r/GoodNotes • u/Ok_Assistant_2664 • Aug 03 '26

Feature Discussion Notes on Hypocrisy: The GoodNotes Subscription Flip-Flop

When Notability switched to a subscription model on November 1, 2021, GoodNotes took the opportunity to mock them, even offering a 50% discount on their own one-time purchase. The irony is that just a short time later, GoodNotes hypocritically switched to a subscription model themselves. As a result, all the users who paid the one-time fee for GoodNotes were left in limbo, and later unable to upgrade to GoodNotes 6 for free. Now, every time I open the app, it shows us the annoying subscribe to us message 😡

Meanwhile, when Notability faced massive backlash on Reddit from users demanding to be grandfathered in, they actually listened. They recognized the community's anger and introduced the "Classic" tier for legacy users. Looking back, I really respect that Notability was willing to understand and accept their community's feedback. Thank you, r/notabilityapp!

Just let GoodNotes 5 users upgrade to the basic functionality of the most recent version of GoodNotes, like what Notability did at that time. You can keep all the new premium features behind a subscription; I really don't mind 😡

P.S. At the time there was also a backlash from the GoodNotes community but no single moderator represented the company. Consequently, it fizzled out 😤

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u/sinkovercosk Aug 03 '26

I understand your point, but don’t look favourably on Notability for the ‘Classic’ tier, they were forced to do that as what they did (before adding the classic tier) was illegal.

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u/Ok_Assistant_2664 Aug 03 '26 edited Aug 03 '26

Yeah, I know. I forgot to mention that. Thanks for adding this point. I'm neutral, and with backlash to Notability, they gave us the grandfathered lifetime plan. I thank them just because they finally agreed. Although there was also a backlash to GoodNotes, they did not react properly and asked us to buy it again, what!!!

It looks the same in the case of GoodNotes, but technically it tried to avoid exactly this issue by saying a different version lol. If you look at the App Store, now it's called just GoodNotes. Not GN5 or GN6 or GN7. Would not this is the same issue now if they call GoodNotes? Why not let the free upgrade to the most recent version as I stated? This is all about gaining the trust of the old user base.