Comparison

Paintwork vs Notes Writer

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

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • 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
Features
Read full description

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.

About

Notes Writer

This app is a comprehensive note-taking and PDF editing solution for mobile devices. It allows users to write, format, and organize notes, annotate PDFs, fill forms, and scan documents. The app offers advanced editing tools, powerful search, and seamless sharing and export options.

Highlights
  • Write and format notes
  • Annotate PDFs and fill forms
  • Organize with unlimited notebooks
  • Powerful full-text search
  • Document scanning
  • Sync with cloud services
  • Export to multiple formats
Features
Read full description

Notes Writer brings handwriting, PDF annotation, rich text, Math Notebooks, voice recordings and AI writing tools into one workspace for iPad and iPhone. Capture a lecture, mark up a paper, plan a project or turn a rough draft into something ready to share. WRITE AND MAKE IT YOURS Create beautifully formatted notes with headings, lists, colors and highlights. Work with Word documents, RTF, Markdown and plain text. Open documents in tabs and move between your ideas and reference material without losing your place. WRITE ON PDFs WITH APPLE PENCIL Take handwritten notes, sketch in the margins and highlight what matters. Choose from pens, pencils, markers, fountain pens and watercolor tools. Use the eraser, lasso and ruler to refine your work. Add text, shapes, images, signatures and audio to PDF notes. Fill forms, organize pages and keep your reading and annotations together. Measure distances and areas on scaled drawings, and apply text redactions in supported PDFs. GIVE YOUR WRITING AN AI ASSIST Rewrite a passage, simplify difficult language, fix spelling and grammar, or adjust the tone. Summarize, translate and explore ideas with AI tools and chat. Keep control of what goes into your notes and documents. CAPTURE VOICE, FIND THE WORDS Record lectures, meetings and ideas while they are fresh. Play recordings back at your pace and generate transcripts to revisit the details. Add recordings to your PDF notes and whiteboards for more context. THINK BEYOND THE PAGE Build visual whiteboards with notes, images and recordings. Capture quick thoughts on sticky notes. Structure ideas in Outline Notes with nested branches, rich text and images. Collapse sections, rearrange your thinking, and import or export outlines in OPML format. WORK THROUGH THE NUMBERS Combine explanations and calculations in Math Notebooks. Explore formulas with the built-in calculation tools and run Python cells when you need more. Create charts, write LaTeX documents and preview the finished PDF alongside your source. ORGANIZE YOUR STUDY AND RESEARCH Bring your notes, readings and research together in Study Projects. Organize subjects, lectures and sources in the Binder, plan ideas on the Corkboard and keep reference material beside your notes. Study Projects give everything a place as your understanding grows. TAKE BIG WRITING PROJECTS FURTHER Organize writing projects into sections in the Binder, plan with a Corkboard and review your writing as a manuscript. Keep research beside your draft, save snapshots and compile your work into a finished document or ebook. ORGANIZE, SCAN AND SHARE Keep notes and documents in folders with recognizable covers. Scan paper documents, import files and find what you need with search. Export supported documents to formats including PDF, DOCX, RTF, HTML and EPUB. Use the Files app and supported cloud locations to bring your work with you. LOOK AFTER YOUR WORK Autosave, document recovery and automatic backups help protect your progress. Use app and folder passcodes for an extra layer of privacy. Continue opening your existing Notes Writer PDF notes and outlines as you move to the new workspace. From your first handwritten idea to your final document, make room for the way you think. Privacy Policy http://www.noteswriter.com/Kairoos_Privacy_Policy.html Terms of Use https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Paintwork4 screens
Notes Writer4 screens

Verdict

The call

Paintwork and Notes Writer both sit at 4.6 stars, but that hides the real split: 65% of Paintwork's written reviews are positive against 45% of Notes Writer's. Paintwork also leads on iOS requirement (15.6 vs 26.0). On price, rating, ratings volume and update cadence 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. Paintwork sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month and Notes Writer sells 8 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per 7 days. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.6 for Paintwork against 4.5 for Notes Writer. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 17K and 7.3K respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 65% of Paintwork's written reviews are positive against 45% of Notes Writer's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Paintwork ships an update weekly, Notes Writer every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 20, 2026 and October 28, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Paintwork versus Notes Writer: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPaintworkNotes Writer
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (17K ratings) — better4.5 (7.3K ratings)
Positive reviews65.4% of reviews — better45.0% of reviews
Number of ratings17K — better7.3K
Update frequencyWeeklyEvery 4 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.6 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size200 MB659 MB
Age rating4+4+
Developer伟典 苏Kairoos Solutions SL

Customer experience

Paintwork

All ratings17,166 ratings
Positive88.1%
Neutral5.4%
Negative6.5%
Written reviews237 reviews
Positive65.4%
Neutral13.9%
Negative20.7%

Notes Writer

All ratings7,331 ratings
Positive86.8%
Neutral5.1%
Negative8.1%
Written reviews957 reviews
Positive45.0%
Neutral15.2%
Negative39.8%

User reviews

Paintwork

From 17K App Store ratings

What 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

Notes Writer

From 7.3K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Smooth writing experience
  • 💡 Versatile note-taking features
  • 🔒 Good privacy
  • 👍 Useful for various purposes (notes, PDF annotations, etc.)

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Crashes and freezes
  • 🔒 Limiting free version with paywalls
  • 🐛 Bugs with erasing, page management, and file corruption
  • 🐛 Laggy performance and slow loading times

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

Notes Writer

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Notes randomly disappearing or getting corrupted
  • Inability to recover deleted documents
  • Unexpected behavior when adding/deleting pages
  • Syncing issues and broken links between documents

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add more brushes and pen customization options
  • Improve the clipping/selection tool
  • Implement OCR and handwriting search
  • Provide a Mac version

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Paintwork

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly subscription premium$0.991 Month
  • Annual subscription premium$3.991 Year
One-time1
  • Unlock local version$9.99
8 purchases

Notes Writer

Subscriptions3
  • Weekly$1.997 Days
  • Notes Writer Unlock All and AI3 Days trial$3.991 Month
  • Notes Writer Unlock All and AI3 Days trial$14.991 Year
One-time5
  • Full Version Unlock Pro$3.99
  • Full Version Unlock Pro$4.99
  • Full Version Unlock Pro2 variants$5.99
Show 2 more
  • Full Version Unlock Pro$6.99
  • Lifetime Pro Full Unlock$14.99

Questions

Is Paintwork free?
Paintwork is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Notes Writer free?
Notes Writer is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Paintwork or Notes Writer?
Paintwork is rated higher. Paintwork averages 4.6 out of 5 from 17K ratings, while Notes Writer averages 4.5 from 7.3K ratings.
Do Paintwork or Notes Writer have ads?
Neither Paintwork nor Notes Writer shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Paintwork or Notes Writer?
Paintwork ships an update weekly, and Notes Writer every 4 days. Most recently, Paintwork was updated on October 20, 2026 and Notes Writer on October 28, 2026.

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