CollaNote: Notes & PDF Markup Reviews

by Girl_with_brown_eyes

I’m not really a journaler or a serious note taker. I scribble on posts-its and index cards so I thought it would be a good idea to get into notetaking on my iPad because I can find it easier than i can a random index card. I tried to look for an inexpensive note taking app to start off this new endeavor of keeping notes and maybe start to journal. I tried the Notes app that comes with the iPad and it lacks some pictures. And I didn’t wanna spend a lot of money on something that I might not use. Somehow I stumbled onto CollaNote and WOW!!! It has all the bells and whistles: I can import PDFs, make my own PDFs, I can draw and adjust pens/pencils, stickers, shapes there are templates, I can collaborate, have different folders 📂! The potential is incredible. And all for the low price of free!!! And even CollaNote privacy seems to be good. How? And it appears this is a one-person show! What? Anyway, I highly recommend this. Go ahead and download and use the template here or look for free bullet journal templates, or planner templates, and imported them to CollaNote and you’ll hit the ground running. I just think CollaNote is incredible and you will think so too. Huge thanks to the developer for your commitment and your generosity! Cheers!

by JamesK543

This is an amazing app. I love that it has so many feature and that it uses PencilKit (the low latency is amazing). Other paid apps have not adopted PencilKit for that amazing latency. My only gripe is that the UI seems less polished than some of the other paid app. For example, the folders look less professional, especially on the edit screen. Also the icons for pens, highlighters, etc. don’t look that good. Also the turquoise color scheme for the icons does not look great. Of course, this is just my opinion, and it is amazing that the dev made CollaNote free and is actively working on it as well. It is extremely-feature rich Once the UI is more polished, it would compete with even paid note-taking apps, and I would choose this app over them. Thanks for your work, Dev!

Edit:
I wanted to update my review after developer response. I don’t think the UI is ugly. I simply don’t think it looks as great nor polished as apps like Goodnote and Notability. Creating a very good looking UI extremely difficult, something I am not capable of, and for a single dev to do what you have done is nothing short of amazing. This is an amazing app. Hence me giving it five stars. And yes, the UI is a matter of taste.

by Zbkeith

Great note-taking app with a lot of the features of paid apps like notability.

- Includes highlighter, pen, pencil, eraser (partial/whole settings), lasso, audio recording, and tools.
- Great features: you can change certain settings, like dark/light mode, highlighter, favorite tools, etc. There are a lot of colors to choose from and you can choose to favorite the ones you like. They’ll appear on your screen on the top right corner.
- Organization: You can group your notes into folders which can be grouped into more folders. These can also be synced to the files on your device. Couldn’t find a way to sync them to OneDrive or google drive though. I think it would be nice to be able to change the view of the notebooks like in a Files/document app.
- Drawing/writing: The lines self-straighten for you (I don’t know the technical term) which is nice for when you want to draw a straight line, but it’s kind of makes for sloppy handwriting. :) I can manage with how it is though.
- I’m glad that I can download images and pdfs to draw on while taking notes in class. It would be really cool if I could download PPT slides too! Although there’s a way to convert PPT to PDFs, so it’s not a biggie. It would just be a really cool feature to have. :)

Thanks for all your hard work on this! When I’m not a poor college student, I’ll donate to CollaNote!

by Jwal999

I have been trying to get used to Goodnotes, and I have found it to be limiting and frustrating for what I want to use it for. this app is intuitive, fun to use, and functions even better for me than Goodnotes. AND it’s FREE!

I’m a new user, but so far, I love CollaNote. I have been looking for an app that I would use mainly on my iPad as a place to take quick notes (daily lists and to-dos) and take notes for work meetings. Both something that would function as digital sticky notes for quick things and a notebook for more organized notes. I’m so glad I found CollaNote!

One thing I would love would be functionality with widgets. Like, for example, I’d love to be able to add a widget to my home screen that would show a thumbnail or preview of a specific quick note — so I could see my to-do list at a glance and then tap on it to open that note directly. Anyway, thanks for a great app!

by Brookie49

I really like CollaNote I was SEARCHING for something that worked with my ADHD brain. I struggle with actual planners because sometimes I skip days and it feels like a waste of money. Plus their structuring never works for me. Here I’m putting in a picture of my classes for the day and then I can write next to it. I can easily delete the page if I skip a day so there’s no pressure. It’s easy to sort through my pages and they have cute little cat patterns. It also works super well with my iPad and I love how I can directly write onto it or use the text function. I am patiently waiting for the crop function for pictures since that’s the only extra step I have to take individually screenshotting the same picture like 7 times ( my schedule is a week but I like to crop to days) rather than just inputting the same picture 7 times and cropping each in CollaNote and not the photos app. Really like this!!

