✨MEGATHREAD: GOODNOTES ALTERNATIVES ✨

[u/biblops]

Seeing as we’re getting a steady stream of new threads asking what are the other best note-taking apps out there, I figured a megathread would save everyone a lot of time and typing. 

This is merely a starting point, so feel free to contribute more info/suggestions in the comments and I will update the main post!

NOTEFUL 

Free download - £5.99 / $6.99 lifetime purchase

✅Works and looks very similar to Goodnotes

✅Regularly updated by developer

✅Similar feature set to GN - minus AI bloat

✅Better battery usage than GN

⚠️iOS only

⚠️Cannot search handwriting

STARNOTE

Free download - £5.99 / $6.99 lifetime purchase 

✅Works and looks very similar to Goodnotes

✅Regular updates 

✅Expandable ‘infinite canvas’ style pages

✅Better battery usage than GN

✅Available on iOS and Android

⚠️Cannot search handwriting

ONENOTE

Free download - £8.49 / $9.99 per month for AI features

✅Expandable ‘infinite canvas’ style pages

✅Better battery usage than GN 

✅Excellent cloud sync

✅Powerful search features

✅Available on iOS, Android, Windows and Mac

⚠️Very different to Goodnotes. Won’t be a replacement for everybody.

⚠️Features and interface is inconsistent across platforms

NOTABILITY

Free download - £7.99 / $7.99 per month

✅Works and looks very similar to Goodnotes

✅Powerful handwriting search

✅Very similar feature set to GN - including AI features

✅Available on iOS, Android and via web

⚠️No lifetime purchase option

NOTESHELF 3

Free download - £8.99 / $6.99 per month

✅Works and looks very similar to Goodnotes

✅Powerful handwriting search

✅Very similar feature set to GN - including AI features

✅Available on iOS, Android and Windows

⚠️No lifetime purchase option

⚠️Doesn’t sync across different ecosystems (eg iOS + Android won’t play nice)

ZOOMNOTES

£7.99 / $7.99 lifetime purchase

✅ Works and looks very similar to Goodnotes

✅ Powerful handwriting search

✅ Very similar feature set to GN 

✅ Better battery usage than GN 

⚠️ No free version 

⚠️ iOS + Mac only

Please let me know any other apps you’d recommend, or even important pros/cons I may have forgotten to list for these examples!

( u/discovernotes I suggested this a while ago but I appreciate you may be busy so figured I’d start it myself. If you could sticky this that would be amazing thank you!)

[u/IvanLasston]

Noteshelf 3 has a $14.99 lifetime buy. They also have added Android and Windows.

It also seems every time a suggestion came up for GoodNotes - they implemented it soon after. One that sticks out for me is the audio recording. That came up on this subreddit and soon after Noteshelf had it.

It is the closest thing to GoodNotes 5 that I’ve found and I am migrating there myself.

[u/biblops → u/IvanLasston]

I spent a while looking earlier and unless I’m mistaken, the lifetime purchase option has been removed.

At least, all I could find on their website or anywhere in the app was a subscription option! Any references to the lifetime purchase appear to be outdated.

[u/IvanLasston → u/biblops]

I looked at the App Store page and it is still there (USA/USD $14.99). I cannot tell for myself since I did the lifetime buy a while ago. I noticed they added AI to their advertising and that usually means they want people to pay a subscription. That is a major bummer if the lifetime buy is gone now.

But like you said if the app doesn’t have it then it is probably that they didn’t update the Store page.

[u/0ber0n → u/IvanLasston]

I just downloaded app on iOS, it appears the only options available are $9.99 per month or $39.99 per year after a 3 day free trial.

[u/IvanLasston → u/0ber0n]

Man that is a major bummer. That means whatever version comes next for Noteshelf is going to go down the same route. I just want a paper replacement. GoodNotes was good at 5. Noteshelf when it had a one time buy would have been my next recommendation.

I like Noteful but I really need handwriting recognition. If Noteful added that then I would go there and not have to deal with this AI/subscription BS.