Comparison - Handwritten notes and audio app

Winy vs Notability

Notability records the lecture and marks up the PDF; Winy is an infinite canvas where your own coding agents run live beside your ink.

Notability is a note-taking app from Ginger Labs for handwriting, PDF markup and audio recording synced to your writing, with AI summaries, quizzes and chat on paid plans.

Winy is a native infinite-canvas notebook for Mac, iPad and iPhone where real agent sessions such as Claude Code and Codex live as cards next to your notes, Pencil ink and images.

The real difference is the job: Notability is built for lectures, meetings and documents and is far ahead on handwriting, PDFs and audio, while Winy is built for thinking next to the agents you already run.

At a glance

Question	Winy	Notability
What it is	Infinite-canvas notebook with live agent cards	Notes app for handwriting, PDFs and audio
Platforms	Mac, iPad and iPhone	iPad, iPhone, Mac, Windows, Android and web
Handwriting	Pencil ink at full frame rate	Digital ink with handwriting recognition and search
PDF annotation	Not built in	Import and mark up PDFs, slides and documents
AI	Your own agents: Claude Code, Codex, any CLI	Summaries, quizzes, flashcards, chat with your notes
Live terminals and agents	Yes, as cards on the board	Not built in
Audio recording	Not built in	Audio synced to your notes, live transcripts
Collaboration	Single user; no multiplayer	Sharing; shared libraries on Business plans
Pricing	Early access waitlist; no public pricing	Free tier, yearly plans, or Classic one-time purchase

Which one is for you

Choose Notability if

You record lectures or meetings and want the audio tied to what you wrote.
You mark up PDFs, slides and forms with the Pencil.
You want AI quizzes, flashcards and summaries built from your notes.
You need your notes on Windows, Android or the web as well as Apple devices.

Choose Winy if

You want Claude Code or Codex running live on the board, not an assistant inside a note.
You want to draw with the Pencil straight across a running terminal or a note.
You think on one infinite canvas rather than in pages and subjects.
You run several agents and want to see which are working or waiting by zooming out.

Questions

What is a good Notability alternative with AI?

Notability already has AI summaries, quizzes and chat on its paid plans. If the AI you want is a coding agent, Winy runs real Claude Code and Codex sessions as cards on an infinite canvas, next to your notes and Pencil ink.

Is Notability free?

Notability has a free Starter plan with 5 notes. Paid plans are billed yearly, and the Classic plan is a one-time purchase without AI features.

Is there a Notability alternative for Mac?

Notability runs on the Mac. Winy is a different kind of Mac, iPad and iPhone notebook: one infinite canvas with Pencil ink and live agent sessions, without PDF markup or audio recording.

Does Winy record audio or import PDFs like Notability?

No. Winy has no audio recording, PDF annotation or Notability import today.

Is Winy available now?

Winy is in early access. You can join the waitlist on winy.ai.

Thinking is Winning