# Paperpile vs Pico Memo

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Paperpile at none against Pico Memo's 1. Paperpile also leads on iOS requirement (12.0 vs 26.0). On price, update cadence, ads and device support there is nothing between them.

Both are free to download. Pico Memo sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Paperpile asks for nothing beyond the download.

Paperpile ships an update every 2 months, Pico Memo every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on November 2, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

## The numbers

| Metric | Paperpile | Pico Memo |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 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** | Yes |
| Ads | No | No |
| Update frequency | **Every 2 months** | Every 3 months |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Size | 242 MB | 172 MB |
| Requires iOS | **12.0** | 26.0 |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, Mac |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | [Paperpile LLC](https://appshunter.io/developer/1187562735) | [Private Intelligence Inc.](https://appshunter.io/developer/1745322684) |

## 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


### Pico Memo

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/pico-memo/id6766054348)

**Features:** Vision Pro support

**In-app purchases (1)**

| Purchase | Price | Billing |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Support Pico Memo | $4.99 | one-time |


## Frequently asked questions

### Is Paperpile free?

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

### Is Pico Memo free?

Pico Memo is free to download, with in-app purchases available.

### Do Paperpile or Pico Memo have ads?

Neither Paperpile nor Pico Memo shows ads.

### Which is updated more often, Paperpile or Pico Memo?

Paperpile ships an update every 2 months, and Pico Memo every 3 months. Most recently, Paperpile was updated on November 2, 2026 and Pico Memo on October 31, 2026.

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