BoardNotes vs Good PDF Notebook
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
BoardNotes
This app combines whiteboard, notebook, PDF management, mind mapping, and flashcard creation into a single, versatile handwriting note-taking tool. It offers a wide array of pen types, organizational features, and study aids to enhance productivity and learning.
- Handwriting note-taking
- Integrated whiteboard
- PDF import and editing
- Mind mapping functionality
- Spaced repetition flashcards
- Multiple pen and brush types
- Layer management
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Feature Introduction: BoardNotes is a versatile handwriting note-taking app that integrates five major functions—whiteboard, notebook, PDF, mind map, and flashcards—covering most note-taking scenarios. It serves as your All-In-One App. Handwriting Pen: 1. BoardNotes utilizes Apple's native pen technology and has developed additional pens tailored for Chinese writing, including a fountain pen, a laser pointer for presentations, and a tape pen for masking notes. 2. Choose from a variety of brushes (laser pen, tape pen, ballpoint pen, straight-line pen, wavy-line pen, custom fountain pen, quill pen, pencil, marker, watercolor pen, fill pen, single-line pen, crayon, freehand pen) to unleash your creativity. 3. Lasso tool (extremely powerful). 4. Eraser (pixel eraser and object eraser). Whiteboard: 1. The whiteboard is ideal for organizing fragmented knowledge, brainstorming, and boosting creativity. 2. Write and draw freely without worrying about boundaries. 3. Customize background colors and grid templates. 4. Add various card types (text, image, video, audio, webpage, file, handwriting). 5. Multiple auxiliary tools: background board, pins, link navigation (supports bidirectional links), connectors, timer (countdown supported), calculator. 6. Quickly locate notes using the search function. Notebook & PDF: 1. Create notebooks and PDFs with multiple paper templates and cover options. Import images from Photos or PDFs from the Files app as pages or covers. 2. Add text, images, stickers, videos, webpage snapshots, audio recordings, links (bidirectional links supported), timers, calculators, and floating PDF windows. 3. Layer functionality—show or hide layers as needed. 4. Insert new pages via blank sheets, images, scanned documents, or files. 5. Cut, copy, and paste pages into other notebooks or PDFs. 6. Duplicate, rotate, or delete pages. 7. Reorder pages via long-press and drag in thumbnail view. 8. Create outlines and add bookmarks. 9. Search (text, handwritten notes, etc.). 10. Import e-books (epub, mobi, azw, etc.). Mind Map: 1. Mind mapping is a key feature within the whiteboard. 2. Nodes support multiple formats (text, image, handwriting, video, audio, webpage snapshot, file). 3. Offers 3 structures and 18 color schemes. 4. Add summaries (brackets). 5. Handwritten mind maps (using handwritten cards). 6. Long-press and drag selected cards into the mind map. 7. Reorder nodes or adjust hierarchy via long-press and drag. Flashcard: 1. Flashcards use the SuperMemo algorithm to automatically schedule optimal review intervals, reminding you before forgetting to maximize memory efficiency. 2. Flashcards support text, images, and handwriting. 3. Quickly create cards from notes in whiteboards, notebooks, or PDFs using the rectangular lasso tool. Download BoardNotes for free on iPad, iPhone, and Mac. For suggestions, please contact us via the in-app feedback feature.
Good PDF Notebook
Create beautiful notes, sketch ideas, and annotate PDFs with advanced ink tools and AI assistance. Convert handwriting to text, scan documents, and organize files seamlessly across cloud services. Enjoy a realistic ink-on-paper feel with stylus support.
- Advanced ink tools for writing and sketching
- AI Assistant for summarization and translation
- Handwritten notes to editable text conversion
- Document scanning with automatic frame recognition
- Cloud service integration for file management
- Full-text search for PDFs
- PDF reader with highlighting and read aloud
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Pencil Notepad is a new, modern, powerful yet easy to use note-taking, draw and PDF markup app that allows you to create useful and beautiful notes, edit and annotate PDF documents and books and sketch your ideas quickly, and easily using your Apple Pencil, Stylus or even finger! It lets you feel the ink and paper thanks to the intuitive, fast and pixel-perfect precise control of your Pencil with useful tilt and pressure sensitivity, and support for palm rejection. Pencil Notepad means also smart notes: it uses machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms to draw perfect shapes, convert your handwritten notes to text using Scribble, scan documents with automatic page frame recognition, search by text your photo library and insert them on your notes and other innovative smart features. Main features: + Use advanced 7 Ink tools to write and sketch: Marker, Pen, Pencil, Monoline, FountainPen, Watercolor and Crayon. + Floating bar to choose from 8 customizable colors and stroke width. + Open multiples documents side by side using multi-windows and multitask. + AI Assistant: What’s that word? Allow the AI Assistant to explain. Need a brief? Ask it to summarize. Language barrier? Request for a translation. Your assistant is ready to lend a hand. Chat with the AI Assistant about your document! + Convert handwritten text into editable text and share it. (No Internet needed!) + Convert locally (No Internet needed!) on your device all kind of documents like Excel, PowerPoint, JPEG& PNG images, etc. to PDF and annotate them. + Lets you feel the ink and paper thanks to the intuitive, fast and pixel-perfect precise control of your Apple Pencil with useful