Comparison

Notability vs BigPaper

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

BigPaper

This app offers an infinite canvas for note-taking, PDF annotation, and mind mapping. Import various document formats and add text, handwriting, tables, and more. Efficiently organize and edit content without page limitations.

Highlights
  • Infinite canvas for freeform note-taking
  • Import and annotate PDFs and other documents
  • Mind mapping with element connections
  • Handwriting and drawing tools with Smart Shapes
  • Table creation and linking
  • Multi-format document import and export
  • Screenshot mode for quick content capture
Features
Read full description

BigPaper is a borderless note taking application. You can import and expand PDFs and other formats in BigPaper and freely take notes in an infinite canvas without being limited by the edges of the document. You can use BigPaper on both iPhone and iPad for efficient editing with iCloud data sync. Whether it's annotating PDFs, making handbooks, or creating mind maps, BigPaper is ready to go. BigPaper's features include multi-format document import, text input, handwriting, mind mapping, tables, scanned documents, free edge screenshots, containers, folder management, search for handwriting and text, etc. We welcome every rating, and we will read every piece of feedback and take notes to incorporate it in future updates. Your 5-star review will encourage us to continue to upgrade BigPaper and introduce new features. —— Introduction of functions —— 「Infinite canvas, freeform add elements」 Canvas can be zoomed and moved for editing. Add documents in multiple formats such as PDF, as well as multiple types of elements such as tables, text, drawings, handwriting, pictures, stickers, paper, scanned documents, and more. These elements can be scaled and rotated. 「Mind Mapping - Easily connect ideas」 Innovative mind mapping mode. Connect elements on the page (text, pictures, tables, etc.) to quickly generate mind maps from inspiration. Also support the step-by-step enlargement of the idea by expanding the mind map. 「Type anywhere」 Customize the font, size and color of the text. To-do list, bullets can be added to the text. 「Brush Tool - Handwritten and Drawings」 Customize brush presets including color, transparency, tip size. Full-screen drawing, freely annotated documents that are not limited by the edges of the document. Smart Shapes: Hold a stylus or fingertip after drawing a graphic on the screen, intelligently recognize and generate the perfect shape. 「Create Table」 Easy create forms. Add row, add column, move row, move column. Tables can be linked to mind maps. 「Import and Export」 Imported document formats: PDF, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Pages, Keynote, Numbers, etc. Expand all pages of the document to easily read and highlight all the content. Select text in the document to copy. Export PDF, export image, and BigPaper format. WYSIWYG, everything can be displayed in the exported document. 「Reading Mode」 Customize the "scrolling direction" to realize the classic reading mode. 「Screenshot Mode - Quickly capture key points」 In screenshot mode, you can continuously select areas to take screenshots, these screenshots will be added to the canvas immediately, and can continue to be edited and added to the mind map. 「Stickers, Paper Templates」 The themes of stickers include weather, three-dimensional geometry, music, etc., saving creation time and improving note-taking efficiency. Use stickers and paper stencils in combination to create beautiful manuscripts. 「Multiple Selection Tool - Efficient Editing」 You can freely select an area on the canvas using the multi-selection tool. The selected content as a whole can be resized, rotated, moved, deleted, and exported.Draw borders to take screenshots freely. 「Manage files with folders」 You can create folders to manage files. Easy personalization includes folder editing, file moving, sticking to the top, and more. 「iCloud Sync」 Continue to create notes on different devices and capture inspiration anytime, anywhere. 「Scan」 Scan documents, OCR text recognition(Available in English, Chinese, French, Italian, German, Portuguese and Spanish.) 「Search and Jump Locations」 Search for handwriting, text, text in documents. Also: OCR text recognition results of scanned documents and recognition of text in pictures. Contact us and send feedback: bp_10happy@hotmail.com

Screenshots

Notability4 screens
BigPaper3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Notability at 4.8 against BigPaper's 4.0. Notability also leads on ratings volume (457K vs 17) and chart position (#80 vs unranked). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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 and BigPaper sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Notability holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Notability has 457K ratings behind it against 17, 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 27% of BigPaper's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Notability ships an update weekly, BigPaper every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and July 5, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 7 level
Notability versus BigPaper: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterNotabilityBigPaper
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (457K ratings) — better4.0 (17 ratings)
Positive reviews36.5% of reviews — better26.7% of reviews
Number of ratings457K — better17
Update frequencyWeeklyEvery 5 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemiumFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank#80 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.516.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size411 MB253 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperGinger Labs10happy Technology Development(Dalian) Co.,Ltd.

Customer experience

Notability

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

BigPaper

All ratings17 ratings
Positive64.7%
Neutral29.4%
Negative5.9%
Written reviews15 reviews
Positive26.7%
Neutral46.7%
Negative26.7%

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

BigPaper

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

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
1 purchases

BigPaper

One-time1
  • BigPaper - Full Version Unlock$8.99

Questions

Is Notability free?
Notability is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is BigPaper free?
BigPaper is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Notability or BigPaper?
Notability is rated higher. Notability averages 4.8 out of 5 from 457K ratings, while BigPaper averages 4.0 from 17 ratings.
Do Notability or BigPaper have ads?
Neither Notability nor BigPaper shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Notability or BigPaper?
Notability ships an update weekly, and BigPaper every 5 days. Most recently, Notability was updated on September 24, 2026 and BigPaper on July 5, 2026.

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