OrigNotes vs Better Notes

OrigNotes is a powerful, free digital note-taking app built for iPad and iPhone. Whether you're taking handwritten notes, annotating PDFs, organizing ideas with mind maps, or capturing inspiration with images, audio, and video, OrigNotes gives you the tools to keep everything in one place. Write naturally with Apple Pencil, convert handwriting into editable text, search through your notes, and customize your workspace to fit the way you think and work. OrigNotes is free to use, and we're committed to keeping it that way. If you're enjoying OrigNotes, we'd greatly appreciate a 5-star review. Your support helps us continue improving the app and building new features for everyone. Have an idea or feature request? Leave us a review or contact us directly through the app. You can also check our Future Plans inside OrigNotes to see what we're working on and follow the progress of upcoming features. KEY FEATURES • Handwriting & Drawing Enjoy a natural writing experience with a variety of pens, brushes, and creative tools designed for Apple Pencil. • PDF Reading & Annotation Import PDFs to read, highlight, annotate, draw, and take notes directly on your documents. • Mind Maps Create mind maps to organize ideas, study topics, and brainstorm visually. Add topics and subtopics, drag and rearrange nodes, and customize your mind map to fit your ideas. • Handwriting to Text Turn handwritten notes into editable text for easier editing, organizing, and reuse. • Powerful Search Find information faster by searching handwritten notes and text inside PDFs. • Images, GIFs, Audio & Video Bring your notes to life with images, animated GIFs, audio, and video—all within your notebook. • Personalized Notebooks Customize covers, paper templates, and themes to create a workspace that feels like your own. • Custom Toolbar & Tool Box Arrange your favorite tools around the way you work and keep the ones you use most within easy reach. • Smooth Writing Experience Optimized handwriting, palm rejection, and Apple Pencil interactions help writing feel smooth, responsive, and natural. • Easy Organization Organize and sort your documents, bookmark important pages, and quickly get back to the content you need. • Data Protection & Backup Multiple backup options and improved data protection help keep your important notes safe. • Cloud Backup Back up your notebooks to cloud storage for easier long-term storage and management. MADE FOR THE WAY YOU TAKE NOTES From class notes and study materials to work documents, PDF annotation, brainstorming, and everyday ideas, OrigNotes gives you a flexible space to capture, organize, and develop your thoughts. Simple when you need it. Powerful when you need more. Write. Think. Create. Organize. All in OrigNotes.

Better Notes is a focused idea studio for handwriting, sketching, typed notes and PDF annotation. It combines the freedom of paper with the organisation and editing tools of a modern native app. WRITE NATURALLY Capture smooth, pressure-aware ink with fountain pen, ballpoint, fineliner, pencil, calligraphy, brush, reed pen, marker and highlighter tools. Adjust colour, width and stabilisation, then erase by stroke or precisely through ink. BUILD PAGES YOUR WAY Choose blank, ruled, dotted, grid, Cornell and margin paper. Mix A4, A5, Letter and Legal pages in portrait or landscape—even inside the same notebook. Add, duplicate, bookmark and reorder your thinking page by page. MORE THAN HANDWRITING Add editable styled text, shapes and images. Move, rotate, recolour and organise content across independent layers with visibility, locking and opacity controls. ANNOTATE PDFs Import a PDF, write directly over it and keep its links intact. Export finished work as PDF, PNG, JPEG, Markdown or plain text whenever you need to share or continue elsewhere. RECORD THE MOMENT Attach audio to a page during a lecture, meeting or brainstorming session. Rename recordings and jump back to the page where each recording began. FIND AND ORGANISE IDEAS Create spaces and nested folders, add tags, mark favourites, revisit recent notes and recover items from Trash. Search notebook titles, tags and typed page content from one fast local library. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Better Notes works locally and offline. Your notebooks and recordings stay on your device unless you choose to export or share them. There is no required account, advertising or behavioural tracking. BUILT FOR APPLE DEVICES Enjoy a responsive light interface designed for touch, Apple Pencil, pointer and keyboard. Better Notes supports keyboard shortcuts, accessibility labels and Reduce Motion. Make space for your next thought—and keep every stroke editable.