QuickNotes X vs Wren
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- 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
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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
Wren
Transform your handwritten notes into study materials. This app uses AI to generate summaries, practice questions, flashcards, and mind maps from your lecture notes. It also includes a calendar for tracking deadlines and scheduling study sessions.
- AI-generated summaries
- Practice questions from notes
- Flashcard creation
- Mind map generation
- Specialized sticky types (code, graphs, flowcharts)
- Integrated calendar with deadline tracking
- Search by meaning, not just keywords
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You write the question. Wren's AI writes the answer back in neat handwriting, right on your page. It adds step-by-step math solves, function graphs, mind maps, tables, flowcharts and timelines in clean ink. On iPad, write a request with Apple Pencil, pause, and tap Keep. Or ask Study Buddy and tap Add to note. Most AI talks back in a chat window. Wren talks back in handwriting, on the same page you're taking notes on. Stuck at 11pm on a problem you can't crack? Write it on your board and ask. Wren writes the answer right next to your work, by hand: the graph, the steps, the mind map. No chat window. No copy and paste. Just your board, filling in. ONE ENDLESS WHITEBOARD Open a whiteboard note and you get one board with no pages and no edges. Work a problem in one corner. Sketch a cell in another. Zoom out and the whole topic sits on one screen. Want structure instead? Wren also has Notebooks with real pages and Documents for typed work. INK, NOT CARDS Wren's AI writes with real pen strokes, the same kind of ink you write with. It can put any of these on your board: • A few lines of text, like a definition or a short explanation • Graphs of the function you are working on • Diagrams and flowcharts • Mind maps that branch out from one idea • Timelines, from cell division to the Cold War • Checklists for what to do next • Formulas • Tables that line facts up side by side It all comes out in Wren's own neat hand, so it reads clearly next to your notes. THREE WAYS TO ASK Study Buddy. Open the chat, ask your question, and tap Add to note. The answer is written onto your page by hand. AI Tutor. Pin a Tutor answer you like, then add it to your page. It goes on as ink. Pen pause, on iPad. Write what you want with Apple Pencil, like "graph y = x^2 + 1" or "mind map the causes of World War I", then pause. A preview appears on your page. Keep it or discard it. YOU DECIDE WHAT STAYS On iPad, every pen pause starts as a preview. Tap Keep and it becomes ink on your board. Tap Discard and it is gone. Your board stays yours. ONE NIGHT AT THE BOARD 9pm, calculus. You write the function and ask for its graph. The curve shows up on the board next to your work. 10pm, biology. You ask Study Buddy for the stages of mitosis and tap Add to note. A timeline is written beside your sketch of the cell. 11pm, history. On iPad you write "mind map the causes of World War I" and pause your Apple Pencil. The preview shows the causes branching out. You keep it. Midnight, chemistry. You ask for a table comparing ionic and covalent bonds. It is written in neat rows, right on the board. Then you zoom out, and the whole night of studying is one board you can actually read. WRITE ON IPAD OR IPHONE On iPad, Wren works with Apple Pencil, with pressure and palm rejection, and pen pause is there whenever you stop to think. On iPhone, write with your finger and use Study Buddy's Add to note to bring answers onto your page. Your notes sync across your devices. WHY WE BUILT IT We're a brother and sister, both in college. We take notes every day, and we were tired of copying answers out of a chat window and into our notes. So we made the notes answer back. We are our own users, and Wren is the whiteboard we wanted. Wren is free to download. Some features are part of an optional subscription, billed to your Apple ID. It renews automatically unless you cancel at least 24 hours before the current period ends. You can manage or cancel it anytime in your App Store account settings. Terms of Use: https://www.getnotenest.com/terms Privacy Policy: https://www.getnotenest.com/privacy
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Wren at 100% against QuickNotes X's 38%. Wren also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.3) and update cadence (every 10 days vs every 5 weeks). QuickNotes X's advantage is ratings volume (3.8K vs 22). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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
Both are free to download. QuickNotes X sells 11 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per 3 months and Wren sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Wren holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: QuickNotes X has 3.8K ratings behind it against 22, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 38% of QuickNotes X's written reviews are positive against 100% of Wren's.
QuickNotes X ships an update every 5 weeks, Wren every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on October 26, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | QuickNotes X | Wren |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.3 (3.8K ratings) | 5.0 (22 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 38.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 3.8K — better | 22 |
| Update frequency | Every 5 weeks | Every 10 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 — better | 16.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 354 MB | 105 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Alessandro Sassi | NOTENEST LLC |
Customer experience
QuickNotes X
Wren
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
Wren
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
QuickNotes X
- Cloud & ML Pack$0.993 Months
- Covers Pack$0.99
- Templates Pack$0.99
- QuickNotes X AI: 50000 Tokens$0.99
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- 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
Wren
- NoteNest Lite7 Days trial$4.991 Month
- NoteNest Founder7 Days trial$6.991 Month
- NoteNest Pro7 Days trial$9.991 Month
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- NoteNest Elite7 Days trial$14.991 Month
- NoteNest Pro Annual7 Days trial$71.991 Year









