Goodnotes vs OneNote: A comparison for professionals

If you use a note-taking app for work, Goodnotes and Microsoft OneNote can both help you keep meeting notes, project notes, ideas, and reference material in one place. But they approach note-taking differently.

So, to find the better fit for your workflow, ask:

• What can you do with PDFs and other work documents?
• How easy is it to organize and find notes across projects?
• Can you access your notes across the devices you use for work?
• Can the AI features summarize, search, and work with your notes?
• And which pricing model makes more sense for how you’ll use the app?
• Which app works better for handwritten meeting notes and visual ideas?

In this Goodnotes vs. OneNote for work comparison, we’ll look at the features, AI tools, and pricing, so you can decide which tool fits your everyday workflows.

Goodnotes vs OneNote for note-taking: Which is right for your work?

If you spend a lot of time marking up PDFs or sketching ideas by hand, you’ll need a different set of features than someone who mostly types meeting notes, keeps project information organized, or works with Microsoft 365.

Before we compare Goodnotes vs OneNote directly, let’s look at the core aspects of the experience that you should consider:

• Note-taking tools: Look at the different ways you can build and customize a note. Compare handwriting, typing, drawing, images, audio, page templates, text boxes, and how freely you can arrange content on the page.
• Handwriting experience: If you use a stylus, pay attention to pen responsiveness, pressure sensitivity, handwriting gestures, shape recognition, and how easily you can move, edit, search, or convert handwritten content.
• Organization and search: Think about how much information you’ll build up over time. Compare how each app handles notebooks, sections or folders, individual pages, and search across your notes. The important consideration is how quickly you can get back to a client note, meeting decision, or project detail when you need it.
• PDF annotation and OCR: If your team reviews reports, contracts, presentations, plans, or scanned documents, compare how each app handles importing and marking up PDFs. Look at highlighting, handwriting, comments, and page navigation, as well as whether OCR can recognize, search, and extract text from scanned or image-based PDFs. Also check how annotations carry over when you export or share the document.
• AI capabilities: Check what AI can do with the information in your notes, such as summarizing content, answering questions, helping you work through ideas, or finding information you’ve already captured. Also check which AI features require a separate plan or subscription.
• Meeting notes and audio: If meetings make up a large part of your week, compare what each app lets you capture alongside your written notes. That could include audio recording, transcription, summaries, or ways to turn a page of rough meeting notes into something you can refer back to afterward.
• Sharing and collaboration: You may need to share a notebook, send material to a colleague, or work on notes together. Check how sharing works, whether people can edit at the same time, and how much control you have over access.
• Device and cross-platform compatibility and syncing: Compare support for iPad, iPhone, Mac, Windows, Android, and the web, as well as whether the same features are available everywhere.
• Integrations: Your existing tools may influence the decision. If much of your work already happens in Microsoft 365, look at how OneNote fits into that setup. If your priority is a dedicated note-taking and annotation experience, look at how well Goodnotes handles those workflows without turning your notes into a larger workspace.
• Security and admin controls: Check whether tools have the security capabilities you need, whether that’s your own preferences or organization-wide compliance rules. Ensure you can share access to the tool with the necessary individuals.
• Pricing: Compare the free versions first, then look at what you need to pay for. Check subscription prices, one-time purchase options where available, AI add-ons, and whether the features you need sit behind a higher-priced plan.

Goodnotes vs OneNote: Comparison overview

To make the comparison easier to scan, we’ve used the following symbols throughout the table:

• ✅ Available
• ⚠️ Available with limitations, on selected plans or platforms, or with a different implementation
• ❌ Not available

Goodnotes vs OneNote: Note-taking experience

Goodnotes gives you three distinct ways to take and work with notes:

1. Notebooks are built for handwriting and mixed-media notes. You can write with Fountain, Ball, or Brush pens, adjust stroke thickness and color, highlight, draw shapes, add typed text and images, and move content around with the Lasso tool. Goodnotes also includes stroke stabilization and pressure controls for supported pen styles and styluses.
2. Whiteboards give you an infinite canvas for mind maps, diagrams, brainstorming, and other work that doesn’t fit neatly onto a page. A Whiteboard can contain multiple notes and boards, so you can keep related visual work together rather than creating a separate file for every canvas.
3. Text Documents are for typing. They have a pageless, block-based layout, so you can structure content with headings, lists, tables, images, quotes, and other rich content, then move individual blocks around as the document develops.

