# Noteful: Notes & PDF Markup — user reviews > 1,131 indexed App Store user reviews of Noteful by Noteful Technologies Ltd, rated 4.80/5 from 22,981 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/noteful-notes-and-pdf-markup/id1587904334/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/noteful-notes-and-pdf-markup/id1587904334.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 19,799 · 4★ 1,880 · 3★ 588 · 2★ 265 · 1★ 449 ## What do users think of Noteful? Overall sentiment: positive **Pros** - 🚀 Smooth writing experience - 👍 Intuitive and easy to use - 💡 Layers feature - 👍 Affordable one-time purchase - 🚀 Efficient and lightweight - 👍 Great organization with tags and folders - 👍 Customizable UI **Cons** - 🐛 Occasional crashes or freezes - 🔍 No handwriting recognition or search - 🔍 Limited text editing options - 🔍 Lack of advanced features like math conversion - 🔍 Exporting PDFs loses some formatting **Commonly reported bugs** - Syncing issues across devices - Lasso tool not working properly with PDFs - Eraser tool not functioning as expected **Most requested features** - Handwriting recognition and search - More text editing options (bullet lists, etc.) - Improved PDF handling and annotations - Custom templates and sticker support - Expanded cloud storage options (Dropbox, OneDrive, etc.) - Customizable pen pressure and smoothing ## Newest reviews (20 of 1,131) ### 4/5 — Very convenient *2026-08-18, version 1.4.39* The app is very good and is very cheap, for 6 dollars you can get everything on the app with no subscription, and the writing is very clean, overall very nice ### 5/5 — Good as **** *2026-08-09, version 1.4.38* Verey F good ### 2/5 — Очень хотела пользоваться *2026-08-07* Но редактировать просто невозможно. Я искала через все источники, как отредактировать. Ничего просто невозможно. Сделал и всё. Без права на ошибку . Я слишком много сделала для того, чтобы пользоваться. Но . Задумка потоясающая и мне всё понравилось. Но невозможность редактировать портит абсолютно всё и всё перечёркивает ### 4/5 — Add to app *2026-08-06, version 1.4.38* Please add the feature handwriting-to-equation converter for accounting students Thanks! ### 4/5 — App is good, but some suggestions *2026-08-05* The stopwatch and the timer UI needs to be redesigned a bit because it is fine, but the issue is when I started the timer becomes way too small I have to squint my eyes to see how much time I have studied and I think in 2026, maybe there should be AI integration into the app at least some basic stuff, not huge thing. Some basic stuff like explain those kind of things, and this was the reason I cut one star on the review. And maybe maybe think about adding Liquid Glass support too because it’s been more than 1 year so ### 3/5 — Русский язык *2026-08-03, version 1.4.38* Добавьте Русский язык ### 5/5 — Great personalizable setup *2026-08-03, version 1.4.38* I used another app for 5 years until it was no longer supported and I was forced to find another way to do my daily note-taking. Noteful offers signicantly greater options to mold this app to the way I think and work. This format works the way grownups work, and have for years with pads and pens. But better. Easy. Intuitive. Like I had my old notepad but on steroids. Thank you, Noteful. ### 5/5 — Great app *2026-08-02, version 1.4.38* Crazy cheap for the lifetime unlimited plan. Creative instruments to use aswell ### 4/5 — Supper good! Just needs a few tweaks *2026-08-01, version 1.4.38* I think the app is good however there are some little tweaks that could make it even better. I think it would be cool if there was a calendar template for the paper options, so you could have a digital planner, and I think it could also be cool if you could have the option to turn your handwriting into fonts. I also appreciate how you guys don’t have any sort of promotion of the usage of Ai! That is the main reason why I use this app because im so sick of every app implementing Ai into the things that don’t even need it…like a note app, so thank you! ### 4/5 — Not bad *2026-07-31, version 1.4.38* It’s veryyy good I loveee it but after a while it charges you too pay :(. Can the owner respond *_* ### 5/5 — Fantastic *2026-07-30, version 1.4.38* I have literally spent a long time trying to find the one app to do most tasks that are a must in note taking and affordable. Only feedback for improvement would be to introduce a pencil brush. ### 4/5 — feature rich notebook app + feature requests *2026-07-29* This app is one of the best out there. It has all the essential features without any unnecessary features, it works beautifully for aesthetic note-taking & the price for pro is extremely reasonable and worth it! There are some things I’d suggest changing to make the experience perfect & worthy of 5 stars. Please allow color picking in addition to the writing tools on the zoom window. I have an iPad Pro 13 inch and reaching all the way