Comparison

Goodnotes vs Craft

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Goodnotes

Capture ideas, enhance productivity, and unlock insights with advanced AI features. This app offers tools for professionals, students, and creatives, including infinite whiteboards, AI-powered transcription and summarization, and customizable digital notebooks.

Highlights
  • AI-powered transcription and summarization
  • Infinite whiteboard canvas
  • Digital notebooks with customizable templates
  • Study Sets for flashcards
  • Presentation mode with laser pointer
  • Real-time collaboration
Features
Read full description

Goodnotes has always been the place to capture your ideas — from quick notes to big plans. Now, it goes further. With powerful AI and new ways to capture information, Goodnotes helps you connect the dots, unlock insights, and turn ideas into action. *Existing Goodnotes 5 users can continue to use Goodnotes 5 indefinitely or upgrade to the new Goodnotes. Either way, your notes are safe!* For professionals: Increase productivity at work ■ Whiteboard + Goodnotes AI: Brainstorm, mind-map, and diagram freely on an infinite canvas that grows with your ideas. Enhanced diagramming tools and real-time collaboration make it easy for teams to workshop & ideate together, while Goodnotes AI helps you capture and organize key takeaways instantly. ■ Goodnotes AI Audio & Meetings: Stay fully present in every conversation while Goodnotes does the work for you. AI-powered transcription and live summarization automatically capture discussions and turns them into clear meeting minutes. After the meeting, merge transcripts with your own handwritten or typed notes to create polished, shareable documents in seconds. ■ Text Documents + AI: Create documents that think with you. Enjoy a superior typing experience with rich inline blocks, build on ideas with external insights, and collaborate seamlessly with teammates. With AI-powered summarization, automated note generation, and transcript support, turn rough notes and meetings into finished content faster than ever. ■ Present your notes, slides, and content directly from Goodnotes when you connect your device via AirPlay or HDMI to an external screen. ■ Use Laser Pointer to guide your audience's attention during your presentation. ■ Export your handwritten and typed notes to email, print, or share them anywhere as PDFs. ■ Send a link to your notebooks to work on the same notes. ■ Import documents by emailing them to your custom Goodnotes email. For students: Ace your exams with ease ■ Record audio notes that are magically synced to your iPhone or iPad exact moment you write: perfect for lectures, seminars, and presentations. ■ Take handwritten notes that stay fully searchable: instantly find any word across every class notebook, even mid-lecture. ■ Study and practice straight from your notes with study Sets: flashcards built on active recall and spaced repetition. ■ Use AI to summarize, shorten, change the tone of your words, and turn messy handwritten or typed student notes into polished, structured study material. For planners and journalers: Let your creativity flow ■ Plan your week, month, or year on your iPhone/ iPad with built-in and importable planner templates, fully customizable to match how you plan. ■ Keep a daily journal alongside your planner. Combine handwriting, typed reflections, photos, and stickers on the same page. ■ Use Goodnotes AI to summarize a week's worth of journal entries on your iPhone or iPad into key themes and takeaways. ■ Customize the size and color of your paper templates to create the planner or journal you want. ■ Add, create, or import stickers, stamps, washi tapes, images, and more on your iPad. Digital notebooks: unlimited notebooks for the price of a single physical one ■ Combine handwriting and typed text on one page, alongside images, stickers, diagrams, and doodles. ■ Create digital notebooks, planners, and journals with customizable paper templates, including Blank Paper, Ruled Paper, Cornell Paper, Checklists, Planners, and more. ■ Navigate long documents with ease. PDF tables of contents are automatically imported, or create custom outlines yourself. ■ Back up all your handwritten and typed notes to Google Drive, Dropbox, or OneDrive, and use iCloud to sync across iPad, iPhone, and Mac — so your notes are always safe. ■ Edit your handwriting by resizing it, changing the text color, or moving it to another spot on the page. Privacy Policy: https://www.goodnotes.com/privacy-policy Terms and Conditions: https://www.goodnotes.com/terms-and-conditions

About

Craft

This app helps you organize your thoughts, manage tasks, and boost productivity with an AI assistant. Create structured documents, plan your day, and connect with other tools for a seamless workflow across all your devices.

