Notability vs Acadly Here
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
Acadly Here
This app automates attendance tracking using mesh-network technology, eliminating the need for GPS or special hardware. It's ideal for classrooms, events, and organizations needing to quickly and securely record attendance without relying on internet connectivity.
- Mesh-network attendance automation
- No GPS or hardware required
- Manual attendance editing
- Co-administrator support
- Exportable attendance records
- Real-time attendee count
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Acadly Here is a mesh-network technology powered attendance automation app that helps you discover people in your proximity at the tap of a button, without using GPS on your or your attendees’ devices. Neither administrators nor attendees need any hardware except their smartphones for the attendance process. To capture attendance, administrators can simply tap a button on their Acadly Here app and initiate the attendance process. Acadly Here is ideal for use cases such as: • Classrooms: Teachers can use Acadly Here to keep attendance records in lectures • Employee attendance tracking: At office events such as meetings and town halls • Nursing and medical residencies: Keeping attendance records is mandatory in residency • Field trips: Acadly works without WiFi too, and is ideal for outdoor uses such as field trips • Seminars and conferences: Acadly Here is ideal to gauge attendees’ attendance in different tracks of a conference • Church activities: Community events at churches can utilize attendance for planning and record-keeping • Fraternities and sororities: To track members’ interest in events and over a period of time How it works • To capture attendance, administrators and attendees need the Acadly Here app installed on their devices, with the requisite permissions enabled • Administrators can create “groups” of attendees and schedule meeting “sessions”. • The attendance process runs for about 150 seconds and ends automatically. Admins can manually end it sooner too • The count of attendees updates in real time on the administrator’s device • Once the attendance process ends, attendees receive a confirmation regarding their attendance status • In case an attendee is not marked as Present by the automatic process, administrators can edit their status manually as well • All attendance records can be exported to a CSV file by administrators any time Features • Cutting-edge mesh-network technology: Acadly Here works based on a Bluetooth and WiFi based mesh network technology (WiFi connectivity is not compulsory) • Privacy-first: Acadly Here does not use GPS to record attendance. It does not access or record users’ geolocation for any purpose • Manual mode: Administrators can edit attendance manually for attendees who may not have a device or for whom the automatic process fails for reasons such as poor internet connectivity • Co-administrators: Every group can have multiple admins who can collaborate to capture and edit attendance records for the group • Exportable data: All attendance records can be exported to CSV files, both on a per-session as well as consolidated basis • Attendance statistics on the app: Attendees as well as admins can view attendance statistics on the Acadly Here app, both on a per-session as well as consolidated basis About Acadly Acadly Here is a product by Acadly, an audience response system that helps teachers and presenters engage attendees/ students in live events or classes. In addition to automatic attendance, Acadly includes features such as polls, quizzes, word clouds, and Q&A. It also includes Zoom integration and can be used for remote events/ classes. Acadly is used at more than 350 US universities and is among the world’s most widely used lecture engagement solutions for higher education. Acadly Here is a standalone attendance product that uses Acadly’s mesh network technology and makes capturing attendance seamless, simple, and fast. Privacy Policy: https://www.acadly.com/here/privacy Terms of Use: https://www.acadly.com/here/terms Purchase Terms: https://www.acadly.com/here/terms/purchases
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Notability at 4.8 against Acadly Here's 1.0. Notability also leads on review sentiment (36% vs 0%) and ratings volume (458K vs 6). Acadly Here's advantage is iOS requirement (10.0 vs 18.0). 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
Both are free to download. Notability sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $5.99 per month and Acadly Here sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $14.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Notability holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 1.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Notability has 458K ratings behind it against 6, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 36% of Notability's written reviews are positive against 0% of Acadly Here's.
Notability ships an update weekly, Acadly Here every 5 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 26, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Notability | Acadly Here |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (458K ratings) — better | 1.0 (6 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 36.1% of reviews — better | 0.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 458K — better | 6 |
| Update frequency | Weekly — better | Every 5 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium | Free with in-app purchases |
| Best chart rank | #105 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac — better | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 10.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 408 MB | 51 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Ginger Labs | Acetone Designs |
Customer experience
Notability
Acadly Here
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
Acadly Here
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
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
Acadly Here
- Bronze$14.991 Month
- Silver$24.991 Month
- Gold$49.991 Month
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- Platinum$74.991 Month