at the top to change color when my zoom windup is on the bottom is rather tedious. Perhaps allow us to pick tools from the toolbar to add to the zoom window too, though just colors is what I need! And please allow using the zoom window on full screen mode! Sometimes the toolbar is not necessary to look at for me and takes away from my beautiful notes. Also I’d suggest improving the motion smoothing on the pens. The highest setting sometimes is still too jittery for me. I have to write slow to write nearly. And I suggest adding a better calligraphy pen! The current one is too rounded, and it doesn’t get thick + thin enough to aesthetically write in cursive. My workaround has been downloading a calligraphy font. Lastly, I don’t really like how on vertical scroll mode, the pages separate with a dark grey line. It is not aesthetic to look at and I’d like it to look more seamless like the page is continuous, even though it is a separate page. Maybe make the divider white as well, or bring the pages closer to each other so there is no gap. That is all, thank you for developing an amazing app! I hope you guys take into consideration these issues that will make the app more seamless for me to utilize. ### 4/5 — Review *2026-07-28, version 1.4.38* Very good app ### 5/5 — This App! *2026-07-27, version 1.4.38* Perfect! ### 5/5 — Simple and easy *2026-07-27, version 1.4.38* It’s easy to use and does the most important things well. The program does a good job of staying out of the way and letting me concentrate on my note taking. The layers and linking are useful and work well. I would like diagramming to be developed further as diagrams form a big part of my notes. The value I’ve got from this product far exceeds the very low price! ### 5/5 — By far the best. *2026-07-22, version 1.4.38* This app is perfectly priced, very bloat free, stable with a good backup, and has a variety of features which are actually useful for organizing my work and my notes. I wish the UI were a little less intrusive when inside of a PDF, but my god is that ever preferable to losing notes, lag, crashing, etc from the other apps. ### 5/5 — So goood *2026-07-22, version 1.4.38* U can write and record something there are many options like stickers shape page colour highliter so I rate I 5+ install it now,,,,, ### 5/5 — Good *2026-07-21, version 1.4.38* I really like this app. It’s really effective and useful for me. If you are searching for a good note taking app just to take notes, Noteful is the one! ### 3/5 — highlighter width issue *2026-07-21, version 1.4.38* highest width of highlighter(10) covering portion of line in some pdf but working perfectly in others.tried redownloading the pdfs and the app.no luck. ### 5/5 — Need help *2026-07-21, version 1.4.38* Noteful is not working properly today and cannot translate the language. Would you be able to help me with the translation, please? ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Not working *2026-05-20, version 1.4.36* My app isn´t working I can write but cannot erase with the eraser , I’ve updated the app and my iPad and still nothing. ### 1/5 — Very Happy Noteful User *2026-05-20, version 1.4.36* This is such a good app! I chose it a few years ago when I went back to university for a couple more degrees and am so glad I did! It works well on my iPad, iPhone and MacBook, integrating my files between all my devices. The audio recordings have good sound quality, even in large lecture theatres. It isn’t a battery hog and doesn’t overheat my iPad like many of my classmates and students run into with other notetaking apps. The developer seems to be pretty on top of glitches and adds improvements and new features often. You can’t beat the one-time purchase price for the full version. No other notetaking app I’ve found has the same price point as a Starbucks drink for a permanent license. I do occasionally wish it hand handwriting search, but I can export my files to PDF and then my computer can do that, so for the added cost and memory it would take to include in app, I can live with that minor inconvenience. Same for that the exported PDFs are large files; if I want smaller ones, I just use my computer to decrease the size. It’s such a good app. You won’t regret picking it. ### 1/5 — Bad *2026-05-14, version 1.4.36* Bad costs money and limit ### 1/5 — Saving pdf is not responding *2026-05-09, version 1.4.36* Tried to save an external pdf in noteful pro but it is not working. Too frustrating from noteful ### 1/5 — This app is ugly *2026-04-04, version 1.4.35* I am disappointed. I don’t understand why people rave about this…its not for me. ### 1/5 — Wallahi my notes disappered *2026-04-03, version 1.4.35* I’ve been taking chemistry notes on this app for three months now. Today I messed around with the page colors and my notes randomly disappeared and I don’t think there’s any way to get it back. I even had the lifetime premium membership this is