Comparison

MarginNote 3 vs Notehot

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

Head to head
About

MarginNote 3

This app redefines studying by integrating e-reading with powerful annotation, mind mapping, and flashcard tools. Organize knowledge, connect ideas with hashtags, and enhance memory retention through spaced repetition. It offers a seamless workflow across multiple documents and devices.

Highlights
  • Integrated PDF/EPUB reader
  • Advanced annotation tools
  • Mind mapping and outline organization
  • Flashcard creation and Anki export
  • Multi-document support
  • Handwriting and Apple Pencil support
  • OCR for scanned PDFs
Features
Read full description

MarginNote 3, all brand new e-reader to better study and digest your books Integrating powerful tools for book annotation, mindmapping, flashcards and more, to build up your reading notes as never before. ============================================ Welcome to MarginNote. This is a highly powerful reading and study software and is applicable to Mac, iPad, and iPhone. By integrating the PDF/EPUB reader and multiple powerful study tools, MarginNote will enable learners to reorganize and connect knowledge from different aspects, then memorize and grasp it accordingly. Whatever your profession, such as student, educator, researcher, lawyer, or life-long learner, you may annotate and take notes through MarginNote, organize notes via Mindmap and Outline, connect knowledge horizontally via Hashtag and raise memory effect via the Flashcards. You will discover what MarginNote does is not to simply integrate these tools. Instead, it combines them deeply and skillfully, which makes it easier for users to toggle between different tools. What's New in MarginNote 3 * New and Clean UI Completely redesigned. * Improved performance and Running more smoothly * Support both Document Reading mode & Study Reading mode. * Excerpts & Note-taking * Enhanced Handwriting & apple-pencil support. * Support TextBox on PDF. * Support direct text-typing & sketching when editing note cards. * Support Auto OCR when excerpting on scanned PDFs. * Emphasis & Cloze * Support direct emphasis in powerful Emphasis mode both on PDF or Outline. * Support auto convert emphasis to Cloze in CardDeck. * Support creating Image-Occlusion flashcards. * Multi-Documents * Support both document tabs & split views to switch between documents. * MindMap * Auto grouping new excerpts by Document Table of Contents. * Support new brach display mode: Framework. * Swipe/Drag gestures to slide in/out Outline & Documents in Study mode. * Enhanced grouped cut/paste, drag to merge,.. etc. * Outline * Improved search and displaying keywords in results. * Improved styles. * CardDeck: * View Flashcards in MindMap mode and Document mode. * Enhanced Anki Export: Card styles, Image occlusions, Cloze * Enhanced Research web browser. * iCloud Sync * Fixed several design issue in previous versions. * More stable & improved performance. * Categories * Separate categories for Document, Study and Review. * Trash * Recover data from Trash and make data more safe. * Trial * 14-days free trial. MarginNote 2 features: Reading: - Support PDF and EPUB format; Annotating and NoteTaking: - Support text highlight and rectangular highlight; - Add notes directly at the page margin; the note editing area will not overlap with the book content at all; - Text, voice, picture, sketching and many other forms of comments in note; - Add hashtags to notes to facilitate the connection of notes; Outline and Mindmap: - Outline and Mindmap in one view; - Create Outline tree by swipe gestures; - Multi-selection editing such as group, merge, clone, etc; - Quick searching and filtering according to colors, hashtags, books. Flashcard: - Highlights and notes can be automatically turned into flashcards for review; - Spaced repetition adopting the Anki-based algorithm; - Switch to the linking book page at any time; iPad Pro & Apple pencil: - Split View of multiple tasks; - High-precision drawing by Apple pencil; - Fine tuned for Apple pencil; - Keyboard shortcuts; Import, Export and Sync: - Import webpages and notes from Evernote; - Export flashcards to Anki; - Export Outline to OmniOutliner; - Export Mindmap to iThoughts or MindManager; - Export to Evernote; - Export all the margin notes, MindManager, Outline and Pages to a printable PDF; - Sync books & notes with iCloud; Terms of Use: https://www.marginnote.com/press/marginnote-3-term-of-use Privacy Policy: https://www.iubenda.com/privacy-policy/92678020

About

Notehot

This app offers a versatile note-taking experience, combining text, handwriting, audio, and photos. It features speech-to-text conversion, OCR for image text extraction, and iCloud synchronization across devices. Organize notes with hierarchical folders and set timed reminders for important tasks.