by EM 328

I am new to using electronics for school work. I am older, where we had notebooks for each subject; and pens, pencils, and highlighters rolling around in our backpacks. I decided to start taking college courses and was always the one that had about 10 different things on my desk, while all the young kids just had 2. I befriended a younger student and saw her writing on her iPad and stumbled upon this note taking feature. She used a different version, which she paid for. But I’m a married, mom of 3, with lots of bills so I looked for a good Free version. I tried one other, before stumbling upon CollaNote. CollaNote is AMAZING! No Ads, just a great note taking app with all the features she had in her paid version. Now, I have only started to use electronics for these types of things, so I can’t tell you if it is missing anything, but so far, it has hit all of my check marks. Thank you so much, developers, for such a great app!

by Ashfia Fire

this app is nice. It has features mixed in from good notes and notability. It’s affordable for the people that recently just got devices to take notes on. I like how the creator makes his cute little stickers for each day, and also it has a microphone/recording button where you can turn it on if you are too lazy to write or type. It also has “join rooms” where you can ask people questions and stuff, basically socializing. In my opinion, it’s also a good app for like drawing, cause the pens are fine. On top of that, it has a lot of templates, for example for the students that do chem or physics and need those hexagons or whatever, there’s a whole template for it. There’s also an option for sharing your files with people and you can also import photos like maybe diagrams for whatever thing you are doing. The organization system is very nice, and I think overall it’s a very good app to take notes in.

by Raini18

I’m just blown away by the quality of CollaNote, not to mention how fun it is to use! And I can’t believe it’s free! I feel incredibly lucky to have found this gem among all these other paid note apps. this app has just as many, if not more features than the other note apps I’ve seen lately. Thank you developer for making such an amazing app!

I should mention though that when I go to the text feature and try to add text by writing with the Apple Pencil, the color and font menus keep popping up and sometimes when this happens, the words I write disappear and don’t turn into text. I don’t think it’s that big of a deal, and it wasn’t worth taking a star off of my rating, but I thought I should mention it just in case. I really hope I described it well enough though haha.

All in all, this is a truly amazing app. If I could rate more than five stars, I totally would! I especially love all the stickers you can use, they add such a nice flair to the notes 😊

by Velvetsiren

I COULDN’T believe this was free the 1st time I ever played with it - the plethora of ‘premium’ (on every other app at least)’s features, the seemingly endless customization options, the intuitive UI & super intuitive navigation - when learning a new app I have to press all the ‘buttons’ & instead of CollaNote changing your page it opens up a smaller page over your existing one so it makes learning a lot easier & not overwhelming. Has templates & all types of paper options. Also has more options with pen/pencil/highlighting/writing than all other (PAID) note apps. Infinite library of colors already ready & FREE. Drag & drop content into app from anywhere. Shape tool. Unlimited number of notes & folders. Even share/collaborate on notes & create groups... it goes on. All by a single student with no ADS or in-app purchases or subscriptions or even any one-time fees. Made for literally everyone, including the broke yet ambitious! (Like me! (☞ ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)☞)

by Bryreviews

This is such an awesome app! I am incredibly impressed by how much it has for FREE! I so appreciate that it is all for free, with no ads, and still has so many wonderful features. The only thing that for me has been a little bothersome is the fact that to write text, you go to a different window and cannot see the rest of your notes at the same times. I would love if the developer could add an option of typing on the page and still see your notes :) CollaNote is overall fantastic and totally recommend it! I also really appreciate how the developer is constantly accepting feedback and improving CollaNote !

Quick Edit: I have used for some of my classes and studies, and I loving it so much! Haha it is awesome. I am also really grateful for the developer’s response. I wanted to just quickly ask if the developer is planning to include multi-window functionality, in the sense of you can open two instances of CollaNote at the same time. It would be incredibly helpful!! Thank you!!

by Hdhhndjjcndn

I am a student as well. And i am new to this whole iPad note taking thing. I was so clueless when i downloaded many other apps like i couldn't figure out as to how to use them. Then on TikTok i came across this account that was talking about CollaNote and i was like why not- best decision ever!!its user friendly and was exactly what i was looking for and the public platform notes where we can try and see how to use it is soo much better !!and it has zoom ins and writing everything ( not gonna lie CollaNote is the best thats there )it has literally all the features all the apps have combined almost as if the creator read my mind!!!

