Notes Writer vs Element Note
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Notes Writer
This app is a comprehensive note-taking and PDF editing solution for mobile devices. It allows users to write, format, and organize notes, annotate PDFs, fill forms, and scan documents. The app offers advanced editing tools, powerful search, and seamless sharing and export options.
- Write and format notes
- Annotate PDFs and fill forms
- Organize with unlimited notebooks
- Powerful full-text search
- Document scanning
- Sync with cloud services
- Export to multiple formats
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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/
Element Note
This app offers a distraction-free digital notebook experience with advanced handwriting, PDF annotation, and sketching capabilities. It features unique brushes, a powerful rendering engine, and smart organization tools. Sync your notes across devices and collaborate with others seamlessly.
- Unique handwriting brushes
- Smooth drawing engine
- PDF annotation
- Text, shape, and image attachments
- On-device OCR search
- Smart dark mode
- iCloud sync and collaboration
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Element Note is the next-gen note taking, PDF annotation, and light sketching app. We stripped down the unnecessaries and carefully polished the elemental functions for a digital notebook. With a modern look and powerful features, Element Note strives to provide an elegant writing space free of distractions. Features: Unique brushes - Pencil (HB Pencil, Mechanical Pencil) - Pen (Pen, Line Pen, Fountain Pen) - Brush (Art Brush, Round Brush) - Marker (Marker, Round Marker) Best-in-class note rendering engine - Smooth and fluid drawing powered by Metal technology - Support gradient ink for more expressive notes Powerful attachments - Text - Shape - Sticker - Image Universal Search - Search through your PDF & Handwritting using on device OCR Smart Darkmode - Smartly adapts all of your notes to the system darkmode without changing the paper or stroke colors. iCloud Sync & Collaboration - Sync via your personal iCloud (No data is passed to our server) - Collaborate through iCloud collaboration for up to 100 users. Desktop class organization - Intuitive multi-select drag and drop gesture to organize your notes or pages Element Note is free to try for up to 3 notes. Unlock the full app with an in app purchase to create unlimited notes. Terms and Conditions https://elementnote.app/terms Privacy Policy https://elementnote.app/privacy
Screenshots
Verdict
Notes Writer and Element Note both sit at 4.5 stars, but that hides the real split: 70% of Element Note's written reviews are positive against 45% of Notes Writer's. Element Note also leads on iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.0). Notes Writer's advantage is update cadence (every 4 days vs fortnightly). On price, rating, ratings volume 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
Both are free to download. Notes Writer sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per 7 days and Element Note sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $3.49 per year. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.5 for Notes Writer against 4.6 for Element Note. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 7.3K and 2.6K respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 45% of Notes Writer's written reviews are positive against 70% of Element Note's.
Notes Writer ships an update every 4 days, Element Note fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on November 11, 2026 and November 7, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Notes Writer | Element Note |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (7.3K ratings) | 4.6 (2.6K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 44.8% of reviews | 69.8% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 7.3K — better | 2.6K |
| Update frequency | Every 4 days — better | Fortnightly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 688 MB | 129 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Kairoos Solutions SL | Soysauce Lab |
Customer experience
Notes Writer
Element Note
User reviews
Notes Writer
From 7.3K App Store ratingsWhat 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
Element Note
From 2.6K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Smooth handwriting experience
- 💡 Customizable pens and colors
- 👍 Clean and intuitive interface
- 🎨 Gradient and gradient brush tools
- 📚 Great for journaling and note-taking
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent crashes and freezes
- 🔍 Search function not working
- 🖼️ Issues with image handling and export
- 🔀 Difficulty switching between pen and eraser
- 🔑 Lack of password/locking feature for notes
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
Element Note
Reported bugs
4 issues- Notes and files randomly disappearing
- Inconsistent behavior when using the floating keyboard
- Handwriting recognition not working as expected
- Exported PDFs losing formatting and background colors
Requested features
6 requests- Ruler tool
- Ability to resize/rotate selections
- Improved text editing and formatting
- Presentation mode for connecting to displays
- Ability to import/export multiple files at once
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- Seasonal or custom sticker packs
In-app purchases
Notes Writer
- 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
- Lifetime Pro Full Unlock$14.99
Element Note
- Element Note Yearly$3.491 Year
- Element Note Yearly$4.991 Year
- Lifetime$14.99








