GraphNotes and Defter Notes

Yes, keep Defter Notes for thinking by hand across an endless space, with PDFs laid out side by side. And add GraphNotes when a note needs an address: a link of its own, a list of what links to it, and a reason on the line.

What this page says about Defter Notes was read in its maker’s own pages on November 11, 2026, and its Claude row in its maker’s pages and Anthropic’s on November 14, 2026; they are listed at the end. Prices are US prices on that day. Apps change, so check there for what it does today.

Side by side

	Defter Notes	GraphNotes
Made for	Handwritten notes in spaces with no edge, nested inside each other	Reading PDFs and writing by hand, with every note linked to where it came from
Runs on	iPad and iPhone. The iPad version also runs on a Mac with Apple silicon	iPad, iPhone and Mac. The Mac shows handwriting but does not take new handwriting
Price	Free to download, with a three-day trial. Then $17.99 a year or $39.99 once	Free, with no subscription. In public beta on TestFlight
Handwriting	Apple Pencil, a finger or another stylus. Handwriting stays handwriting; Scribble turns it into text inside text boxes	Apple Pencil. Handwriting stays handwriting, search finds it, and it becomes typed text only on request
PDFs	A PDF opens as a stack you write on, page by page. Text dragged out of it keeps a link back to its place	Highlights, with your notes beside each passage in Margin view. The file is never changed; Export with Highlights makes a copy with them in it
Links between notes	Wormholes: links between items, PDF pages and spaces, drawn with the Pencil	Every doc, highlight, block and board has a link. Each shows what it links to and what links to it, and a link can say why
Boards	Spaces with no edge, nested inside each other, with a mini-map	Boards with no edge. Cards are the docs themselves, and connectors join cards, sticky notes and the notes in PDFs’ margins
Where notes live	In your own iCloud, with no account	On your devices and in your own iCloud. No account
Getting notes out	Export of items and of whole spaces	Export Everything: docs as Markdown with their links, PDFs with highlights written in, handwriting as images, boards as JSON Canvas. Also a one-file backup
Claude	No connection to Claude and no assistant features, on Defter’s own site or its App Store listing	From GraphNotes for Mac, once you turn it on: Claude reads your library, PDFs’ pages included, and what it proposes waits for you to keep it. How it works

Where Defter Notes is the better tool

Writing anywhere on an endless space, and putting spaces inside spaces.
Writing directly on PDF pages, with several PDFs side by side.
Jumping between far-apart places with Wormholes.
Reordering, extracting and merging the pages of a PDF.

What GraphNotes adds

Docs: pages of typed and handwritten blocks, each of which can be cited and linked.
Both directions. Every doc, highlight and board shows what it links to and what links to it.
Links that say why. A connection can carry a reason, such as Supports, Contradicts or Cites, and a label of your own.
Search that finds words in your handwriting and shows the handwriting, with the words marked.
Links that open from other apps: a graphnotes.app link in Messages, Mail or Notes opens the note.

Using both

Both keep your notes in your own iCloud with no account, so using both adds no new service to trust.

Export with Highlights makes a copy of a PDF with your GraphNotes highlights and, if you choose, your notes in it. Defter Notes takes files from the share sheet and from Files.

Copy Link in GraphNotes gives a graphnotes.app link to a doc, a highlight or a board. It is a web link like any other, and it opens that note in GraphNotes on an iPad or iPhone that has it. Defter Notes has an item for web addresses, where it can go.

GraphNotes is free and in public beta on TestFlight. Join the Beta.

GraphNotes and Defter Notes

Side by side

Where Defter Notes is the better tool

What GraphNotes adds

Using both

Sources

GraphNotes and other apps