The handwriting tools give you a high-quality stylus experience. Scribble to Erase lets you erase handwriting without switching tools, while Circle to Lasso lets you circle something and immediately move, resize, or edit it. You can also reflow handwriting, insert space, straighten or align written text, convert handwriting to typed text, and use handwriting spellcheck.

For meetings or interviews, you can record audio while taking notes. It then links the recording to what you wrote, so you can play the audio back alongside the handwriting you added at that point. 

You also get tools like Tape, the Laser Pointer, Zoom Window, reusable Elements, document tabs, and QuickNotes for different parts of your workflow—whether that’s PDF annotation or team presentations. Notebooks can use built-in or custom page templates, while the Goodnotes Marketplace adds planners, notebook templates, Whiteboard templates, covers, stickers, and other digital stationery.

OneNote keeps everything inside a single notebook structure, with sections, pages, and subpages. Each page works as an infinite canvas where you can place typed text, handwriting, drawings, images, file attachments, tables, and audio recordings wherever you want. Its Draw tools include pens, highlighters, erasers, Lasso Select, shapes, and custom colors, while features such as Ink to Shape and handwriting-to-text conversion are available on supported Windows versions.

OneNote also supports ruled and grid lines, page background colors, tags for things like to-dos and important notes, and reusable page templates. However, templates are limited across devices. You can create and apply them on Windows, but you can’t create pages from templates on iPad, iPhone, or Mac, and the web version can only open and edit pages that already use a template.

Handwriting tools also vary by platform. OneNote for iPad supports pens, highlighters, custom colors, and different stroke thicknesses, but it doesn’t convert handwriting to typed text. That conversion is also unavailable on Mac and OneNote for the web.

Goodnotes vs OneNote: Handwriting experience

Goodnotes is built around a stylus-first writing experience for iPad, so you can edit, reorganize, search, and convert your handwriting. The Pen Tool includes Fountain, Ball, and Brush pens, with controls for thickness, color, pressure sensitivity, and stroke stabilization. There’s also a Pencil tool for sketching and drawing.

Goodnotes gives you several ways to work:

• Edit handwriting: Use the Lasso Tool to move, resize, rotate, recolor, duplicate, or delete handwritten content. You can also straighten lines, change text alignment, and insert extra space between existing notes.
• Reflow handwritten text: Resize a selected block of handwriting, and Goodnotes can move words onto new lines automatically. 
• Use pen gestures: Scribble over handwriting to erase it with Scribble to Erase. Circle content with your pen to select it using Circle to Lasso, then move, resize, or edit it.
• Correct spelling without converting to text: Goodnotes can underline misspelled handwritten words and suggest corrections. You can also add names, acronyms, and specialist terms to your Personal Dictionary.
• Convert handwriting to typed text: Select handwriting with the Lasso Tool and turn it into editable text when you need to move notes into a report, email, or another document.
• Clean up shapes and diagrams: Draw a rough line, circle, polygon, or other supported shape and hold your stylus in place to straighten it. The Shape Tool also supports connectors and text inside shapes for diagrams and flowcharts.
• Convert handwritten math: Goodnotes can turn handwritten equations into typeset math and generate the corresponding LaTeX.
• Control how you erase: Choose between Precision, Standard, and Stroke erasers. You can also erase specific types of content, such as highlighter strokes, without removing the handwriting underneath.
• Write more comfortably on iPad: Palm rejection helps prevent accidental marks while your hand rests on the screen. The Zoom Window magnifies part of the page for smaller, more precise handwriting and can automatically move forward as you write.
• Use Apple Pencil controls: On supported iPads, Apple Pencil features such as Hover, Squeeze, and Barrel Roll can make it faster to preview strokes, switch tools, or adjust how a pen stroke behaves.

