The iPad has been a haven for students and professionals around the world when it comes to taking notes. The beautiful Retina display combined with the Apple Pencil allows users to engrave text from the smallest of your etchings to paragraph-spanning essays.

If you need to take notes daily, you should also keep an eye out for the perfect note-taking app. While Apple’s native Notes app does a good job, it leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to sheer flexibility. We’ve put together a list of the best note-taking apps for your iPad, iPad Pro, iPad Air or Mini that offer the perfect combination of fluidity, features, and price.

Look at them.

11 Best Note Taking Apps for iPad, iPad Pro, iPad Air and Mini

1. Notability

Notability is a top-tier note taking app for iPad that allows you to write annotations on documents, make outlines and even record audio files while taking notes. The app also has handwriting to text conversion along with PDF markup and sharing. The best thing about this app is that it allows you to customize your notes through different elements that it incorporates, such as the variety of ink styles.

With Notability, you can also import all the PDF documents you want within the app itself. In addition, you can add different files, such as photos, GIFs, web pages and many others.

Notability is very secure as it integrates with Touch ID and Face ID. It ensures that only you can access the information and edit it.

2. GoodNotes

GoodNotes is one of the most recognized apps for taking notes. This powerful note-taking app uses OCR technology to make everything searchable. You can write, draw, add images, write text, perfect shapes, reorder text and do whatever you want on digital paper. GoodNotes allows you to save paper, organize and manage notes with ease. This cross-platform note-taking app syncs all your notes with iCloud, which means you can access your notes on any device.

GoodNotes also allows handwriting thanks to its compatibility with the Apple Pencil. In this way, you will experience writing as if you were doing it with a traditional pencil and paper.

3.  Evernote

Evernote is the quintessential note-taking iPad app. It offers us the possibility to create notebooks, add labels, search for texts and images, create task lists, manage data… Also, it allows us to collect ideas from the web, edit PDF documents and use its widget to save us a lot of time.

While Evernote’s focus is on more than just handwriting, users looking for a full experience will love it.

4. Penultimate

Penultimate is a free note taking app for iPad. It has a very simple and minimalist interface, and that is precisely what makes it stand out above the rest. Its goal is to combine natural writing and the art of drawing without distractions. With it you can take notes from class, meetings, write down thoughts or even use it to outline your next big idea.

In addition, it is an app that you can synchronize with Evernote to manage notes efficiently.

5.  Microsoft OneNote

OneNote is an app developed by Microsoft especially for taking notes. If you are looking for an application with an exceptional design, Microsoft OneNote is an excellent option.

OneNote works seamlessly with Apple Pencil, so you can make annotations, graphs, and drawings that make it easy to understand what you’ve written. To make the visual experience more practical, you can highlight the notes with labels.

It also has an advanced search system that makes it easy for you to find your files on the app where you have stored them. You can also record voice notes, add online videos and files. And of course, the app can be synced with OneDrive. However, we did encounter some delayed syncs from time to time.

6.  Simple Note

The best apps for taking notes on your iPad don’t have to be the most complex. Sometimes the simpler the better.

And this is where Simple Note really shines. As the name suggests, this is not an app loaded with endless bells and whistles that you’ll rarely use. Instead, it focuses on making you take great notes cleanly and directly, while giving you some nifty features to sweeten your note-taking experience.

The app does not support styles, PDF annotations, or other advanced user features found in other apps. However, Simplenote includes note search so you can easily find your old notes. It also supports tagging, sharing via web links, and passcode locks for sensitive content.

7. Nebo: Notes & PDF Annotations

I think when reading the name of this app makes it very clear what the main function that its developers are looking to cover is. With Nebo you can write all the notes you want in different formats as well as make annotations on all your PDF documents that you import into it. Also, it has the possibility of converting all the texts that are written by hand to digital text if you wish.

While some of the above note taking apps are a mix of typed and handwritten notes, Nebo has been designed for the latter. So, if you’re someone who only cares about compatibility with Apple Pencils, Nebo is a good choice.

8. Notepad+

Notepad+ is a digital notepad that allows you to do anything from writing notes to making sketches. You can also add images.

This lightweight app follows a simple design and is built around getting up and running quickly. It offers landscape and portrait mode as options before you start typing. Note-taking board supports using an Apple Pencil with a separate pen/finger at the same time. The template options in Notepad+ are a bit limited when compared among note taking apps.

Notepad+ is best for anyone who wants the traditional pen-and-paper feel on their iPad or iPad Pro. There are several different ink pens, highlighters, and color tools, which aim to replicate the ink-based approach on paper to take notes.

9.  Ulysses

Ulysses is a bit more robust than most note-taking apps on iPad. It is actually a super complete text editor, organized by directories and folders. You can use it to create long notes, add images, dates and much more. It is a great tool for aspiring writers. Your documents can be exported to other devices as PDFs.

This app can be downloaded for free, but requires a subscription before you can use it.

10. InkPad Notepad

If you prefer a more traditional look for your notes, you might like InkPad. It offers a clean and simple interface more like that of a normal notebook. You can create different notes, make lists of activities, recent purchases and edit them whenever you want. The app is also capable of syncing and saving your documents to the cloud, and they can be accessed through the account used on the InkPad itself.

11. Notion

And to end this list is the famous note-taking app Notion. While Notion doesn’t support drawing via Apple Pencil, it’s a great app for taking notes on the keyboard. Notion neatly organizes your creations into various categories that you can choose for your notebook.