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

This app offers a flexible digital notebook experience for iPhone users. Easily add images, photos, and text to your notes, and customize layouts with a lasso tool. Choose from various notebook covers and paper templates to personalize your digital workspace.

Highlights
  • Customizable notebook covers and templates
  • Insert images and photos
  • Lasso tool for layout design
  • Resizable and rotatable handwriting
  • Unlimited sheets of paper
  • Undo and eraser tools
Features
Read full description

Kilonotes Pocket is a convenient and flexible note taking tool for iPhone . You could insert images or photos to enrich the content and use the lasso tool to design the layout as you like. [Customized notebooks] A wide range of covers with beautiful colors for you to choose from A rich selection of paper templates: blank, dotted, square, English, etc. Able to choose multiple paper background colors [Escape the limits of analog paper] Move, resize and rotate your handwriting Undo the typed content Adjust the eraser size and control the eraser radius Zoom in and out to write more freely Insert pictures or photos, combine text and images to help your memory recall Insert text information to collect text quickly Create unlimited sheets of paper to free up space for your memory [Contact us] We look forward to receiving your feedback. You can contact us via email :business@top-stack.com [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. Privacy Policy: https://www.top-stack.com/page/Kilonotes_Privacy_Policy_En.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 review sentiment: Kilonotes at 88% against Notes Writer's 45%. Kilonotes also leads on rating (4.7 vs 4.5) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 26.0). Notes Writer's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (every 4 days vs every 2 weeks). On price, 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

Both are free to download. Notes Writer sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per 7 days and Kilonotes sells 5 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

Kilonotes holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Notes Writer has 7.3K ratings behind it against 866, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 45% of Notes Writer's written reviews are positive against 88% of Kilonotes's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Notes Writer ships an update every 4 days, Kilonotes every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 12, 2026 and November 11, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Notes Writer versus Kilonotes: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterNotes WriterKilonotes
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (7.3K ratings)4.7 (866 ratings) — better
Positive reviews44.8% of reviews87.7% of reviews — better
Number of ratings7.3K — better866
Update frequencyEvery 4 days — betterEvery 2 weeks
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPod
Requires iOS26.013.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size688 MB230 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperKairoos Solutions S.L.Hefei 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 ratings857 ratings
Positive94.0%
Neutral2.9%
Negative3.0%
Written reviews881 reviews
Positive87.7%
Neutral6.0%
Negative6.2%

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 866 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Easy to use
  • 🎨 Highly customizable
  • 🆓 Lots of free features
  • 📚 Great for note-taking and journaling
  • 🧠 Helps with organization and productivity

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional crashes or freezes
  • 🔒 Limited functionality without premium subscription
  • 🖍️ Difficulty resizing text and images
  • 🔍 Lack of search or navigation features
  • 🌙 No dark mode option

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
  • App crashes when trying to insert images
  • Text formatting issues when switching between devices
  • Inconsistent performance on older devices

Requested features

5 requests
  • Sync across devices
  • More free templates and stickers
  • Improved text editing tools
  • Ability to export notes as PDF
  • Customizable backgrounds and layouts

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
5 purchases

Kilonotes

Subscriptions3
  • Monthly Subscription$0.991 Month
  • Quarterly subscription$2.493 Months
  • Annual Subscription$3.991 Year
One-time2
  • BerryBaby 2022 Handbook$1.99
  • Salted fish daily$1.99

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 4.7 from 866 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 every 2 weeks. Most recently, Notes Writer was updated on November 12, 2026 and Kilonotes on November 11, 2026.

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