Comparison

Notes Writer vs Kilonotes

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

Head to head
About

Notes Writer

This app combines handwriting, PDFs, voice recordings, and AI for note-taking, document annotation, and idea organization. It offers a paper-like writing experience with various tools and supports students, professionals, and writers with specialized features.

Highlights
  • Handwriting with Apple Pencil
  • PDF annotation and form filling
  • Voice recording and transcription
  • AI-powered writing assistance
  • Flashcard creation and spaced repetition
  • Quiz generation from notes
  • Document import and export
Features
Read full description

Notes Writer brings handwriting, PDFs, voice, documents and AI together on iPad and iPhone. Take notes in class, mark up a contract, record a meeting or plan a thesis, and keep it all in one place that is easy to search and share. HANDWRITING THAT FEELS LIKE PAPER • Write with Apple Pencil using pens, pencils, markers, fountain pens and watercolor brushes, and refine with the lasso, ruler and shapes. • Mix handwriting, typed text, images, stickers and audio on one page. • Choose blank, ruled, Cornell, planner, music or graph paper. • Search your handwriting, check its spelling, or convert it to text, math or LaTeX. • Tap your ink to hear what was said as you wrote it. FOR STUDENTS • Record lectures while you write, then search the transcript. • Hide key facts under Tape, reveal them one by one and turn them into flashcards. • Study flashcards with spaced repetition, reminders and a Home Screen widget. • Make a quiz from your notes, a topic or pasted text, and score yourself. • Circle a problem with Magic Lasso and ask AI to explain, solve or check it. • Find free open textbooks and keep each subject together in a Study Project. FOR PROFESSIONALS • Meeting Notes records and transcribes the meeting, enhances your notes and writes a summary with action items. • Mark up PDFs, fill forms, sign, measure plans and redact text. • Scan paper documents and recognize their text. • Present on an external display or with AirPlay, using a laser pointer. • Brainstorm on whiteboards with sticky notes, images and recordings. • Open Word, RTF, Markdown and plain text, and export to PDF, DOCX, RTF, HTML or EPUB. FOR WRITERS AND RESEARCHERS • Draft in rich text and keep your sources open in tabs. • Organize long projects in the Binder, plan on the Corkboard, save snapshots and compile a manuscript or ebook. • Write LaTeX papers with a live PDF preview. • Combine explanations, graphs, charts and Python cells in Math Notebooks. • Structure ideas as outlines and exchange them in OPML. AI THAT WORKS WITH YOUR NOTES • Rewrite, simplify, translate, or fix spelling and grammar. • Ask questions and get answers from your own notes, PDFs and transcripts. • Summarize a reading, a recording or a meeting. You decide what goes into your notes. YOUR NOTES, YOUR WAY • Import notes from other note-taking apps. • Sketch with graphite and charcoal, or paint with watercolor, oils and acrylics. • Share an iPad with separate profiles, each with its own notes and an optional passcode. • Keep folders with covers, and work with files in iCloud Drive, Dropbox, Google Drive and the Files app. • Autosave, recovery, backups and passcodes protect your work. Privacy Policy http://www.noteswriter.com/Kairoos_Privacy_Policy.html Terms of Use https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Kilonotes

Enhance your learning and productivity with a versatile note-taking and PDF annotation tool. Record lectures, organize study materials, and leverage AI assistance for efficient knowledge management.

Highlights
  • Handwritten note-taking and editing
  • PDF annotation and markup
  • AI-powered note organization and problem-solving
  • Recording lectures while taking notes
  • Customizable notebooks and templates
  • OCR text extraction
  • Global PDF search
Features
Read full description

We sincerely invite you to join us in exploring more efficient ways of taking notes and jointly reshape the modern learning mode. As a companion exploring new ways of taking notes, Kilonotes can meet your various needs. Whether it is recording class notes, annotating PDFs, doing test exercises, studying online courses, or organizing reading notes, Kilonotes will be your reliable study partner. Let's take good notes together. [Breakthrough the limitations of paper] ·Handwriting can be moved, scaled and rotated freely ·You can undo what you entered ·The size of the eraser can be adjusted to control the erasing range ·Scale paper function to make writing more comfortable You can insert pictures or photos, and combine text and pictures to deepen memory · Quick browsing function to help you quickly find what you need · Unlimited creation of paper, providing endless memory space ·Recording function, allowing you to take notes while listening to lectures ·Card function, create an exclusive knowledge base, you can create your card through pictures, brushes, and typing OCR function, convenient and fast text extraction A variety of fun-but-practical Journaling templates [Optimized reading experience] ·Global PDF search, quickly find what you need in the database · Outline function, convenient and fast positioning Multiple reading modes: eye protection, dark color, vision protection · Quick jump function, enter the page number to quickly navigate ·Translation function to help foreign language literature reading ·Extraction function, easy to collect important information ·PDF extension function, make reading and writing more free [Beyond the limits of the brush] · Change brush color, create custom colors, or pick any color with the eyedropper ·Adjustable brush width to adapt to various scenes ·Graffiti pen function, make notes more colorful [Custom Notebook] ·Provide many unique and beautiful covers for you to choose ·A variety of paper templates are available: blank paper, dot matrix paper, graph paper, to meet your needs ·You can import PDF and record freely in your own notebook [AI Assistant] • Built-in high-efficiency AI assistant helps you organize notes, expand knowledge points, and double your learning and work efficiency. • Exclusive AI problem-solving function supports selecting questions and sending them with one click, helping you easily overcome learning difficulties. [About subscription] Users can subscribe to the monthly subscription service of kilonotes to unlock advanced content, including custom time planning books. The subscription will be automatically renewed. If the user needs to cancel the subscription, the renewal needs to be closed 24 hours before the end of the current cycle. Users can close and cancel subscriptions and trials in their iTunes account. Contact us: feedback@top-stack.com Official website: https://www.kilonotesapp.com Privacy Policy: https://www.top-stack.com/page/ios_en_privacy.html User agreement: https://www.top-stack.com/page/Kilonotes_Terms_of_use_En.html

