Notability’s Free Version Review
I have tried a fair number of notetaking apps in the past year since I purchased an iPad Air 4. I wanted to find the right one that works for me. I heard about Notability and wanted to give it a try but the price was the one thing that was keeping me from purchasing it. I don’t like to purchase apps without some type of trial first. I just want to open the app and look around. If I can’t do that, I won’t buy the app. Then Notability announced their free version of the app and I gave it a try.
Notability features
Notability has a great number of features that work well for anyone that takes notes, from different paper templates to tools that help with the notetaking process.
Features:
- Paper color options
- Different paper templates
- Import PDFs
- Pens and highlighter
- Insert pictures and sticky notes
- Favorite tools; Limit to 3 on free version
- Limited monthly usage in the free version
- More colors are behind subscription
- Hold to make shapes after drawing
- Can resize and edit shapes after drawing
Using the app
I didn’t have any problems taking notes with Notability. Writing in the app felt smooth and close to writing on paper. Just using the app for notetaking is great until you get to the edit limit in the free version. You can still view the notes but not edit them, which is weird. I couldn’t get the feel of the app once I hit that limit.
Whatever you do digitally for notes, Notability can handle it. It offers a wide range of templates from the community to get you started. Notes for students will work well with a subscription. The free version isn’t enough. Setting up a planner may be better in Goodnotes, but it works within Notability. You can save images or words as stickers to have them easily available to use throughout the document.
A quick comparison
Notability’s free version has many features that make you consider subscribing to the app. But when you compare the free versions to other apps that are free then, you wonder if it’s worth it. There is Notability’s biggest comparison, Goodnotes, and the free version is just limited in the number of notebooks and not how much you use it. Coming from an app like CollaNote to Notability and Goodnotes, it makes me wonder why Notability. To me, paying for an app like Notability isn’t worth it when Goodnotes and CollaNote exist. Goodnotes works for me just with the free version which is why Notability is not worth the subscription price.