i wish though i didn't always have to like choose the hand icon for zooming/magnifying and then switch to write. I wish like it could just simultaneously zoom/ magnify when i do so instaed of having to use the hand icon ( solely because when i am writing i forget sometimes as i am in a rush ) but DOWNLOAD CollaNote DONT LOOKK FOR ANYTHUNG ELSE! The only app u wud need !

by Sydney1675

A friend recommended CollaNote when I was deciding to do more of my notes and homework online. I had tried a few others before this one, but after downloading, I knew this was exactly what I needed! CollaNote has so many simple and easy-to-use features that I couldn’t believe it was free. One of my favorite features is the ability to save all of the colors and specific tools you use on the side. I use colors to learn and this has made taking notes incredibly easy for me! I also love the ability to draw a line and hold down it makes a perfect line (or shape) for you. It’s so nice being able to download and write on pdfs to add notes to teachers’ documents, or to start a note page completely empty. My teacher has even grown curious about CollaNote and has admired all of the features as I walked him through how I take notes. There’s nothing CollaNote cannot do for me and it has truly made taking notes, staying organized, and completing work online so much easier! I would recommend to all students!!

by Mewzik Chick

I have been looking for a note-taking app for iPad that allowed me to take handwritten notes (insert plug about how you remember handwritten notes better and it facilitates learning). I had been hearing about Notability for years now, but I was never fully sold on it, especially the price (yes, I think $8 is a lot for a note-taking app that isn’t perfect). All I wanted was an app where I could write handwritten notes for class—or whichever—using lined paper and not be so limited by how many notes I could write (other free apps allowed so few notes it was impossible). I am super happy to have found CollaNote, and I am greatly looking forward to how CollaNote continues to develop in the future. I will note already that it would be nice if you could customize organization of notes within a notebook, getting to choose exactly what goes where according to your own system of organization—so far you can only choose between name, when you added it, and when you last edited it. Other than that, I am very happy with CollaNote so far!

by Dbfjsebkisfhgfiuse

This is my previous review: This is honestly the best free handwritten notes app for all. There is so many features, designs, layout, etc for free! And it is compatible with my Apple Pencil and scribble. So glad that I discovered CollaNote. However, I think it is missing one really important feature and I look forward to perfect my experience on CollaNote. It cannot turn already written notes into text which has been my first priority when using note apps and there is no way around it (like copy and paste it on another app to turn to text). I would definitely use CollaNote over all others if it wasn’t missing the “turn to text” function! Developers, please consider this!

Updated review: The developer literally took my advice and advanced CollaNote ! I noticed the new lasso option of converting handwritten notes to text. This is so amazing and I truly see so much potential in this note taking app. Now CollaNote is definitely worth 5 star and more! Thank you developer, you’re a genius and very kindhearted to make this free!

by AnandiHira

First of all, CollaNote is completely free! I mean, so few apps are free anymore. Or CollaNote has very limited features until you pay. Of course, developers need to get paid and have a way to continue work. But this developer made CollaNote for his own self and is sharing it with everyone for free. He might still be in college but is still being so responsive to reviews and requests. And I assume he’s adding on more functionality incrementally as he can. I had just got a new iPad and was super impressed by Penbook. But, I could only have 1 notebook for free. Somehow while searching, I came across CollaNote, which lets me create as many notebooks as I want, and organize by folders. There are many paper formats available, and again, all for free! I haven’t used CollaNote too much, yet, but am just initially very impressed with CollaNote so far and so glad I found it! I secretly hope it can continue to be free, but would understand if the developer would need to sustain himself at some point. But I’m looking forward to see where CollaNote goes!

by Crescendoe

All this functionality for free? What has humanity done to deserve this much goodness 😩

I love all the little touches that make it perfect for students. You’ve got all types of different graphed paper, including polar ones. Even the graph ones where you have small grids within a larger grid. You’ve got Cornell notes. Best of all, the lines are not so bold and obnoxious that they distract from the notes (I’ve scorned many American-branded physical notebooks for this, and Notability’s default templates). The pen/rendering makes my chicken scratch hurried handwriting look readable (GoodNotes could never). There’s a wide range of colors for the pen already in the palette (which I spent a lot of time making when I was using GoodNotes). AND I get to switch between light mode and dark mode for my notes! Revolutionary really. Never within the note taking apps I have PAID for have I had this feature.

