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App Imp

Note-taking apps.

12 apps · 3,533 reviews held · 1,461 negative · 2026-09-02 snapshot

The market’s shape

1.7star
How angry
41%
Negative reviews
57%
Room to enter
11 of 12
Willingness to pay

Mostly solved: login & auth. 8 of 8 apps run below the store’s typical rate on it, while 10 of 12 still carry sync & data complaints.

3 gaps.

Shares of this market’s 1,461 negative reviews.

Sync & dataextreme

9.4% vs 0.9% typical store-wide.

Counted in 137 reviews · 10 of 12 apps · 1.7star mean

What they said · 3 of 137
  • Goodnotes: AI Notes, Docs, PDF1star· Sep 2, 2026

    Error loggining in from an iPad with an Apple account. — Error loggining in from an iPad with an Apple account. No login issues occurred on the iphone with the same account. When attempting to log in from Apple on the iPad, there is a long loading screen followed by an error. I really liked this app and used it for a 3 years, but now this problem really shocked me, if I didn’t had that app on my p

  • Goodnotes: AI Notes, Docs, PDF1star· Aug 28, 2026

    Buggy sync — The app keeps saying that the sync fails and then I go check it manually and it looks fine, but literally every single time I open this app it says potential crashes my files might not have been able to sync. Developer bugs in the big 2026 is crazy.

  • Goodnotes: AI Notes, Docs, PDF1star· Aug 25, 2026

    Deleted my notes — It signed me out and I signed back in and ALL my notes were deleted!!!

Named problems · 2
  • Everything gone at once25 of 137
  • Sync fails between devices21 of 137

Limits & capsextreme

7.1% vs 1.9% typical store-wide.

Counted in 104 reviews · 8 of 12 apps · 2.5star mean

What they said · 3 of 104
  • Goodnotes: AI Notes, Docs, PDF1star· Aug 29, 2026

    Bought the App now I have to pay a subscription? — I’ve been using this app for years, paid full price, and now I have to pay a subscription to use any of the features. Honestly feels like a scam. I recommended this app to a lot of people in the past too. All their responses to customers that complain about this is just the same copy paste bs. I really enjoyed the app when I used it, but unfortuna

  • Goodnotes: AI Notes, Docs, PDF1star· Aug 25, 2026

    Deleted ALL my notebooks/documents — Deleted all of my documents, won’t let me redownload app without paying again WHAT? The yearly subscription for unlimited notebooks is very stupid, this app sucks and the developers are greedy. I wish I could give 0 stars.

  • Freenotes®: AI Notes Taking1star· Aug 23, 2026

    Horrible! Locked behind a paywall — Notes used to be free and the only feature you had to pay for was the AI chatbot but now you cant even make notes without premium. Ruined this app so bad. Freenotes but its not even free anymore. Used this app for a year and now its useless.

Named problems · 1
  • Core feature locked behind the paywall5 of 104

Performanceelevated

26.6% vs 16.3% typical store-wide.

Counted in 388 reviews · 12 of 12 apps · 2.3star mean

What they said · 3 of 388
  • Goodnotes: AI Notes, Docs, PDF1star· Sep 2, 2026

    Error loggining in from an iPad with an Apple account. — Error loggining in from an iPad with an Apple account. No login issues occurred on the iphone with the same account. When attempting to log in from Apple on the iPad, there is a long loading screen followed by an error. I really liked this app and used it for a 3 years, but now this problem really shocked me, if I didn’t had that app on my p

  • Goodnotes: AI Notes, Docs, PDF1star· Sep 1, 2026

    It’s not as good as before — I used to love this app, this was the only app that allowed me the freedom to draw and doodle on my first year of nursing school but now it’s too controlling, it doesn’t allow you to put a sticker anywhere nor drawing and it’s been glitching often. It’s so frustrating just navigating around this app

  • Goodnotes: AI Notes, Docs, PDF1star· Aug 31, 2026

    Horrible to use on anything other than IPAD — Horrible syncing features across devices and so many glitches/ poor compatibility with macbook pro. Ultimately switching to another note taking app as it is more trouble/stress than it is worth.

Also counted

ThemeOf 1,461 negatives
  • Billing510 · 34.9% · 12 apps
  • Support97 · 6.6% · 12 apps
  • Ads70 · 4.8% · 5 apps
  • UX64 · 4.4% · 9 apps
  • Login & auth49 · 3.4% · 6 apps
  • Accuracy3 · 0.2% · 2 apps

The tick marks the store-typical rate. A review can mention more than one theme, so these sum past 100%.

Is anyone looking for this?

What Apple and Google complete after note-taking apps, in their order.

Who they're for
students
Google
note-taking apps for ipad freenote-taking appsnote-taking apps for windows freenote-taking apps for windowsnote-taking apps freenote-taking apps for ipadnote-taking apps from audionote-taking apps for ipad handwriting
App Store
ai notes takercute notes freenote taking app for studentsnote taking apps freenote-taking apps similar to goodnotes 6paper plannerai notes & voice recordercute notes widget

Marked App Store phrases are searched, but no app in this market says them in its name. Audiences are what Apple and Google complete after “note taking app for”, with the query stripped.

Potential customers

People the apps here do not serve, and what they asked for.

  • Wants lesstoo many features 16 · just a basic one 9 · it used to be simpler 220
  • Shut out by device or contextiPad 5 · Mac 28
  • Outgrown itbulk entry 3 · bulk edit 2 · bulk delete 25

Counted in 1 to 4 star reviews. The small numbers are how many reviews named each thing. What they wrote is in the free trial.

