Comparison

QuickNotes X vs Saber

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

QuickNotes X

This app offers a fluid and precise note-taking experience with a custom vector ink engine, voice recording synced to writing, and ML-powered shape recognition. Organize notes with notebooks and folders, protect them with passwords and biometrics, and sync seamlessly across devices via iCloud. Mark up PDFs and presentations, and customize your notes with various tools and templates.

Highlights
  • Vector ink engine for fluid writing
  • Voice recording synced to notes
  • ML-powered shape recognition
  • Notebook and folder organization
  • Password and biometric protection
  • PDF and presentation annotation
  • iCloud sync across devices
Features
Read full description

ESCAPE THE LIMITS OF PHYSICAL PAPER • Experience a fluid, precise and natural note taking experience powered by the unparalleled performance of QuickNotes X custom vector ink engine; • Choose your drawing style with numerous included tools, such as fountain and ballpoint pen; • Freely customize your stroke color as well as line thickness and pressure sensitivity; • Record and play back lectures with Voice Recording: your writing will be synced to the audio! • Draw perfect shapes and straight lines thanks to automatic, ML-powered shape recognition; • Move, resize, rotate and zoom your handwriting to take notes like a pro; • Never run out of paper: swipe to the next page and a new page will be created if needed! • Take perfect notes with your Apple Pencil, Logitech Crayon or other capacitive styluses. ORGANIZE & PROTECT YOUR THOUGHTS • Never lose your notes again thanks to the powerful organization provided by QuickNotes X; • Create Notebooks to organize your notes; • Add unlimited Folders & Subfolders to group your Notebooks; • Lock individual Notebooks and Folders with a Password to protect your thoughts from prying eyes; • Unlock protected notebooks using Face ID, Touch ID or by entering your Password; • Rearrange your Notebooks and Folders however you like to make sure they are always in the correct order. SEAMLESSLY SYNC TO ALL YOUR DEVICES • Seamlessly back up & sync your notebooks and folders to all your devices thanks to iCloud; • Write once, edit anywhere: when iCloud Sync is active all your content is automatically available on all your devices; • Use the native Mac app to view your notes on the bigger screen and edit them right on your computer. MARK UP & WRITE ON PDFs, SLIDES AND MORE • Import and edit PDFs, PowerPoint presentations more; • Annotate documents on your device with all the tools available, including fountain & ballpoint pen, highlighter and shape recognition; • Open notes and documents side-by-side on your iPad for maximum flexibility; • Quickly export your notes as images, PDF or QuickNotes X Documents for easy sharing ENDLESS CUSTOMIZATION FOR YOUR CREATIVITY • Create an unlimited number of presets for stroke color and line thickness to always have the right one ready at your fingertips; • Choose between Dual or Single Bar Mode to take notes with the maximum level of flexibility and customizability; • Choose to erase entire strokes on only some parts thanks to the new Precision and Whole Stroke Erasers; • Use the Lasso tool to cut, copy, paste or delete groups of strokes or entire pages; • Customize the look of your Notebooks and Folders by choosing from more than 80 options; • Make each notebook cover yours: the Notebook cover is now fully editable so you can draw on it! • Choose the right paper template for your Notebooks, such as Blank Paper, Cornell Paper, Chemistry Paper, Engineering Grid Paper, Music Paper and more! TYPE AND WRITE ANYWHERE • Add Text Boxes anywhere in a page to start typing, with plenty of customization options for color, font style and size, available right at your fingertips in the new Tool Bar; • Move, rotate and scale text boxes to never run out of space; • Combine handwritten notes with typed content and annotate or highlight key words in your Text Boxes; AND THERE IS EVEN MORE! • Swipe left or right to quickly move to the previous or next page in the notebook; • Quickly jump to any page in the Notebook by using the Notes List menu in the Note Editor; • Customize any new page you create thanks to the new "New Page" menu in the Editor; • Create a QuickNotebook to always have a fresh new page when you open the app; • Changing the paper template for a single page or the entire Notebook is only one tap away; QuickNotes X: Note-Taking, Made Easy. Website: https://www.quicknotesx.com Twitter: @QuickNotesX Instagram: @quicknotesx ----------- Privacy Policy: https://www.quicknotesx.com/privacy Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula

About

Saber

Capture and organize your thoughts with a digital handwriting app designed for intuitive use. Features include dark mode inversion for eye comfort, advanced highlighter capabilities, and robust folder organization. Secure your notes with a dual-password system and enjoy seamless syncing across all your devices.

