Comparison

SCRIBZEE® vs Element Note

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

Head to head
About

SCRIBZEE®

Securely access all your handwritten notes from any device, anytime. This app offers high-quality scans that are automatically enhanced for clarity and readability. Organize, share, and even convert notes to PDF for easy distribution.

Highlights
  • Secure cloud access for notes
  • High-quality automatic scanning
  • Cross-device synchronization
  • Note organization by subject/project
  • Share notes via social media/messaging
  • Convert notes to PDF
  • Revision progress tracking
Read full description

ACCESS ALL YOUR HANDWRITTEN NOTES SECURELY, WHEN AND WHERE YOU NEED THEM, on your smartphone, tablet or laptop. Already more than a million people are using SCRIBZEE®. ◆ WITH SCRIBZEE® YOUR HANDWRITTEN NOTES ARE ACCESSIBLE EVERYWHERE, EVEN WHEN YOU DON’T HAVE YOUR NOTEBOOK WITH YOU ◆ Whether you’re a student or a professional on a business trip, it’s great to be able to access all your handwritten notes without having to carry your notes or notebooks around with you. With SCRIBZEE®, access your notes anywhere and at any time via the smartphone app, even in flight mode, or alternatively on a tablet, PC or Mac with SCRIBZEE® Online (www.scribzee.com). ◆ A HIGH-QUALITY SCAN EVERY TIME, BETTER THAN USING YOUR SMARTPHONE CAMERA ◆ Capturing your notes with your smartphone camera is a possibility. However, the result doesn’t often come up to expectations. The pages are crooked, slightly blurry and badly framed. Your notes get mixed up with your photos, they take up storage space and are not multipage. With SCRIBZEE® and your compatible HAMELIN product, your scan is automatically enhanced by the app, so you get a high-quality result every time: • Accurate framing of the page content, • Vertical and horizontal re-framing of the image, • Optimisation of the contrast and brightness levels Your scanned notes are always clear and fully readable, shareable, enrichable and printable. ◆ SCRIBZEE® FOR LEARNING ◆ Are you in the habit of forgetting your notebook? Have you ever misplaced study cards or had them torn to pieces by your puppy? SCRIBZEE® protects your notes so you can study wherever and whenever you need to on your smartphone. Do you wake up in the morning with study cards strewn all over your bed? Organise your notes by subject in SCRIBZEE® and study in bed using your smartphone. Fed up of seeing more pics of your notes or study cards on your smartphone than photos of your friends? Store your notes in SCRIBZEE® and free up your photo gallery for more important things. Got a friend in need? With SCRIBZEE® share your class notes or study cards with one click (Twitter, Messenger, What’s App). Have you written out so many study cards you don’t know where to start revising? With SCRIBZEE® assign a status (red, orange, green) to each card and keep track of your revision progress. ◆ SCRIBZEE® FOR BUSINESS ◆ Does your job involve long-term projects? Save and access all your notes in SCRIBZEE®. Do you manage lots of different projects? Archive your notes by subject, client or project name and find everything you need with SCRIBZEE®’s search function. Do you frequently attend meetings then need to send out the meeting notes quickly? With SCRIBZEE® no more typing out handwritten notes, just convert to PDF and share instantly. Do you find your notes or meeting minutes easily get mixed up? Keep your notes under control access them faster by linking them to the appointments in your calendar. ◆ SCRIBZEE® IS ALSO ◆ • A free app. • Exclusively available with your favourite HAMELIN notebook. • Includes dedicated, unlimited free cloud storage space. • Totally secure. Your notes are encrypted and only readable by you. • Allows you to create automatic reminders for your important notes. • Add photos from your smartphone to enrich your handwritten notes. • And much more.

About

Element Note

This app offers a distraction-free digital notebook experience with advanced handwriting, PDF annotation, and sketching capabilities. It features unique brushes, a powerful rendering engine, and smart organization tools. Sync your notes across devices and collaborate with others seamlessly.

Highlights
  • Unique handwriting brushes
  • Smooth drawing engine
  • PDF annotation
  • Text, shape, and image attachments
  • On-device OCR search
  • Smart dark mode
  • iCloud sync and collaboration
Features
Read full description

Element Note is the next-gen note taking, PDF annotation, and light sketching app. We stripped down the unnecessaries and carefully polished the elemental functions for a digital notebook. With a modern look and powerful features, Element Note strives to provide an elegant writing space free of distractions. Features: Unique brushes - Pencil (HB Pencil, Mechanical Pencil) - Pen (Pen, Line Pen, Fountain Pen) - Brush (Art Brush, Round Brush) - Marker (Marker, Round Marker) Best-in-class note rendering engine - Smooth and fluid drawing powered by Metal technology - Support gradient ink for more expressive notes Powerful attachments - Text - Shape - Sticker - Image Universal Search - Search through your PDF & Handwritting using on device OCR Smart Darkmode - Smartly adapts all of your notes to the system darkmode without changing the paper or stroke colors. iCloud Sync & Collaboration - Sync via your personal iCloud (No data is passed to our server) - Collaborate through iCloud collaboration for up to 100 users. Desktop class organization - Intuitive multi-select drag and drop gesture to organize your notes or pages Element Note is free to try for up to 3 notes. Unlock the full app with an in app purchase to create unlimited notes. Terms and Conditions https://elementnote.app/terms Privacy Policy https://elementnote.app/privacy

