Comparison

Notability vs Book Writer One

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

Book Writer One

Easily create interactive multimedia books with text, images, voice, and video. Organize your thoughts, make photo books, diaries, or even PDF documents. Share your creations with the world or publish them as paperbacks.

Highlights
  • Create multimedia books with text, images, and video
  • Organize thoughts and notes
  • Design photo books, diaries, and PDFs
  • Interactive page elements
  • Drag-and-drop interface
  • Share books via Book World, Dropbox, or email
  • Paperback publishing option
Features
Read full description

Take Note, Organize Thoughts, Make a Book. Share with the World. Make your own book with Book Writer. Anyone can easily make a book. Make an interactive book and enjoy making and reading the books you made! You can use it in school, work, and at home to make all types of books such as photo book, recipe book, diary, PR booklet, PDF documents, and etc. Making a multimedia book You can add pictures, text, voice recordings, songs, and videos on the page. You can use the camera to take pictures or videos and add them right on to the book. You can draw image and edit image using Pen Tool. Provides interactive functions such as item connection and auto play to make your book more fun. Easy and intuitive interface Children of all ages can easily use the interface. Use the Item Bar to add items to the page by drag&drop. All text are shown on the page in real time with the In-Page text editor that is provided. Use the Undo function to return to the previous work. Share your books You can share your book with others using Book World. Join the Book World and upload your book to Book World, and follow your favorite author. Books in Book World can be read on diverse smartphone, PC and Mac. You can share your book with Book Writer on Dropbox, iTunes or via E-mail. Read through iBooks The books made with Book Writer can be read through iBooks. You can read your book in Book Writer directly, or Book World web reader. Paperbook publish service You can publish your book to paperbook using Paperbook publish service. Published books can also be seen in Book World via smartphone, PC, Mac. In Class Book Writer is being used in many countries by thousands of people for educational use. Book Writer helps students to make a book by organizing their thoughts. With an intuitive interface, anyone can easily express and organize their thoughts. Book Writer One is limited version. You can release limit by upgrade to unlimited using in-app purchase or purchase paid version of Book Writer. The paid version is available with a 50% discount under App Store Volume Purchase Program. Main Functions Templates are provided to make books of different styles and formats. Choosing a layout style automatically relocates your items. Use drag & drop to easily add items. You can use the photos from Photo Library to add to the book, or can add pictures taken directly from camera. Pictures can be moved, the size can be adjusted, and you can rotate or crop the pictures by touching. Supports fonts and styles of various types. You can draw image and edit image using Pen Tool. You can add videos from your album or you can directly record videos with your camera to add them. Use recorder to record your voice and add to the book, or add music from Music Library to your book. Bring any music from Music Library to add as your background music. Use the auto play function to automatically play the media at the time you want. Item connection function is provided to connect your pictures or text to sound items. The Undo function allows you to return to your previous work. Use the Page Editor to add or delete pages or change the order of the page by using drag & drop. You can combine two books together. The completed book can be read in ‘Reading Mode’. Books that have been created can be shared via Book World, iTunes, E-mail, Dropbox, etc. Share your book with others using Book World. And can be read on many smartphone, PC, Mac. You can publish your book to paperbook using Paperbook publish service. Save your book as a PDF document or you can use AirPrint or use Export to print the books The standard E-book format, epub, is supported to read the made books with iBooks and you can register your books on iBookstore. Book Writer supports the fixed-layout format of iBooks. The fixed-layout format is not ideal for books with long text like novels. Online support is included. Please visit our homepage - http://goodeffect.com

Screenshots

Notability4 screens
Book Writer One3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Notability at 4.8 against Book Writer One's 2.5. Notability also leads on ratings volume (457K vs 16) and update cadence (every 6 days vs every 3 weeks). Book Writer One's advantage is iOS requirement (11.0 vs 17.5). On price, review sentiment, 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 Book Writer One 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 2.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Notability has 457K ratings behind it against 16, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 36% of Notability's written reviews are positive against 44% of Book Writer One's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Notability ships an update every 6 days, Book Writer One every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 29, 2026 and September 19, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 6 level
Notability versus Book Writer One: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterNotabilityBook Writer One
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (457K ratings) — better2.5 (16 ratings)
Positive reviews36.3% of reviews43.8% of reviews — better
Number of ratings457K — better16
Update frequencyEvery 6 days — betterEvery 3 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemiumFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank#83 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, MaciPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS17.511.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size411 MB73 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperGinger LabsGood Effect

Customer experience

Notability

All ratings457,158 ratings
Positive94.8%
Neutral1.3%
Negative3.9%
Written reviews3,632 reviews
Positive36.3%
Neutral8.7%
Negative55.0%

Book Writer One

All ratings16 ratings
Positive31.3%
Neutral12.5%
Negative56.3%
Written reviews48 reviews
Positive43.8%
Neutral6.3%
Negative50.0%

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

Book Writer One

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

Book Writer One

One-time1
  • Book Writer Unlimited$3.99

Questions

Is Notability free?
Notability is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Book Writer One free?
Book Writer One is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Notability or Book Writer One?
Notability is rated higher. Notability averages 4.8 out of 5 from 457K ratings, while Book Writer One averages 2.5 from 16 ratings.
Do Notability or Book Writer One have ads?
Neither Notability nor Book Writer One shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Notability or Book Writer One?
Notability ships an update every 6 days, and Book Writer One every 3 weeks. Most recently, Notability was updated on September 29, 2026 and Book Writer One on September 19, 2026.

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