Highlights
  • AI Assistant for research and writing
  • Structured document creation
  • Native task management system
  • Daily notes and calendar view
  • Offline access and sync
  • Integrations with other tools
Features
Read full description

Unleash your creativity and take control of your plans with Craft, a productivity app that transforms how you write, organize, and get things done. Create structured documents, manage tasks, organize your knowledge with Collections, and chat about it all with the AI Assistant. With seamless sync across iPhone, iPad, Mac, and the web, your workspace is always ready, online or offline. WRITE ANYWHERE, ANYTIME Your best ideas don’t wait for an internet connection. Work seamlessly offline with full access to all features, then let your changes sync automatically when you reconnect. Whether you’re on iPhone, iPad, or Mac, Craft keeps your writing experience consistent and powerful. AI ASSISTANT IS THERE TO HELP For seamless research, text editing, or searching across your entire knowledge base, Craft’s AI Assistant keeps you in flow on every device you use Craft on. Powered by advanced large language models, it finds any note, answers questions based on your content, and helps you stay on top of your knowledge without making you maintain a strict organizational system. BUILT-IN TASK MANAGEMENT Turn your ideas into action with our native Tasks system. Capture tasks as they emerge in your notes, manage them in a dedicated Inbox, and access them from any page with the Assistant’s help. Set target dates, due dates, and reminders to stay on track. With a unified tasks view, it’s the perfect balance between AI-powered fluidity and a dedicated, always-available space. STAY ON TOP OF YOUR DAY Make daily planning effortless with Daily Notes. Capture quick thoughts, plan your schedule, track tasks, or maintain your personal journal, all in one dedicated space. Switch to the calendar view to visualize your progress, reflect on your week, and understand how your days are shaping up. CONNECT YOUR DOCS TO OTHER TOOLS Turn Craft into the home for your whole workflow. Connect your documents to popular AI chat tools and productivity apps using deep integrations and APIs. Save conversations into Craft, pull in tasks, events, or other content from your existing tools, or even use your Craft documents as a CMS for powering a blog or website. EVERYTHING YOU NEED - Available on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and the web - Markdown and keyboard shortcuts - Link sharing and web publishing - Version history - Fast, reliable sync - Advanced integrations and API support - AI-powered Assistant - Incredible customer support WHAT’S NEW Craft Assistant: your smart partner to brainstorm, research, and write. It can help you find your notes across your space, rewrite and summarize documents, all while keeping you in the flow. MCP & API: connect Craft to AI models and other tools in your productivity stack, turning it into an organizational layer and live memory. Whiteboards: turn thoughts into visuals with a spacious canvas for sketching ideas, mapping projects, and collaborating creatively. QUESTIONS? Contact us on X at @craftdocs or email feedback@craft.do SUBSCRIPTION DETAILS If you purchase a Craft subscription, you’ll be charged via the payment method associated with your Apple ID. Your account will be charged for renewal within 24 hours of the end of the current period. You can turn off auto-renewal at any time in your account settings on the App Store. Craft subscriptions are available as one-month and 12-month packages. Prices may vary depending on country and are subject to change without notice. Current subscriptions cannot be canceled during the active subscription period. If you don’t choose to purchase a Craft subscription, you can continue using Craft for free. Terms of service: https://www.craft.do/terms Privacy policy: https://www.craft.do/privacy

Screenshots

Goodnotes4 screens
Craft4 screens

Verdict

The call

Goodnotes and Craft both sit at 4.7 stars, but that hides the real split: 85% of Craft's written reviews are positive against 34% of Goodnotes's. Goodnotes's advantage is ratings volume (455K vs 6.6K) and chart position (#85 vs unranked). On price, rating, update cadence and ads there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Goodnotes sells 16 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month and Craft sells 9 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for Goodnotes against 4.8 for Craft. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Goodnotes has 455K ratings behind it against 6.6K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 34% of Goodnotes's written reviews are positive against 85% of Craft's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Goodnotes ships an update weekly, Craft every 10 days. Both last shipped on September 24, 2026.