Screenshots

Notes Writer4 screens
Kilonotes4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Notes Writer at none against Kilonotes's shown. Kilonotes's advantage is review sentiment (71% vs 45%) and iOS requirement (15.6 vs 26.0). On price, rating, ratings volume and update cadence 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. Notes Writer sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per 7 days and Kilonotes sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.5 for Notes Writer against 4.6 for Kilonotes. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 7.3K and 5K respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 45% of Notes Writer's written reviews are positive against 71% of Kilonotes's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Notes Writer ships an update every 4 days, Kilonotes weekly. Both last shipped on November 11, 2026.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Notes Writer versus Kilonotes: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterNotes WriterKilonotes
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (7.3K ratings)4.6 (5K ratings) — better
Positive reviews44.8% of reviews70.6% of reviews — better
Number of ratings7.3K — better5K
Update frequencyEvery 4 days — betterWeekly
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS26.015.6 — better
Further details — not scored
Size688 MB489 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperKairoos Solutions SLHefei T-Stack Information Technology Co., Ltd.

Customer experience

Notes Writer

All ratings7,339 ratings
Positive86.7%
Neutral5.1%
Negative8.2%
Written reviews966 reviews
Positive44.8%
Neutral15.1%
Negative40.1%

Kilonotes

All ratings4,970 ratings
Positive90.6%
Neutral4.0%
Negative5.4%
Written reviews883 reviews
Positive70.6%
Neutral10.9%
Negative18.6%

User reviews

Notes Writer

From 7.3K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Smooth writing experience
  • 💡 Versatile note-taking features
  • 🔒 Good privacy
  • 👍 Useful for various purposes (notes, PDF annotations, etc.)

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Crashes and freezes
  • 🔒 Limiting free version with paywalls
  • 🐛 Bugs with erasing, page management, and file corruption
  • 🐛 Laggy performance and slow loading times

Kilonotes

From 5K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Affordable
  • 🚀 Lots of free features
  • 👍 Easy to use and intuitive
  • 👍 Customizable notebooks and pages
  • 👍 Good alternative to paid apps

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional bugs and glitches
  • 🐛 Syncing and backup issues
  • 🔒 Lack of password protection or privacy features
  • 👎 Limited free notebooks
  • 👎 Some features locked behind paywall

Bugs and requests

Notes Writer

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Notes randomly disappearing or getting corrupted
  • Inability to recover deleted documents
  • Unexpected behavior when adding/deleting pages
  • Syncing issues and broken links between documents

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add more brushes and pen customization options
  • Improve the clipping/selection tool
  • Implement OCR and handwriting search
  • Provide a Mac version

Kilonotes

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Notebooks and notes getting deleted or scrambled
  • Lag and performance issues when writing or zooming
  • Inconsistent behavior of the pen and eraser tools

Requested features

6 requests
  • Add more free sticker packs and templates
  • Improve the lasso tool and image editing
  • Implement iCloud or cloud sync
  • Add a dark mode option
  • Improve the audio recording and playback features
Show 1 more
  • Allow more customization of notebooks and pages

In-app purchases

4 purchases

Notes Writer

Subscriptions3
  • Weekly$1.997 Days
  • Notes Writer Unlock All and AI3 Days trial$3.991 Month
  • Notes Writer Unlock All and AI3 Days trial$14.991 Year
One-time1
  • Lifetime Pro Full Unlock$14.99
10 purchases

Kilonotes

Subscriptions6
  • Cloud space monthly membership$0.991 Month
  • Monthly Subscription$1.991 Month
  • Quarterly Plan$4.993 Months
Show 3 more
  • AIChat$5.991 Month
  • Annual Plan$9.991 Year
  • Cloud space annual membership$9.991 Year
One-time4
  • Paid Notebook$0.99
  • AI Points Products$1.99
  • Paid Notebook$2.99
Show 1 more
  • Lifetime Access$19.99

Questions

Is Notes Writer free?
Notes Writer is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Kilonotes free?
Kilonotes is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Notes Writer or Kilonotes?
Kilonotes is rated higher. Notes Writer averages 4.5 out of 5 from 7.3K ratings, while Kilonotes averages 4.6 from 5K ratings.
Do Notes Writer or Kilonotes have ads?
Kilonotes shows ads; Notes Writer does not.
Which is updated more often, Notes Writer or Kilonotes?
Notes Writer ships an update every 4 days, and Kilonotes weekly. Most recently, Notes Writer was updated on November 11, 2026 and Kilonotes on November 11, 2026.

Other comparisons