8.4
SpotScore
GoodNotes Review: Is It The Right Note Taking Software For Your Team?
Best for SMB teams · Mid-market · Enterprise
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Starts from $7.99, also offers free forever plan
Overview
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Features
Buyer feedback
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What is GoodNotes?
GoodNotes is the perfect app for taking hand-written notes on your iPad or iPhone. Our team created it to free users from the hassle of taking clear, legible, and reusable notes. It's helped millions of people, and Apple has even featured it in their iPad Pro videos and websites. Make GoodNotes your go-to solution for taking notes - you won't be disappointed.
Best For
Suited for small teams, SMBs, and enterprise
Security & Compliance
Data residency:🇺🇸
Platform
Installed - Mac
Mobile-first — limited web access
GoodNotes Software Demo
GoodNotes was reviewed internally using user feedback, in-house testing, and market research to assess its performance, reliability, and user experience. Learn how we review products and our evaluation process.
Who should consider GoodNotes
- Use cases
- Education and academic note-taking, Creative professionals needing handwritten notes, Personal productivity and organization
- Team types
- Students, Educators and trainers
- Company size
- Small Business, Medium Business
- Workflow style
- Simple and streamlined
- Setup complexity
- Low
Why teams choose GoodNotes
User-friendly interface accessible to all ages and experience levels
Excellent handwriting recognition and search capabilities
Smooth writing experience with extensive customization options
Is GoodNotes right for you?
Best for handwritten note-taking on iPad and iPhone with smooth, customizable writing.
Choose GoodNotes if
- You need an intuitive app optimized for handwritten notes and handwriting recognition.
- You are a student, educator, or creative professional focused on personal productivity.
- You want a simple, streamlined setup without complex integrations or collaboration needs.
Consider alternatives if
- Your team requires advanced collaboration and workflow automation features.
- You need extensive integrations with other enterprise software and app connectors.
What buyers should know before choosing GoodNotes
GoodNotes works best for users who write by hand on tablets and need handwriting-to-text conversion. Before shortlisting, verify that the app supports your specific tablet model and stylus—compatibility varies between iPad, Android, and Windows devices.
The handwriting recognition performs well for cursive and print, but check a demo with your actual writing style, as recognition accuracy depends on consistency and pressure sensitivity of your device. File organization relies on a folder-based system without advanced tagging or full-text search across all notes.
If you need to retrieve notes by keyword across thousands of pages, test this workflow in a trial first. GoodNotes also lacks real-time collaboration—multiple users cannot edit the same note simultaneously.
For team-based note-taking, you'll need to export and share files manually or use a separate collaboration tool. Pricing is a one-time purchase on iOS and Android, but a subscription on Mac and Windows.
Confirm which devices you plan to use before buying, as costs differ by platform. Integration with other apps is limited to basic export formats (PDF, image); if you rely on syncing with Notion, OneNote, or Evernote, GoodNotes does not offer direct two-way sync.
Check whether your existing note library can be imported in a format GoodNotes accepts.
GoodNotes pros and cons
- GoodNotes pros
User-friendly interface accessible to all ages and experience levels
Excellent handwriting recognition and search capabilities
Smooth writing experience with extensive customization options
- GoodNotes cons
Limited marketplace for additional apps and connectors restricts advanced functionality
Feature richness can be overwhelming without sufficient guidance
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GoodNotes reviews and ratings
Buyer sentiment
Users consistently praise GoodNotes for its intuitive interface and excellent handwriting features, though some find the feature set overwhelming and desire more integrations.
What buyers like
- Ease of use
- Handwriting recognition
- Writing smoothness and customization
Common complaints
- Limited integrations
- Complexity for new users
Are you using GoodNotes?
- See if GoodNotes fits your business
- Real pricing — no sales pressure
- A demo or quick answers, your call
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How big is your team?
We tailor recommendations to companies your size.
What are the features of GoodNotes?
File sharing is defined as the act of sharing or providing access to digital information or resources such as documents, multimedia (audio/v…
Real-time collaboration is a software feature that enables multiple users to work together on a project simultaneously, regardless of their…
Templates are pre-designed formats or layouts that are used as a starting point for creating various documents or designs. They serve as a f…
A To-do List is a software feature that helps individuals or teams keep track of tasks and activities that need to be completed. It is a pow…
GoodNotes security and data handling
Key compliance certifications and security features for IT and security teams evaluating GoodNotes.
Developer & data
Alternatives to GoodNotes
GoodNotes Support Options
Frequently Asked Questions About GoodNotes
Common questions buyers ask before choosing GoodNotes.
GoodNotes is a Note Taking Software. GoodNotes offers To-do List, File Sharing, Real-time Collaboration and many more functionalities.
GoodNotes is a strong fit if: You need an intuitive app optimized for handwritten notes and handwriting recognition.; You are a student, educator, or creative professional focused on personal productivity.. Consider alternatives if: Your team requires advanced collaboration and workflow automation features.; You need extensive integrations with other enterprise software and app connectors..
Buyers commonly note the following limitations of GoodNotes: Limited marketplace for additional apps and connectors restricts advanced functionality; Feature richness can be overwhelming without sufficient guidance; Lacks enterprise-grade collaboration and integration features.
Some top alternatives to GoodNotes includes Microsoft OneNote, Milanote, Heptabase, Zoho Notebook and Midinote.
GoodNotes offers Freemium, One-time license pricing models
The starting price of GoodNotes is $7.99
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About the reviewer
Rajat Gupta is the founder of Spotsaas. Over the past two years, he has reviewed 2,000+ tools across CRM, HR, AI, and finance — applying hands-on product research and a background in commerce and the CFA program to evaluate software through a business and ROI lens. His goal: help teams make software decisions they won't regret.
Disclaimer: This research has been collated from a variety of authoritative sources. We welcome your feedback at [email protected].