# Beam vs Goodnotes Beam records 0 monthly visits with -100% month-over-month growth and Paid pricing. Goodnotes records 3,227,341 monthly visits with +10.8% growth and Freemium, Free Trial pricing. | Metric | [Beam](https://openaitools.app/tool/beam) | [Goodnotes](https://openaitools.app/tool/goodnotes) | | :--- | :--- | :--- | | Website URL | https://getbeam.ai | https://goodnotes.com | | Categories | AI Assistant, AI Chatbot, AI Copilot, AI PDF | AI Note Taker, AI Spell Check, AI Writing Assistants | | Pricing Model | Paid | Freemium, Free Trial | | Monthly Visits | 0 | 3,227,341 | | MoM Growth Rate | -100% | +10.8% | | Primary Market | Global | United States | | Direct Visits | 0 | 1,638,916 | | Review Score | 4.2 | 4.4 | | Saved Count | 3 | 2 | | Supported Platforms | Website | Website | ## Beam Beam is built for people who live inside a handful of macOS apps and are tired of switching to a browser tab every time they want an AI answer. Rather than re-implementing a chat window, it bolts a lightweight, native launcher onto your desktop: press a hotkey, a small panel appears above whatever you are doing, and the result can be pushed straight back into the current field. Because it is written natively rather than in Electron, it starts quickly and uses little memory, and its creators emphasize that it is sandboxed and only talks to OpenAI's servers. Beyond the basic chat panel, Beam layers in productivity plumbing. Templates let you turn frequently repeated prompts into fill-in-the-blank forms, profiles keep different assistants (a copywriter, a coder, a translator) configured with the right model and instructions, and PDF support turns long documents into something you can interrogate. Screen capture is exposed through the same hotkey model, so asking about a chart, an error message, or a design can be done without saving a file first. Beam is a third-party client and is not affiliated with or endorsed by OpenAI; it uses the OpenAI API, so you bring your own API key and pay OpenAI for usage separately. It is distributed as a paid macOS app on a pay-what-you-want basis, with no subscription required and no login to the vendor's servers. **Pricing & Plans:** One-time, pay-what-you-want purchase for the macOS app with no subscription. You supply your own OpenAI API key and pay OpenAI separately for the tokens you use. The site offers a free trial and a refund policy. - **Hotkey access from anywhere:** Hit a global hotkey to open a floating chat panel over any app, ask a question, and drop the answer back into your document or field without switching windows. - **Inline text editing:** Select a text snippet, chat about it, and insert the improved version back into your app with a single keystroke. - **Chat with your screen:** Grab a screen region with a hotkey and ask ChatGPT to explain, transcribe, or describe what is shown in it. - **Prompt templates:** Save frequently used prompts as reusable templates with blank fields, so repetitive writing tasks like emails or blog drafts take seconds. - **AI profiles:** Create named AI profiles that pin a model and system instructions to a persona, so every conversation keeps the right tone and context. - **Chat with PDFs:** Open and question PDF files directly to pull summaries, answers, and key points out of long documents. **Strengths:** Native macOS build keeps memory use low and response times snappy; Global hotkey access means no window juggling or context switching; Templates and AI profiles cut repetitive prompt writing; Sandboxed design and local key storage reduce privacy concerns [Profile (Markdown)](https://openaitools.app/tool/beam.md) ## Goodnotes Goodnotes is a digital note-taking app designed around the feel of writing on paper, then extended with everything a paper notebook cannot do. The core notebook experience uses a low-latency ink engine so handwriting feels natural on a tablet with a stylus. You can rest your hand on the screen, cross out to erase, and convert handwritten text into typed characters when you need something searchable or exportable. Around that core sits a flexible document workspace. The app handles PDF annotation, typed documents, infinite whiteboards, imported images, and recorded audio in the same environment, so a meeting, lecture, or project space can mix formats without switching tools. Notes and documents sync across iPad, iPhone, Android, Windows, and the web, letting you start a page on a tablet and finish it at a desk. Goodnotes also layers in AI and collaboration. AI-powered search looks across typed text, handwriting, and sketches at once, and can turn a page of notes into a mind map, a summary, or a project plan with action items. Real-time collaboration, shared notebooks, and education-focused deployments make it a practical fit for students, teachers, and knowledge-heavy teams in fields like architecture, engineering, legal, and consulting. **Pricing & Plans:** Freemium with a free tier and paid subscription plans, plus separate offerings for education and business. A free trial is available; exact regional prices are listed on the official pricing page. - **Natural