Highlights
  • Multi-form recording (text, hand-drawn, audio, photo)
  • Speech to text conversion
  • OCR text extraction from images
  • Hierarchical folder management
  • Timed reminders
  • iCloud synchronization
  • Export to PDF, PNG, JPEG
Features
Read full description

Notehot is a simple and practical paperless note-taking application, which integrates text, hand-painting, audio, and photography. .   Product main function: Multi-form recording - supports text, hand-drawn, audio, and photo recording methods to meet your needs for scene creation Custom style - custom adjustment of detailed parameters such as text, pictures, hand-painted, etc. to make your notes colorful Free typography - support text wrapping, free movement, page style as you want Conference recording - recording of long-term conferences, with voice key mark, listen wherever you want Speech Recognition - Real-time conversion of speech to text, organize meeting minutes with less effort Hierarchical management - supports multi-layer folder classification and organization to meet daily induction requirements Timed reminders - set reminders for important notes, just for you ocr text extraction - picture to text, only between the fingers Export and share - support to export notes to pdf, png, jpeg and other formats, share your ideas with others Recover Notes - Supports recovery of note content deleted within 30 days Private Notes - Private note space, add a lock to your important documents iCloud synchronization - multi-device iCloud synchronization, allowing you to access notes anytime, anywhere If you like Notehot or have any other comments, please take a moment to write your review, or send an email to our email playeratech@gmail.com, this will help us to continuously improve the product and provide you with a better experience!  About subscription: Prices may vary in different regions. Fees will be charged to the credit card associated with your iTunes account, and the paid account will automatically renew when it expires. To cancel a renewal, you can do so 24 hours before the end of the current billing period. Once a paid account is activated, it cannot be cancelled. Renewals may be managed in Account Settings after purchase. About Terms: Privacy Policy: https://notehot.com/privacypolicy.html Terms of Service: https://notehot.com/termsofservice.html

Screenshots

MarginNote 34 screens
Notehot4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: MarginNote 3 at Free against Notehot's $0.99. MarginNote 3 also leads on ratings volume (5K vs 175) and rating (4.7 vs 4.5). Notehot's advantage is update cadence (every 11 days vs every 6 weeks). On ads, in-app purchases, monetization model 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

MarginNote 3 is free to download; Notehot costs $0.99 up front. MarginNote 3 sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month and Notehot sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per 7 days. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

MarginNote 3 holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: MarginNote 3 has 5K ratings behind it against 175, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 75% of MarginNote 3's written reviews are positive against 63% of Notehot's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

MarginNote 3 ships an update every 6 weeks, Notehot every 11 days. The most recent releases landed on November 4, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
MarginNote 3 versus Notehot: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMarginNote 3Notehot
PriceFree — better$0.99
Rating4.7 (5K ratings) — better4.5 (175 ratings)
Positive reviews74.6% of reviews — better62.7% of reviews
Number of ratings5K — better175
Update frequencyEvery 6 weeksEvery 11 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS11.2 — better14.0
Further details — not scored
Size392 MB134 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperBeijing Yunsi Software Technology Co., LtdPlay Era

Customer experience

MarginNote 3

All ratings5,043 ratings
Positive93.2%
Neutral2.6%
Negative4.2%
Written reviews983 reviews
Positive74.6%
Neutral11.5%
Negative13.9%

Notehot

All ratings175 ratings
Positive86.3%
Neutral5.7%
Negative8.0%
Written reviews51 reviews
Positive62.7%
Neutral13.7%
Negative23.5%

User reviews

MarginNote 3

From 5K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Powerful and efficient for studying and research
  • 👍 Excellent mind mapping and note-taking features
  • 💡 Unique and innovative functionality like video annotation
  • 🚀 Handles large volumes of documents and notes well
  • 👍 Useful for organizing and synthesizing information from multiple sources

