StretchPaper vs Obsidian
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
StretchPaper
Unleash your creativity on an expansive, virtually endless digital canvas. This app allows for detailed note-taking, intricate diagramming, and artistic expression without space constraints. Export your work in various formats, customize your tools, and enjoy a seamless drawing experience.
- Infinite canvas
- Note-taking
- Diagramming
- Artistic drawing
- Export as images/PDFs
- Vector manipulation
- Custom pen definitions
Read full descriptionHide full description
Take notes and draw on an infinite* canvas! Stretchpaper is a new way to take notes, make diagrams, and show your artistic talent. With an infinite canvas, you'll never run out of room. Stretchpaper is both fun and useful! Export your drawings as images or mega-pdfs, manipulate vectors, define your own pens, and more. Works great on the iPad, but works best with the Apple Pencil and iPad Pro! * not actually infinite, but close enough!
Obsidian
Organize your thoughts and ideas with a powerful knowledge base that utilizes local Markdown files. This app acts as your personal second brain, accessible on your mobile device for seamless note-taking and idea connection.
- Local Markdown file storage
- Customizable toolbar
- Graph view for connections
- Community plugins
- Themes
- iCloud sync
Read full descriptionHide full description
Obsidian is a powerful knowledge base that works on top of a local folder of plain text Markdown files. It is a second brain, for you, forever. Now available on the go for iOS! Features include: - Customizable toolbar - Pull down quick actions - Graph view - Community plugins - Themes - Sidebar pinning for tablet - iCloud vaults
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Obsidian at Free against StretchPaper's $2.99. Obsidian also leads on rating (4.5 vs 3.8) and ratings volume (2.8K vs 64). StretchPaper's advantage is iOS requirement (11.0 vs 15.6). On update cadence, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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
Obsidian is free to download; StretchPaper costs $2.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Obsidian holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 3.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Obsidian has 2.8K ratings behind it against 64, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 50% of StretchPaper's written reviews are positive against 62% of Obsidian's.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 9, 2026 and October 14, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | StretchPaper | Obsidian |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $2.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 3.8 (64 ratings) | 4.5 (2.8K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 50.0% of reviews | 62.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 64 | 2.8K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | Every 3 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Best chart rank | — | #129 — better |
| Devices | iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 11.0 — better | 15.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 12 MB | 40 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Infinite State Machine Inc. | Dynalist Inc. |
Customer experience
StretchPaper
Obsidian
User reviews
StretchPaper
From 64 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 💡 Infinite canvas/zoom
- 👍 Simple and easy to use
- 💡 Good for mind maps/brainstorming
- 💡 Useful for Apple Pencil
- 💡 Great for freehand flowcharts
Room to improve
- 🐛 Crashes frequently
- 🐛 Lost work/data loss
- 🐛 Poor palm rejection
- 🐛 Finger drawing issues
- 🐛 Export/share crashes
Obsidian
From 2.8K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Powerful features
- 👍 Customizable and flexible
- 🔒 Secure and private
- 💡 Innovative note-taking approach
- 🚀 Smooth mobile experience
Room to improve
- 🐛 Sync issues and unreliable iCloud integration
- 🔋 Slow startup and performance issues on mobile
- 👎 Steep learning curve for new users
- 👎 Limited sorting and organization options
- 👎 Lack of WYSIWYG editing on mobile
Bugs and requests
StretchPaper
Reported bugs
24 issues- Crashes and lost all work
- App crashes when trying to share/export
- Paste function not working
- Undo doesn't go back far enough
- Delete then undo bug
Show 19 moreShow fewer
- Palm rejection issues
- Finger drawing interferes with pen
- Content disappears
- Strokes disappearing
- Grid is hard to see
- App crashes without saving
- Force closes when sharing to PDF
- Glitchy export
- App shuts down and glitches appear
- Marks moving after undo/redo or app reopen
- Notes shift slightly after reopening
- Cannot load bigger workspaces
- Takes forever to load smaller workspaces
- Developer not responding to support requests
- Export/share brings up nsurl error
- Lines jump on screen
- Color selection buggy
- Cannot inactivate finger writing
- Canvas size limit
Requested features
22 requests- Add 2-finger tap to undo
- Add 3-finger tap to redo
- Disable finger drawing/touch input
- Add ruler/scale feature
- Add shape detection
Show 17 moreShow fewer
- Add text layer/typed text
- Add import vector image
- Add folder system
- Add cloud backup (iCloud/Dropbox)
- Add copy/paste functionality for images/elements
- Add layers
- Add color palette
- Add ability to rename files
- Add straight edge tool
- Add zoom lock feature
- Add quick undo gesture
- Add sync to iCloud
- Add ability to resize canvas to initial state
- Add Spline tools
- Add standard type tool
- Add export to other formats
- Add more zoom levels
Obsidian
Reported bugs
3 issues- Sync issues leading to data loss
- Freezing and crashing on mobile devices
- Editing bugs and text input issues
Requested features
5 requests- Improved sorting and organization options
- WYSIWYG editing on mobile
- Better integration with other cloud storage services
- More intuitive onboarding process for new users
- Native mobile widgets and share sheet integration
In-app purchases
StretchPaper
No in-app purchases
Obsidian
No in-app purchases
