Goodnotes vs Penbook

Goodnotes

• Handwritten notes on an iPad with Apple Pencil
• Marking up PDFs such as contracts, reports and lecture slides
• Students who want audio synced to their lecture notes
• K-12 schools using iPads, where Goodnotes Education is free

Penbook

• People who keep planners, journals or bullet journals on an iPad
• Students who want subject paper such as Cornell, graph or chemistry
• Annotating PDF planners and worksheets with Apple Pencil

Goodnotes

• The Free plan stops at 3 files in total, 100 MB of storage and 20 minutes of audio recording, and its exports carry a watermark.
• Keeping one library in sync between Apple and non-Apple devices needs Goodnotes Cloud, which is included only from Pro.
• Goodnotes says the Android, Windows and web versions do not offer the full range of features available on iPad.
• Essential, Pro and Teams are priced per year, and AI Pass is a separate $9.99 per month add-on for more AI credits.

Penbook

• The free version is limited to a single notebook; unlimited notebooks and exports need Penbook Premium.
• The US App Store lists Penbook Premium at several amounts from $4.99 to $39.99 without stating the billing period for each.
• Penbook is built for iPhone and iPad. There is no Android, Windows or web version, and the App Store marks the Mac build as not verified for macOS.
• The Penbook 8 Live Paper engine appears only on iOS 27 or iPadOS 27, and only in newly created books.

Goodnotes

Handwritten notebooks

Notebooks mix handwriting, typed text, images and stickers on customizable paper templates. Handwriting stays searchable and can be converted to text.

PDF annotation

Imported PDFs are highlighted and marked up by hand, searched alongside notes, and keep their table of contents for navigating long documents.

Whiteboards and text documents

An infinite-canvas whiteboard for diagrams and mind maps and typed text documents with inline blocks sit in the same library as notebooks.

Audio recording and meeting notes

Audio is recorded in sync with what you write. On Pro, Goodnotes AI for Meetings transcribes and summarizes discussions and links notes to calendar events.

Goodnotes AI

An in-app assistant answers questions from handwriting, typed text and PDFs, with citations back to the source page. AI credits vary by plan; AI Pass adds about 12 times more.

Sharing and real-time collaboration

Every plan can share documents by link. Essential can join real-time collaborative documents, and Pro can host them and share by private link.

Penbook

Live Paper planners

Stationery that updates itself: a day planner with a live timeline, a weekly planner that shows connected calendars, and monthly and yearly planners that track the current date.

Over 400 stationery types

Ruled, graph, dot, Cornell, music staff, chemistry, storyboard and engineering paper among others, with adjustable density, margins and layout. Each page of a notebook can differ.

Apple Pencil inking

Writing with Apple Pencil, a stylus or a finger, with shape recognition and a lasso that resizes, recolors, reflows and straightens ink or copies handwriting out as text.

PDF import and export

PDFs import as notebooks or as custom stationery, selected pages can be dropped into notes, and a notebook or the whole library exports as vector PDF.

Handwriting search and Siri

Handwritten notes can be searched for words or phrases. Siri can find something in a notebook or take a note that lands in the Inbox notebook.

On-device AI and page history

With Apple Intelligence, to-dos written on a page become Reminders without notes leaving the device, and each page keeps a local history that can be rewound.

Goodnotes

• Free$0

  Up to 3 files, 100 MB of storage, 20 minutes of audio recording, limited sharing and limited Goodnotes AI usage.

• Essential$11.99

  per year

  Unlimited files and audio recording, 5 GB of storage, exports without a watermark, basic Goodnotes AI and Google Calendar integration.

• Pro$35.99

  per year

  Adds cross-platform library sync, private link sharing, hosting real-time collaboration, Drive integration and advanced AI including meeting notes.

• Special Edition$35.99

  one-time purchase, Apple devices only (US App Store)

  Unlimited note-taking on Apple devices without a subscription. Limited Goodnotes AI and not eligible for Goodnotes Cloud.

• Teams$120

  per seat / year

  Everything in Pro, plus SAML SSO, domain control, consolidated billing and user and admin management.

• EnterpriseCustom

  For 25 seats and above: AI permissions, the Microsoft Intune App SDK, dedicated account support and custom contracts.

Penbook

• Free$0

  Every stationery type and writing feature in one notebook, with no time limit.

• Penbook Premium$4.99 - $39.99

  per item on the US App Store; billing basis not shown

  Unlimited notebooks and exports plus new stationery and covers. Described as a yearly subscription, but the listing shows several amounts without periods.

• Penbook Premium Lifetime$49.99

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

  The same Premium features as a single purchase with no renewal.

Goodnotes

• Education

  Goodnotes Education is free for K-12 schools

  K-12 schools get Goodnotes Education at no cost, with no trial period, including its classroom tools for teachers and students. It currently works only on Apple devices.

• Lifetime license

  Special Edition one-time purchase on Apple devices

  Special Edition unlocks unlimited note-taking on Apple devices without a subscription and is listed at $35.99 on the US App Store. Availability varies by region.

Penbook

• Lifetime license

  Penbook Premium as a lifetime purchase

  Penbook Premium can be bought as a one-time in-app purchase in place of the yearly subscription. The US App Store lists Penbook Premium Lifetime at $49.99.