Comparison

Notes Writer vs J

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

J

Capture and secure your thoughts with a note-taking app that keeps your information private and accessible. Write or draw notes, set reminders, and even place them on your Home Screen widgets. Your data remains offline and protected by Face ID or Touch ID.

Highlights
  • Write or draw notes
  • Set reminders and notifications
  • Lock notes with Face ID/Touch ID
  • Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets
  • Offline functionality
  • Color-coding and tagging
  • Location-based notes
Features
Read full description

Notes that stay on your iPhone. Write them, sketch them, lock them behind Face ID, and put them on your Home Screen. No account, no cloud, no ads, no in-app purchases and nothing to subscribe to. WRITE IT, OR DRAW IT Type a note, or sketch one with pen, marker and pencil — Apple Pencil or your finger, with adjustable width and color. Start a drawing over a photo from your library or straight from the camera. Undo and redo sit just above the keyboard while you write. Check items off inside the text: a checklist line is part of the note rather than a separate list, and the box responds wherever you tap it. EVERYTHING WHERE YOU LEFT IT • Pin the notes that matter to the top • Color-code them, tag them, and filter by a tag in one tap • Search titles, bodies and tags at once • Compact, standard or detailed rows, remembered between launches • Deleted notes wait 30 days in the trash, and can be opened before you decide • On iPad and an opened iPhone Duo the list and the note sit side by side, through rotation and Split View alike REMINDERS THAT ARRIVE Set a date and time on any note and it comes back as a notification — as a banner even when the app is already open, and tapping it opens that note rather than the list. If iOS will not schedule it, the app says so instead of losing it quietly. Notes with reminders also line up in a calendar view, by the day they are due. NOTES THAT REMEMBER WHERE THEY WERE A note keeps the place it was written, and the map shows them all — notes made in the same spot share a pin. Useful for a trip, a viewing, a walk around a site, or anywhere the location is half of what you wrote down. LOCKED IS LOCKED • Lock any note behind Face ID or Touch ID • The notes file is unreadable while the device is locked • An unlocked note is covered before iOS takes its app-switcher snapshot • A locked note's reminder reaches the Lock Screen without its title or its text • Search does not look inside a locked note ON YOUR HOME SCREEN AND LOCK SCREEN Small, medium and large Home Screen widgets show your most recent notes, pinned first — and tapping one opens that note, not the list. All three Lock Screen shapes are there too: your top note — pinned first, otherwise the newest — as a line, as a title with a line of text, or just how many notes there are. A locked note shows its padlock and nothing else, in every size. Ask Siri to create a note, or put it in a Shortcut. BUILT FOR EVERYONE Every icon-only control is labeled for VoiceOver, and a note's row is announced as one thing rather than piece by piece. A checklist line says whether it is checked. Text follows your Dynamic Type size, including the checkbox and the area you tap to check it. The unlock button shows the method your device actually offers. YOURS, AND ONLY YOURS • No ads • No in-app purchases, no subscription • No account, no sign-in, no cloud, no data collected • Works offline — only the map needs a connection, for Apple's map tiles • Back up and restore everything as a single file • English and Czech • iPhone, iPhone Duo and iPad Just your notes. Nothing else.

Screenshots

Notes Writer4 screens
J4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: J at 100% against Notes Writer's 45%. J also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.5) and in-app purchases (none vs 4). Notes Writer's advantage is update cadence (every 4 days vs every 3 weeks) and ratings volume (7.3K vs 1). On price, ads 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. J asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

J holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Notes Writer has 7.3K ratings behind it against 1, 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 100% of J's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Notes Writer ships an update every 4 days, J every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 13, 2026 and November 12, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Notes Writer versus J: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterNotes WriterJ
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (7.3K ratings)5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews44.7% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings7.3K — better1
Update frequencyEvery 4 days — betterEvery 3 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS26.018.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size688 MB2 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperKairoos Solutions SLRobert Libsansky

Customer experience

Notes Writer

All ratings7,339 ratings
Positive86.7%
Neutral5.1%
Negative8.2%
Written reviews968 reviews
Positive44.7%
Neutral15.1%
Negative40.2%

J

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

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

J

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

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
None

J

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Notes Writer free?
Notes Writer is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is J free?
J is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Notes Writer or J?
J is rated higher. Notes Writer averages 4.5 out of 5 from 7.3K ratings, while J averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Notes Writer or J have ads?
Neither Notes Writer nor J shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Notes Writer or J?
Notes Writer ships an update every 4 days, and J every 3 weeks. Most recently, Notes Writer was updated on November 13, 2026 and J on November 12, 2026.

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