GoodNotes vs Notes Plus HELP ME!!!

[xLaine]

Okay so Ive been busting my self off for weeks looking for a good note taking app and I've narrowed it down to 2: GoodNotes and Notes Plus.
I've tried GoodNotes and so far I don't have a problem with it. But when I saw Notes Plus, Ive noticed some features that are absent in GoodNotes. Reviews for Notes Plus are also good.

I wanna try it for myself but the problem is, I don't want to spend $7.99 for an app that I'm not even sure if I would settle for it. And what if GoodNotes was the better app after all? I would have spent the 7.99 for nothing.

So for all people out there who has tried both apps, can you please help me choose? Gimme the pros and cons for each. And tell me which app you settled for and why?
Also tell me which is better as a HYBRID (text+handwriting) or which is better as a handwriting app.

And for people who've tried only either of the app, youre also welcome to comment and tell me why I should go for which app.

PS: Please do not recommend me any more other apps. I've tried a LOT already and I've made up my mind about narrowing it down to these two apps only.


SORRY FOR THE LONG POST.
hope you guys can help me

 

[saberahul]

I own both but notability is better

 

[GerritV]

You mention some features in Notes Plus missing from GoodNotes.
Depending on how much you need them, the choice may become easier.
So what are these features?

 

[Taustin Powers]

I like GoodNotes better due to its intuitive interface and snappy performance. One huge downside though: For typing, it only does text boxes, not "free" typing on the page. Terrible when typing bigger portions of text, as it doesn't to page breaks. The text box just expands beyond the border of the page into oblivion. That's what killed it for me, since I usually type faster than I write. Everything else is really fantastic, including the shape recognition feature!

Notes Plus has a "free" typing mode and really all the features one can ask for. Handwriting text recognition works surprisingly well, too. But the interface is is a mess, and the performance sometimes clunky, even on the latest iPad. They are about to release a major update with a UI overhaul though, so that might be interesting. Oh, and shape recognition isn't that good, very tricky to get to work correctly.

These two are apps are the only ones that are tolerable for handwriting to me, due to the way their zoom window auto-advance works.

But truth be told, I mostly type my notes and use Notability for that!

If GoodNotes added free typing, or if NotesPlus fixed the UI/performance, both would be flawless apps. Shame, they're both so close...

 

[epicmar]

Taustin Powers is spot on! I have Notes Plus, Good Notes, Notability and many others. I know you wanted to choose between Notes Plus and Good Notes, but for all the reasons the prior post mentioned I find myself using Notability, especially the ability to just type and have the text flow from page to page.

 

[Amazing Iceman]

I second Notability for great Notetaking, as it also features synchronized audio recording, outlines, fonts, etc.

For doodling and making sketches, and other tasks I use GoodNotes.

Both apps have Dropbox synchronization.

And as I have said before, I use both, depends on what I'm doing.

If you are expecting to take handwritten notes on your iPad, I would say you'll be wasting your time. It's tedious, tiring and boring in my opinion. I like to hand type instead, reason why I use Notability.
I completely discarded handwriting as a way to take notes in most cases.

 

[.Asa]

I own both but notability is better

I agree. Notability is my favorite notes app and I believe it's only 99¢. It does everything.

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If you are expecting to take handwritten notes on your iPad, I would say you'll be wasting your time. It's tedious, tiring and boring in my opinion. I like to hand type instead, reason why I use Notability.
I completely discarded handwriting as a way to take notes in most cases.

Completely true. Every time I have tried to take handwritten notes, they turn out too sloppy to read and I get distracted doodling.

 

[saberahul]

If you are expecting to take handwritten notes on your iPad, I would say you'll be wasting your time. It's tedious, tiring and boring in my opinion. I like to hand type instead, reason why I use Notability.
I completely discarded handwriting as a way to take notes in most cases.

I've been using Notability since it first came out on my iPad 1 and have taken over 500 pages of handwritten notes. I have an excellent stylus and notability's wrist protection makes taking notes as easy as writing on paper.

 

[Amazing Iceman]

I've been using Notability since it first came out on my iPad 1 and have taken over 500 pages of handwritten notes. I have an excellent stylus and notability's wrist protection makes taking notes as easy as writing on paper.

In my case, I got interested in computers back in 1981 mainly because I hated handwriting... I would rather type, and can type for several hours straight without getting tired.

Notability is a great app for typing and also as you now say, for handwriting.

 

[Saturn1217]

I'm also interested in these apps. Especially now that notes plus has been updated. I think like the original poster i prefer the auto advance for the zoom window in goodnotes (and based on videos notes plus works the same).

For me i would want to take notes during meetings where typing would be distracting (and slower for the way i take notes which often involves diagrams) so for strictly handwriting does anyone have any input on how notes plus (latest version) compares to goodnotes?

(I've tried notability, penultimate, noteshelf, and upad also and notability would win otherwise except that zoom box auto advance just doesn't work as well)

EDIT: not trying to start anything but this would be so much easier if iOS offered a 15min return window like android does...(or course android doesn't have apps that match the quality of either of these but still...)

 

[GerritV]

I've tried the free version of GoodNotes a while ago, and have been using Notes Plus latest version for a while.
Even though there is a wee lag while handwriting in Notes Plus, I really like the result being a smooth, organic and natural writing, partially thanks to their splendid inking engine. In fact, the best I've seen of all the usual suspects.

FWIW Notes Plus has a rather minimalistic iOS7 like interface. I suggested an icon theme to the developer to make it complete. While taking notes, you can hide the toolbar to be facing a clean white sheet of paper - I really like that.

Don't know about GoodNotes, but Notes Plus has Dropbox auto-backup. Personally, I think it's a must-have if you're a serious note taker.

 

[vetopower]

For me the big feature of Notes Plus is that it has handwriting recognition. It means I can write notes and mark up PDFs and then convert my notes into searchable text.

 

[Cptnodegard]

Good Notes for me. Notes Plus is a complete no no due to interface and crappy zoom box feature. Notability has snap-to-fit zoom that doesn't let you zoom out, and I don't think it has proper dual screen functionality like I use with Good Notes for teaching.

 

[TJ61]

I've settled on Good Notes after trying a number of others, including Notability, Penultimate, and NoteShelf. The deal breaker with NoteShelf was that you couldn't zoom the page while viewing. The only zooming you could do was with the zoom box. Otherwise it was pretty good.