For OneNote, the handwriting experience depends on the device you use. Windows gets the most complete set of inking tools, while iPad, Mac, web, and Android have different limitations.

• Write and customize ink: On supported devices, OneNote lets you write with pens and highlighters, adjust colors and stroke thickness, and erase ink. Windows also supports pressure sensitivity on compatible hardware. On iPad, you can create custom pens and highlighters with five thickness settings.
• Edit handwriting: Use Lasso Select to select handwritten words or drawings, then move, copy, delete, recolor, or resize them. On Windows, selected handwriting can also be converted to typed text. Android supports moving and resizing selected ink, while iPad supports moving, copying, deleting, and recoloring it. 
• Add space around handwritten notes: On Windows, Insert Space lets you create extra room in the middle of a page and move the content below it down. This helps when you need to add more notes later, but it doesn’t automatically reflow handwriting onto new lines when you resize it.
• Use pen gestures: On Windows, Scratch-out lets you scribble over ink to erase it without changing tools. Draw and Hold can turn rough lines and shapes into cleaner versions when you hold the pen down at the end of the stroke.
• Convert handwriting to typed text: Ink to Text lets you select handwritten words and convert them into editable text on Windows. OneNote for iPad, Mac, and the web doesn’t support handwriting-to-text conversion.
• Search handwritten notes: OneNote can recognize handwriting and include it in search results, so handwritten information can be found alongside typed notes. 
• Clean up shapes and diagrams: Ink to Shape can turn rough drawings into cleaner shapes on Windows. Draw and Hold also supports lines, arrows, circles, rectangles, triangles, and several other shapes. iPad supports shape recognition for common shapes, while Android and the web don’t offer the same full toolset. 
• Convert handwritten math: On Windows, Ink to Math can turn handwritten equations into typed mathematical notation. OneNote’s Math Assistant can then solve equations, graph them, and provide step-by-step help. Math Assistant also works on iPad.
• Erase handwriting: OneNote includes an Eraser Tool across its main handwriting-enabled platforms. On Windows, you can also enable Scratch-out to erase ink with a scribble gesture. On iPad, you can erase individual strokes or use Lasso Select to delete several at once.
• Reduce accidental palm input: On iPad, Stylus Orientation tells OneNote how you hold your Apple Pencil or another compatible stylus. 

Goodnotes vs OneNote: Organization and search

Goodnotes uses a folder-based Library to organize Notebooks, PDFs, Whiteboards, Text Documents, and other files. Folders can contain subfolders, so you can build a structure around clients, projects, meetings, or reference material. 

You can also customize folders with colors and icons, switch between grid and list views, and favorite documents or folders you open frequently. Other organization features include:

• Search across your library: Goodnotes can search handwriting, typed text, document and folder titles, document outlines, scanned documents, and text in PDFs that already contain an OCR layer. 
• Outlines and bookmarks: Outlines give longer notebooks and PDFs their own navigation structure, while bookmarks let you save individual pages for quicker access. Outline items can be nested, reordered, searched by title, and used to jump directly to a page.
• Flexible folder structure: Documents and folders can be moved as your projects change, and nested folders let you create several levels of organization.

OneNote uses a notebook hierarchy rather than a folder-based library. Each notebook contains sections, and each section contains pages and subpages. 

