Comparison

Notability vs iA Writer

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

iA Writer

A distraction-free writing environment designed to help you focus on your words. It offers features like Focus Mode, plain text writing with HTML preview, and robust organization tools. Customize your writing experience and export to various formats.

Highlights
  • Distraction-free writing environment
  • Focus Mode for enhanced concentration
  • Plain text writing with HTML preview
  • Document organization and search
  • Customizable keyboard layout
  • Export to various formats (Word, PDF, HTML, WordPress, Medium)
Currently charting
Read full description

“Leaving life’s mess for an ideal realm of words.” —The New Yorker “My favorite iOS app for writing in Markdown, without question, is iA Writer. iA Writer is just beautiful. To me, it’s the gold standard for Markdown syntax styling... an elegant champagne flute. That’s iA Writer for me.” —John Gruber “iA Writer creates a clean, simple and distraction-free writing environment for when you really need to focus on your words.” —The New York Times “iA Writer is an example of how powerful simplicity and accessibility can be.” —The Guardian “iA Writer is all about textual production—writing this phrase, this sentence, this word at this moment.” —WIRED 4 x Best of App Store Winner # The Simple Writing App iA Writer removes distractions. Giving you a calm, focused, writing space, so you can express yourself clearly. # Focus Focus Mode dims everything but the current sentence or paragraph, helping you stay in the flow. # Start Don’t worry about the format. First, write in plain text. Then preview in HTML. # Organize Search, sort, and quickly swap between documents from different clouds. # Customize When you tap and hold a key in the command keyboard, you’re given the chance to choose your own layout. Rearrange your keys, or pick new ones from the extensive list. # Search You can open documents and launch frequent actions in no time with the new Quick Search. It lives in the keyboard so it’s always close at hand. # Work iA Writer includes an inverted light-on-dark-mode, perfect for working day and night. # Clean Spot superfluous adjectives, weak verbs, repetitive nouns, false conjunctions and clean your text of the usual rumble. # Shape Customize your templates and export to WordPress or Medium, HTML, Microsoft Word (.docx), or PDF. # 100% Text Embed links, pictures, tables and text files in plain text and see them in preview. # Get in Touch - Visit ia.net/writer for more information - Visit ia.net/writer/support for support and feedback

Screenshots

Notability4 screens
iA Writer4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Notability at Free against iA Writer's $19.99. Notability also leads on ratings volume (457K vs 1.5K) and rating (4.8 vs 4.6). iA Writer's advantage is review sentiment (73% vs 37%) and in-app purchases (none vs 13). On ads 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

Notability is free to download; iA Writer costs $19.99 up front. Notability sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $5.99 per month. iA Writer asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Notability holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Notability has 457K ratings behind it against 1.5K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 37% of Notability's written reviews are positive against 73% of iA Writer's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Notability ships an update weekly, iA Writer fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard9 real differences · 2 level
Notability versus iA Writer: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterNotabilityiA Writer
PriceFree — better$19.99
Rating4.8 (457K ratings) — better4.6 (1.5K ratings)
Positive reviews36.5% of reviews73.2% of reviews — better
Number of ratings457K — better1.5K
Update frequencyWeekly — betterFortnightly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemium — betterPaid
Best chart rank#80#25 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, MaciPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS17.515.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size411 MB65 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperGinger LabsInformation Architects AG

Customer experience

Notability

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

iA Writer

All ratings1,535 ratings
Positive88.5%
Neutral3.3%
Negative8.2%
Written reviews1,005 reviews
Positive73.2%
Neutral9.2%
Negative17.6%

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

iA Writer

From 1.5K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Distraction-free writing experience
  • 👍 Elegant and minimalist design
  • 💡 Helpful syntax highlighting and formatting tools
  • 🚀 Seamless sync across devices
  • 👍 Reliable and stable performance

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional crashes and sync issues
  • 🔒 Limited cloud storage integration options
  • 👎 Lack of advanced organization and navigation features
  • 👎 Subpar text selection and cursor control
  • 👎 Dated app icon and visual design

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

iA Writer

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Crashes when opening certain files
  • Sync issues leading to data loss
  • Formatting problems when exporting to other formats

Requested features

6 requests
  • Improved cloud storage integration (Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.)
  • Enhanced file management and organization tools
  • Better text selection and cursor control
  • More customization options for appearance and layout
  • Integrated outline/table of contents view
Show 1 more
  • Collaborative editing features

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

iA Writer

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Notability free?
Notability is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is iA Writer free?
iA Writer costs $19.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Notability or iA Writer?
Notability is rated higher. Notability averages 4.8 out of 5 from 457K ratings, while iA Writer averages 4.6 from 1.5K ratings.
Do Notability or iA Writer have ads?
Neither Notability nor iA Writer shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Notability or iA Writer?
Notability ships an update weekly, and iA Writer fortnightly. Most recently, Notability was updated on September 24, 2026 and iA Writer on September 23, 2026.
Which is more popular, Notability or iA Writer?
Notability currently peaks at #80 in the App Store charts, and iA Writer at #25. Chart position reflects recent download velocity rather than total install base.

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