tilt and pressure sensitivity, and support for palm rejection. + Powerful document browser integrated with Files app and any cloud services like iCloud, Dropbox, Box, GDrive, oneDrive, etc. to import, export and sync your files. + Full-text search makes finding PDFs files much easier and faster, so you don’t have to waste time opening folder after folder trying to find that one document you need. + Powerful PDF reader with search, bookmarks, highlighting and voice read aloud. + You can use your iPad and Apple Pencil (and other supported styluses) to write by hand in any text field in the PDF or in your own rich text boxes, like the search field in Safari or a text field in Mail. All handwriting and conversion to text happens on your iPad, keeping your writing private and secure. + Reader mode interface for distraction free moments. + Dark mode support in documents. Ready for aviation use. + Paper background guides (squared, lined, coloured, etc.) for your handwriting and sketching. + Use the iOS camera to scan documents then edit and annotate them. + User Interface available in multiple languages including Right to Left like Arabic and other like English, Japanese, Chinese Simplified, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, etc. Privacy Policy http://www.noteswriter.com/Kairoos_Privacy_Policy.html EULA https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ This app requires users to have a subscription to unlock all the features after a 3-day risk-free trial.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: BoardNotes at 81% against Good PDF Notebook's 0%. BoardNotes also leads on rating (4.7 vs 3.7) and ratings volume (111 vs 3). Good PDF Notebook's advantage is ads (none vs shown). On price, update cadence, 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. BoardNotes sells 23 one-off in-app purchases and Good PDF Notebook sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
BoardNotes holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 3.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: BoardNotes has 111 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 81% of BoardNotes's written reviews are positive against 0% of Good PDF Notebook's.
BoardNotes ships an update every 10 days, Good PDF Notebook every 8 days. The most recent releases landed on September 23, 2026 and September 25, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | BoardNotes | Good PDF Notebook |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (111 ratings) — better | 3.7 (3 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 81.0% of reviews — better | 0.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 111 — better | 3 |
| Update frequency | Every 10 days | Every 8 days — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 16.4 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 356 MB | 291 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Chongqing Ouluowa Technology Co., Ltd. | Kairoos Solutions SL |
Customer experience
BoardNotes
Good PDF Notebook
Bugs and requests
BoardNotes
Reported bugs
16 issues- Whiteboards erasing automatically
- No automatic backup leading to data loss
- Syncing issues between iPad and Mac
- Pencil tip not appearing on PDF annotations
- App crashes frequently
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- Recording data is lost
- Cannot create new notebooks
- Gear icon for settings missing in dark mode
- Issue with eraser and color selection logic
- Lasso tool missing cut button after cropping
- PDF embeds appear blurry
- Handwriting search not implemented
- Accidental touches/palm rejection issues
- Chinese font display issues in markdown
- App freezes when using search function
- Software flashes back (crashes)
Requested features
24 requests- Sync to Google Drive/other cloud services
- Faster 'add to cards' function
- View carded items in sidebar
- Color coding for pins
- Image opacity adjustment
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- Faster image copy from whiteboard
- Android app version
- WebDAV function
- Markdown editing/viewing function
- Handwriting recognition and search
- Improve palm rejection/anti-touch
- Add more brush types (with stroke variation)
- Search for handwritten text
- Dark Mode UI
- More calculator functions (square root, trig identities)
- In-app browser (ChatGPT, YouTube integration)
- Easier UI navigation of notebook pages
- Ability to change existing page formats
- More in-depth pen fine-tuning
- Optimize UI, move undo/redo to top right
- Adjust pressure sensitivity
- Customizable top toolbar icons
- Add college rule paper
- Translate function for papers
Good PDF Notebook
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
BoardNotes
- 7 days membership$0.99
- 5 days membership$0.99
- Math Formula Recognition$1.99
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- 1 month membership$1.99
- Annual Membership$3.99
- Permanent Unlock All$3.99
- 6 months membership$3.99
- 6 months membership (discount)$3.99
- Permanent Unlock All$4.99
- Annual Membership$4.99
- 6 months membership2 variants$4.99
- Full version Unlock$5.99
- Annual Membership (discount)$5.99
- 6 months membership$6.99
- Permanent Unlock All$6.99
- Annual Membership2 variants$6.99
- Spring Festival Discount$6.99
- Annual Membership$7.99
- Permanent Unlock All$7.99
- Permanent Unlock All(discount)$7.99
- Permanent Unlock All$8.99
- Permanent Unlock All$9.99
- Permanent Unlock All$19.99
Good PDF Notebook
- Unlock All and AI Assistant3 Days trial$2.991 Month
- GoodPencil Upgrade$3.99
Questions
Is BoardNotes free?
Is Good PDF Notebook free?
Which has better reviews, BoardNotes or Good PDF Notebook?
Do BoardNotes or Good PDF Notebook have ads?
Which is updated more often, BoardNotes or Good PDF Notebook?
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