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Frequent crashes and stability issues
  • 👎 Steep learning curve and lack of comprehensive documentation
  • 👎 Unreliable cloud syncing between devices
  • 👎 Cluttered and unintuitive user interface in some areas
  • 🐛 Bugs and glitches with certain features like handwriting and OCR

Notehot

From 175 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Very convenient for note-taking
  • 👍 Smooth and clean interface
  • 👍 User-friendly and convenient
  • 👍 Good for recording things
  • 👍 AI text generation is great

Room to improve

  • 😞 Misleading pricing, asks for subscription after download
  • 😞 In-app purchases required for voice-to-text
  • 😞 Limited language choices
  • 😞 Requires money immediately after installation
  • 😞 App is not free

Bugs and requests

MarginNote 3

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Syncing issues causing data loss across devices
  • Crashes and freezes when working with large documents
  • Inconsistent behavior with highlighting, erasing, and text formatting
  • OCR not functioning reliably for non-Latin scripts
  • Difficulty managing and organizing large document libraries

Requested features

5 requests
  • Improved export options and ability to share projects
  • Better integration with other productivity apps like Anki
  • More customization options for mind maps and annotations
  • Smoother handwriting experience and better palm rejection
  • Support for more file formats like PowerPoint

Notehot

Reported bugs

19 issues
  • App freezes and crashes
  • Lost entire notes after app freezes
  • Files are stretched or narrowed after import
  • Imported files take up the entire screen
  • Search function rarely finds existing text
Show 14 more
  • Cannot split screen
  • Note background is not pure black
  • Font size cannot be adjusted
  • Imported files only show filenames and cannot be edited
  • App downloads itself without authorization
  • Photos imported from gallery become blurry in the app
  • Extracted text from images is inaccurate
  • Text within the app cannot be copied to other locations
  • All typed text disappeared overnight
  • App is slow and laggy with large files
  • Writing is laggy
  • Sometimes a few pen strokes disappear after a long time
  • Occasional inexplicable jumps from handwriting to text input
  • Work disappeared after moving it to a folder

Requested features

20 requests
  • Add Dark Mode
  • Add smart shapes for diagraming
  • Add a paper guide (college or wide)
  • Add a 'pen' tool similar to pencil and marker
  • Ability to add images
Show 15 more
  • Add dual-window function for organizing notes
  • Improve search functionality
  • Allow two-finger adjustment of paper size
  • Add pure black background option
  • Adjustable font size
  • Improve import functionality to display content directly
  • Add ability to zoom and move imported files
  • Add ability to delete pages
  • Add ability to draw straight lines
  • Improve user-friendliness and ease of use
  • Add more writing features
  • Allow copying text to other applications
  • Improve file import clarity
  • Add more language options
  • Offer a one-time purchase option instead of subscriptions

In-app purchases

5 purchases

MarginNote 3

Subscriptions2
  • OCR Pro (Monthly)3 Days trial$0.991 Month
  • OCR Pro (Annually)3 Days trial$9.491 Year
One-time3
  • 14 days Free TrialFree
  • Unlock Full$12.99
  • Upgrade to Full$12.99
6 purchases

Notehot

Subscriptions5
  • VIP Subscription$1.997 Days
  • VIP Subscription2 variants$2.991 Month
  • VIP Subscription2 variants$5.993 Months
Show 2 more
  • VIP Subscription$9.991 Year
  • VIP Subscription3 Days trial2 variants$17.991 Year
One-time1
  • VIP Subscription$14.99

Questions

Is MarginNote 3 free?
MarginNote 3 is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Notehot free?
Notehot costs $0.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, MarginNote 3 or Notehot?
MarginNote 3 is rated higher. MarginNote 3 averages 4.7 out of 5 from 5K ratings, while Notehot averages 4.5 from 175 ratings.
Do MarginNote 3 or Notehot have ads?
Neither MarginNote 3 nor Notehot shows ads.
Which is updated more often, MarginNote 3 or Notehot?
MarginNote 3 ships an update every 6 weeks, and Notehot every 11 days. Most recently, MarginNote 3 was updated on November 4, 2026 and Notehot on November 3, 2026.

Other comparisons