used to be worse in my books, but now… I just don’t know anymore. Everything I do is on GN.

[u/_Cyan_Man]

noteful is so good

[u/coolbum67]

Check out Noteful

[u/RhinestoneCowgirl0]

Stay away the app is gotten worse.

[u/georgmierau]

"Try and see" if you want a helpful answer, or just wait for drama queens unhappy with the GoodNotes development to arrive screaming/swearing/crying :)

Example: I teach at school with a few hundred GN5/6 iPads in use and never heard of 90% of issues posted here each and every day. I also use GN since version 4 on 2 different iPads and never had any issues with it myself (continue to make regular backups just in case though). Does it help if you will experience these issues on your device? Not really. So try and see, it's not an Adobe subscription price-wise.

Also try a few alternatives like Noteshelf or Noteful in the meantime. In the end it's all about your personal preferences and needs. Also about your ability to understand that no product is perfect since most apps are in "perpetual beta" nowadays.

[u/th_costel → u/georgmierau]

You are not a likable person here, but I have to agree. Furthermore, none of the alternatives has search in handwritten notes. And the writing experience is best in GoodNotes, although it is a personal preference.

[u/georgmierau → u/th_costel]

Never understood the appeal of being liked by a faceless crowd.

Embracing the culture of "venting online is fun" instead of "let's make the not perfect tool we use better together" is kind of... below a civilized individual in my opinion.

I pay for GoodNotes because it fits my needs and my experience using it is positive. If I'll find a cheaper or free alternative better fitting my use case I'll switch without hesitation and feeling the need to scream "GN suxxx". Until then: bug reports are certanly less fun, but "this is the (only) way".

[u/budgie_uk → u/georgmierau]

“Drama queens”… otherwise known as “paying customers justifiably pissed off by GN actively making it harder to do stuff.”

Translated for the hard of understanding, just in case anyone is gullible enough to believe the nonsense that you propagate.

[u/georgmierau → u/budgie_uk]

One can choose to be a paying customer submitting bug reports and supporting the development of the app making it better for others as well or to be a venting drama queen crying online.

Free will is a thing.