OneNote lets you:

• Search across notebooks: OneNote can search typed text, handwriting, and text that appears inside inserted images. On supported desktop versions, search can also find spoken words in audio and video recordings when Audio Search is enabled. You can narrow results to the current page, section, section group, notebook, or all open notebooks.
• Pages, subpages, and section groups: Pages sit inside sections, while subpages let you group related pages under a main page. Section groups add another level for larger notebooks, which is useful if you want separate areas for clients, projects, meetings, or departments.
• Tags for important information: Tags such as ‘to do’, ‘important’, and ‘question’ can be added to typed or handwritten notes. On supported desktop versions, ‘find tags’ pulls tagged items into a summary so you can review them across your notes.
• OneDrive sync: OneNote notebooks stored in OneDrive or SharePoint sync automatically across supported devices. You can also trigger a manual sync when you want to make sure recent changes have uploaded

It’s important to note that OneNote doesn’t automatically sort or alphabetize your sections and pages. You need to arrange those tabs yourself, so a large notebook can require more manual upkeep as it grows. 

Goodnotes vs OneNote: PDF annotation and OCR

With Goodnotes’ PDF annotation, you can import contracts, reports, presentations, forms, technical drawings, and other PDFs, then use the same handwriting and editing tools you use in your notes.

With Goodnotes, you can:

• Write and draw anywhere on the PDF: Add handwritten notes, circle sections, sketch ideas, draw arrows or shapes, and add typed text or images directly to the page.
• Highlight and mark up text: Use the Highlighter Tool to call out important sections, then add handwritten or typed feedback alongside them. This works well for reviewing contracts, reports, proposals, and other documents where comments need to stay close to the source material.
• Add comments for team reviews: Leave comment threads at specific points in a shared document, so colleagues can discuss feedback without adding more markup to the page itself.
• Organize longer PDFs: Reorder, rotate, copy, or remove pages as you work. Goodnotes can also use existing PDF outlines for navigation, and you can add your own outline entries to jump back to important sections.
• Search your annotations and PDF text: Handwriting you add in Goodnotes is searchable. Text in the original PDF is searchable too, if the PDF already contains a searchable text or OCR layer. Goodnotes doesn’t add OCR to an imported image-only PDF.
• Keep different rounds of markup separate: With Goodnotes Pro you can keep the original PDF on one layer, add different rounds of annotations on others, and hide or export only the layers you need. 

Goodnotes gives you two main export options:

• Editable PDF: Keeps the original PDF’s hyperlinks and outline. Handwriting, highlights, text boxes, and images can remain separate objects that can be selected or moved in compatible PDF apps. Handwriting isn’t searchable in this format.
• Flattened PDF: Combines the page and annotations into a more widely compatible PDF. If you enable handwriting recognition, your handwritten notes can remain searchable and copyable after export. However, the original PDF’s hyperlinks and outline aren’t preserved.

OneNote treats PDFs differently. You need to insert a PDF into a OneNote page as a file printout. Each PDF page then becomes an image on the OneNote canvas, and you add handwriting, highlights, text, or other notes over those images. 

With OneNote, you can:

• Write and draw over PDF pages: Once the PDF is inserted as a printout, you can use OneNote’s pens, highlighters, shapes, and other inking tools over the page images.
• Use OCR on PDF printouts: OneNote for Windows can recognize text in the images created from a PDF printout. You can copy text from one page or extract it from every page in a multi-page printout, then paste it into OneNote, Word, Outlook, or another app. OCR quality depends on the source image, and Microsoft notes that recognition can sometimes take up to 24–48 hours.
• Extract text from images on Mac: OneNote for Mac can use OCR on photos, screenshots, and scanned images, then copy the recognized text into OneNote or another app. 
• Export your markup as a new PDF: When you export a OneNote page to PDF, the printout and anything you added over it appear together in the exported file. However, the result is a static snapshot of the OneNote page. Changes you make later in OneNote won’t update that exported PDF.
• Export options vary by platform: Your PDF printout and the annotations you add in OneNote can be exported together as a new PDF. However, OneNote exports the page as it appears in the notebook rather than preserving the original PDF with editable annotation layers.

