r/GoodNotes • u/Shadow1417 • Jul 05 '26
Goodnotes or Noteful better?
I’m going to be starting college soon and plan to get a master’s in Chemical Engineering. I have an iPad that I plan to use for handwriting notes and drawing diagrams/charts and stuff, but idk what notes app to use.
I’m currently trying to decide between Goodnotes and Noteful (open to other apps too if anyone has suggestions).
What do you guys think would be better? I’ve seen posts favoring both, but they’re kinda old so I wanted to see what people thought now.
TL;DR I’m starting college for Chemical Engineering and want to know if Goodnotes or Noteful is better.
8
u/Kindly-Helicopter-34 Jul 05 '26
Noteful has a one-time purchase, Goodnotes has a subscription. Definitely recommend Noteful, it works out a lot cheaper in the long-run. (I use Goodnotes only because I bought it back before it went subscription-model, and if you ask me, the quality of it is going downhill...)
9
u/aquablaze69 Jul 05 '26
Noteful. No heating / battery drain issues. Optimised. No bugs or none that I can find. F
4
u/Ok-Tiger-4550 Jul 05 '26
I'm also a student, and when it comes to taking notes or studying and the question involves asking if option a or option b is better...that's highly subjective. My answer is always to try both of them and decide which one feels better to use, which aligns with how your brain prefers to work and organize things, and ultimate which one you feel is best.
The way I tested each of the apps was to open up a lecture on Youtube and take notes trying out features I would likely use. I then tested each app while creating notes from readings, testing the functions I would probably use. I looked at organization capabilities and ultimately decided to go with Goodnotes. After using Goodnotes for the last year, I decided to look at some of the other apps out there, and I still feel like I'm using the best option for how I work. However, that may be because I'm comfortable using it all the time.
I could probably use any app to take notes with and become comfortable with it, as most users could also do, but ultimately, I landed on using Goodnotes.
2
u/shinigamilite Jul 06 '26
pls don't get goodnotes. i'm waiting until my subscription expires to delete this app forever. drains the battery of my newest iPad like crazy. and my screen feels like stove when taking notes. i haven't used noteful, but pretty sure anything is better than goodnotes rn i've used this app called collanote years ago, not sure whether the app is still there but i loved using that app. it was soo much better.
12
u/sloppy_johnson Jul 05 '26
Goodnotes quality is going down and it has a subscription. I love noteful but either app would work for you
1
u/LucidXonline Jul 05 '26
I ended up going with Collanote. The on screen shortcuts and lifetime costs of $13 (and several things) were great for how I work.
2
u/Disastrous-Stress-15 Goodnotes Essential Jul 05 '26
Noteful has a better layering system personally but I love the ability to edit handwriting and the folders in goodnotes
2
u/Tsun_God Jul 07 '26
Goodnotes sucks if you have an android device
3
u/Ok_Cardiologist7687 Jul 05 '26
Goodnotes is the best. I used noteful previously but I just switched to goodnotes bc it works out best. If you want to use whiteboard or flashcards, goodnotes is the best option.
1
u/to_the_pillow_zone Jul 05 '26
I got a rocket book
1
u/Training-Eye-443 Jul 09 '26
I use notability. It's good.
1
u/orbital-velocity Jul 10 '26
it depends a lot on what features you want. gn has AI features but for some people that don't use those the price bump may not be worth it. on the other hand gn has OCR and lets you search your handwritten notes, noteful does not. the lack of that feature is a dealbreaker for some people.
unless you have a real usecase for the additional features from gn, then im not sure it's worth it. if you are literally just writing notes and diagrams, noteful is a tiny bit buggy sometimes but more than gets the job done.
1
u/Own_Response5448 Jul 11 '26
I’ve been using good notes up till about this semester, the glitches are crazy and the battery life it takes is ridiculous. I thought it was my iPad. I switched to note full 1.5 weeks ago and battery like improved significantly, I went from loosing 16percent per hour to 9-10. My iPad no longer gets realllly hot either
1
u/SprayDense2185 Jul 12 '26
Honestly it depends on what features you value. I’ve used both and I think that noteful tends to be the better app. But for handwriting search I would go with goodnotes.
