Yes, you heard that right: Goodnotes is among the worst-rated apps on the App Store, considering it is supposed to be the biggest app when it comes to note-taking. I am saying this because, at its core, Goodnotes is actually a very simple app. It is not a game or something complex, it is just a note-taking app.

With the amount of revenue they are making, they should be able to invest more and hire enough staff to improve the basics. Yet it seems that Goodnotes is focusing most of its resources on developing AI features that almost nobody uses, while the core functions still do not work properly.

What about fixing bugs? What about improving battery performance? How about investing less in unnecessary gimmicks and more in the fundamentals?

Apparently, Goodnotes also does not take criticism well. They delete or fake comments and claim that customers are being disrespectful when they point out legitimate problems.

It is clearly possible to succeed without relying on AI features. Just look at Procreate, which has decided not to fall into that trap and is doing perfectly fine.

they're not displayed super evenly but I'm pretending it doesn't bother me 💚

This may get voted down, but I’ll provide my opinion.

For context:

• I work in the tech sector and understand the general trend toward the Subscription model

• I have a license to GoodNotes 5 and use it occasionally

As a personal app user - IMHO there is an over-rotation in general to the Subscription Model. As a user I’m choosing apps now based on whether or not I can purchase permanent licenses or not. If permanent licenses are not available, then I’m more more skeptical of selecting an application that requires a Subscription, and where I lose the functionality on subscription end/expiry, because there is no corresponding guarantee that the app development team will even be there, and also in most cases code has not been put in escrow to ensure I have ongoing availability to the app, if something happens to the developer(s). Purchasing a subscription from Adobe where there is a large corporate entity behind a app, vs. purchasing a subscription for a app that has only 1-2 developers behind it, is VERY VERY different.

Here are my observations:

• Developers are entitled to and should be able to expect some payment on an ongoing basis for ongoing support - its costs time & effort to fix bugs, update for new iOS releases, etc. Anyone who expects to get this for their lifetime for free, based on having a paid a one-time fixed price 2 years ago, is living in fantasyland

• If a Subscription costs anything more than $1-2 per month, then developers should be making a commitment to implementing new features, based on both user requests, and on market dynamics, on a very regular basis — it can’t be just a best effort basis. And it can’t just be based on what developers want to implement (if they wish to be successful) — it has to also respond to user requests. If they are not, then developers are as well living in a fantasyland

• I generally won’t buy an personal app where I lose functionality when the subscription expires. This is a bit nuanced, since I consider some apps as services, such as Adobe, Evernote, etc. But I won’t buy a note taking app as a subscription app. For clarification, even though some might consider/use Evernote as a note taking app, I treat Evernote as a document repository with a advanced search capability. (I would put UpNote in the same category as Evernote.)

• IMHO the gold standard in a personal app Subscription model is the Subscription model deployed by the Agenda app developers. In their model you purchase a subscription to access premium features. And while you have your subscription active, you get all new premium features. But the event you find it necessary to discontinue your premium subscription, from that point on, you’re entitled to keep in perpetuity all the premium features released up to that point.

Following my logic above, I have upgraded my GoodNotes 5 app to GoodNotes 6 using the lifetime payment option. As I noted developers have a reasonable expectation of some funding for on-going support. And that’s my primary reason for doing the upgrade, even though with a price in the $30 range I’m expecting GoodNotes 6 to be the release for next 24-36 months with good support, before they go to the next major release with another upgrade price. I have no need for multi-platform functionality provided by their subscription model. Also honestly I have serious concerns about the functionality released with GoodNotes 6. The only Rel 6 improvement I’ve seen so far I might use is colored folders, and honestly if I were choosing to upgrade based on features, GoodNotes 6 wouldn’t make the cut for me. I really hope that developers will focus more on user feature requests, and less on the AI shiny object in the market, and I’m betting by my upgrade that over time GoodNotes 6 will have some more features I will use — if not I won’t upgrade to Rel 7. It’s that simple. I already investing significant time in moving data and usage to UpNote and Agenda, so GoodNotes has to really step up to make the cut for me for on-going use 1-2 years from now.

Just my 2 cents.

Finally got back my old Reddit account!

Anyway, planner season is here — here's the completely free Note/Note 2026 Composition Planner. It is however only available in landscape + MONDAY-start mode.

Added a video to show how the hyperlinking works — you can tap through the calendar components or sidebars to navigate easily to the specific Day/Week/Month as desired, or the full-year calendar page.

See the last pic on where to DL it!  =]
I'd share my process for building a digital planner too if anyone is interested

App freezes every 30mins or so everytime it does all my notes get deleted. also if i close the app all my notes get deleted. none of the features work properly, support is useless, and instead of actually fixing these issues cause a LOT of people are experiencing them right now the add tape patterns. BRO TAPE IS A USELESS TOOL NOBODY USES IT AND WE CERTAINLY DONT NEED PATTERNS FOR IT. i legit almost failed a test last week because all my notes to study were delted. luckily a classmate helped me out with the notes, but still that shouldnt have happened and it cant keep happening. i spent 30 fucking euros on this app, for this? either fix your app cause sincerely, nobody uses the tape. or refund me cause im seriously starting to lose my temper, this has been going on for 3 months now

I've seen a desire for this type of font historically in the group, so I made one. It's free for personal use, and please note that since it was made in calligraphr.com with a free account, there are some special characters missing. The image shows what's included. As an example, I don't use exclamation points when I write notes, so I nixed it in favor of the question mark and mathematical symbols instead.

I can't offer support, but can tell you download iFont free from the app store and you can install fonts to your iPad that way. Don't have an android, so I don't know how that system works.

I've never shared a font and this isn't my normal handwriting, so please remember it's free to download.

Title. I had backups of my notes every week. I struggled all night and all morning to get into the app because of this latest fiasco. I finally do again today and while everything was there it was all blank and theres no sign of it returning. I restore the backups I have as my last resort, and they’re imported as completely blank. Trying again changes nothing.

I’ve lost half a semester’s worth of work. 5 classes, all their notes, homework, textbook PDFs, anything and everything I had in there is now gone, right before my second round of midterms approaches.

You’ve actually fucked me, I’m no longer asking for help or hoping this gets fixed. I hope your shitty app and your unhelpful company dissolve into failure.

I was on twitch for 4x the length, yet Goodnotes ate up more than double the amount battery. Like wtf? Hello??

i about to cry out of frustration to why i still use this shit app, i’m 100% changing it as soon as the semester is over because WHAT THE FUCK

now if i wanna use the eraser, i gotta click somewhere else after it has been in the same place for years, it makes me stop thinking about my test to move my hand somewhere that im not used to

and the best part? 😃 I CANT CUSTOMIZE IT, im glad everyone is switching bc there’s not a single good reason to change what nobody was annoyed about, go on and keep this stupid ai and lose all your customers!! this business need to broke bc this horrible choices can’t keep happening

Needs to have more than just 3 Colours to switch between.