Who’s in it

All 12 apps counted in this market · 2026-09-02.

Installs are Google's own count, captured 2026-09-06. 3 of 12 apps have an Android listing we could match. A dash means we could not pair the two stores, not that the app is absent from Play.

What they charge, and what it costs them

Prices from Apple’s public pages; the share counts payment-mechanics language only.

AppMoney complaints
QuickNotes X: Notes, AI & PDFfree4.1% of 98
Freenotes®: AI Notes Taking$1.99–$39.99 · 7 tiers3.5% of 170
Penbook: Paper Planner & Notes$4.99–$49.99 · 7 tiers2.1% of 142
Goodnotes: AI Notes, Docs, PDF$0–$35.99 · 8 tiers1.9% of 361
CollaNote: Notes & PDF Markup$6.95–$13.90 · 4 tiers1.7% of 178
Notability: AI Notes & Planner$5.99–$99.99 · 8 tiers1.5% of 394
Noteful: Notes & PDF Markup$6.99–$6.99 · 1 tiers0% of 33
mimi – Cute notes$1.99–$25.99 · 2 tiers0% of 14
Notes+ : Notes for Pencil$7.99–$137.99 · 10 tiers0% of 38
Greatnotes5 - AI Notes Taker$3.99–$139.99 · 9 tiers0% of 7
Notegpt - Note Taking AI$14.99–$49.99 · 2 tiers0% of 17
SuperNotes Note Taking App$4.99–$29.99 · 4 tiers0% of 9

What each one owns, where each is exposed

Notability: AI Notes & Planner

Owns. Largest reach (451K+ ratings); decade-long brand trust

Exposed. 69% negative; forced cloud migration wiped 300+ notes; sync fails in finals week; crashes ignored for a week

Goodnotes: AI Notes, Docs, PDF

Owns. 438K+ ratings; strong handwriting/whiteboard feature set

Exposed. 59% negative; billing via third-party 'Paddle' traps users; account lockouts cut off paid notebooks; macOS lag

Freenotes®: AI Notes Taking

Owns. 56K+ ratings; once-beloved free tier built large student base

Exposed. 49% negative; retroactively paywalled previously-free features; ads on open; limits imposed without notice

CollaNote: Notes & PDF Markup

Owns. 13K+ ratings; PDF markup; relatively lower anger at 45%

Exposed. Free-tier limits changed without notification at critical moments; glitches when paying premium

Notes

Owns. 620K+ ratings; free, zero-friction, platform-native

Exposed. 35% negative but no advanced features; no handwriting/PDF workflow; users outgrow it

Noteful: Notes & PDF Markup

Owns. 10% negative — lowest anger in set; simple one-tier IAP ($6.99)

Exposed. 22K ratings; small reach; minimal feature surface; limited differentiation headroom

The Deep Report on this market

Each rival’s exposed weakness, what not to build, and the call, argued from the same reviews counted above.

Read the Deep Report

Browse the apps behind these counts

Every app we count, with the complaint it runs furthest above the store’s typical rate.

Open the app library

Is there a market for a new note-taking app?

12 apps compete on this shelf, holding 3,533 App Store reviews. And the widest unfixed complaint, sync & data, runs in 10 of 12 of them at 9.4% of negative reviews against 0.9% typical. Those are counts, not a verdict. The page shows what is unfixed, not whether to build.

What do users complain about most in note-taking apps?

1. Sync & data: in 10 of 12 apps, 9.4% of negative reviews; 2. Limits & caps: in 8 of 12 apps, 7.1% of negative reviews; 3. Performance: in 12 of 12 apps, 26.6% of negative reviews.

How many note-taking app reviews did App Imp count?

3,533 US App Store reviews across 12 apps, 1,461 of them negative. Counted on the 2026-09-02 snapshot, never estimated.

How markets are ranked

We give each market a mark out of 100 for seven things (nobody's fixed it 20 · above the norm 15 · how angry 10 · room to build 15 · room to enter 15 · getting bigger 20 · willingness to pay 5). Then we multiply the marks together. We do not average them.

Averaging lets a market hide one bad problem behind good numbers. Multiplying means one bad mark pulls the whole score down. That is the point. A market you cannot win is still a market you cannot win, however badly it is served.

Each mark has a fixed rule. Nobody’s fixed it and willingness to pay are plain shares. Above the norm maxes out at 4 times the store’s usual rate. How angry runs from star3.0 down to star1.5. Room to enter is what the biggest app does not own. Getting bigger hits 100 at 10% growth. Room to build is different. It is a sweet spot, not a size. A market can be too small to live on, or too big to break into.

If we cannot count something, we leave it out. We never guess it. The score only sorts this list. Every other number you see on a market is counted.

How this is counted

Every number is arithmetic over the reviews we hold, re-counted weekly: nothing modelled, nothing scored. Themes come from a frozen pattern classifier rather than a model reading reviews, so the same review always lands in the same bucket. A market rate is pooled across every app here; the store rate is the same count across 12,728 apps. A complaint is only called a gap when at least half the market carries it, at least 20 reviews are behind it, and the market’s rate is elevated above the store’s, the same cutoff used everywhere on this site, because a problem concentrated in one app is that app’s bug, and a problem every app on the store shares is nobody’s gap.