Comparison

Flashcards by Qrayon vs School Notes

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

Head to head
About

Flashcards by Qrayon

Create and study custom flashcards with images and annotations. Organize decks, sync across devices via iCloud, and share with friends. Ideal for test preparation and subject mastery.

Highlights
  • Rapid card creation
  • Add images to cards
  • Organize into decks
  • iCloud syncing
  • Share decks with friends
  • Shuffle and flip cards
Features
Read full description

Quickly master your material with your favorite flash card techniques. Test yourself against your own deck of cards, and check off the ones you have mastered. Go through just the ones you missed until you have mastered them all. FlashCards lets you study anywhere, on your iPhone or iPad. Test yourself while on the bus, or first thing in the morning. Use it standalone, or import cards from Cardflow+. Features: • Rapidly create cards from within the app itself. • Add images to the front or back - even snap photos of existing cards. • Create rich cards with diagrams and annotations with Cardflow+ (see our developer page). • Organize cards into multiple decks. • Store cards in iCloud, or the service of your choice, to automatically sync across devices. • Share your decks with your friends - to study together. • Shuffle cards. • Flip all cards at once (great for two-way language vocabulary). • Perfect for preparing for standardized tests like the SAT, ACT, AP, GRE, MCAT. • Use it to master your favorite subject, be it biology, chemistry, history, or geography (quick, what's the capital of Madagascar?).

About

School Notes

Features
Read full description

School Notes was born in the classroom. As a teacher, I needed a simple, reliable way for staff and students in my district to take notes, annotate handouts, and stay organized — without the complexity (or cost) of apps that try to do everything. I built SchoolNotes to solve that problem, and now I'm sharing it with educators and students everywhere. Three ways to take notes, one place to keep them: • Handwrite with Apple Pencil — A full drawing canvas with multi-page support, zoom, and all the tools you'd expect from PencilKit. Great for math, science diagrams, or just jotting things down. • Annotate PDFs — Import worksheets, handouts, or articles and draw right on top of them. Grab PDFs from Files, Safari, or any app using the built-in Share Extension. • Type text notes — For outlines, study guides, or anything that's faster on a keyboard. Stay organized with Classes: Create color-coded classes that match your schedule. Assign notes to one or more classes, drag to reorder, and find what you need fast with search and flexible sorting. Switch between list and grid views to browse your notes the way you prefer. Sync across your iPads with iCloud: Turn on iCloud sync and your notes follow you between devices. Works with personal Apple IDs — and if your school uses managed Apple IDs, SchoolNotes works great offline too. Share your work: Export any note as a PDF or image. Need everything at once? Batch-export your entire notebook with a single tap. Features at a glance: ◦ Apple Pencil drawing with full tool picker ◦ Multi-page drawing notes ◦ PDF import and annotation ◦ Text notes ◦ Color-coded class organization ◦ Assign notes to multiple classes ◦ Favorites for quick access ◦ Search across all notes ◦ Sort by date modified, date created, or title ◦ List and grid views ◦ Export as PDF or image ◦ Batch export all notes ◦ Share Extension for quick PDF import ◦ Optional iCloud sync ◦ No account required — your data stays on your device ◦ No ads. No subscriptions. Just notes. School Notes is free to use with all features included. If you find it helpful, there's an optional tip jar in Settings to support continued development. I'd love to hear how you're using School Notes in your classroom. Feedback and feature requests are always welcome!

Screenshots

Flashcards by Qrayon4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Flashcards by Qrayon at none against School Notes's 4. Flashcards by Qrayon also leads on device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (15.6 vs 18.6). School Notes's advantage is update cadence (every 2 days vs every 4 weeks). On price and ads 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. School Notes sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. Flashcards by Qrayon asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Flashcards by Qrayon ships an update every 4 weeks, School Notes every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 4, 2026 and October 1, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Flashcards by Qrayon versus School Notes: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFlashcards by QrayonSchool Notes
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (112 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews47.4% of reviews—
Number of ratings112 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 4 weeksEvery 2 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPad
Requires iOS15.6 — better18.6
Further details — not scored
Size1 MB4 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperQrayon, LLCBrian Foutty

Bugs and requests

Flashcards by Qrayon

Reported bugs

13 issues
  • App crashes during review
  • App crashes with large decks (around 77-78 cards)
  • App crashes with large image-heavy decks (>900 cards)
  • Stopped working, won't open flashcards file
  • Synced decks remain greyed out, inaccessible
Show 8 more
  • Exporting Cardflow+ decks with images results in decks without images
  • App freezes for 20+ seconds every 10 flashcards
  • Written cards only show one side, other side is blank
  • Flashcards disappear after re-entering the app
  • Random non-flashcard files appear in recents
  • Does not work properly when integrated with Cardflow+
  • Deleted or hidden all flashcards
  • Unable to import or re-import flashcards from Cardflow+

Requested features

14 requests
  • Merge flashcard decks
  • Spaced repetition feature
  • Integration with Cardflow+ app
  • Move cards between stacks
  • Share individual cards to existing stacks
Show 9 more
  • Support for Apple Pencil
  • Time-based notifications for review
  • Full-screen card view
  • Keyboard navigation (arrows, spacebar)
  • Customizable zoom preference
  • Categorization of cards (easy, medium, hard)
  • Trend graphs for learning progress
  • Ability to edit text after exporting as PDF
  • Save learned words across reimports

School Notes

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Flashcards by Qrayon

No in-app purchases

4 purchases

School Notes

One-time4
  • Small Cup of Coffee$0.99
  • Medium Cup of Coffee$1.99
  • Large Cup of Coffee$3.99
Show 1 more
  • Bag of Coffee$19.99

Questions

Is Flashcards by Qrayon free?
Flashcards by Qrayon is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is School Notes free?
School Notes is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Flashcards by Qrayon or School Notes have ads?
Neither Flashcards by Qrayon nor School Notes shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Flashcards by Qrayon or School Notes?
Flashcards by Qrayon ships an update every 4 weeks, and School Notes every 2 days. Most recently, Flashcards by Qrayon was updated on October 4, 2026 and School Notes on October 1, 2026.

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