The iPad Pro has revolutionized the way we take notes, sketch ideas, and organize our thoughts.
With its powerful hardware, stunning display, and the precision of the Apple Pencil, it’s become an indispensable tool for students, professionals, and creatives alike.
However, to truly unlock the potential of your iPad Pro for note-taking, you need the right software.
In this blog post, we’ll explore the ten best note-taking apps available for iPad Pro, examining their unique features, strengths, and potential use cases to help you find the perfect app for your specific needs.
Let’s dive in.
1. Notability
Notability stands as one of the most comprehensive note-taking solutions for iPad Pro users.
It excels in providing a seamless experience that combines handwritten notes, typed text, PDF annotation, and audio recordings in one intuitive package.
The app’s multi-note feature allows you to view and work on multiple notes simultaneously, perfect for research projects or complex study sessions.
Notability’s handwriting recognition is remarkably accurate, converting your scribbles to searchable text with impressive precision.
Its organization system, based on dividers and subjects, helps maintain order even with hundreds of notes.
The app also offers robust cloud syncing options and regular feature updates that continue to refine the user experience, making it a top choice for students and professionals alike.
2. Obsidian
Obsidian has emerged as a powerful knowledge management system that excels at creating interconnected notes based on the concept of a personal knowledge graph.
The app uses plain text Markdown files as its foundation, ensuring your notes remain accessible and future-proof regardless of platform changes.
What sets Obsidian apart is its unique graph view, which visually displays the connections between your notes, helping you discover relationships and patterns in your thinking.
The app features a robust plugin ecosystem that allows users to extend its functionality with community-created tools for everything from daily journaling to spaced repetition learning.
While Obsidian initially focused on desktop use, its iPad app now offers excellent Apple Pencil support for those who prefer handwritten notes.
The app’s emphasis on linking ideas rather than just collecting them makes it ideal for researchers, writers, and anyone working with complex, interconnected information who wants to build a “second brain” of knowledge over time.
Explore: Notability Tips & Tricks For Efficient Note Taking
3. Apple Notes
Apple Notes has evolved from a simple text editor to a powerful note-taking contender that comes pre-installed on every iPad Pro.
Its tight integration with iOS provides seamless syncing across all Apple devices and allows for quick note creation from the lock screen with Apple Pencil.
The app offers surprisingly robust handwriting tools, including the ability to search through handwritten text. Its folder organization system is straightforward yet effective, making it easy to keep personal and professional notes separate.
Apple Notes also includes collaborative features, allowing multiple users to work on the same note simultaneously.
While it may lack some of the specialized features of dedicated note-taking apps, its simplicity, reliability, and zero cost make it an excellent option for users who want a no-fuss solution that works well within the Apple ecosystem.
4. Notion
Notion represents a paradigm shift in note-taking, offering a flexible all-in-one workspace that extends far beyond traditional notes.
The app allows users to create interconnected databases, wikis, kanban boards, and documents all within the same environment.
Its block-based structure means you can embed nearly anything into your notes, from simple text and images to complex tables and even web bookmarks that maintain live previews.
Notion excels at team collaboration, with robust sharing options and permission settings.
For iPad Pro users, the app has significantly improved its Apple Pencil support, though it still prioritizes typed content over handwritten notes.
What makes Notion truly special is its customizability. You can build personalized productivity systems, knowledge bases, and project trackers that perfectly match your workflow, making it ideal for users who need their notes to integrate with broader productivity systems.
Explore: How To Take Notes On iPad?
5. OneNote
Microsoft OneNote brings the familiar Microsoft Office experience to note-taking on the iPad Pro.
The app uses a notebook metaphor with sections and pages, providing intuitive organization for even the most extensive note collections.
OneNote’s infinite canvas approach sets it apart – rather than being constrained to standard page sizes, you can place content anywhere on the page, perfect for mind mapping or nonlinear thinking.
The app offers excellent stylus support, with multiple pen types and a pressure sensitivity that feels natural with the Apple Pencil.
Its integration with Microsoft’s ecosystem means seamless syncing with Windows devices and robust collaboration features through SharePoint or OneDrive.
OneNote also includes powerful search capabilities that can find text within images and handwritten notes.
While its interface may feel slightly more complex than some competitors, the flexibility and power it offers make it a standout choice, especially for users already invested in Microsoft’s productivity suite.
6. Evernote
Evernote continues to be a versatile note-taking powerhouse with its emphasis on capturing and organizing information from multiple sources.