Scorecard3 real differences · 8 level
Goodnotes versus Craft: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterGoodnotesCraft
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (455K ratings)4.8 (6.6K ratings) — better
Positive reviews33.6% of reviews84.7% of reviews — better
Number of ratings455K — better6.6K
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 10 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank#85 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, MaciPhone, iPad, Mac, Vision Pro — better
Requires iOS18.617.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size794 MB314 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperGoodnotes LimitedCraft Docs Limited

Customer experience

Goodnotes

All ratings454,853 ratings
Positive93.4%
Neutral1.9%
Negative4.7%
Written reviews6,458 reviews
Positive33.6%
Neutral11.3%
Negative55.0%

Craft

All ratings6,610 ratings
Positive97.1%
Neutral1.0%
Negative1.9%
Written reviews1,631 reviews
Positive84.7%
Neutral6.1%
Negative9.2%

User reviews

Goodnotes

From 455K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Excellent note-taking experience
  • 👍 Intuitive and user-friendly interface
  • 🚀 Smooth writing with Apple Pencil
  • 📁 Powerful organization with folders and notebooks
  • 🖼️ Ability to annotate PDFs and documents

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Glitches and crashes
  • 🔍 Syncing and iCloud issues
  • 🔍 Lack of flexibility with text input
  • 🔍 Limited eraser and highlighting options
  • 🔍 Subpar performance on Mac app

Craft

From 6.6K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Absolutely amazing
  • 👍 Beautiful, clean, simple, increasingly powerful
  • 👍 Fantastic Essential App
  • 👍 Intuitive and easy to use
  • 👍 Seamless sync between devices

Room to improve

  • 💰 Expensive subscription
  • 🐛 Crashes after recent update
  • 🔍 Lack of customization options (e.g. font size)
  • 🔍 Inconsistent and confusing UI conventions
  • 🔍 Lack of basic features like tags and tables

Bugs and requests

Goodnotes

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Text box issues - unable to edit, resize, or move properly
  • Handwriting recognition problems, especially with cursive
  • Unreliable scrolling and page navigation
  • Inconsistent behavior when using the zoom feature

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add bullet point and formatting options for typed text
  • Implement a full-screen writing mode
  • Improve the straight line and shape tools
  • Integrate audio recording and synchronization
  • Allow more customization of the toolbar and interface

Craft

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Crashes when using voice control dictation
  • Inconsistent behavior when rearranging notes
  • Exporting to PDF creates blank first page

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add support for tables and columns
  • Implement tagging system for better organization
  • Improve text editing and formatting options
  • Integrate with more third-party apps and services
  • Add graph view for visualizing note connections

In-app purchases

16 purchases

Goodnotes

Subscriptions5
  • AI Pass (Monthly)7 Days trial$9.991 Month
  • Goodnotes 6 (1 Year)1 Year trial$9.991 Year
  • Essential (Yearly)7 Days trial$11.991 Year
Show 2 more
  • Essential (Yearly)1 Year trial2 variants$11.991 Year
  • Goodnotes Pro (Yearly)7 Days trial$35.991 Year
One-time11
  • Bunny Oasis StickersFree
  • Medicine-Academia Sticker SheeFree
  • Goodnotes 6 Free TrialFree
Show 8 more
  • Marketplace Content$1.99
  • Marketplace Content$6.99
  • Marketplace Content$8.99
  • GoodNotes 5 Unlock$9.99
  • Marketplace Content$9.99
  • Marketplace Content$10.99
  • Goodnotes 6 One-Time Payment$28.99
  • Special Edition$35.99
9 purchases

Craft

Subscriptions9
  • Plus Monthly Subscription1 Month trial$9.991 Month
  • Legacy - Monthly Subscription$10.991 Month
  • Family Monthly Subscription1 Month trial$17.991 Month
Show 6 more
  • Team Monthly Subscription$59.991 Month
  • Plus Annual Subscription1 Year trial$95.991 Year
  • Legacy - Annual Subscription$99.991 Year
  • Family Annual Subscription1 Year trial$179.991 Year
  • Business Monthly Subscription2 variants$299.001 Month
  • Team Annual Subscription$599.001 Year

Questions

Is Goodnotes free?
Goodnotes is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Craft free?
Craft is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Goodnotes or Craft?
Craft is rated higher. Goodnotes averages 4.7 out of 5 from 455K ratings, while Craft averages 4.8 from 6.6K ratings.
Do Goodnotes or Craft have ads?
Neither Goodnotes nor Craft shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Goodnotes or Craft?
Goodnotes ships an update weekly, and Craft every 10 days. Most recently, Goodnotes was updated on September 24, 2026 and Craft on September 24, 2026.

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