Notability vs Corkulous
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Notability
Capture, organize, and enhance your thoughts with a versatile digital notebook. Seamlessly blend handwriting, typing, and multimedia to annotate documents, record lectures, and generate summaries. Ideal for students and professionals seeking to boost productivity and learning.
- Handwritten and typed notes
- PDF and document annotation
- Audio recording and transcription
- AI-powered summaries and quizzes
- Customizable organization
- Cross-device sync
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From your first lecture to your next big meeting, Notability helps you think, learn, and work better. Take handwritten notes, annotate documents, record audio, and stay organized in one place so your ideas are always clear, searchable, and ready when you need them. NEW: NOTABILITY CLASSIC IS BACK Prefer to pay one time for Notability? Our Classic plan is a one-time purchase with no subscription required. FREE DIGITAL NOTES FOR WORK & SCHOOL • Write, type, or sketch with digital ink, highlighters, and text tools. • Mark up anything: PDFs, textbooks, lecture slides, images, and more. • Combine handwriting, typed text, images, diagrams, and sketches on the same page. • Stay organized with customizable folders and subjects that grow with you. FOR PROFESSIONALS: WORK SMARTER AND SAVE TIME • Mark up documents, capture meetings, organize ideas, and present with confidence. • Import and handwrite on any document: PDFs, DOCs, presentations, reports, and more. • Fill out forms in the office or on a job site. • Combine handwriting, text, photos and documents in one place. • Record calls and meetings to transcribe voice in real-time. Audio is synced to your notes so nothing is missed. • Receive automated meeting notes, takeaways, and summaries. • Search handwriting, transcripts, text, and PDFs to quickly revisit decisions and action items. • Present notes, documents, and ideas in full screen, with a laser pointer to guide attention. • View and edit two notes side-by-side to stay focused and productive. • Share a PDF of your note in one tap. FOR STUDENTS: STUDY SMARTER AND ACE EXAMS • Take handwritten notes digitally or annotate lecture slides or your textbooks. • Record lectures and get instant audio transcripts and real-time summaries in your notes. • Audio recordings are synced to the exact moment you write in a note — perfect for lectures. • Import lecture slides, textbook PDFs, and assignments into organized folders and subjects. • Search across handwriting, typed notes, and transcripts to instantly find content from classes. • Study content from your note with personalized quizzes and flashcards to practice with active recall. • Chat with your notes to review concepts, clarify ideas, and prepare for exams. WORK YOUR WAY • Seamlessly switch between handwriting and typing. • Import files instantly and keep everything connected. • Share notes easily to collaborate or get feedback when needed. • Access your notes across iPad, iPhone, Mac, and the web. • Create beautiful notes using templates from the Notability Gallery. UPGRADE TO A NOTABILITY SUBSCRIPTION Notability is free to use. With an upgraded subscription, you can receive: • Unlimited note-taking • AI-powered productivity and study tools • Handwriting recognition and math conversion • Live Audio transcripts • Auto-backup and iCloud sync Download for free on iPad, iPhone, Mac, and web. Privacy Policy: notability.com/privacy Terms of Service: notability.com/terms
Corkulous
Organize and share your ideas naturally on digital corkboards. Collect notes, photos, links, and tasks, then visually connect them. Supports multiple boards, sketching, and cloud syncing for seamless idea management across devices.
