Penbook vs Paper
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Penbook
Create custom digital notebooks with a vast library of stationery or import your own PDFs for annotation. Write naturally with a stylus and organize your notes with dynamic features like live planners and searchable handwriting.
- Live Paper dynamic stationery
- Over 400 stationery types
- Import and annotate PDFs
- Natural handwriting with stylus
- Searchable handwritten notes
- Shape recognition
- Customizable notebook covers
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Write naturally with your Apple Pencil on Live Paper with Penbook. Build your perfect notebook from more than four hundred types of stationery. Then, use the best digital inking technology to pour your ideas, notes, plans, and dreams into it. Penbook's Live Paper is way smarter than ordinary stationery. Schedule your life on a monthly planner that shows a real calendar, organize your day with a day planner that shows you what time it is, and record your nutrition on a food diary that knows what day it is. Or, bring your own stationery! Import your PDFs into Penbook for quick annotation and editing. Give your notebooks colorful covers with fun art, and share them so your notes are always where you need them. FEATURES • Live Paper, the dynamic stationery that uses the smarts of your iPad and iPhone • Over 400 of academic, scientific, and planning stationeries • Import PDFs and use them as notebooks • Write naturally with your Apple Pencil, stylus, or finger • Unlimited unique cover combinations for your notes • Search your handwritten notes for words or phrases • Snap your strokes to perfect shapes with shape recognition INCLUDED STATIONERIES Penbook has a huge selection of customizable stationery. Each page of your notebook can be different, turning your iPad or iPhone into a magic notebook: • Blank stationery, with an optional date and configurable margin • Ruled paper with variable density • Graph paper with four options for square sizes • Dot stationery, either squared or isometric (offset) • Cross stationery with configurable margins and density • To Do pages with four layout options • Monthly habit paper for tracking streaks, habits, and goals • Day planner paper with a live updating timeline and calendar, and three layouts • Weekly planner paper that highlights the current time and date • Monthly planner paper that keeps track of the current day and shows you what's coming next • Yearly stationery for getting a complete overview of your next 365 days • Cornell paper for taking perfect study notes • French ruled (Séyès) paper • Penmanship practice paper • Table stationery for hand-written spreadsheets • Polar graph paper for plotting radial data • Semi-log and loglog paper for data with exponential growth or decay • Isometric stationery with equilateral (60-60-60) or isosceles (75-75-30) triangles • Perspective paper, configurable with one, two, or three vanishing points • Developer stationery with device stencils and configurable note-taking areas • Storyboard paper with 3 frame aspect ratios • Engineering paper with variable density • Chemistry paper for easily sketching molecules • Staff and tablature (music) paper with optional linked staves GET THE MOST OUT OF PENBOOK Use all of Penbook's stationery and writing features in a single notebook for free for as long as you like. Upgrade to Penbook Premium to create and export unlimited notebooks, receive access to new stationery and covers as they're designed, and get regular app updates. Penbook Premium is available by purchasing a yearly subscription or a one-time (lifetime) in-app purchase. When you choose to upgrade with the yearly subscription, you can start using Penbook Premium for free with a 7-day free trial. During the trial, cancel any time until 24 hours before the trial expires, and you will not be charged. If you do not cancel, you will be automatically billed for the yearly subscription when your free trial ends. Payment will be charged to your Apple ID account at the confirmation of purchase. Subscription automatically renews unless it is canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Your account will be charged for renewal within 24 hours prior to the end of the current period. You can manage and cancel your subscriptions by going to your account settings on the App Store after purchase. Our customer-first privacy policy: https://penbook.app/privacy-policy Penbook's terms of use: https://penbook.app/terms-of-use
Paper
This app offers a clean and configurable writing environment for various creative projects. It supports Markdown and plain text, syncs with iCloud, and integrates with other tools. Users can publish drafts to popular blogging platforms and export documents in multiple formats.
- Gorgeous writing space
- Silky-smooth typing
- Deep personalization (Pro)
- Markdown or Plain Text support
- iCloud sync
- Publish to Medium, WordPress, Ghost
- Export to PDF, HTML, DOCX, ePub
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“This is a super-clean writing space with a lot of configurability that stays out of sight when you don’t need it.” App Store Review 2020 # STORY Read it here → paper.pro/story # HIGHLIGHTS · Gorgeous writing space · Silky-smooth typing · Deep personalization (Pro) · Markdown or Plain Text · Syncs with iCloud · Integrates with TextExpander · Publishes drafts to Medium, WordPress, Ghost, or Micro.blog · Exports to PDF, HTML, RTF, DOCX, ePub, image, or clipboard · Works seamlessly across your iPhone, iPad, and Mac # PRO FEATURES Basic adjustments like text size are free in Paper. More advanced personalization can be purchased with Pro Features. You will not be buying anything blindly, though. The trial period for Pro Features is untimed, so you can take your time to decide if they are a worthy investment. While trialing Pro Features, you might occasionally see a popup. Simply press Reset in the popup to get rid of it completely. Pro Features are either a subscription or a one-time purchase. Both the subscription and the one-time purchase unlock Pro Features on all your iPhones and iPads that share the same Apple ID. This subscription (or one-time purchase) applies only to iPhones and iPads. Macs require a separate subscription (or one-time purchase). The one-time purchase is hidden by default. To enable it, go to the Settings app → Apps → Paper → Purchases → toggle "Show Lifetime Option". If you want to upgrade from a Monthly subscription to a Yearly one (or to a Lifetime license), go to