The app excels at handling different types of content – from text and images to web clippings and documents – all searchable through its powerful recognition technology.
For iPad Pro users, Evernote offers solid Apple Pencil integration, allowing for handwritten notes and sketches that complement typed content.
Its organizational system based on notebooks, tags, and stacks provides multiple ways to categorize and find information.
Evernote’s web clipper extension remains one of the best ways to save online content for later reference, preserving the original formatting or simplifying to just the essential text.
While the app has faced criticism for its subscription model, the premium features including offline access, increased monthly upload limits, and advanced search functionality provide significant value for heavy users who need to manage large amounts of information across multiple devices.
7. Nebo
Nebo sets itself apart with its focus on converting handwritten notes to digital text with remarkable accuracy.
The app uses MyScript’s Interactive Ink technology to transform your handwriting into typed text in real-time, making it feel like you’re writing directly into a word processor.
Nebo recognizes diagrams, mathematical equations, and even allows for intuitive editing gestures – cross out text to delete it, circle text to select it, or draw a vertical line to add space.
The app’s clean interface focuses on the writing experience, with minimal distractions and a natural pen-to-paper feel when using the Apple Pencil.
While Nebo lacks some of the organizational depth of apps like Notability or GoodNotes, its conversion technology remains unmatched, making it ideal for users who prefer to write by hand but need their notes in digital text format for professional documents or sharing with colleagues.
8. Goodnotes 6
Goodnotes 6 builds upon the solid foundation of its predecessor with a refreshed interface and enhanced functionality for iPad Pro users.
The app maintains its excellent handwriting experience while introducing new features like smart shapes, which automatically perfect your hand-drawn geometric forms.
Its template library has expanded significantly, offering everything from traditional notebook styles to specialized templates for planning, studying, and creative work.
Goodnotes 6 introduces a more flexible organizational system that combines the familiarity of notebooks with the power of tags and smart folders for dynamic organization.
The app’s OCR technology has been improved, making handwritten text even more searchable and convertible to typed text when needed.
New collaboration features allow for real-time shared notebooks, perfect for study groups or team projects.
While maintaining the core experience that made Goodnotes 5 popular, this new version refines nearly every aspect of the app, making it more powerful and intuitive for both new and experienced users.
9. Flexcil
Flexcil has carved out a unique niche by focusing on research and study workflows for iPad Pro users.
The app excels at PDF annotation and reference management, with an innovative “gesture cut” feature that allows you to select and extract portions of text or images from PDFs directly into your notes.
This seamless integration between reading and note-taking makes it ideal for students, researchers, and academics who need to synthesize information from multiple sources.
Flexcil’s dual-screen view allows you to have reference material open alongside your notes, eliminating the need to switch between apps.
The app offers excellent Apple Pencil support with natural handwriting and highlighting tools. Its organization system includes study sets that group related documents and notes together.
While Flexcil may not have the brand recognition of some competitors, its thoughtful design and focus on academic workflows make it an excellent choice for serious students and researchers who need to manage complex information effectively.
Explore: Goodnotes Hacks
10. Noteshelf
Noteshelf combines a beautiful writing experience with practical organization tools in a package that feels both elegant and functional.
The app offers one of the smoothest handwriting experiences on the iPad Pro, with minimal latency and natural ink flow that closely mimics writing on paper.
Its extensive template library includes everything from basic lined paper to specialized formats for music notation, meal planning, and habit tracking.
Noteshelf’s audio recording feature synchronizes with your handwritten notes, allowing you to tap on a section of text to hear what was being said when you wrote it, perfect for lectures or meetings.
The app includes robust PDF annotation tools and a straightforward organizational system based on notebooks and dividers.
While it may not have some of the advanced features of competitors like Notability or GoodNotes, Noteshelf focuses on getting the fundamentals right, handwriting, organization, and a distraction-free interface.
This makes it an excellent choice for users who value simplicity and elegance in their note-taking experience.
Conclusion
The iPad Pro, paired with the right note-taking app, represents a powerful tool for capturing, organizing, and utilizing information in ways that were impossible with traditional paper notebooks.
The apps featured in this list offer varied approaches to digital note-taking, each with unique strengths that cater to different workflows and preferences.
Whether you prioritize handwriting recognition, organizational flexibility, collaboration features, or integration with other productivity tools, there’s an app here that will transform your iPad Pro into the perfect digital notebook.
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