Goodnotes vs OneNote: AI features and capabilities

Goodnotes AI works with the content already inside your Notebooks, Whiteboards, and Text Documents. Its current AI features include:

• Ask Goodnotes: Ask questions about your notes, summarize longer material, clarify information, or find specific details without searching page by page. Goodnotes AI can work across typed text, handwriting, PDFs, images, and diagrams.
• Create Mode: The create mode helps you generate or refine content directly inside a document. It can create written drafts, templates, images, diagrams, mind maps, timelines, and other visual content, then let you continue editing the result in Goodnotes.
• Handwriting tools: AI-assisted features include handwriting spellcheck, handwriting-to-text conversion, and tools for refining handwritten content. Several of these run on-device rather than using cloud AI credits.
• Goodnotes AI for Meetings: Record and transcribe client meetings for iPad, follow a live summary as the conversation progresses, and generate or enhance meeting notes afterward. Calendar Connection can also link upcoming meetings with their notes.
• ChatGPT and Claude integrations: Create Text Documents, Whiteboards, and diagrams through ChatGPT or Claude integrations, then import them into your Goodnotes library. These integrations create new documents rather than analyzing or editing documents already stored in Goodnotes.

Advanced features like Create Mode, image generation, and live meeting summaries require Goodnotes Pro or AI Pass plan. And Teams and Enterprise offer AI capabilities, with 6,300 AI credits per seat each month.

OneNote’s AI features center on Microsoft Copilot, which works with notes and other information in your Microsoft 365 account. 

Current capabilities include:

• Summaries and Q&A: Summarize pages, sections, selected text, or specific topics, then ask questions about your notes to find them quickly.
• Task lists and planning: Turn notes into to-do lists, action items, brainstorm ideas, and draft project plans, meeting agendas, or discussion points.
• Writing assistance: Rewrite selected text to change the tone, style, level of formality, or length without leaving OneNote.
• Bring Microsoft 365 content into your notes: The ‘Take Notes with Copilot’ feature can pull relevant information from documents, messages, and emails into a OneNote page. That can be useful for bringing context from previous conversations into your notes.
• Copilot Notebooks: Group OneNote pages with Word documents, PowerPoint decks, Excel files, links, and Copilot chats, then ask questions or generate summaries based on that collection of sources.

Access to Copilot depends on your Microsoft 365 subscription or work license, and your organization can restrict access. Microsoft currently supports Copilot in OneNote for Microsoft 365 on Windows, Mac, and iPad, while some web capabilities are still rolling out. 

Context also differs by platform. On Mac and iPad, for example, Copilot currently works with the page you’re viewing, Microsoft 365 files you can access, and web information, while section- and notebook-level context is still being added.

Goodnotes vs OneNote: Meeting notes and audio recording

Goodnotes lets you record audio while you take notes, then come back to the recording without separating it from the page you were working on.

• Note Replay: Your handwriting is linked to the audio timeline as you write. During playback, you can tap a handwritten note to jump back to what was being said at that point in the recording. Replay modes are currently available on the macOS and iOS app, and only inside Notebook documents.
• Keep multiple recordings in one document: A document can contain several audio clips, all accessible from the Audio panel for playback and navigation.
• Record while working elsewhere: Recording can continue while you open another Goodnotes document. On Apple devices, Windows, and the web, it can also continue when you switch to another app.
• Turn recordings into searchable transcripts: Goodnotes can transcribe recordings in two ways. Cloud transcription is available with Goodnotes Pro, AI Pass, Teams, and Enterprise, and works across supported Goodnotes platforms. On-device transcription is only available on Apple devices. 
• Meeting notes from recordings: Goodnotes AI for Meetings can use the transcript to generate meeting notes or fill gaps in notes you took yourself. Generated notes appear below your existing content rather than replacing it.

It's important to note that audio recordings aren’t preserved when you export a document as a PDF. To send the notes and recording together, you need to share or export the document in Goodnotes format. 

OneNote lets you record audio directly inside a page while you take notes.