- Digital corkboards for idea collection
- Support for notes, photos, links, and tasks
- Visual connections and grouping of ideas
- Sketch tools with gesture support
- iCloud and Dropbox syncing
- Export and share in multiple formats
- Nested boards and templates
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Corkulous© for Mac OS and iOS is the incredible way to collect, organize, and share your ideas that feels completely natural. If you have a Mac, iPhone. or iPad, you need this app! Corkulous is a multi-purpose app containing boards where you can place notes, labels, photos, contacts, shapes, strings/lines connections, pdf's, link previews and tasks. There are also powerful sketch tools, that can create shapes and lines based on gestures. Group your ideas visually on one board or spread ideas out across multiple boards (sub-boards also supported). Each board has plenty of real estate and resolutions to capture your best ideas and plans. WHAT IS CORKULOUS? Cork Boards, Flow Charts, Idea Board, Photo Albums, Reminder Board, Mind Map, Goal Manager, Planners, Vision Board, To-do list, Exam Study Aid, Lesson Planner, Photo gallery... and more! FEATURES - PDF's, Videos, Link Previews, Emoji, Strings/Lines, Notes, Labels, Photos, Contacts, Tasks, Index Cards, Arrow Text, and over 40 shapes - Sketch tools with shape/line gesture support - Export and share PDF's, PNG, Text, and Corkulous files - iCloud and Dropbox syncing of boards. Share boards with other users on dropbox - The best searching capabilities of any iOS/Mac OS app - Awesome Drag/Drop support. - Dark and Light mode support - Multi window support on iOS/MacOS - Markdown for text formatting - Multiple board resolutions - Pan and zoom boards - Create templates of boards for future use - Nested boards! Go as deep as you can - Biometrics support for locking content - On the Mac, quick access Touch Bar and menu support - On iOS/Mac keyboard shortcuts to fill many tasks SUBSCRIPTION Corkulous subscription is cross platform! You can work on iOS or macOS with the same subscription. Just tap Restore Purchase on any other device. The Corkulous subscription will be charged to your credit card through your iTunes account. Your subscription will automatically renew unless cancelled at least 24-hours before the end of the current period. You can cancel the subscription renewal at any time, and the subscription you purchased will remain active until the end of the current period. Manage your subscriptions on the App Store's Account Settings after purchase (http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4098). FEEDBACK That's right, we LOVE positive feedback! Please be kind in your app reviews, tell others how you use Corkulous, and stay tuned for new and exciting features. Twitter: http://twitter.com/corkulous Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/corkulous Website: http://www.corkulous.com/ Privacy Policy: http://www.corkulous.com/privacypolicy Terms & Conditions: http://www.corkulous.com/terms
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is monetization model: Notability at freemium against Corkulous's subscription. Notability also leads on update cadence (every 6 days vs every 3 months) and ratings volume (458K vs 986). Corkulous's advantage is review sentiment (60% vs 36%) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 18.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support 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
Both are free to download. Notability sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $5.99 per month and Corkulous sells 7 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Notability holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Notability has 458K ratings behind it against 986, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 36% of Notability's written reviews are positive against 60% of Corkulous's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Notability ships an update every 6 days, Corkulous every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 28, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Notability | Corkulous |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (458K ratings) — better | 4.4 (986 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 36.1% of reviews | 60.3% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 458K — better | 986 |
| Update frequency | Every 6 days — better | Every 3 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium — better | Subscription |
| Best chart rank | #111 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 415 MB | 128 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Ginger Labs | Corked Labs, LLC |
Customer experience
Notability
Corkulous
User reviews
Notability
From 458K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Great app for note-taking
- 👍 Smooth handwriting experience
- 📝 Excellent organization and file management
- 🎙️ Useful audio recording feature
- 🔍 Handwriting recognition and search
Room to improve
- 🐛 Sync issues with iCloud
- 🔍 Limited search and organization options
- 🖍️ Frustrating highlighter behavior
- 🔒 Concerns about subscription model
- 🔧 Buggy after recent updates
Corkulous
From 986 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Excellent app
- 🚀 Great tool for ideas development
- 👍 Brilliant concept
- 👍 Superb and powerful
- 👍 Naturally smart
Room to improve
- 🐛 Great but has issues
- 🐛 Useless file sharing
- 🐛 Unreliable autosaving
- 🐛 Lacks Windows integration
- 🐛 Small board kinda glitchy
Bugs and requests
Notability
Reported bugs
4 issues- Notes disappearing or getting corrupted
- Frequent crashes and performance issues
- Palm rejection problems after updates
- Inconsistent behavior when importing files
Requested features
5 requests- Improved folder/hierarchy organization
- More shape recognition and drawing tools
- Side-by-side viewing of multiple notes
- Ability to edit/rename audio recordings
- Better integration with other apps and services
Corkulous
Reported bugs
5 issues- Boards not opening
- Boards not syncing across devices
- Text disappearing from sticky notes
- Frequent crashes
- Compatibility issues with newer iOS versions
Requested features
6 requests- Allow drawing directly on board
- Increase canvas size
- Add ability to change default font
- Improve syncing and file sharing
- Add desktop version
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- Improve UI and visual design
In-app purchases
Notability
- Notability Lite$5.991 Month
- Notability Plus$7.991 Month
- Notability Plus$12.993 Months
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- Notability Lite$14.991 Year
- Notability Plus1 Year trial2 variants$19.991 Year
- Notability Plus7 Days trial$19.991 Year
- Notability Plus$19.991 Year
- Notability Pro$19.991 Month
- Notability Pro3 Days trial$99.991 Year
- Notability Classic$49.99
Corkulous
- Corkulous Monthly$1.991 Month
- Corkulous Yearly$14.991 Year
- 600 AI Credits$9.99
- 1200 AI Credits$19.99
- 1800 AI Credits$29.99
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- 2400 AI Credits$39.99
- Lifetime Subscription$39.99