Highlights
  • Intuitive handwriting interface
  • Dark mode inversion for eye comfort
  • Advanced multi-line equation highlighting
  • Unlimited nested folders for organization
  • Dual-password note protection
  • Seamless cross-device syncing
  • Open-source code for transparency
Features
Read full description

Saber is the notes app built for handwriting. It's designed to be as simple and intuitive as possible, while still delivering unique features that you'll actually use. Additionally, Saber is available across all your devices, large and small, and syncs between them seamlessly. Notably, it can invert your notes when you're in dark mode. This allows you to write with white ink on a black background, which is much easier on the eyes in low-light environments like when the teacher turns off the lights in class. Images and PDFs are also inverted, so you can still use a digital printout or a textbook without the fuss. Saber uses a dual-password system to protect your notes from anyone but you, even if they have complete control over the server. You can safely store your notes on the official Saber server, another server, or even host your own! The app is completely open-source so that anyone can view the source code and see exactly what it's doing and how it handles your data. Many other note-taking apps are closed-source and proprietary, meaning that their inner workings are a mystery to the public. As someone who studies maths, highlighting multi-line equations was always a hassle with other apps, where the highlighter would change color when it overlapped with itself. Another problem I had was that in some apps, the highlighter would render on top of the text, fading it out and making it hard to read. Saber's highlighter has no such issues. It utilizes canvas compositing to render the highlighter in a way that is consistent with/better than traditional paper, where it handles overlaps and maintains color consistency. Saber has everything you need to keep your notes organized. Create folders inside folders inside folders to your heart's content with no limit on the number of nested folders. And even though a note may be buried deep within a nested folder, you can still access it easily with your most recent notes always available on the home screen. Discover a whole new way to capture and organize your thoughts with Saber. Whether you're a student, professional, or creative mind, Saber is your trusted companion for digital handwriting. Download now and let your ideas flow freely!

Screenshots

QuickNotes X4 screens
Saber4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Saber at 76% against QuickNotes X's 38%. Saber also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 11) and update cadence (fortnightly vs every 5 weeks). QuickNotes X's advantage is ratings volume (3.8K vs 21) and rating (4.3 vs 4.0). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. QuickNotes X sells 11 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per 3 months. Saber asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

QuickNotes X holds the better App Store score, 4.3 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: QuickNotes X has 3.8K ratings behind it against 21, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 38% of QuickNotes X's written reviews are positive against 76% of Saber's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

QuickNotes X ships an update every 5 weeks, Saber fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on September 23, 2026 and September 22, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
QuickNotes X versus Saber: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterQuickNotes XSaber
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.3 (3.8K ratings) — better4.0 (21 ratings)
Positive reviews38.0% of reviews76.5% of reviews — better
Number of ratings3.8K — better21
Update frequencyEvery 5 weeksFortnightly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, MaciPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better
Requires iOS16.015.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size354 MB49 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAlessandro SassiAdil Hanney

Customer experience

QuickNotes X

All ratings3,753 ratings
Positive82.4%
Neutral6.1%
Negative11.5%
Written reviews158 reviews
Positive38.0%
Neutral13.9%
Negative48.1%

Saber

All ratings21 ratings
Positive76.2%
Neutral9.5%
Negative14.3%
Written reviews17 reviews
Positive76.5%
Neutral17.6%
Negative5.9%

Bugs and requests

QuickNotes X

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Notes randomly disappearing or becoming corrupted
  • Pen input not registering correctly or lagging
  • Unexpected page flipping or navigation issues
  • Syncing problems between devices

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add text typing option for those with poor handwriting
  • Implement cloud sync and cross-device access
  • Include more customization options like templates and colors
  • Improve shape recognition and drawing tools
  • Allow rearranging and organizing of pages/notebooks

Saber

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

11 purchases

QuickNotes X

Subscriptions1
  • Cloud & ML Pack$0.993 Months
One-time10
  • Covers Pack$0.99
  • Templates Pack$0.99
  • QuickNotes X AI: 50000 Tokens$0.99
Show 7 more
  • QuickNotes X AI: 100000 Tokens$1.99
  • Notebooks & Folders Pack$2.99
  • Tools Pack$2.99
  • QuickNotes X AI: 300000 Tokens$3.99
  • QuickNotes X Pro$4.99
  • Pro Pack$5.99
  • QuickNotes X AI: 500000 Tokens$5.99
None

Saber

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is QuickNotes X free?
QuickNotes X is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Saber free?
Saber is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, QuickNotes X or Saber?
QuickNotes X is rated higher. QuickNotes X averages 4.3 out of 5 from 3.8K ratings, while Saber averages 4.0 from 21 ratings.
Do QuickNotes X or Saber have ads?
Neither QuickNotes X nor Saber shows ads.
Which is updated more often, QuickNotes X or Saber?
QuickNotes X ships an update every 5 weeks, and Saber fortnightly. Most recently, QuickNotes X was updated on September 23, 2026 and Saber on September 22, 2026.

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