GraphNotes and the apps you already use
GraphNotes and Heptabase
Yes, keep Heptabase for whiteboards of typed cards, on every platform. And add GraphNotes on iPad for handwriting with Apple Pencil, which Heptabase’s own roadmap lists as still to come.
What this page says about Heptabase 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
| Heptabase | GraphNotes | |
|---|---|---|
| Made for | Typed cards arranged on whiteboards, for working through what you read | Reading PDFs and writing by hand, with every note linked to where it came from |
| Runs on | Mac, Windows, Linux, iPhone, iPad, Android and the web | iPad, iPhone and Mac. The Mac shows handwriting but does not take new handwriting |
| Price | Pro is $11.99 a month or $107.88 a year, after a seven-day trial. No free plan of its own | Free, with no subscription. In public beta on TestFlight |
| Handwriting | Not yet. Its roadmap lists handwriting as next | Apple Pencil. Handwriting stays handwriting, search finds it, and it becomes typed text only on request |
| PDFs | Text and area highlights. Each highlight becomes a card that can go on a whiteboard | 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 | Mentions between cards, backlinks down to the block, and links that open a card or a whiteboard | 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 | Whiteboards with sections, mind maps and arrows. One card can sit on many whiteboards | 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 a local database and on Heptabase’s cloud, with an account | On your devices and in your own iCloud. No account |
| Getting notes out | All notes as Markdown files with a data file, and cards as PDF | 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 | Heptabase’s own connection for Claude and Claude Code reads and writes your notes, on Pro or higher or a trial. Its assistant offers Claude models on Premium | 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 Heptabase is the better tool
- Typed thinking on whiteboards, with the same card reused on many of them.
- Every platform: Mac, Windows, Linux, Android and the web, as well as iPad and iPhone.
- Bringing sources in from Readwise, Zotero and its web clipper.
- Working on a whiteboard with other people.
- Mind maps and sections on a whiteboard.
What GraphNotes adds
- Handwriting with Apple Pencil: on the page, on a card, and beside a PDF’s passages.
- Your notes beside each passage of a PDF, in Margin view.
- 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.
- No price and no account. GraphNotes is free, and your notes stay on your devices and in your own iCloud.
Using both
Read and write by hand in GraphNotes, and keep your typed whiteboards in Heptabase.
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. It can go wherever a Heptabase card takes a web link.
Export Everything writes your docs and highlights as Markdown files. Heptabase imports Markdown files on desktop and the web.
GraphNotes is free and in public beta on TestFlight. Join the Beta.
Sources
- Heptabase: plans and pricing
- Heptabase: roadmap, next up
- Heptabase: PDF annotation
- Heptabase: fundamental elements
- Heptabase Help: is my data safe
- Heptabase Help: import notes from other apps
- Heptabase Help: Heptabase with Claude and Claude Code
- Heptabase Help: plans and pricing questions