messed up use this app at your own risk unless you wanna be screwed for exams ### 1/5 — John Like *2026-04-03, version 1.4.35* My Brother, Really, Light, break It Stars Donna, It Swing, and I. L. An S. Gaming, I. S.II Justin. ### 1/5 — Basically unusable *2026-03-23, version 1.4.35* Whenever you write on a PDF a little window pops up right on top of what you are writing saying “tap and hold to navigate to a page’s link” which means you can no longer write without getting rid of this window. But, it’s just text I’m annotating - there are no links. So it’s basically unusable ### 1/5 — CALLIGRAPHY pen does NOT WORK *2026-02-24, version 1.4.35* Purchasing pro version was a mistake. I thought that the app had a calligraphy pen but you cannot see any difference between marker, pen or calligraphy. OTHER note taking apps work MUCH MUCH BETTER ### 1/5 — Not *2026-02-15, version 1.4.34* No No No No No No No No No No No No ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Perfect *2026-08-22, version 1.4.39* I don’t write reviews that often unless it’s absolutely horrible or absolutely phenomenal. In this case, this app is FREE and phenomenal. It’s everything I was looking to use for school. I am so impressed with the simple but effective UI and this developer deserves so much praise. I may purchase the full app just to support them. 100/10!! Thank you!! ### 5/5 — Moved from GoodNotes *2026-08-21, version 1.4.39* Still learning but I love the tutorial task list they provide to get you familiar with the app. Finding it easier to use for my digital planning. ### 5/5 — Perfect app *2026-08-20, version 1.4.39* I really love the options this app gives you. I love the little sticky note feature and the marker smoothing. If it could have more marker options and even downloadable presets that’d really up the ante. So excited to use this for yet another year. ### 5/5 — Perfect *2026-08-18, version 1.4.39* Literally perfect in everything ### 5/5 — I switched from Goodnotes. Noteful keeps absolute essentials working flawlessly with no Ai garbage! *2026-08-18, version 1.4.39* After being a Goodnotes user for over 8 years, I have officially switched to Noteful for my digital planning. As someone who has thoroughly tested over 20 different note-taking apps over the years — and spent a long time committed to a "big name" mainstream option — I can confidently say Noteful is the best investment you can make for your iPad. Hands down, the affordable one-time purchase is worth it without a single doubt. What makes Noteful an absolute breath of fresh air is what it doesn’t have. It doesn’t have any of the artificial intelligence junk or marketing garbage that every other iPad note-taking app is aggressively forcing onto users right now. It doesn't overload you with flashy gimmicks that just suck up your time, focus, and energy. Opening those other apps became exhausting because of the sheer bloat. Opening Noteful is just refreshing. It is simple. It is intuitive. It feels natural, and it just feels good. Because the developers aren't wasting energy on crazy bells and whistles no one asked for, they’ve focused all their attention on the tiniest details. Everything just works, all the time. You open a menu, and it looks nice. You use a tool, and it executes perfectly. There is nothing breaking, nothing weird, and nothing off-putting. For the first time in years, I finally feel settled in an iPad note-taking app that I can actually trust. It keeps the basics incredibly clean, robust, and essential. If you want a distraction-free workspace that protects your creative energy and just lets you get to work, you have to have this on your iPad. ### 5/5 — Shout out to the one-time purchase *2026-08-17, version 1.4.38* Everything you need very easy to use. I only wish there were options for customization like different app icon styles and more modern UI ### 5/5 — Perfect *2026-08-17, version 1.4.38* Absolutely perfect app for covering all the basics, and love that it’s one time purchase. Try the base app for a few days, but you’ll love this app and it’s worth it. ### 5/5 — Great app for college *2026-08-16, version 1.4.39* I love taking notes in here. I can download the PDFs and slides to review material. You can record audio and add pictures. ### 5/5 — Great App!!! But some caveats… *2026-08-14, version 1.4.38* I really like the app and it’s simple yet so useful! I don’t really write reviews cause I don’t ever think its worth my few minutes of thought but! I think this! Although i bought the Noteful Pro, it really wish there was a change/update to how you can word search more precisely and accurately or the lasso tool. And a bit more features to the pro other than unlimited notes and minor adjustments. Other than that great! ### 5/5 — universidad *2026-08-09, version 1.4.38* Ha sido una de las mejores aplicaciones que eh usado para la universidad --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-30.*