A free infinite canvas app for your notes, on Windows, Android, Chromebook and iPad

Free infinite canvas apps for notes, by device

Seven apps people use for notes on an infinite canvas, what each one runs on and what you get without paying. Every row is from the maker's own pages, read on November 2, 2026.

What a notes canvas looks like: one economics topic on one board

The ready board above is one topic from an intro economics course, supply and demand. It is built the way students use a canvas: the graph drawn by hand on the left, and the same topic sorted into lists beside it.

• The graph. The salmon example from OpenStax: demand and supply curves, a good fishing year that shifts supply to the right, the price falling from $3.25 to $2.50 and the quantity rising from 250 to 550 thousand fish. The numbers are the textbook's own table.
• The four steps from the textbook, one card each, so you can read them in order.
• What shifts a curve: the demand factors and the supply factors from the same chapter.
• Mix-ups to avoid, like thinking a price change shifts a curve. A price change moves you along the curve.
• A checklist for the exam and a list of questions for office hours.

Zoom out and the whole topic fits on one screen. Zoom in on one card to read it. When you start a new chapter, open a new board, or put a card on the board that opens into its own board for that chapter. To turn lecture notes into questions you can test yourself on, see Cornell notes, digital; for a writer's outline wall, see digital corkboard.

On Windows, Chromebook, Android and iPad

• Windows and Mac: open instaboard.app in Chrome, Edge or Safari. Nothing to install. A plug-in pen tablet works for handwriting, and pen pressure works in the browser (how to set one up).
• Chromebook: open instaboard.app in the Chrome browser. It is the same web app as on a laptop, so your boards look the same.
• Android: the Instaboard app from Google Play, or the browser.
• iPad and iPhone: the Instaboard app from the App Store. On iPad, turn on stylus mode and Apple Pencil draws while your finger scrolls, so you don't leave stray marks while you move around the board.

Apple's own Freeform does the same job, but Apple's guide describes it only for Apple devices, so you can't edit those boards on a Windows laptop or an Android tablet. If you study on a mix of devices, or share notes with someone who does, a canvas that runs in a browser avoids that (more on Freeform alternatives).

When another app is the better choice

• You want handwriting turned into text you can search. Instaboard keeps handwriting as ink and doesn't read it. OmniCanvas Pro lists handwriting to text, and Goodnotes lists handwriting search.
• You mostly type notes and want them as local files. Obsidian keeps Markdown files on your device and is free without limits, and its Canvas plugin arranges notes, images and files on a canvas.
• You sketch or draw with layers. Concepts is built for sketching: layers, brushes, vector strokes.
• You live in Apple's world. If everyone you study with has an iPhone, iPad or Mac, Freeform is free and already installed.
• You need a notebook of many pages. A canvas is for material that doesn't fit one order. For lecture notes in order, a page-by-page notebook app is simpler.

What to know about Instaboard's free plan

• 5 boards and 150 items. Items are cards, lists, images, text boxes, sticky notes and widgets. Pen strokes, sections and arrows don't count.
• 3 images and 1 file per board. A photo of a handwritten page is one image. A PDF you import becomes its own board of pages you can write on, and uses one of your 5 boards.
• Editing needs a free sign-in with Google, Apple or email. Viewing doesn't.
• It doesn't read or search your handwriting, and there is no AI that writes your notes.
• The eraser removes whole strokes, not part of one.
• No import from other apps. You can't bring in a Freeform, Goodnotes or Miro file. Selected cards and lists can be saved as a PNG.
• It's built to be online. If your connection drops, your changes are kept and sync when you're back, but it isn't an offline-first app with local files like Obsidian.
• Pro is $5 a month billed yearly ($59.99 a year) and removes the board, item and image limits.

Questions