While I’m yet to find the perfect bullet journal notebook, these are my current top 8!

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1. MAMBI Happy Notes

If you follow my blog it’s probably no surprise this notebook makes it to the top of the list.

Discbound + affordable  + cute covers = <3

Why I like it

• Plenty of cover designs to choose from
• Multiple page sizes
• Can add, remove and rearrange pages as often as you like
• Can add your own printables
• Can add other MAMBI inserts to create a custom notebook or planner
• Decent paper (few pens ghost or bleed through)

The notebooks come in multiple page sizes – my favorite is the 7 x 9″ and the half sheet 7 x 9″

MAMBI Happy Planner Happy Notes Review

Quick Facts

• Multiple page sizes to choose from
• Multiple cover options
• No cover personalisation
• Compatible with other MAMBI planners and inserts (i.e. can mix and match refill paper, covers, dividers etc.)
• Happy Notes (choose from dot grid, lined or graph paper inside) or the Dot Journal (which is dot grid with a few pre-designed pages – see my review here)

2. Scribbles That Matter Pro

Let me reiterate, the pro version of the Scribbles That Matter dot grid notebook, not the original ‘iconic’ version.

Why I like it

• Many cover colours to choose from (and covers in colors other than black)
• Lay flat binding
• Bright white paper

But the main reason… the paper quality!

The yellow paper was the main reason I wasn’t too impressed with the Iconic version. Much prefer the bright white of the pro:

Scribbles that Matter Pro versus Iconic: which version is better?

You can see the difference in the paper quality – this is why you should always check the GSM (paper weight)!  If you don’t want any ghosting or show through, look for 160 GSM notebooks.

Slow Journal and ESC goods are other notebooks with 160 GSM paper and similar paper quality. I didn’t add them to this list of favorites as the notebooks don’t have as nice cover options.

Quick facts

• Size: A5
• Hardcover
• Multiple cover colors to choose from (mint, sky blue, white, grey, purple, green and dark grey)
• Sewn binding
• 160GSM (thick), bright white paper
• 153 pages
• 5mm dot grid
• Key & color key page
• 3 lined index pages
• Pocket folder
• Built in pen loop (the notebook comes with a fineliner pen too)
• 2 ribbon bookmarks
• 39 dots vertical x 27 dots horizontal

Price: $26.97 USD on Amazon

3. Clever Fox 2.0 Notebook

One of the best value notebooks on this list. The Clever Fox 2.0 notebook has good quality paper, a nice cover design and all the features you’d expect – ribbon bookmarks, pocket folder, numbered pages etc.

Clever Fox Doted Notebook Comparison: Original versus 2.0 version – which is better?

For only having 120 GSM paper, the quality is pretty good.

 

Quick facts

• Size: 5.75″ wide x 8.5″ high
• Vegan Leather Hardcover
• Sewn Binding
• 5mm dot grid spacing
• Cover color options – rose gold, gold, light turquoise, turquoise, dark blue, light blue, black, grey, dark green, orange and amber yellow
• 120 GSM paper
• Pocket folder
• 3 ribbon bookmarks
• 1 Sheet of rainbow stickers included
• 3 contents / index pages
• 1 symbol / color key page
• Page numbers
• 155 dot grid pages
• 5mm dot grid spacing
• 27 dots horizontally, 40 dots vertically

Price: $18 USD + shipping on Amazon

4. Plum Paper

So they don’t technically have a bullet journal notebook at the moment – I made my own by selecting just dot grid paper for the inside pages.

Why I like it

• Coil bound not the usual sewn bound (you can also request they send it unpunched and then use with discbound – see my tutorial here)
• Free cover personalisation
• Multiple cover patterns and colors to choose from
• Multiple page sizes
• Cheap international shipping (one of the cheapest shipping rates I’ve come across for USA to Australia)
• Affordable
• Plenty of inside page layouts to choose from

Plum Paper Bullet Journal Custom Notebook

Quick Facts

• Choose from 3 sizes: A5, 7 x 9″ or US letter (8.5 x 11″)
• White paper
• Variety of inside layouts – dot grid, lined, graph as well as themed add on’s like checklists, travel, blog etc.
• Multiple cover design (and you can choose the color)
• Free cover personalisation with your choice of text
• They automatically add tabs for each section e.g. notes, checklist etc.

