My Favorite iPad Apps

Good iPad apps are something special because they are designed with a large screen in mind. With such a big canvas at a developer's disposal, there's a lot of potential for great user interfaces and experiences. Below are some of my favorite iPad apps.

iStudiez Pro

iStudiez Pro is a planner app for students. I use it everyday in college to keep track of assignments, classes, exams, and overall GPA. It's really useful. I think my only criticism of it is that it doesn't use iCloud, so syncing is manual. The overview screen is very useful on the iPad, as it shows your schedule, calendar, and assignments on one screen. In short, if you're a college student, I highly recommend this app [Direct Link].

Procreate

Procreate is a drawing app that rivals Adobe Photoshop's abilities. It has a great interface, a wide selection of brushes, and a ton of control given to the user. It was clearly written from the ground up for the iPad. It even has an entire Apple Book written as a guide for how to use the app [Direct Link].  It also has no in-app purchases or subscriptions. Procreate is available from the Apple App Store and is exclusive to iPad [Direct Link].

Bear

Bear is a beautiful writing app that uses Markdown to format text. It's very simple, and that's what makes it so great. My only issue with it is that a good amount of its features require a subscription. I'd happily pay $5 for the full version, but that isn't an option. It's a great way to jot down a few notes or an idea quickly, with a great organization system [Direct Link]. 

GoodNotes

If you want an alternative to OneNote, GoodNotes is a pretty nice notebook app that gives you a lot of customizability for notebook covers and paper. I like how you can search text, regardless if it was typed or handwritten. With a variety of paper sizes, this app is best experienced on an iPad with an Apple Pencil. I plan to use this app for my notes this fall semester [Direct Link].

Honorable Mentions

There are too many apps that I love on the iPad to name, but here are a few more. 1Password, Day One, Concepts, Paprika, and Flipp are apps that are all worth checking out.