Comparison

Excerpt vs Notesnook

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

Head to head
About

Excerpt

Capture and organize quotes and images from physical books using your device's camera. Add notes, customize highlighter colors, and share your findings. Export your compiled excerpts into a PDF for easy reference.

Highlights
  • Scan book pages with camera
  • Capture quotes and images
  • Add notes to excerpts
  • Organize by page and chapter
  • Share excerpts
  • Export to PDF
  • Customizable highlighter colors
Features
Read full description

– FEATURES – • Use your device's camera to instantly grab meaningful quotes and important images from the pages of your favourites books • Add notes to your excerpts, and organize them by page number and chapter • Save unlimited excerpts from unlimited books • Share important excerpts with friends and colleagues • Export all of a book's excerpts into a convenient PDF file • Customize your highlighter color – yellow, blue, green, or pink • Excerpt will always be free to download and will never show you ads

About

Notesnook

This open-source app offers secure, encrypted note-taking and organization across all your devices. It features a robust editor, to-do lists, and a private journal with advanced security to protect your personal information.

Highlights
  • Military-grade encryption
  • Cross-platform synchronization
  • To-do lists and task management
  • Private journal with media support
  • Rich text and Markdown editor
  • Notebook organization
  • App lock with fingerprint support
Features
Read full description

Your notes are yours. Notesnook encrypts every one of them on your device before it ever reaches the cloud — so no one can read them. Not advertisers, not us. UNLIMITED NOTES. EVERY DEVICE. FREE. Most note apps cap the free plan until it hurts. Others stop after a few dozen notes. Notesnook never limits how much you write or how many devices you sync. A REAL EDITOR Headings, tables, code blocks, maths, outlines, Markdown and full-quality images. Notes that hold up whether you are writing a shopping list or a thesis chapter. ORGANISED AT ANY SIZE Nested notebooks, tags, colours, pinned and favourite notes, and search that stays instant at 10,000 notes. Link notes to each other and build your own private wiki. PRIVACY YOU CAN CHECK YOURSELF • End-to-end encryption is always on — you cannot switch it off, so you cannot forget • Encrypted on your device, in transit and at rest, using XChaCha20-Poly1305 and Argon2 • Even your notebook and tag names are encrypted • 100% open source under AGPLv3 — read every line, or run your own sync server • Recommended by Privacy Guides IMPORT YOUR OLD NOTES Bring your notes, notebooks and tags with you. Import from your previous notes app, plus plain Markdown and HTML files. EVERYWHERE YOU WRITE iPhone, iPad, Mac and the web. Sync is instant, and encrypted the whole way. ALSO INSIDE • Web clipper — save any article, ad-free and offline • Reminders across all your devices • Note version history, so nothing is ever really lost • Publish a note to a shareable link • Dark mode and custom themes FREE FOREVER Unlimited notes, unlimited devices, 50 notebooks, 50 tags and full end-to-end encryption. No ads. No trial countdown. PAID PLANS Add task lists, callouts, recurring reminders, more storage, and — on Pro — app lock, an encrypted vault and full-quality images. From $19.99 a year. Questions or feedback: support@streetwriters.co Privacy policy: https://notesnook.com/privacy Terms: https://notesnook.com/terms

Screenshots

Excerpt4 screens
Notesnook4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Notesnook at every 8 days against Excerpt's every 4 months. Notesnook also leads on ratings volume (693 vs 36). Excerpt's advantage is review sentiment (95% vs 79%) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 15.6). On price, rating, ads and in-app purchases 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. Excerpt sells 3 one-off in-app purchases and Notesnook sells 8 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 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 — 4.8 for Excerpt against 4.7 for Notesnook. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Notesnook has 693 ratings behind it against 36, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 95% of Excerpt's written reviews are positive against 79% of Notesnook's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Excerpt ships an update every 4 months, Notesnook every 8 days. The most recent releases landed on November 2, 2026 and November 11, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Excerpt versus Notesnook: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterExcerptNotesnook
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (36 ratings) — better4.7 (693 ratings)
Positive reviews95.2% of reviews — better78.9% of reviews
Number of ratings36693 — better
Update frequencyEvery 4 monthsEvery 8 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS13.0 — better15.6
Further details — not scored
Size46 MB82 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperRyan MaksymicStreetwriters LLC

Customer experience

Excerpt

All ratings36 ratings
Positive97.2%
Neutral0.0%
Negative2.8%
Written reviews42 reviews
Positive95.2%
Neutral2.4%
Negative2.4%

Notesnook

All ratings681 ratings
Positive93.0%
Neutral2.3%
Negative4.7%
Written reviews402 reviews
Positive78.9%
Neutral6.5%
Negative14.7%

Bugs and requests

Excerpt

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

Notesnook

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Crashes on launch on older iOS devices
  • Sync issues leading to data loss
  • Unreliable login and verification process

Requested features

5 requests
  • Improved search functionality
  • Reminders and calendar integration
  • Handwriting and drawing support
  • Multilingual support
  • Improved table and spreadsheet features

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Excerpt

One-time3
  • Unlock Colors 1$0.99
  • Unlock Colors 2$2.99
  • Unlock Colors 3$9.99
8 purchases

Notesnook

Subscriptions8
  • Notesnook Essential Plan7 Days trial$1.991 Month
  • Notesnook Pro2 variants$4.491 Month
  • Notesnook Pro Plan7 Days trial$6.991 Month
Show 5 more
  • Notesnook Believer Plan7 Days trial$8.991 Month
  • Notesnook Essential Plan14 Days trial$19.991 Year
  • Notesnook Pro2 variants$49.991 Year
  • Notesnook Pro Plan14 Days trial$69.991 Year
  • Notesnook Believer Plan14 Days trial$89.991 Year

Questions

Is Excerpt free?
Excerpt is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Notesnook free?
Notesnook is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Excerpt or Notesnook?
Excerpt is rated higher. Excerpt averages 4.8 out of 5 from 36 ratings, while Notesnook averages 4.7 from 693 ratings.
Do Excerpt or Notesnook have ads?
Neither Excerpt nor Notesnook shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Excerpt or Notesnook?
Excerpt ships an update every 4 months, and Notesnook every 8 days. Most recently, Excerpt was updated on November 2, 2026 and Notesnook on November 11, 2026.

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