Notability vs SecondBrain

Notability brings handwritten notes, typed text, recordings, images and imported documents into one workspace. It supports offline access, note sharing and real-time collaboration across Android, iOS, macOS, web and Windows. Notability Learn offers audio transcription, note summaries, Smart Notes, quizzes, flashcards and chat with notes; YouTube videos can also be turned into notes with a transcript and summary. Integrations include iCloud, Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, Box and WebDAV. The Starter plan is free and includes five notes, editing tools and content, PDFs and documents, 20,000+ templates and seven-day version history. Pro costs $19.99 a month, billed monthly. Business Pro costs $180 a year per user. Notability describes its audience as students and professionals. The iOS and iPadOS apps require version 17 or later, while Android requires version 12 or later.

SecondBrain turns spoken thoughts, typed notes and content shared from other apps into organized notes, calendar events and reminders. Its AI transcribes, titles and files notes into a folder tree that builds as material is added. Mentioning a date can create an event and reminder, and the app provides a daily morning briefing. Full-text search and an interactive 3D graph help users find notes and explore connections. A shared-memory connector using MCP supports assistants including Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Cursor and Claude Code. The connector requires Pro, and connecting ChatGPT also requires Developer mode, which the maker says is available on Plus or above. The maker says notes and calendar events are stored in an EU-hosted Supabase PostgreSQL database with per-account Row-Level Security; voice and text go through Google Gemini's paid API tier, which it says does not train on content. The free plan has limited notes. Pro is $8.99 a month or $34.99 a year; the App Store also lists a second yearly price of 44.99 USD.