• Linked audio and notes: Typed or handwritten notes created during a recording stay connected to the relevant point in the audio, which makes it easier to revisit the context around a meeting note or comment.
• Transcription: In OneNote for Microsoft 365 on Windows, Transcribe can turn a live recording or uploaded audio file into text. The transcript separates speakers and includes timestamps, while your ink can replay alongside the recording.
• Upload existing recordings: Transcribe also supports prerecorded .wav, .mp4, .m4a, and .mp3 files, so the audio doesn’t have to originate inside OneNote.
• Search spoken content: On supported desktop versions, Audio Search can recognize words spoken in audio and video recordings and make them searchable from OneNote. 

The main limitation is platform support. OneNote’s meeting workflow is currently Windows-only. On Windows, you can transcribe live or uploaded audio, separate speakers, add timestamps, and replay ink alongside the recording. Mac, iOS, and Android can record audio, but they don’t offer the same Transcribe and synchronized ink-playback features, while OneNote for the web doesn’t support any audio recording features.

Goodnotes vs OneNote: Sharing and collaboration capabilities

Goodnotes offers both link sharing and real-time collaboration features.

• Private sharing: You can invite specific people by email, control who has access, and remove access later. Public share links are also available on paid plans.
• Real-time collaboration: Multiple users can work in the same document and see updates as they happen. Live Cursor shows where collaborators are writing or editing, and shared sessions can display pen strokes, laser pointers, and lasso selections in real time.
• Participant limits: Up to 50 people can collaborate with live cursors and instant updates at the same time.
• Comments: Collaborators can leave feedback without changing the document itself, and Text Documents support comments on specific sections. However, editing and resolving comments is currently limited on Android, Windows, and the web.
• Cross-platform collaboration: Goodnotes Teams uses Goodnotes Cloud so team members can access and share documents across Apple, Android, Windows, and web experiences.

OneNote collaboration is built around shared notebooks stored in OneDrive or SharePoint. You can invite specific people or create a link, then give them either view-only or editing access. Permissions can also be changed or removed later.

People with editing access can work in the same notebook at the same time. OneNote syncs their changes automatically. On Windows, you can also display author initials to see who made specific edits. Android users can open and edit shared notebooks, but they can’t share a notebook from the Android app. To invite other people, they need to use OneNote on Windows, Mac, or the web. 

However, OneNote no longer lets you share a single editable page on its own. Sharing a page or section link still gives the recipient access to the entire notebook, so you may need to create a separate notebook if you only want someone to see part of your notes.

Goodnotes vs OneNote: Device and cross-platform compatibility and syncing

Goodnotes works across iPad, iPhone, Mac, Windows, Android, Chromebook, and the web.  Here’s a look at the device compatibility in detail:

• Apple devices: Goodnotes supports iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Vision Pro, with its most complete handwriting and stylus experience on iPad. The current app requires iOS or iPadOS 18.7 or later and macOS 15.7 or later. 
• Windows: Goodnotes runs on Windows 10 or later with at least 4 GB of RAM.
• Android and Chromebook: Goodnotes supports Android tablets running Android 14 or later with at least 4 GB of RAM and an 8-inch or larger display. Chromebook support requires ChromeOS 128 or later.
• Web: Goodnotes Web runs in Chrome and Microsoft Edge, with Safari and Firefox offering more limited support. Web access is available with Teams, but not Enterprise. 
• Cross-platform syncing: Goodnotes Cloud can keep the same library synced across Apple, Android, Windows, and the web. Teams use Goodnotes Cloud for cross-device syncing, while Apple users can use iCloud Sync to keep a library updated between iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
• Offline access: Goodnotes supports offline editing on Android, Windows, and the web, although documents need to preload before all pages are available offline. Changes sync back to Goodnotes Cloud when you reconnect.
• Cloud backup: On iOS and iPadOS, Auto Backup can save copies of documents to Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, or WebDAV. It’s a one-way backup rather than a syncing system, so changes made to those copies don’t update the originals in Goodnotes. 

