Comparison

Notability vs Mural

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

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • Handwritten and typed notes
  • PDF and document annotation
  • Audio recording and transcription
  • AI-powered summaries and quizzes
  • Customizable organization
  • Cross-device sync
Features
Read full description

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

About

Mural

This app provides a digital whiteboard for real-time and asynchronous team collaboration. It allows users to brainstorm, ideate, and align on projects from anywhere, fostering business-driving outcomes. Capture inspiration and share it with your team on the go.

Highlights
  • Real-time and asynchronous collaboration
  • Digital whiteboard for ideation
  • Freehand drawing and concept mapping
  • Sticky notes, shapes, and text boxes
  • Icon library for visual thinking
  • Voting sessions and reactions
  • Export murals as PDF, image, or zip
Read full description

Mural is a collaborative intelligence company powering effective ideation, innovation, alignment, and team building at 95% of the Fortune 100. Work together in real-time or asynchronously with a digital whiteboard and collaboration features designed to inspire better collaboration that leads to business-driving outcomes. The Mural app for iPhone and iPad keeps you connected to your team and enables you to capture and share inspiration on the go. Innovative teams at IBM, Intuit, Microsoft, GitLab, Steelcase, Thoughtworks, and Atlassian use Mural to collaborate from anywhere. Use the Mural iPhone and iPad apps to: * Bring your best ideas to life, wherever you work best * Invite your team to a collaboration session no matter where they are * Review content and provide feedback to keep work moving forward * Spark creative thinking with freehand drawing * Map concepts and ideas with your Apple Pencil Mural meets security standards for enterprise organizations with mobile device management and secure sign in supported by our Microsoft Intune Mobile Application Management integration. With the Mural app for mobile devices, you can: * Create a new mural * Add content in sticky notes, shapes, and text boxes with a variety of formatting options at your fingertips * Draw ideas and sketch notes with a number of colors and line sizes * Invite collaborators to your murals and easily change link permissions * Add, edit, delete, and mention other collaborators in comments * Enhance your visual thinking with a library of icons * Participate in a voting session * Share excitement and visual feedback with reactions * Export a mural as a PDF, image, or zip file * Add images from your photo library, take in the moment photos, or upload files * Send a mural to a touchscreen display for hybrid collaboration sessions * Organize content and ideas with frameworks * Change mural settings * Digitize physical sticky notes with Mural Scan or Post-it® App integration * Easily present with outline and presentation mode To use the Mural app, an account and sign-in is required. Learn more at www.mural.co.

Screenshots

Notability4 screens
Mural4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Notability at 4.8 against Mural's 2.4. Notability also leads on update cadence (weekly vs every 5 weeks) and ratings volume (457K vs 68). Mural's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 13) and iOS requirement (15.5 vs 17.5). On price, ads, monetization model 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Notability sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $5.99 per month. Mural asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Notability holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 2.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Notability has 457K ratings behind it against 68, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 37% of Notability's written reviews are positive against 16% of Mural's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Notability ships an update weekly, Mural every 5 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 25, 2026 and August 27, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 4 level
Notability versus Mural: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterNotabilityMural
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (457K ratings) — better2.4 (68 ratings)
Positive reviews36.5% of reviews — better16.2% of reviews
Number of ratings457K — better68
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 5 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemiumFreemium
Best chart rank#74 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, MaciPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS17.515.5 — better
Further details — not scored
Size411 MB30 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperGinger LabsTactivos Inc.

Customer experience

Notability

All ratings456,880 ratings
Positive94.8%
Neutral1.3%
Negative3.9%
Written reviews3,594 reviews
Positive36.5%
Neutral8.6%
Negative54.8%

Mural

All ratings68 ratings
Positive26.5%
Neutral10.3%
Negative63.2%
Written reviews210 reviews
Positive16.2%
Neutral9.0%
Negative74.8%

User reviews

Notability

From 457K App Store ratings

What 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

Mural

From 68 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Intuitive and user-friendly interface
  • 🎨 Great collaborative whiteboarding tool
  • ✏️ Apple Pencil support for drawing
  • 📱 Mobile app allows work on-the-go
  • 🔄 Real-time collaboration features

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Frequent crashes and freezes
  • ⚠️ App doesn't load or opens to blank screen
  • 🔌 Forced app redirect from browser on mobile
  • ❌ Missing key desktop features on mobile
  • 📉 Poor performance on iPad

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

Mural

Reported bugs

25 issues
  • App crashes on launch or when opening boards
  • White/blank screen on startup
  • Stuck on logo screen indefinitely
  • Login failures and authentication errors
  • Microsoft authentication process hangs
Show 20 more
  • App won't open on iPad Pro
  • Forced logout during editing
  • Sticky notes disappear after creation
  • Text input hidden by UI elements
  • Pencil drawing lag and delayed rendering
  • Board resizing during pencil use
  • Images appear blurry or pixelated on mobile
  • Fonts not rendering correctly
  • Paste function not working in text fields
  • Objects snap unexpectedly to grid
  • Shapes change color inexplicably
  • Connector handles not functioning
  • Zoom and pan gestures not responsive
  • App freezes when scrolling dense boards
  • Connection timeouts and reconnection loops
  • Content not loading on boards
  • Synchronization issues between devices
  • Automatic zoom on sticky edit causes frustration
  • Camera permission dialog creates unescapable state
  • Placeholder text not clearing on input

Requested features

20 requests
  • Google and Apple login options
  • Full desktop feature parity on mobile
  • Proper keyboard and trackpad support
  • Folder visibility and management on iOS
  • Search functionality for murals
Show 15 more
  • Outline feature on mobile
  • Object linking and grouping
  • Landscape mode support
  • Better Apple Pencil pressure sensitivity
  • Undo/redo functionality
  • Multi-object selection
  • Template access on mobile
  • Activity log viewing
  • Improved pen tool options (thickness, color, style)
  • Browser access without app redirect
  • Language localization options
  • Full-screen mode without UI buttons
  • Copy/paste functionality improvements
  • Image import from device
  • Subscription management in app

In-app purchases

10 purchases

Notability

Subscriptions9
  • Notability Lite$5.991 Month
  • Notability Plus$7.991 Month
  • Notability Plus$12.993 Months
Show 6 more
  • Notability Lite$14.991 Year
  • Notability Plus1 Year trial2 variants$19.991 Year
  • Notability Plus$19.991 Year
  • Notability Pro$19.991 Month
  • Notability Plus$29.991 Year
  • Notability Pro3 Days trial$99.991 Year
One-time1
  • Notability Classic$49.99
None

Mural

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Notability free?
Notability is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Mural free?
Mural is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Notability or Mural?
Notability is rated higher. Notability averages 4.8 out of 5 from 457K ratings, while Mural averages 2.4 from 68 ratings.
Do Notability or Mural have ads?
Neither Notability nor Mural shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Notability or Mural?
Notability ships an update weekly, and Mural every 5 weeks. Most recently, Notability was updated on September 25, 2026 and Mural on August 27, 2026.

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