Comparison

Excerpt vs engram

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

engram

This open-source organizer focuses on fast data entry for daily activities, thoughts, and ideas. It syncs across devices and is inspired by the Bullet Journal Method, allowing users to quickly capture and organize information.

Highlights
  • Fast data entry
  • Cross-device syncing
  • Inspired by Bullet Journal Method
  • Notes, Tasks, and Events
  • Brain Dump page
  • Share entries to other apps
  • Add text and links via share menu
Features
Read full description

Open Source Life-Time Operating System. Simple. Efficient. Powerful. engram is a quick, easy daily organizer focused on fast data entry. Instantly sync activities, thoughts and ideas across all your devices for a more organized lifestyle routine. engram is named after a physical process when a memory is made in the brain. This open source software application is designed to help people track and remember important things in their lives. engram is available anywhere your technology allows. Quickly capture ideas on the go with your phone and have them automatically sync to your desktop. Send yourself notes to go from the desktop. No more excuses not to be in the know. engram is largely inspired by The Bullet Journal Method. Rapid Logging is one of the key pillars of The Bullet Journal Method and you will find that engram follows many of these famous conventions. engram features Notes, Tasks and Events tabs that log daily entries. Each entry is called an engram, which can be converted to the other types – a note can progress to a Task or Event for example. For fast, free thought - quickly access the Brain Dump page by pressing the engram logo. Brain Dump is a blank screen to help keep your mind focused on what you are trying to write next. Each engram can be shared to your favorite apps via the native mobile share sheet. Send a Note to email; a Task to ToDoist, or Event to Outlook – type first, pick later. Quickly add text or website links to engram via the share menu. engram: the latest information is always a click away, every day – all day.

Screenshots

Excerpt4 screens
engram2 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: engram at none against Excerpt's 3. engram also leads on update cadence (every 3 days vs every 4 months) and device support (4 vs 2). Excerpt's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and ratings volume (36 vs 2). On price and rating 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. engram asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

engram holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Excerpt has 36 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Excerpt ships an update every 4 months, engram every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on November 2, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Excerpt versus engram: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterExcerptengram
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (36 ratings)5.0 (2 ratings) — better
Positive reviews95.2% of reviews—
Number of ratings36 — better2
Update frequencyEvery 4 monthsEvery 3 days — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesAd-supported — better
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — better
Requires iOS13.0 — better15.0
Further details — not scored
Size46 MB3 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperRyan MaksymicXYZ Digital Inc.

Customer experience

Excerpt

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

engram

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Excerpt

One-time3
  • Unlock Colors 1$0.99
  • Unlock Colors 2$2.99
  • Unlock Colors 3$9.99
None

engram

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Excerpt free?
Excerpt is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is engram free?
engram is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Excerpt or engram?
engram is rated higher. Excerpt averages 4.8 out of 5 from 36 ratings, while engram averages 5.0 from 2 ratings.
Do Excerpt or engram have ads?
engram shows ads; Excerpt does not.
Which is updated more often, Excerpt or engram?
Excerpt ships an update every 4 months, and engram every 3 days. Most recently, Excerpt was updated on November 2, 2026 and engram on November 3, 2026.

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