Paintwork vs MarginNote 3
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Paintwork
Create handwritten notes, diaries, and drawings with a vast array of tools. Features include customizable brushes, vector graphics, a rich color palette, and image import. Export your creations as PDFs or images.
- Customizable brushes and erasers
- Extensive vector graphics tools
- Rich color palette
- Image and material import
- Handwriting assistance
- PDF and image export
- Customizable backgrounds and canvas
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Paintwork is a simple and powerful software for handwritten notebooks, diaries, and hand drawn images. It includes functions such as: brush list (hundreds of brush effects, customizable brush thickness, color, transparency, dynamic strength weights, etc.), eraser list (each brush effect can be used as an eraser), Vector graphics tools (including lasso, vector eraser, vector pen, annotation pen, highlighter, wavy pen, double line pen, text box, illustration, dashed line, horizontal and vertical dashed line, curve, closed shape, text pen, rectangle, ellipse, straight line, arrow, triangle, pentagram, polygon, etc.), and also include many related attribute settings, Color list (with a rich color palette and customizable manual configuration of commonly used colors), copy and cut the content of specified areas on the page, import images or materials, as well as a simple calculator, handwriting assistance, and photo scanning of document files. Unlimited writing, ruler, recognition of text, printing of text, filling, and the ability to export PDF files or images. Supports custom background functionality, custom canvas paper, and more. It can be used to write for classroom or book learning notes, handwritten notes for work meetings, hand drawn mind maps, hand drawn account creation, hand made account book making, writing diaries, recording life thoughts, calligraphy practice, handwritten brush and pencil characters, hand drawn artistic characters, and so on. Supports Apple pencil. Can export images or PDFs. If you have any comments or feedback, please feel free to contact us. Contact email: pw_team@163.com If you like our application, please give us a good review. Thank you.
MarginNote 3
This app redefines studying by integrating e-reading with powerful annotation, mind mapping, and flashcard tools. Organize knowledge, connect ideas with hashtags, and enhance memory retention through spaced repetition. It offers a seamless workflow across multiple documents and devices.
- Integrated PDF/EPUB reader
- Advanced annotation tools
- Mind mapping and outline organization
- Flashcard creation and Anki export
- Multi-document support
- Handwriting and Apple Pencil support
- OCR for scanned PDFs
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MarginNote 3, all brand new e-reader to better study and digest your books Integrating powerful tools for book annotation, mindmapping, flashcards and more, to build up your reading notes as never before. ============================================ Welcome to MarginNote. This is a highly powerful reading and study software and is applicable to Mac, iPad, and iPhone. By integrating the PDF/EPUB reader and multiple powerful study tools, MarginNote will enable learners to reorganize and connect knowledge from different aspects, then memorize and grasp it accordingly. Whatever your profession, such as student, educator, researcher, lawyer, or life-long learner, you may annotate and take notes through MarginNote, organize notes via Mindmap and Outline, connect knowledge horizontally via Hashtag and raise memory effect via the Flashcards. You will discover what MarginNote does is not to simply integrate these tools. Instead, it combines them deeply and skillfully, which makes it easier for users to toggle between different tools. What's New in MarginNote 3 * New and Clean UI Completely redesigned. * Improved performance and Running more smoothly * Support both Document Reading mode & Study Reading mode. * Excerpts & Note-taking * Enhanced Handwriting & apple-pencil support. * Support TextBox on PDF. * Support direct text-typing & sketching when editing note cards. * Support Auto OCR when excerpting on scanned PDFs. * Emphasis & Cloze * Support direct emphasis in powerful Emphasis mode both on PDF or Outline. * Support auto convert emphasis to Cloze in CardDeck. * Support creating Image-Occlusion flashcards. * Multi-Documents * Support both document tabs & split views to switch between documents. * MindMap * Auto grouping new excerpts by Document Table of Contents. * Support new brach display mode: Framework. * Swipe/Drag gestures to slide in/out Outline & Documents in Study mode. * Enhanced grouped cut/paste, drag to merge,.. etc. * Outline * Improved search and displaying keywords in results. * Improved styles. * CardDeck: * View Flashcards in MindMap mode and Document mode. * Enhanced Anki Export: Card styles, Image occlusions, Cloze * Enhanced Research web browser. * iCloud Sync * Fixed several design issue in previous versions. * More stable & improved performance. * Categories * Separate categories for Document, Study and Review. * Trash * Recover data from Trash and make data more safe. * Trial * 14-days free trial. MarginNote 2 features: Reading: - Support PDF and EPUB format; Annotating and NoteTaking: - Support text highlight and rectangular highlight; - Add notes directly at the page margin; the note editing area will not overlap with the book content at all; - Text, voice, picture, sketching and many other forms of comments in note; - Add hashtags to notes to facilitate the connection of notes; Outline and Mindmap: - Outline and Mindmap in one view; - Create Outline tree by swipe gestures; - Multi-selection editing such as group, merge, clone, etc; - Quick searching and filtering according to colors, hashtags, books. Flashcard: - Highlights and notes can be automatically turned into flashcards for review; - Spaced repetition adopting the Anki-based algorithm; - Switch to the linking book page at any time; iPad Pro & Apple pencil: - Split View of multiple tasks; - High-precision drawing by Apple pencil; - Fine tuned for Apple pencil; - Keyboard shortcuts; Import, Export and Sync: - Import webpages and notes from Evernote; - Export flashcards to Anki; - Export Outline to OmniOutliner; - Export Mindmap to iThoughts or MindManager; - Export to Evernote; - Export all the margin notes, MindManager, Outline and Pages to a printable PDF; - Sync books & notes with iCloud; Terms of Use: https://www.marginnote.com/press/marginnote-3-term-of-use Privacy Policy: https://www.iubenda.com/privacy-policy/92678020
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Paintwork at weekly against MarginNote 3's every 6 weeks. Paintwork also leads on ratings volume (17K vs 5K). MarginNote 3's advantage is review sentiment (75% vs 65%) and iOS requirement (11.2 vs 15.6). On price, rating, ads and in-app purchases 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. Paintwork sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month and MarginNote 3 sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.6 for Paintwork against 4.7 for MarginNote 3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 17K and 5K respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 65% of Paintwork's written reviews are positive against 75% of MarginNote 3's.
Paintwork ships an update weekly, MarginNote 3 every 6 weeks. Both last shipped on October 30, 2026.
| Parameter | Paintwork | MarginNote 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (17K ratings) | 4.7 (5K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 65.4% of reviews | 74.6% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 17K — better | 5K |
| Update frequency | Weekly — better | Every 6 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 | 11.2 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 200 MB | 392 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 17+ |
| Developer | 伟典 苏 | Beijing Yunsi Software Technology Co., Ltd |
Customer experience
Paintwork
MarginNote 3
User reviews
Paintwork
From 17K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🎨 Vast selection of brushes and tools
- 💻 Works well on various devices
- 🎨 Allows for creative expression
- 💰 Free to use with no paywall
Room to improve
- 🔒 Certain features locked behind paywall
- 🐛 Bugs and glitches causing crashes or data loss
- 🎨 Limited color palette and blending options
- 🔍 Lack of intuitive UI and tutorials
MarginNote 3
From 5K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Powerful and efficient for studying and research
- 👍 Excellent mind mapping and note-taking features
- 💡 Unique and innovative functionality like video annotation
- 🚀 Handles large volumes of documents and notes well
- 👍 Useful for organizing and synthesizing information from multiple sources
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent crashes and stability issues
- 👎 Steep learning curve and lack of comprehensive documentation
- 👎 Unreliable cloud syncing between devices
- 👎 Cluttered and unintuitive user interface in some areas
- 🐛 Bugs and glitches with certain features like handwriting and OCR
Bugs and requests
Paintwork
Reported bugs
3 issues- App freezing or crashing when using certain features
- Artwork getting deleted or not saving properly
- Inability to import or work with external images
Requested features
4 requests- Add more color options and blending tools
- Improve stability and reduce crashes
- Provide more tutorials and onboarding for new users
- Allow users to save and access their artwork easily
MarginNote 3
Reported bugs
5 issues- Syncing issues causing data loss across devices
- Crashes and freezes when working with large documents
- Inconsistent behavior with highlighting, erasing, and text formatting
- OCR not functioning reliably for non-Latin scripts
- Difficulty managing and organizing large document libraries
Requested features
5 requests- Improved export options and ability to share projects
- Better integration with other productivity apps like Anki
- More customization options for mind maps and annotations
- Smoother handwriting experience and better palm rejection
- Support for more file formats like PowerPoint
In-app purchases
Paintwork
- Monthly subscription premium$0.991 Month
- Annual subscription premium$3.991 Year
- Unlock local version$9.99
MarginNote 3
- OCR Pro (Monthly)3 Days trial$0.991 Month
- OCR Pro (Annually)3 Days trial$9.491 Year
- 14 days Free TrialFree
- Unlock Full$12.99
- Upgrade to Full$12.99