5. Agendio

One of the very few planner companies that will make a truly custom planner (no really – from the front to back cover and all of the pages in between!).

While their planners are great, and I do like the custom dot grid notebooks I made, the price doesn’t really justify it for a dot grid notebook. For a planner I’d splurge, but there are plenty of cheaper dot grid notebooks (^ refer above ^). I’d only get an Agendio dot grid if you want to choose the size / spacing of the dot grid.

Why I like it

• Similar to Plum Paper (but a lot more expensive)
• It’s not sewn bound
• Bright white paper
• You choose the spacing for the dot grid

I chose the 0.25″ grid (although you can choose from multiple sizes). Next time I’m going to try dots that are closer together.

Quick Facts

• Multiple Choose from 3 sizes: A5, 7 x 9″ or US letter (8.5 x 11″)
• White paper
• Variety of inside layouts – dot grid, lined, graph as well as themed add on’s like checklists, travel, blog etc.
• Multiple cover design (and you can choose the color)
• Free cover personalisation with your choice of text
• They automatically add tabs for each section e.g. notes, checklist etc.
• You have to pay extra for color printing

6. Amanda Rach Lee

One of the few sewn bound notebook to make it onto this list. It has a unique cover, multiple cover colours to choose from, lay flat binding and bright white paper.

Amanda Rach Lee Dotted Notebook Review

Since the majority of Amanda Rach Lee’s YouTube channel is about bullet journaling I was expecting high quality paper.. and was not disappointed. There is no ghosting or bleed through in this notebook.

Quick facts

• Size: 5.75″ wide x 8.25″ high (A5)
• Vegan leather cover with foil doodles on the front and back cover
• Sewn binding
• Multiple cover colors to choose from (black, grey, pink, teal and camel)
• Thick 160 GSM bright white paper
• 160 pages
• 5mm dot grid
• Numbered pages
• Pocket folder
• 2 Ribbon bookmarks
• Pen holder

7. Archer & Olive

Popular for a reason these notebooks really do tick all of the requirements for a good dotted notebook. The main reasons it makes the list are the paper quality (no ghosting) and multiple page size options. Many brands only come in A5 page size but Archer & Olive comes in A5, B5 and B6.

Why I like it

• Variety of page sizes
• Plenty of cover colors to choose from
• The pages lay flat
• The dots aren’t too bold (some brands do fat dots or black dots that don’t really ‘fade’ into the background even after drawing up a spread)

Archer and Olive Dot Grid Notebook (Is the 160 GSM Paper Worth the Hype?)

The paper is really thick and smooth to write on. No ghosting or bleed through for any of the pens or highlighters. There was some minor ghosting for only one of the MAMBI stamps.

I just wish the notebook had numbered pages.

8. Inkwell Press

Discbound + thick paper that has no pen ghosting! And only very minor ghosting on the MAMBI stamps (which tend to always bleed through).

Why I like it

• Discbound – add, remove and rearrange pages as often as you like
• Good quality paper
• Purchase the cover and discs then refill again and again

Inkwell Press Planner Review – 360 Discbound

Quick Facts

• Size: 7 x 9″
• Leather Cover
• Aluminium disc binding
• Thick, smooth high quality paper
• Ships from the USA
• You can purchase refills with one of their planners, or just pick and choose which items you need to make a custom dot grid notebook

More bullet journal

• 12 Monthly planning bullet journal spreads (you can do in 5 minutes or less)
• 50 Bullet journal Instagram accounts you should be following
• Bullet Journal Ideas: 26 Weekly Spread Layouts to Try

Planning tips & reviews

• Planning 101: Planner lingo (what does it all mean?) 
• Planning on a budget: If I only had $50 to spend on planner supplies, this is what I’d buy
• 52 Lessons learned after trying 52 different planners in 52 weeks

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