Comparison

SCRIBZEE® vs BookGate

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

BookGate

Features
Read full description

Turn screen time into reading time. BookGate helps you stop reaching for distracting apps and actually open the book you keep meaning to read. Set a reading time, choose the apps that distract you, and when it is time to read, BookGate helps you begin. Show your book to start your session, then the apps you selected stay blocked while you read. A simple reading ritual that makes it easier to start, stay focused, and keep coming back to your book. HOW BOOKGATE WORKS • Set your reading time - Choose when you want to read and let BookGate bring the moment to you, on the nights you pick, at the hour you pick. • Block distracting apps while you read - Choose whole categories or only the apps that tend to pull you away from your book. • Show your book to start - A quick book check creates a small moment of commitment before your reading session begins. • Read without the noise - Once your session starts, the apps you selected stay out of the way while you read. Sessions run from five minutes to an hour, and you can change tonight's length whenever you like. • Record what you want to remember - When you finish, leave a short takeaway in your own voice and keep it with the book. Play them back a whole book at a time. • See the habit you are actually building - Look back at your reading sessions, books and consistency over time without turning reading into a numbers game. FIVE MINUTES IS ENOUGH TO START BookGate starts you at five minutes, because five minutes is the one you will actually do tonight. Once that has been easy for a week, BookGate offers you ten, and you decide whether to take it. The habit grows at the pace you set. BUILT FOR PEOPLE WHO WANT TO READ — BUT KEEP SCROLLING BookGate is for the book sitting on your nightstand, the novel you bought months ago, and the reading habit you keep planning to start. Instead of simply telling you to use your phone less, BookGate gives that time somewhere better to go. Your phone becomes quieter. Your book gets opened. Reading actually happens. MADE FOR THE BOOK IN YOUR HANDS BookGate is built around paper. Photograph the cover to put a book on your shelf, show it to the camera to open a session, and keep your reading photos and voice takeaways with it as the book goes on. WHAT YOU WILL NEED • Screen Time permission, granted once during setup, so BookGate can block the apps you choose while you read. • The camera, to show your book at the start of a session. You can always start without it. • The microphone, if you would like to record a takeaway. It is optional. YOUR READING STAYS ON YOUR IPHONE There is no account and no sign-up. Your books, reading photos, recordings and history are kept on your device. SUBSCRIPTION BookGate is an auto-renewable subscription. Eligible new subscribers can start with a 3-day free trial. Two plans are available, BookGate Yearly and BookGate Monthly, and the price of each is shown in your own currency in the app before you subscribe. Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase. Your subscription renews automatically at the same price unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. You can manage or cancel it any time in Settings › Apple Account › Subscriptions. Any unused portion of the free trial is forfeited when you purchase a subscription. BookGate Terms: https://bookgate.app/terms/ Privacy Policy: https://bookgate.app/privacy/

Screenshots

SCRIBZEE®4 screens
BookGate4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: SCRIBZEE® at none against BookGate's 2. SCRIBZEE® also leads on iOS requirement (13.0 vs 26.0). BookGate's advantage is update cadence (every 2 weeks vs monthly). 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. BookGate sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. SCRIBZEE® asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

SCRIBZEE® ships an update monthly, BookGate every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 13, 2026 and October 4, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
SCRIBZEE® versus BookGate: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSCRIBZEE®BookGate
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.8 (178 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews53.4% of reviews—
Number of ratings178 — better—
Update frequencyMonthlyEvery 2 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS13.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size136 MB11 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperHamelin SASCollin Arumai Harinath Mendons Jeyaseelan

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

BookGate

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

SCRIBZEE®

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

BookGate

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly3 Days trial$4.991 Month
  • Yearly3 Days trial$29.991 Year

Questions

Is SCRIBZEE® free?
SCRIBZEE® is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is BookGate free?
BookGate is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do SCRIBZEE® or BookGate have ads?
Neither SCRIBZEE® nor BookGate shows ads.
Which is updated more often, SCRIBZEE® or BookGate?
SCRIBZEE® ships an update monthly, and BookGate every 2 weeks. Most recently, SCRIBZEE® was updated on October 13, 2026 and BookGate on October 4, 2026.

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