Top 9 Best Digital Planners for GoodNotes in 2023 (Free & Paid)

GoodNotes
GoodNotes Blog
Published in
10 min readDec 24, 2021

Looking for the best digital planner to replace your paper notebook?

We’ve researched and rounded up some of the best digital planners for GoodNotes on the iPad. You’ll find all-in-one planners, time-scheduling planners, and even a free digital planner, with a variety of designs to choose from.

Before you dive into our recommendations, here are a couple tips to help guide you in your search.

How to choose the best digital planner for you

Ask yourself these questions as you narrow down the best digital planner for you.

  1. Do you prefer to write in portrait or landscape mode? Choose one that fits how you hold your tablet. While planners flip depending on how you turn your tablet, they are usually designed with a specific orientation in mind.
  2. Do you want an all-in-one planner or a simple daily schedule? If you’re looking for something straightforward, pick one that doesn’t come with too many templates (or you might get overwhelmed). Otherwise, you’ll also find many digital planners that can help you plan all aspects of your life, from finance to food and more.
  3. Do you prefer a blank canvas to kick off your creativity or something that already comes fully designed? Some planners favor a minimal aesthetic for you to come up with your own layouts or decorate with stickers. Others come ready out-of-the-box, for you to dive right into with no set-up time.

With that, let’s get into our best digital planner recommendations for 2023!

GoodNotes’ picks for the best digital planners for 2023

1. 2023 Digital Planner with Reminders by My Daily Planners

Connect your digital planner directly to your calendar!

This innovative 2023 digital planner includes clickable links in its hourly schedules that opens your Google or Apple Calendar app to help you schedule a date and time for your task or event.

Saves lots of time if you love seeing your schedule in your calendar app or rely on time blocking to get things done. Here’s how it works:

And of course, this digital planner has your basic daily, weekly, and monthly plans too.

Weekly planning view in My Daily Planner’s digital planner. Tapping on the clock icons automatically opens your Google or Apple Calendar app.

Notable features:

  • Schedule events from your digital planner straight to your Google or Apple calendar
  • A variety of trackers for your financial health, health, and fitness, and even a travel planner to plan upcoming trips
  • It even has logs for your pets or kids, making this planner handy for working parents (or paw-rents!) to organize their lives.

This is the best digital planner for:

  • People who want templates to organize all aspects of their lives, from pets, kids, finances and more
  • People who rely on their calendar app to keep track of everything

2. Cyberry 2023 by KDigital Studio

Back in their unique black-and-white aesthetic, KDigital Studio’s Cyberry 2023 tech-inspired digital planner icons and navigation echo the digital interfaces you’ll usually get with a mobile app.

If you’re someone who’s always on the go, have multiple items on your calendar, or are often juggling a few different projects at once, this is the best digital planner to help you stay organized:

Cyberry supports multiple calendars, so you can separate your personal, work and school lives. You can also define custom calendars like a content calendar for your social media accounts or blog.

Notable features:

  • Multiple monthly calendar views to separate personal, work, business, and school life, with the option to name your custom calendar view
  • A minimalist layout that you can customize to your own liking
  • Community features to connect with other Cyberry digital planner enthusiasts

This is the best digital planner for:

  • People who want to connect with the online digital planning or other planning enthusiasts
  • People who wear multiple hats, like running a side business, or work/study part-time
  • Those that prefer a minimal, customizable planner to make their own

3. 2023 Planner by TemplateStack

If you’re looking for a digital planner for scheduling and project management, try TemplateStack’s 2023 digital planner.

With a simple navigation, this is one of the best digital planners for beginners who are getting used to all the internal links and pages digital planners come with.

In addition to your basic daily, weekly, and monthly spreads, this planner also includes “someday” lists.

Use these to track to-dos and ideas that you don’t necessarily have a timestamp for just yet. For example, record places to go, skills to learn, or ideas to implement in your work or personal life.

Notable features:

  • Project management templates to keep projects moving in the right direction
  • Easy-to-follow links and navigational design
  • Comes with icons, digital stickers, and some bonus Cornell notes templates too

This is the best digital planner for:

  • A productivity-minded person
  • You’re a go-getter who has a need for project management templates
  • A beginner who needs a more straightforward daily planner

4. The 2023 Focus Course Digital Planner by The Sweet Setup

Need help making your New Year’s Resolution come true?

The Sweet Setup’s digital planner is perfect for those who want a structured planning process.

This digital planner is best for those that want to set their intentions for each day, which is why each daily page starts out with listing your focuses.

If you want lots of space to plan out every hour of every day, you might not have the space for it in this planner.

Notable features:

  • Monthly habit trackers with a daily log for each day’s highlight
  • Quarterly focus statements to help you reflect and plan for each quarter
  • A structured goal-setting process to help you get clear on your goals and work towards them
  • A personal index page to keep track of specific planner pages.

This is the best digital planner for:

  • Those looking for a planner that will help them achieve their bigger picture new year resolutions, as opposed to daily details
  • People who need a structured approach to achieve their goals
  • People who like to include regular reflection and weekly goal-setting in their planning process

5. 2023 Goal Planner by Laurel Studio

Here’s another digital planner that’s going to help you get on track.

Laurel Studio’s digital planner includes a “Goal Clarity Roadmap,” a self-guided tool to help you clarify your focus for the year, audit your time, and even create your ideal weekly schedule.