handwriting engine:** Low-latency ink with palm rejection, cross-out to erase, and handwriting-to-text conversion keeps writing close to pen on paper. - **PDF annotation and markup:** Import contracts, papers, or textbooks and mark them up by hand, with searchable annotations and clean exports. - **AI search and transformation:** Search across typed text, handwriting, and sketches, and turn notes into summaries, mind maps, or structured plans. - **Real-time collaboration:** Work together in shared notebooks, documents, and whiteboards simultaneously, without version conflicts or file ping-pong. - **Cross-device sync:** Continue the same notebook on tablet, phone, desktop, or web so notes follow you between work and study settings. **Strengths:** Best-in-class handwriting feel makes the transition from paper notebooks easy; Combines notebooks, PDFs, whiteboards, and audio in a single app; AI search reads handwriting and sketches, not just typed text; Broad device support with reliable cross-platform syncing **Limitations:** The best features sit behind the paid subscription or one-time purchase; Advanced AI and collaboration features require an account and internet connection; Heavy notebooks with large PDFs can be slow on older devices [Profile (Markdown)](https://openaitools.app/tool/goodnotes.md) ## Frequently Asked Questions ### How do Beam and Goodnotes compare in monthly traffic? Beam has 0 monthly visits, while Goodnotes has 3,227,341. Traffic estimates describe audience size, not product quality. ### How do their growth rates compare? Beam has a month-over-month growth rate of -100%; Goodnotes has +10.8%. ### How does pricing compare? Beam: Paid. One-time, pay-what-you-want purchase for the macOS app with no subscription. You supply your own OpenAI API key and pay OpenAI separately for the tokens you use. The site offers a free trial and a refund policy. Goodnotes: Freemium, Free Trial. Freemium with a free tier and paid subscription plans, plus separate offerings for education and business. A free trial is available; exact regional prices are listed on the official pricing page. ## Alternatives | # | Tool Name | Monthly Visits | MoM Growth Rate | Pricing Model | Summary | Profile (Markdown) | | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | | 1 | [ChatGPT](https://openaitools.app/tool/chatgpt-4) | 6,048,022,723 | +2.2% | Freemium | OpenAI's flagship multimodal assistant powered by GPT-6 and GPT-5.6 for reasoning, coding, and deep research. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/chatgpt-4.md) | | 2 | [Knowt](https://openaitools.app/tool/knowt-com) | 4,183,953 | +5.4% | Free | Excels at automatically generating flashcards and practice quizzes from study notes, but lacks freehand drawing features. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/knowt-com.md) | | 3 | [Chatbot App](https://openaitools.app/tool/chatbot-app) | 2,170,883 | -9.7% | Freemium | Chat with 30+ leading AI models in one clean, fast workspace | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/chatbot-app.md) | | 4 | [StudyFetch](https://openaitools.app/tool/study-fetch) | 1,750,520 | +1.7% | Freemium | Turns course materials into interactive AI study tools, but focuses less on handwritten digital notebooks. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/study-fetch.md) | | 5 | [LightPDF](https://openaitools.app/tool/lightpdf-com) | 1,742,568 | -15.3% | Freemium | Stronger online PDF editing and AI chat capabilities, but lacks tablet-optimized handwritten note-taking workflows. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/lightpdf-com.md) | | 6 | [ChatPDF](https://openaitools.app/tool/chatpdf) | 1,044,477 | -3.7% | Freemium | Chat with any PDF, video, or website and get cited answers in seconds | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/chatpdf.md) | | 7 | [Studley AI](https://openaitools.app/tool/studley-ai) | 1,031,545 | -19.5% | Freemium | Converts notes and PDFs into quizzes and flashcards, but lacks stylus-based handwriting and sketching tools. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/studley-ai.md) | | 8 | [Raycast](https://openaitools.app/tool/raycast) | 710,581 | -24.5% | Freemium, Free Trial | An extendable launcher that puts your tools, AI, and automations one keystroke away | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/raycast.md) | | 9 | [Craft](https://openaitools.app/tool/craft-do) | 703,417 | +8.9% | Freemium | Provides gorgeous structured block-based document editing, but is built for typed text rather than handwritten notes. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/craft-do.md) | | 10 | [Capacities](https://openaitools.app/tool/capacities) | 339,396 | +5.7% | Freemium, Paid | Organizes notes into interconnected typed objects rather than traditional notebooks, but lacks handwritten ink support. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/capacities.md) | --- Source: https://openaitools.app/compare/beam-vs-goodnotes More Markdown: [Categories](https://openaitools.app/categories.md) · [Traffic rankings](https://openaitools.app/rankings.md) · [llms.txt](https://openaitools.app/llms.txt)