Screenshots

SCRIBZEE®4 screens
Element Note4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Element Note at 4.6 against SCRIBZEE®'s 3.8. Element Note also leads on review sentiment (68% vs 53%) and ratings volume (2.6K vs 178). SCRIBZEE®'s advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 5) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 17.0). On price, ads and device support 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. Element Note sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $3.49 per year. SCRIBZEE® asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Element Note holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 3.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Element Note has 2.6K ratings behind it against 178, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 53% of SCRIBZEE®'s written reviews are positive against 68% of Element Note's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

SCRIBZEE® ships an update monthly, Element Note fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 8, 2026 and October 5, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
SCRIBZEE® versus Element Note: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSCRIBZEE®Element Note
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.8 (178 ratings)4.6 (2.6K ratings) — better
Positive reviews53.4% of reviews68.1% of reviews — better
Number of ratings1782.6K — better
Update frequencyMonthlyFortnightly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad, Mac — better
Requires iOS13.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size136 MB129 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperHamelin SASSoysauce Lab

Customer experience

SCRIBZEE®

All ratings178 ratings
Positive70.2%
Neutral3.9%
Negative25.8%
Written reviews232 reviews
Positive53.4%
Neutral7.8%
Negative38.8%

Element Note

All ratings2,591 ratings
Positive90.5%
Neutral4.1%
Negative5.4%
Written reviews335 reviews
Positive68.1%
Neutral11.6%
Negative20.3%

User reviews

SCRIBZEE®

From 178 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 📚 Convenient digital note storage
  • 🔍 Handwriting search functionality
  • 🗂️ Organized folder structure
  • 💻 Accessible across devices
  • ✍️ Seamless scanning of handwritten notes

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Frequent app crashes and freezes
  • 🤖 Unreliable handwriting recognition
  • 📁 Limited folder/organization options
  • 🔄 Inconsistent syncing between devices
  • 🔍 Ineffective search capabilities

Element Note

From 2.6K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Smooth handwriting experience
  • 💡 Customizable pens and colors
  • 👍 Clean and intuitive interface
  • 🎨 Gradient and gradient brush tools
  • 📚 Great for journaling and note-taking

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Frequent crashes and freezes
  • 🔍 Search function not working
  • 🖼️ Issues with image handling and export
  • 🔀 Difficulty switching between pen and eraser
  • 🔑 Lack of password/locking feature for notes

Bugs and requests

SCRIBZEE®

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • App fails to open or get stuck on loading screen
  • Issues with account creation and password reset
  • Scanned notes not saving or disappearing
  • Inconsistent behavior when scanning multiple pages
  • Compatibility problems with certain device models

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add sub-folder support for better organization
  • Improve handwriting recognition accuracy
  • Implement a more user-friendly interface
  • Allow scanning of non-proprietary notebooks
  • Integrate with popular note-taking apps

Element Note

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Notes and files randomly disappearing
  • Inconsistent behavior when using the floating keyboard
  • Handwriting recognition not working as expected
  • Exported PDFs losing formatting and background colors

Requested features

6 requests
  • Ruler tool
  • Ability to resize/rotate selections
  • Improved text editing and formatting
  • Presentation mode for connecting to displays
  • Ability to import/export multiple files at once
Show 1 more
  • Seasonal or custom sticker packs

In-app purchases

None

SCRIBZEE®

No in-app purchases

5 purchases

Element Note

Subscriptions2
  • Element Note Yearly$3.491 Year
  • Element Note Yearly$4.991 Year
One-time3
  • Lifetime Launch Special$4.99
  • Lifetime$9.99
  • Lifetime$14.99

Questions

Is SCRIBZEE® free?
SCRIBZEE® is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Element Note free?
Element Note is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, SCRIBZEE® or Element Note?
Element Note is rated higher. SCRIBZEE® averages 3.8 out of 5 from 178 ratings, while Element Note averages 4.6 from 2.6K ratings.
Do SCRIBZEE® or Element Note have ads?
Neither SCRIBZEE® nor Element Note shows ads.
Which is updated more often, SCRIBZEE® or Element Note?
SCRIBZEE® ships an update monthly, and Element Note fortnightly. Most recently, SCRIBZEE® was updated on October 8, 2026 and Element Note on October 5, 2026.

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