# Paperpile vs SciNote

Paperpile and SciNote are too close to call on the numbers: across 6 compared parameters — price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

Paperpile ships an update every 2 months, SciNote every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 27, 2026 respectively.

## The numbers

| Metric | Paperpile | SciNote |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | **[4.5 (131 ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/paperpile/id1187562736/reviews)** | — |
| Number of ratings | **131** | — |
| Positive reviews | 71.6% of reviews | — |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Ads | No | No |
| Update frequency | **Every 2 months** | Every 4 months |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Size | 242 MB | 66 MB |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 | **11.0** |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Age rating | 4+ | 17+ |
| Developer | [Paperpile LLC](https://appshunter.io/developer/1187562735) | [Scinote LLC](https://appshunter.io/developer/1660589967) |

## What reviewers say

### Paperpile

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/paperpile/id1187562736)

Organize and manage your research papers effortlessly. Collect, read, and annotate PDFs from millions of academic journals. Beat paper chaos with a tidy digital library.

**Highlights:** Search millions of academic papers, Collect PDFs with one tap, Organize with folders and labels, Read and annotate PDFs, Highlight and add notes, Browser integration for saving

**Features:** macOS Compatibility

**In-app purchases:** none

**What reviewers like**

- 👍 Excellent reference library management
- 🔄 Seamless cross-device synchronization
- ✍️ Intuitive PDF annotation and highlighting
- 🎨 Clean and minimalist user interface
- 📱 Strong iPad and mobile integration

**What reviewers complain about**

- 🐛 Frequent crashes and instability
- ⏱️ Lack of updates for extended periods
- 📱 Mobile app significantly behind web version features
- 🔋 High battery drain on iPad
- 🌙 No dark mode support

**Reported bugs**

- App crashes frequently on iPad and iOS devices
- Highlighting disappears when revisiting papers
- Overlapping annotations delete together when removing one
- Sync failures requiring logout/login cycles
- Annotations not syncing between iPad and web versions

**Requested features**

- Dark mode implementation
- Edit citation metadata on mobile app
- Change PDF file functionality
- Save to downloads feature
- Dictionary/lookup function for reading


### SciNote

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/scinote/id1660589965)

**Features:** macOS Compatibility

**In-app purchases:** none


## Frequently asked questions

### Is Paperpile free?

Paperpile is free to download, with no in-app purchases.

### Is SciNote free?

SciNote is free to download, with no in-app purchases.

### Do Paperpile or SciNote have ads?

Neither Paperpile nor SciNote shows ads.

### Which is updated more often, Paperpile or SciNote?

Paperpile ships an update every 2 months, and SciNote every 4 months. Most recently, Paperpile was updated on October 23, 2026 and SciNote on October 27, 2026.

---

*Compared by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/) from daily US App Store data. Review summaries are generated from verbatim App Store reviews.*