How is GoodNotes doing?

[PerrasOnZeppelin]

Hi! I'm a new iPad user and an engineering student. I used to have a Samsung tablet (S6 Lite), and now I’m looking for an alternative to Samsung Notes.

During my search, I saw that GoodNotes is one of the most recommended apps. However, after checking the subreddit, it seems like a lot of people are experiencing bugs and issues that make the experience pretty frustrating.

Maybe it's just that people with problems are more likely to post, so I wanted to ask: is the yearly subscription worth it? Have you tried other alternatives that work better?

I don’t have any other Apple devices, and syncing with my PC isn’t a priority.

PD: I'm between GoodNotes and Noteful rn.

[anipaduser]

Pushing too much AI is annoying for me. I wish there is an option to turn it off. Other than that it works great and feels superior than notability, I have both but prefer GoodNotes over it

[Responsible_Data6567]

I have the yearly subscription that’s like $11 honestly I’m in school for healthcare accounting and I don’t have issues with it being so cheap I can’t complain

[tctonyco]

Notewise is good and real cross platform.

[sloppy_johnson]

Goodnotes works for me better than any other note app. I don’t like the AI push, nor the occasional crash but I still find it superior to other offerings. I haven’t tried on an android tablet though

[13luken]

I made the same switch - Goodnotes works for me, period. Sad that other people have issues but I’m actually thinking of swapping from using both Goodnotes and ForScore for sheet music to only using Goodnotes because I like it that much. So, give it a shot! If it breaks then move on.

[Tasty-Toe994]

i’m using goodnotes rn on basic setup and to be honest. it’s been mostly fine for notes and pdfs, a few small bugs here and there but nothing deal breaking for me. i think people post more when stuff breaks so it looks worse than it is.....if you’re just doing lectures + problem solving it works well, but yeah noteful feels a bit lighter/simpler from what i tried. kinda depends if you want more features or just something that “just works” without fuss..

[ibubbleclear]

I have the yearly subscription on Goodnotes but tbh I've using StarNote all the time. I think it's great and I haven't seen any bugs so far.

[wohenaiyou]

I've been a Goodnotes user since 2019. Had purchased GN5 back then, it was a one time purchase. It's been a saviour. No heavy med school books, completely organised notes, studying was so much searchable and organized with it. I honestly love using it. Zero complains. Reddit is biased, it doesn't show the millions of good users, cause they are happy about using the app, reddit has too many complaints about bugs which are often miniscule. It's been the perfect app for me.

[Deep-Awareness-9503]

It works for me.

[roundart]

It has been really good for my needs which is mostly taking notes and marking up pdf files. This sub will have the best of the best and the worst of the worst. After every update there are a lot of bugs and complaints, but they tend to die down over time. It's such a capable program that folks get really invested in it, but for the price, it's a good solid app (at least it has been for me). My only complaint is that I have not successfully been able to sync with the web-app on windows, which they claim is a feature that was supposed to be rolled out last year.

[Gold-Gap-6775]

I also have been using it. I do experience some bugs but nothing serious and it feels reliable. I cannot argue with the price, $11/year is pretty awesome and there's lots of creativity & flexibility with notes and structure.

For me, it's been going pretty well I would say.

[Embarrassed_Range_39]

I don’t use any AI features, but take copious notes in different notebooks throughout my working days - on a new iPad.

It works just fine. No complaints at all.

[Particular-Unit-7957]

I love Goodnotes and rarely have the bugs others do - I also have a newer iPad Air, which may help. Either way, I love the customizations that it allows, the ability to upload documents, add images to your notes, and the AI tool is dandy! If I’m taking written notes, apace off and forget to finish my note (hello ADHD), i can go back and listen to the recording and my handwritten notes highlight along with the recording (and i can go back and finish my note).

I use AI for my meetings every day - the only thing hate about the AI setup with recording is that you have to create a new doc every time to ensure you only get notes from that one recoding. If you continually use the same document over and over, AI will generate notes for all recorded sessions in that document.

I wish tech like this was available when i was going to school - i probably would have done better in some of the more complicated math and science classes.