And unexpectedly, most of all, I love the public notes where I get to interact and draw with other people across the world. It’s like a public google docs but I get to draw. Didn’t know I needed that in my life.

by Sublime.Sass

I am constantly searching for the perfect journaling and note taking app. Usually, they leave me wanting/needing features, or the UI is not what I'm looking for, or it's overly complicated, or, more often than not, the subscription price is ridiculously steep for what you get. Until now.

This is a nearly perfectly designed, feature rich and powerful note taking and journaling app that works smoothly and superbly with apple pencil. All of this and it is FREE! No tricks, no gimmicks, nothing!! From what I have observed, the developer is responsive and wants to put out a great app. I suspect that in time this will be a paid or subscription based app and I'm ok with that!

I'm still learning and exploring, but right now the only things I have missed are a larger selection of sticker packs (which could be offered for purchase) and text formatting within text boxes - centering within text box, assigning a specific size to font for consistency between boxes, etc). I could be missing something, or maybe there is not a way to do that. I can work around it. I have downloaded the beta so I will be exploring more.

by Boogy1776

I honestly am surprised this is not a paid app! It has many great features and is just what I need! I use CollaNote to create cute recipe cards, journal, plan my garden, and take notes! I have not even used CollaNote to its full extent! The only thing that is difficult is some features were difficult to figure out at the beginning, and then when I am using my Apple Pencil to write text in the text box portion (so not using the lasso tool to convert handwriting to text directly on the note page) it will pop up blue dots underneath some words, though they are correct. The only way I have really found to get the blue correction lines to disappear is to tap the suggested word(s), highlight and type it with the keyboard, or to scribble it out and erase it. This is really annoying when this happens to multiple words that are correct in the text box as it takes a lot of time to redo them! This could be something I am doing wrong - but Google and the questions note have been no help! If this did not happen, CollaNote would be perfect for me but I give it a 10/10 nonetheless! Great job, developer!

by Trose0409

I can’t believe one student made CollaNote by himself, you can tell by the rating compared to other apps that this one is pretty freaking close to perfect. I also love that there is a way in CollaNote itself to contact the creator to suggest the addition of any features you would like to request!
I have looked and looked at so many apps since I got my new iPad Pro to find the perfect app that would work well with the Apple Pencil and would help me to not only create but also to organize my notes, doodles, drawings, journal entries or whatever! Then I stumbled upon CollaNote after downloading so many others, and it’s near perfect with almost all the features I have found and wanted from all the other apps but wrapped into one…..with a beautifully designed and thought out UI that is easy to navigate and looks premium.
Surprised CollaNote is available for free for what it’s worth, other apps that don’t even come close to comparing usually either don’t have all the features you want or if they do, they have a poorly designed and cheap looking user interface.
»» Truly thankful for this guy, keep on with the amazing work - your future is looking mighty bright! ✨

by Natasha KV

This is a very nice, well-designed program that makes note taking feel intuitive in a digital setting. I’ve been trying to get off paper for years, downloading different programs to no avail - this finally did the trick.

CollaNote is straightforward, intuitive, and has all the functionalities I need (and none of the distractions that I don’t!). I love the different stationary types (they have engineering paper, lined grids of all sizes, dot matrix, even pretty stationeries and music manuscript). I’ve downloaded calligraphy practice pages, and use them as stationary for tracing practice. It’s easy to store and sort notes neatly (though I’d love to have the option of seeing files as a list with date/timestamp, but that’s really minor). Simple cut/paste/scroll/pen options (with the option of a weighted pencil) are exactly what I need, and I’ve never found myself desiring anything that isn’t there! It makes for a sleek, simple, highly effective program that has become a central element of my day-to-day notetaking.

I don’t often write reviews, but this program has made an enormous difference in my professional notetaking needs. I use it constantly.

by Thitluoc20

App dùng rất tốt

by Timtimtim777

TL;DR: this wildly good free app will make you question why anyone would pay for a note taking app.
CollaNote offers many of the same incredible features that paid apps such as Notability and GoodNotes use to justify price points. I downloaded it out of curiosity and now I am reconsidering making the jump to primarily use it. I am just flabbergasted that it is completely free with no micro transactions or ads. Some of the features do come out a little less polished than the other big names apps, but I have looked at the developer’s update history on their published forum and it is incredible how responsive, timely and involved the individual is. I have no doubt that in less than a few months, those polishes will be more than completed AND even more new features will be implemented. I would be more than happy to send a few $$ to the developer because they seem to actually care about improving their app and implementing feedback, vs the once very few months minor “update” provided by expensive, big name note taking apps (which sometimes include new micro transactions). Note taking apps everywhere better watch themselves on what they charge for in the future and on how fast they get features out there.