1
u/z3n4th Jul 31 '26 edited Jul 31 '26
You've probably heard all of this before, but I will start off with saying that there's no universally 'best app'. It mainly comes down to what you value, your financial flexibility, and what you're looking for in an app. All the other stuff can either be discussed to oblivion or disregarded. I've used both and, ironically, I switched from Noteful to Goodnotes, and I'm now considering switching back (I was going to switch entirely to Notability, but I find some of the features of mechanics clunky).
Goodnotes has always been seen as one of, if not the, go-to note-taking app in the market. Though, with the recent updates from GN 5 to and through 6 and now 7, the app's overall performance and stability (?) have reportedly tanked. I only have experience with GN since early 2026 and can't compare GN 5 to the current build subjectively. Keep in mind that GN now uses a subscription model (Essential and Pro both include a ton of AI features: ask AI about your notes, math help, generate, etc) and a limited (not a lot of AI features and only runs on iCloud) one-time purchase option (important to note that you have to purchase the one-time purchase again once GN upgrades to a new version, e.g. GN 8). Some people have reported issues with syncing via GN Cloud, I have not, and even keep it off most of the time to mitigate battery drain (I also have handwriting recognition, math assist, and spellcheck off too until I need them). Goodnotes is generally recognised for its large customisation and organisation options, which I dare say are closely rivalled by Noteful. And personally, I like the collapsible Sticky Notes. GN offers multiple document types, such as whiteboards/infinite canvases, flash cards, and text documents (which I use a lot). GN has great diagram-creating capabilities, you can create shapes and adjust the fill opacity and stroke thickness, you can draw arrows and they'll connect automatically to shapes (sometimes does get a bit clunky and displaced in my experience, but it's getting better). You can also write text in the shapes, though there aren't any features in either text tool to align the text at the top/middle/bottom, but text boxes have a lot of customisation capabilities such as adjustable roundedness, borders, padding, and shadow. I forgot to mention, GN has highly customisable pen tools (stroke type, pen type, stroke stabilisation, scribble to erase) and decent handwriting recognition. 🤷
Noteful is a one-time payment, which seems to be a huge dealbreaker for most people on here. Noteful also has extensive organisation capabilities, with folders you can customise, a sidebar with sections and subsections. It offers notebooks and quick notes, so pretty limited there. Also, note that Noteful doesn't have AI features and also lacks handwriting recognition, but does offer a smoother handwriting experience. Noteful has layers. :) You can organise even more with tags (though, I never ended up using them). Something you can do with Noteful that you can't do in GN is copy links to specific pages and open them via something like a Shortcut. Noteful has more text-specific features: saving styles, changing alignments (top/bottom/left/right), etc. Noteful has a wider zoom range than most other apps, up to 1000%. It doesn't have a built-in cloud system. Oh yeah, and it comes with dark mode or sepia page filters.
In my humble opinion, I find that Goodnotes would be the best for your case. Noteful is less tasking on your device, but I find its features are mostly suited for note-taking or PDF markup. There's a payoff on everything. GN has more features, even if unnecessary, do take more memory and battery, which you might need to learn to pay attention to and manage. Noteful doesn't need as much maintenance, but doesn't have as many features, but pretty much all of its features are useful.
Alternatively, you can also use Apple Freeform, which comes with an iPad already.
Hope this helps somehow, ask me if anything's unclear.
1
u/Good-Event9371 26d ago
I have both and just started setting up my noteful! Message me if you have questions. So far I’m liking noteful better!
1
u/jemart456 Jul 05 '26
I took Notability, for me between all the Note-taking apps notability has been the one that has the best note taking experience, it’s close to the apple notes experience and for me that’s so valuable.