If you're already familiar with Goodnotes, either from personal use or through your school's free deployment, you might wonder what makes Goodnotes Education special. Here's a clear breakdown to help you understand the key differences.
The Basics
Goodnotes Education lives inside the main Goodnotes app. Both teachers and students use the same app, teachers simply see additional classroom tools that students don't. This unified approach makes it easy to guide students since everyone shares the same interface.
What You Already Know vs. What's New
Goodnotes Free (What you might be using now) This is the full consumer version of Goodnotes with some restrictions for volume educational use. It includes core note-taking features like handwriting, PDF annotation, and basic organization tools as well as shared Notebooks to collaborate with others. Many teachers have been successfully using this version for live lessons, online tutoring, and creating materials.
Goodnotes Education (The upgrade) This builds on everything you know and love about Goodnotes but adds specialized teaching tools designed specifically for classroom management and student interaction. It's completely free for educational institutions and transforms the familiar Goodnotes experience into a comprehensive teaching platform.
Education-Exclusive Features
Goodnotes Education enhances your teaching experience with purpose-built tools:
Classroom Organization Class Folders and Subfolders organize lessons, materials, and student work efficiently. Shared Class Folders allow you to distribute content and collect assignments seamlessly—no more emailing PDFs back and forth.
Teaching Tools Lessons give you real-time access to all your Students work. Answer Zones let you designate specific areas in documents for student responses, making grading faster and more consistent. Smart groups make grading Assignments quicker and allow for a better macro and micro level view of your students' progress.
Administrative Controls User Management and our Admin Console allow your school's Admin to invite and track teacher/student status. This allows you to have a dedicated Goodnotes Account, which you can use to log into any copy of Goodnotes and access your Lessons.
The Advantage for Teachers
When you upgrade to Goodnotes Education, you keep everything you already know how to do in Goodnotes, plus gain powerful classroom management tools. You'll use the same interface as your students, making support easier, with all features integrated in one app so no switching between different tools is needed.