Paper’s page in the App Store and press the rounded button with the price next to the Yearly subscription option (or next to the Lifetime in-app purchase). # BUSINESSES, SCHOOLS & ORGANIZATIONS Businesses, schools, and organizations can use one of the following methods to purchase the Pro version of the app: · Apple Business Manager · Apple School Manager · Volume Purchasing The Pro version of the app can be accessed from this link → paper.pro/get # MARKDOWN FORMATTING SYNTAX # Heading 1 ## Heading 2 ### Heading 3 #### Heading 4 ##### Heading 5 ###### Heading 6 **Bold** __Bold__ *Italic* _Italic_ ~Underline~ ~~Strikethrough~~ ==Highlight== ::Highlight:: `Inline Code` ``` Code Block ``` [Link Text](http://paper.pro)  - Bulleted List - Bulleted List - Nested Bulleted List * Bulleted List * Bulleted List * Nested Bulleted List 1. Numbered List 2. Numbered List 3. Numbered List 1. Nested Numbered List - [ ] Task List - [x] Task List > Blockquote >> Nested Blockquote >>> 2x Nested Blockquote Text that needs a footnote[^Footnote description] ++ Inline comment ++ /* Inline comment */ %% Comment block | Col 1 | Col 2 | | ------ | ------ | | Cell 1 | Cell 2 | | Cell 3 | Cell 4 | --- ← Horizontal Rule \_ ← Markdown Escape ° ← HTML Escape # FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ## How do I share my document? · On the main screen with documents: Tap and hold the document. Select "Share" from the menu. · In the document editor: Tap the title of the document in the top bar, then tap the round "Share" button in the popup. ## How do I print my document? · On the main screen with documents: Tap and hold the document. Select "Print" from the menu. · In the document editor: Tap the title of the document in the top bar. Select "Print" from the menu. ## Can I draw in the app? No. Paper is purely a plain-text editor. ## Can I add pictures? You can only link to public images on the Web. ## Can I password-protect my notes? No. ## Paper changes the font when I switch between alphabetic and non-alphabetic keyboards. How do I prevent it? · Change the keyboard to a non-alphabetic one (Japanese, Chinese, Korean, etc.). · Tap the "Settings" button in the top right corner. · Under the "Font" submenu, toggle "Keep for ABC Keyboards". ## Need more help? You can reach me via the in-app chat → "Settings" button in the corner → "Chat with the Maker" # TERMS OF USE paper.pro/terms-of-use
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Penbook at every 5 days against Paper's monthly. Penbook also leads on ratings volume (46K vs 1.7K). Paper's advantage is review sentiment (72% vs 58%) and iOS requirement (15 vs 18.1). 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
Both are free to download. Penbook sells 11 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and Paper sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $14.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.6 for Penbook against 4.7 for Paper. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Penbook has 46K ratings behind it against 1.7K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 58% of Penbook's written reviews are positive against 72% of Paper's.
Penbook ships an update every 5 days, Paper monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 20, 2026 and October 19, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Penbook | Paper |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (46K ratings) | 4.7 (1.7K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 58.0% of reviews | 72.2% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 46K — better | 1.7K |
| Update frequency | Every 5 days — better | Monthly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Vision Pro | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 18.1 | 15 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 142 MB | 85 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Pencil Research | Mihhail Lapushkin |
Customer experience
Penbook
Paper
User reviews
Penbook
From 46K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Intuitive and user-friendly interface
- 🎨 Variety of customization options for notebooks
- 📝 Smooth writing experience with Apple Pencil
- 🗓️ Useful calendar integration
- 💡 Innovative features like washi tape and stickers
Room to improve
- 🐛 Occasional crashes and data loss issues
- 🔒 Lack of password protection or locking feature
- 🔧 Glitchy zooming and ruler functionality
- 🧭 Poor notebook and page management
- 💰 Restrictive free version, expensive subscription
Paper
From 1.7K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 💗 Fantastic app
- 🎀 Great tool for writers
- 👍 Clean writing app
- 🤩 Awesome app
- 👍 Cute animations
Room to improve
- 🐛 Glitchy and unreliable
- 💰 Paywalled features
- 🐛 Lost files and documents
- 🐛 Cursor issues
- 🐛 Buggy and unstable
Bugs and requests
Penbook
Reported bugs
5 issues- Sticker resizing issues causing app freezes
- Ruler placement and alignment problems
- Inconsistent behavior when switching between pages
- Calendar sync not working as expected
- PDF import and annotation functionality not reliable
Requested features
5 requests- Allow custom notebook covers or images
- Add text box and typing capabilities
- Improve organization with folders or tags
- Provide more customization options for templates
- Implement a more intuitive undo/redo system
Paper
Reported bugs
3 issues- Files randomly disappearing
- Cursor issues causing freezes
- Syncing and iCloud integration problems
Requested features
5 requests- Add image support
- Improve file management and recovery
- Expand font and customization options
- Implement team/collaborative writing features
- Add text formatting options like italics and bold
In-app purchases
Penbook
- Penbook Premium5 variants$4.991 Month
- Penbook Premium$7.991 Month
- Penbook Premium7 Days trial3 variants$14.991 Year
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- Penbook Premium7 Days trial2 variants$19.991 Year
- Penbook Premium7 Days trial2 variants$29.991 Year
- Penbook Premium$29.991 Year
- Penbook Premium7 Days trial3 variants$39.991 Year
- Premium Lifetime (Loyalty)$29.99
- Penbook Premium Lifetime2 variants$49.99
- Penbook Premium Lifetime$59.99
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- Penbook Premium Lifetime$69.99
Paper
- Pro Features — Discounted$14.991 Month
- Pro Features$29.991 Month
- Pro Features — Discounted$49.991 Year
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- Pro Features$99.991 Year
- Pro Features — Discounted$99.99
- Pro Features$199.99