It’s important to note that iCloud Sync and Goodnotes Cloud aren’t the same thing. An iCloud library stays within Apple devices. If you want that same library available on Windows, Android, or the web, you need to use Goodnotes Cloud instead.

OneNote syncs cloud-based notebooks through OneDrive or SharePoint. Once a notebook is stored there, changes sync automatically as you work and become available on your other signed-in devices.

You can also force a manual sync when you need the latest changes uploaded immediately. If you lose your connection, OneNote keeps a local copy on supported installed apps, lets you continue editing, and uploads those changes after you reconnect.

Goodnotes vs OneNote: Native integrations

Goodnotes integrations are built around getting information into your notes, connecting meetings to your calendar, or moving work between Goodnotes and other tools.

• ChatGPT and Claude: Create Text Documents, Whiteboards, diagrams, and other content in a chat, then bring it into your Goodnotes library. These integrations create new documents rather than editing files already stored in Goodnotes.
• Google Calendar: Connect Google Calendar to see upcoming events, create notes tied to meetings, and receive reminders before they start.
• Google Drive and OneDrive: Import files directly from connected Google Drive or OneDrive accounts. Direct Drive integration is included with paid plans.
• Cloud storage: Import files from services such as Google Drive and OneDrive without downloading them separately first.
• Cloud backup: Auto Backup can save copies of documents to Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, or WebDAV. It’s currently available on iOS and iPadOS and works as a one-way backup, so changes to the cloud copy don’t update the original document in Goodnotes.
• Email to Goodnotes: Subscribers can send PDF attachments to a unique Goodnotes email address and have them imported into their library. It only accepts attached PDFs up to 25 MB; links and other file formats aren’t imported.

Goodnotes AI for Meetings can also record while you’re on Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, or another call, but there’s no direct integration with those meeting platforms. The meeting is recorded through Goodnotes itself.

OneNote, on the other hand, is tightly connected to the wider Microsoft 365 ecosystem.

• Outlook: Send emails or meeting invitations to OneNote, or pull meeting details such as attendees, date, location, and agenda into a page.
• Microsoft Teams: Add a notebook to a Teams channel so people can open and edit it without leaving Teams.
• OneDrive and SharePoint: Store notebooks in either service for access, sharing, and collaboration across Microsoft 365.
• Power Automate: Build workflows that create pages, work with notebook sections, and connect OneNote with other supported business apps.
• Loop: Add live Loop components to OneNote on Windows desktop and the web. People with access can edit the component and see the changes wherever that Loop component is embedded.
• Web Clipper: Save webpages, articles, selected regions, and PDF pages directly into a notebook from your browser.

Goodnotes vs OneNote: Security and admin controls

Goodnotes includes both document-level privacy features and organization-wide security controls for business customers:

• Security and compliance: SOC 2 Type II and ISO/IEC 27001 certification support business security requirements, alongside GDPR and CCPA compliance. Cloud data is encrypted and hosted on AWS infrastructure with access controls, monitoring, DDoS protection, and regular testing.
• Identity and access management: The Teams plan supports Google, Microsoft, and Apple sign-in through OIDC, plus SAML SSO. Organizations can verify their domain, restrict access to approved company domains, and automatically add users who sign in with a matching work email.
• User and role management: The Admin Console lets admins add and remove users, assign roles, and revoke access when someone leaves the organization. 
• Enterprise feature controls: IT teams can allow or block iCloud Sync, Auto Backup providers, Email to Goodnotes, audio recording, on-device AI features, and cloud-based AI such as Ask Goodnotes.
• MDM and Microsoft Intune: Enterprise deployments can be managed through MDM, with Microsoft Intune App Protection Policies available to control how company data moves between managed apps.
• AI privacy controls: Notebook content isn’t used to train AI models unless a user voluntarily submits it as feedback. On-device AI features such as handwriting spellcheck process data locally instead of sending notebook content to external servers.
• Document protection: On iPhone and iPad, individual Notebooks and Whiteboards can be locked with a password and unlocked with Face ID or Touch ID. One password applies across protected documents; the lock doesn’t encrypt the notebook itself, and protected documents can’t currently be opened in locked form on Android, Windows, or the web. Locked documents are also excluded from Auto Backup.

