Freenotes vs Notability

Freenotes

• Students annotating lecture slides and revising with flashcards
• People who use hyperlinked PDF planners on a tablet
• Recording a class or meeting and getting an AI summary

Notability

• Students recording lectures alongside handwritten notes
• Turning class notes into flashcards and quizzes
• Annotating PDFs, slides and forms with a stylus
• Schools that manage devices, where Notability for Education is free

Freenotes

• The vendor's website does not describe plans. Plus and Pro appear only as in-app purchases, with no statement of what each includes.
• The free version carries advertising and a cap on the number of notes; the US App Store also lists a Remove Ads purchase at $29.99.
• Google Play's US listing shows only a range of $0.99 to $54.99 per item, so Android prices may differ from the App Store's.
• No Windows or web app is offered. On a Mac it runs as the iPad app, which the App Store marks as not verified for macOS.

Notability

• The free Starter plan is limited to 5 notes.
• Audio transcription and the AI quiz and flashcard tools start at Plus; real-time summaries, note chat and unlimited transcription are listed under Pro.
• Third-party backups are iOS only, and YouTube link-to-note conversion works on the web only.
• The plan comparison marks handwriting recognition, math conversion and audio playback sync as iOS and Android only.

Freenotes

Handwriting and infinite canvas

Low-latency handwriting with Apple Pencil Pro support, custom brushes and shape recognition, plus a whiteboard-style canvas that expands for sketches and mind maps.

PDF annotation

Highlight, underline and comment on PDFs with custom pen styles, select text to translate or look up, and follow internal and external hyperlinks in digital planners.

AI summaries and chat with PDF

AI pulls key points and action items from long recordings or documents, answers questions about imported files, and explains a screenshot or uploaded document.

Audio recording and transcription

Recordings are transcribed in real time with AI refinement and translation. Tapping a line of the transcript replays the matching audio, and text can be copied or exported.

Study tools

A recall tape hides parts of a page for self-testing, flashcards are built from note pages, and picture-in-picture lets a video play while notes are taken.

Search, folders and sync

Handwriting is searchable through text recognition, notes are organized into folders, and notebooks back up through iCloud or Google Drive sync.

Notability

Handwriting, typing and document markup

Notes combine handwriting, typed text, images and sketches on one page, and PDFs, documents and slides can be imported and written on.

Audio recording with transcripts

Lectures and meetings are recorded alongside your notes and transcribed, and playback follows the moment each note was written. Live transcription is unlimited on Pro.

AI flashcards and quizzes

Practice questions, quizzes and flashcards are generated from your notes: up to 400 questions a month on Plus and unlimited on Pro.

Summaries and chat with your notes

Pro generates real-time summaries of notes, imported documents and recordings and answers questions about a note in a chat. Meeting notes can also yield action-item checklists.

YouTube link-to-note

On the web, a YouTube link is converted into a note with a transcript and summary: 100 conversions a month on Plus, unlimited on Pro.

Collaboration and shared libraries

Notes can be shared by link and edited together live. Business plans add shared note libraries, centralized user admin and admin-based feature controls.

Freenotes

• Free$0

  Free download that carries advertising and, per the developer's App Store replies, a limit on the number of notes.

• Freenotes Weekly Plus Member$1.99

  per week, as labelled on the US App Store

  Plus membership billed weekly. The listing does not describe what Plus includes.

• Freenotes Yearly Plus Member$9.99

  per year, as labelled on the US App Store

  Plus membership billed yearly. The listing does not describe what Plus includes.

• Freenotes Plus Member Lifetime$29.99

  one-time in-app purchase on the US App Store

  Plus membership as a single purchase with no renewal.

• Freenotes Weekly Pro Member$6.99

  per week, as labelled on the US App Store

  Pro membership billed weekly. The listing does not describe how Pro differs from Plus.

• Freenotes Yearly Pro Member$39.99

  per year, as labelled on the US App Store

  Pro membership billed yearly. The listing does not describe how Pro differs from Plus.

Notability

• Starter$0

  5 notes with all editing tools, PDF and document import, 20,000+ templates and 7-day version history.

• Lite$4.99

  per month, or $14.99 per year

  Unlimited notes and third-party backups (iOS only), with 7-day version history.

• Plus$7.99

  per month, or $19.99 per year

  Adds audio recording and transcription, handwriting search, up to 400 AI quiz and flashcard questions and 100 YouTube conversions a month.

• Pro$19.99

  per month, or $99.99 per year

  Unlimited live transcription, real-time AI summaries, quizzes, flashcards and YouTube conversions, chat with your notes and 90-day version history.

• Classic$49.99

  one-time purchase

  Unlimited notes with handwriting recognition and search, math conversion to LaTeX, live collaboration and Notability Cloud sync.

• Business$6

  per user / month, or $60 per user / year

  Shared note libraries, central admin and billing, AI summaries and transcription. Business Pro is $18 per user / month or $180 per year.

Freenotes

• Annual discount

  Yearly memberships cost far less than weekly

  On the US App Store, Plus is $1.99 a week or $9.99 a year and Pro is $6.99 a week or $39.99 a year, so a year of weekly billing costs roughly nine to ten times the yearly price.

• Lifetime license

  Plus membership as a one-time purchase

  The US App Store lists Freenotes Plus Member Lifetime as a single in-app purchase at $29.99, next to the weekly and yearly Plus memberships.

Notability

• Annual discount

  Yearly plans cost far less than paying monthly

  Lite is $14.99 per year against $4.99 per month ($59.88 over a year), Plus $19.99 against $7.99 per month and Pro $99.99 against $19.99 per month. Business is $60 per user yearly or $6 monthly.

• Lifetime license

  Classic one-time purchase

  The Classic plan is a one-time purchase, regularly $49.99, with unlimited notes, handwriting recognition, live collaboration and Notability Cloud sync and no subscription.

• Education

  Free for schools that manage devices

  Schools managing devices through an MDM such as Jamf or Mosyle can use Notability for Education at no cost. It is similar to the Plus subscription and configurable by administrators.

• Other savings

  Back-to-school sale: up to 20% off all plans

  At the time of checking, the pricing page showed sale prices of $11.99 (Lite), $15.99 (Plus) and $79.99 (Pro) per year and $39.99 for Classic. No end date is stated.