Comparison

Penbook vs Digital Planner

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

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • Live Paper dynamic stationery
  • Over 400 stationery types
  • Import and annotate PDFs
  • Natural handwriting with stylus
  • Searchable handwritten notes
  • Shape recognition
  • Customizable notebook covers
Features
Read full description

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

About

Digital Planner

This app combines a daily planner with creative tools to organize your life and express your imagination. Create habit trackers, to-do lists, and reading lists, all while using colorful templates, stickers, and brushes. It also features AI art generation to add unique visuals to your pages.

Highlights
  • Habit trackers
  • To-do lists
  • Reading and movie lists
  • Creative templates
  • Stickers and brushes
  • AI art generation
Features
Read full description

Have you ever dreamed of a handy daily planner that can be a useful organizer and a tool to express your creativity at the same time? Today is your lucky day! PLAN EVERYTHING Create habit trackers, plan your day, make to-do lists and more! Boost your knowledge with reading and movie lists. Besides, to help you keep all your agenda in order, we added everything you may need during the day so that you don’t have to use several planning apps for different tasks anymore. USE YOUR CREATIVITY Use a variety of colorful, cute and creative templates. Try incredible page designs, stickers, brushes for a neat and pretty handwriting. Give your every page a unique style or create one distinctive look for everything! Dive into this magic world of bright colors and vivid imagination! TURN IDEAS INTO AI ART Get creative with the AI-powered feature that lets you effortlessly generate cartoon-style images by text prompts. Add them to your planner pages and transform them into stunning stickers with automatic background cropping. EXPERIENCE A NEW LEVEL OF A CREATIVE PLANNER This is one of a kind app that combines a pragmatic approach to life and creativity! It’s a new way to keep a planner and have fun at the same time. Every tool is designed to burst your routine with individuality and inspiration! Join us today! https://tool-style.com/privacy https://tool-style.com/tos

Screenshots

Penbook4 screens
Digital Planner4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Penbook at 58% against Digital Planner's 21%. Penbook also leads on ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (every 5 days vs every 3 weeks). Digital Planner's advantage is iOS requirement (16.0 vs 18.1). On price, in-app purchases, monetization model and device support 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. Penbook sells 11 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and Digital Planner sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per 7 days. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Penbook holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 4.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 46K and 14K respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 58% of Penbook's written reviews are positive against 21% of Digital Planner's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Penbook ships an update every 5 days, Digital Planner every 3 weeks. Both last shipped on October 23, 2026.

Scorecard7 real differences · 4 level
Penbook versus Digital Planner: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPenbookDigital Planner
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (46K ratings) — better4.3 (14K ratings)
Positive reviews58.0% of reviews — better20.8% of reviews
Number of ratings46K — better14K
Update frequencyEvery 5 days — betterEvery 3 weeks
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank#165 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Vision Pro — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS18.116.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size142 MB433 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperPencil ResearchToolStyle

Customer experience

Penbook

All ratings45,502 ratings
Positive88.4%
Neutral4.7%
Negative6.9%
Written reviews628 reviews
Positive58.0%
Neutral12.9%
Negative29.1%

Digital Planner

All ratings14,320 ratings
Positive80.1%
Neutral6.1%
Negative13.8%
Written reviews438 reviews
Positive20.8%
Neutral16.0%
Negative63.2%

User reviews

Penbook

From 46K App Store ratings

What 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

Digital Planner

From 14K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Helpful for organization
  • 🌟 Aesthetically pleasing design
  • 👍 Useful for planning and tracking

Room to improve

  • 💰 Overly expensive subscription
  • 🔒 Limited free features
  • 🐛 Glitchy performance
  • 📢 Constant prompts to upgrade

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

Digital Planner

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Freezing and crashing issues
  • Incorrect spelling on templates
  • Subscription issues and charges

Requested features

4 requests
  • More free templates and options
  • Ability to customize without paying
  • Improved drawing/writing tools
  • Reduced subscription cost

In-app purchases

11 purchases

Penbook

Subscriptions7
  • Penbook Premium5 variants$4.991 Month
  • Penbook Premium$7.991 Month
  • Penbook Premium7 Days trial3 variants$14.991 Year
Show 4 more
  • 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
One-time4
  • Premium Lifetime (Loyalty)$29.99
  • Penbook Premium Lifetime2 variants$49.99
  • Penbook Premium Lifetime$59.99
Show 1 more
  • Penbook Premium Lifetime$69.99
6 purchases

Digital Planner

Subscriptions6
  • Planner & Calendar: Agenda$9.997 Days
  • One month subscription3 Days trial$13.991 Month
  • 1 Month Subscription$19.991 Month
Show 3 more
  • 3 Months subscription3 Days trial$22.993 Months
  • 2 Month Subscription3 Days trial$39.992 Months
  • 1 Year Subscription1 Year trial$69.991 Year

Questions

Is Penbook free?
Penbook is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Digital Planner free?
Digital Planner is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Penbook or Digital Planner?
Penbook is rated higher. Penbook averages 4.5 out of 5 from 46K ratings, while Digital Planner averages 4.3 from 14K ratings.
Do Penbook or Digital Planner have ads?
Digital Planner shows ads; Penbook does not.
Which is updated more often, Penbook or Digital Planner?
Penbook ships an update every 5 days, and Digital Planner every 3 weeks. Most recently, Penbook was updated on October 23, 2026 and Digital Planner on October 23, 2026.

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