OneNote’s built-in security controls focus mainly on password-protected notebook sections. You can give different sections their own passwords, and Microsoft uses 128-bit AES encryption to protect them. On compatible iPad and iPhone devices, Touch ID can also be used to unlock protected sections.

Audio recordings are stored as separate files, so they aren’t protected by the section password. Protected sections also lock again automatically after a period of inactivity; on Windows, you can choose how quickly that happens. 

For businesses, OneNote itself doesn’t provide the broader organization-level admin controls like Goodnotes. Work notebooks are typically stored in OneDrive or SharePoint, while controls like identity management, device access, sharing policies, retention, and data protection are handled through the wider Microsoft 365 environment.

Goodnotes vs OneNote: Pricing and plans

Goodnotes splits its plans between individual/prosumer use and Team or Enterprise use. Essential and Pro both include a 7-day free trial, while Teams includes a 30-day free trial. You can also add the AI Pass for $9.99/month to Essential or Pro to unlock the full AI experience (which is automatically included in Teams and Enterprise plans).

OneNote is free to download and use, while paid features come through Microsoft 365 subscriptions. Here’s a look at the Microsoft 365 individual plans: 

Goodnotes vs OneNote: The final verdict

So, which is the better note-taking app for work? For most professionals, Goodnotes is the better choice if note-taking is the main reason you’re choosing the tool. It supports handwritten notes, PDF annotation, Whiteboards, Text Documents, audio recording, transcription, and AI-assisted note-taking in the same app.

OneNote has its own advantages. Its OCR can extract text from images and PDF printouts, password-protected sections are encrypted, and its integrations with Outlook, Teams, OneDrive, and SharePoint make it a practical option if your work already runs through Microsoft 365.

The main difference is what each app is built around.  OneNote is part of a wider Microsoft productivity suite, with note-taking closely connected to the rest of that ecosystem. Goodnotes is built more specifically around how you capture and work with notes, whether that means handwriting in a meeting, marking up a PDF, recording audio, sketching through an idea, or drafting a typed document.

If your priority is a notes app for work, Goodnotes gives you more flexibility without moving between different tools.

FAQs

1. Is Goodnotes or OneNote better for work?

For most professionals, Goodnotes is the better fit if note-taking is your priority. Goodnotes gives you dedicated tools for handwriting, PDF annotation, Whiteboards, Text Documents, audio recording, transcription, and AI-assisted note-taking. OneNote is a better fit when your notes need to sit closely alongside Outlook, Teams, OneDrive, and the rest of the Microsoft 365 ecosystem.

2. Goodnotes vs OneNote vs Notability: which is better?

It depends on how you work. Goodnotes is the most versatile option for professional use, with separate Notebooks, Whiteboards, and Text Documents alongside PDF annotation, audio, AI, and collaboration. OneNote fits best if your notes need to stay closely connected to Outlook, Teams, OneDrive, and the wider Microsoft 365 ecosystem.

Notability keeps everything in a single note format. You can handwrite, type, annotate PDFs, add audio and media, use templates, work on two notes side by side with Multi-Note, and switch quickly between open notes with the Note Switcher.

If Goodnotes and Notability are both on your shortlist, read our Goodnotes vs Notability comparison for a closer look.

3. Is OneNote free?

Yes, OneNote is free to download and use on Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android, and the web. However, some premium features require a Microsoft 365 subscription, including Transcribe in OneNote for Windows and Copilot features such as summarizing notes, creating task lists, and drafting content. Microsoft 365 Personal currently costs $99.99/year and includes the OneNote desktop app, 1 TB of cloud storage, and Copilot.