Comparison

Penbook vs Average Calculate

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

Average Calculate

This application is a specialized calculator designed exclusively for computing averages. It offers a straightforward way to find the mean of a set of numbers without the complexity of a full-function calculator.

Highlights
  • Calculates averages
  • Specialized for mean computation
  • User-friendly interface
  • Free to use
Features
Read full description

Calculator that only calculates averages

Screenshots

Penbook4 screens
Average Calculate3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Penbook at 57% against Average Calculate's 0%. Penbook also leads on rating (4.5 vs 1.0) and update cadence (every 5 days vs every 2 months). Average Calculate's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 22) and iOS requirement (16.4 vs 18.1). On price and ads 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. Average Calculate asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Penbook holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 1.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Penbook has 45K ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 57% of Penbook's written reviews are positive against 0% of Average Calculate's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Penbook ships an update every 5 days, Average Calculate every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on September 26, 2026 and July 22, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard8 real differences · 2 level
Penbook versus Average Calculate: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPenbookAverage Calculate
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (45K ratings) — better1.0 (1 ratings)
Positive reviews57.4% of reviews — better0.0% of reviews
Number of ratings45K — better1
Update frequencyEvery 5 days — betterEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Vision Pro — betteriPhone
Requires iOS18.116.4 — better
Further details — not scored
Size136 MB5 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperPencil ResearchRisako Asai

Customer experience

Penbook

All ratings45,253 ratings
Positive88.4%
Neutral4.7%
Negative6.9%
Written reviews486 reviews
Positive57.4%
Neutral13.0%
Negative29.6%

Average Calculate

All ratings1 ratings
Positive0.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative100.0%
Written reviews5 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral20.0%
Negative80.0%

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

Average Calculate

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

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
None

Average Calculate

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Penbook free?
Penbook is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Average Calculate free?
Average Calculate is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Penbook or Average Calculate?
Penbook is rated higher. Penbook averages 4.5 out of 5 from 45K ratings, while Average Calculate averages 1.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Penbook or Average Calculate have ads?
Neither Penbook nor Average Calculate shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Penbook or Average Calculate?
Penbook ships an update every 5 days, and Average Calculate every 2 months. Most recently, Penbook was updated on September 26, 2026 and Average Calculate on July 22, 2026.

Other comparisons