Another unique thing is that you can completely customize this planner. Besides the dated weekly spreads, Laurel Studio has included undated 7-day and 5-day options to create the best digital planner for your needs.

Undated 5-day week view

Notable features:

  • Pomodoro tracker to help with focus and task prioritization
  • Portrait and landscape page orientation options
  • 10 layout versions to design the right planner for you
  • 500+ digital stickers in a tabbed sticker book

This is the best digital planner for:

  • People who enjoy a step-by-step goal-setting process and want to focus on achieving a few essential goals in 2023
  • People who like to tinker and customize their planner layout
  • Because of the 5-day layout option, this is also a great choice for those who just want a planner for their Monday to Friday work days

6. 2023–2024 All-in-One Planner by ForLittleLion

The digital planner that gives you the best bang for your buck is fromFor LittleLion.

This digital planner covers every day, week, and month for both 2023 and 2024 — along with more stickers than you can count.

Truly an all-in-one digital planner, this will allow you to track your entire life, with trackers for finance, wellness, fitness, and more. You’ll also get a space for gratitude journaling and mood tracking to encourage you to check in with yourself daily.

Notable features:

  • Bonus 2024 digital planner
  • 4 color themes and weekly layout options
  • Trackers for nutrition, wellness, fitness, 30-day challenges, and more
  • Bonus 10000+ pre-cropped digital stickers and 450+ stickers to use in GoodNotes

This is the best digital planner for:

  • People who prefer not to switch planners every year
  • People who want to bring a more mindful focus to their days
  • People who want an all-in-one planner that helps them organize and plan every aspect of their lives

7. 2023 Paperlike Full Pro Planner

If you’re looking for a free digital planner to plan your daily schedule and prioritize to-dos, Paperlike’s digital planner is for you.

If you’re looking for something to get the job done, this planner allows you to plan your days without the bells and whistles. You won’t find any extra templates or sheets — which also makes less overwhelming for a digital planning newbie.

If you do want something that goes further than the basics, there’s also a Digital Pro Planning bundle for sale with more planner customization options, including.

It’s easy to find a style you like thanks to this modular approach. Don’t use monthly calendars? The smaller weekly and daily planners are a good choice too.

Notable features:

  • Hourly schedules on weekly and daily pages to plan your day or week
  • Spacious, minimal layout on each page to write notes, jot down top priorities and to-dos
  • (Digital Pro Planning bundle only): 10 planner variations with daily and weekly planning options, with light and dark mode design options.

This is the best digital planner for:

  • Beginners who are dabbling into digital planning and want to start with a “free trial”
  • Anyone looking for a straightforward digital planner focused on schedule planning with no extra trackers or templates

8. 2023 Planner by Good Mondays Paper

Prefer a blank canvas to express your creative personality? The digital planner from Good Mondays Paper has both a minimal design that can stand on its own, but leaves enough flexibility for you to make it your own.

This customizable planner can be as basic or as expansive as you’d like, with several extra templates and trackers included. For example, besides the classic scheduled daily page layout, there are bullet journal styled layouts, giving you the space to create your own spreads and decorate your planner however you want.

Notable features:

  • Various customization options, including a new half-hourly vertical weekly layout, a bullet journal-style grid and dotted daily templates
  • Portrait or landscape layout options, with step-by-step instructions to customize your desired planner layout
  • Monthly trackers, goal-setting, and reflection pages
  • 200+ stickers and 20+ planner covers to make your planner your own

This is the best digital planner for:

  • People who want the flexibility to record as much or as little as they like
  • Creative people who want to create their own spreads

9. 2023 Noteamine Planner

If you’re looking for a ready-designed planner, that helps keep you accountable to your goals, this could be the best planner for you.

This planner’s subtle yet elegant aesthetic, classic font, and calming soft beige page colors. This digital planner also includes a step-by-step goal-setting guide and a helpful life assessment guide to bring a more mindful focus to the year ahead.

Notable features:

  • Reflection and goal setting system including prompts, life assessment and goal planning sections
  • Helpful brain dump section to jot down ideas and notes
  • Daily, weekly and monthly reflection pages with reflection prompts
  • Additional travel logs, contact lists, cleaning templates, and more

This is the best digital planner for:

  • Someone who wants a digital planner with an elegant aesthetic that doesn’t need any touching up
  • People who want a digital planner that helps them focus on their goals

Bonus: Shop the GoodNotes Shop

New! GoodNotes now has an in-app store with a selection of digital stationery, including digital planners, stickers, templates, and covers too.

Click here to open the GoodNotes shop on your iPad or iPhone!

How to use GoodNotes for digital planning

  • To import your digital planner to GoodNotes: Open the GoodNotes app, tap on the + sign, and select Import. If you’re downloading a file from Google Drive, Dropbox, or Safari, tap “Open in GoodNotes” from the share menu.
  • How to click built-in links in GoodNotes: Go to Read-Only Mode at the top right corner of your screen, which removes the blue toolbar, as shown below. Now you can click on links in your digital planners, including navigating between months and different sections.
  • Use the bookmark option to save your favorite pages. Some planners have more than 500 pages, which can be a lot to flip through. We’d recommend using the bookmark option in GoodNotes to access your favorite pages easily.

Start your digital planning journey in 2023 with these helpful resources:

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