Comparison

Notes Writer vs 16cent

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

16cent

Features
Read full description

Your money, made clear. 16cent is a simple, focused expense tracker built to make everyday money management effortless. Record income and expenses in seconds, understand your spending, manage recurring costs, and share a book with the people who manage money with you. LOG EXPENSES IN A TAP Add an amount, category, date, tags, and an optional note without unnecessary steps. SEE YOUR SPENDING Browse a clean transaction history and use clear insights to understand where your money goes. MANAGE RECURRING COSTS Create weekly, monthly, or yearly recurring transactions so regular expenses and income stay organised. SHARE A BOOK Invite family members, partners, or teammates to the same book. Everyone can see the latest entries and balances. ORGANISE IT YOUR WAY Create categories and tags, manage multiple books, choose from supported currencies, and customise how balances are calculated. PRIVATE BY DESIGN 16cent does not connect to your bank, payment cards, or UPI account. You control the information you enter, and you can delete your account directly from the app. Available in English, Simplified Chinese, and Japanese.

Screenshots

Notes Writer4 screens
16cent4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: 16cent at none against Notes Writer's 4. Notes Writer's advantage is update cadence (every 4 days vs every 2 months). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement 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. 16cent asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Notes Writer ships an update every 4 days, 16cent every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on November 12, 2026 and November 5, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Notes Writer versus 16cent: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterNotes Writer16cent
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (7.3K ratings) — better—
Positive reviews44.7% of reviews—
Number of ratings7.3K — better—
Update frequencyEvery 4 days — betterEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS26.026.0
Further details — not scored
Size688 MB9 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperKairoos Solutions SLKavin Varnan

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

16cent

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

16cent

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Notes Writer free?
Notes Writer is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is 16cent free?
16cent is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Notes Writer or 16cent have ads?
Neither Notes Writer nor 16cent shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Notes Writer or 16cent?
Notes Writer ships an update every 4 days, and 16cent every 2 months. Most recently, Notes Writer was updated on November 12, 2026 and 16cent on November 5, 2026.

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