Comparison

Goodnotes vs Handwriting Book

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

Handwriting Book

This app offers an infinite canvas for note-taking and creative work. It features natural writing, shape and text insertion, document scanning, and easy sharing options. Organize your notes with folders and tags, and sync across devices.

Highlights
  • Infinite canvas
  • Natural writing experience
  • Insert text, shapes, and images
  • Built-in document scanner
  • Folder and tag organization
  • Multi-device synchronization
  • Export to PDF and image
Features
Read full description

Handwriting Book is an efficient app with infinite canvas. Natural and smooth writing, infinitely enlarged canvas, and supports the insertion of various geometric figures, texts, and pictures, whether it is recording class notes, meeting minutes, or any creative ideas, you can do it all easily. 【Fluent writing】 - Infinitely expand the enlarged canvas - Drag, zoom in and out at will, zoom to origin or zoom to fit canvas with one click - Real brushstrokes, natural and smooth writing - Can be set to use only Apple Pencil to avoid accidental touch - One-click switching between browsing and editing modes - Undo and redo 【Canvas settings】 - You can set canvas style, grid, horizontal line, vertical line, dot, etc. - You can set the color of the guide line or turn off the guide line - You can set canvas background 【Quick Insert】 - Insert text anywhere, support custom font size, font, font color, background color - Built-in document scanner, scan textbooks, contracts and other paper documents, automatically identify text content - Supports insertion of multiple geometric shapes, rectangle, circle, line, arrow, triangle, star, cylinder, cube, sine cosine, cone, coordinate system. At the same time, the inserted shapes can be customized with various parameters and saved as default properties. - Support for inserting photos in albums 【Note management】 - Unlimited note creation - Support for creating folders and classifying documents - Tag notes to find them faster - With a recently deleted folder, notes are no longer afraid of accidentally deleted - Directly choose to create notes on your local device or iCloud Drive - Copy, move, share notes with one click 【Easy Sharing】 - One-click sharing - One-click export (support image, PDF, drafts format) 【Multi-device synchronization】 - iCloud cloud storage, important data will never disappear - iPhone, iPad multi-device synchronization Subscription instructions: 1. Subscription service: We offer annual subscription 2. Subscription price: The subscription price depends on the selected subscription package, and the actual price shall prevail 3. Automatic renewal: Subscription will automatically renew unless you turn off automatic renewal at least 24 hours before the end of the current subscription period Privacy Policy: https://icreamapp.home.blog/2022/10/08/privacy-policy-15/ Terms of Use: https://icreamapp.home.blog/2022/10/08/term-of-use/ If you have any questions or suggestions about our app, please e-mail lilliancream@163.com.We are looking forward to your feedbacks.

Screenshots

Goodnotes4 screens
Handwriting Book4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Goodnotes at 4.7 against Handwriting Book's 3.6. Goodnotes also leads on review sentiment (34% vs 0%) and ratings volume (455K vs 7). Handwriting Book's advantage is iOS requirement (15.0 vs 18.6). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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 Handwriting Book sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $4.49 per year. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Goodnotes holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 3.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Goodnotes has 455K ratings behind it against 7, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 34% of Goodnotes's written reviews are positive against 0% of Handwriting Book's.

Scorecard5 real differences · 6 level
Goodnotes versus Handwriting Book: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterGoodnotesHandwriting Book
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (455K ratings) — better3.6 (7 ratings)
Positive reviews33.6% of reviews — better0.0% of reviews
Number of ratings455K — better7
Update frequencyWeekly—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFreemium
Best chart rank#85 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, MaciPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS18.615.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size794 MB9 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperGoodnotes Limited婧 李

Customer experience

Goodnotes

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

Handwriting Book

All ratings7 ratings
Positive42.9%
Neutral42.9%
Negative14.3%
Written reviews4 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral25.0%
Negative75.0%

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

Handwriting Book

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

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
1 purchases

Handwriting Book

Subscriptions1
  • Annual subscription$4.491 Year

Questions

Is Goodnotes free?
Goodnotes is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Handwriting Book free?
Handwriting Book is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Goodnotes or Handwriting Book?
Goodnotes is rated higher. Goodnotes averages 4.7 out of 5 from 455K ratings, while Handwriting Book averages 3.6 from 7 ratings.
Do Goodnotes or Handwriting Book have ads?
Neither Goodnotes nor Handwriting Book shows ads.

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