Comparison

Penbook vs PottLoood

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

PottLoood

This app offers a digital notebook experience with extensive drawing tools, including pens, markers, and erasers with customizable colors and thickness. It allows users to add images, convert handwriting to text, and choose from various paper types. Notes can be shared and backed up.

Highlights
  • Pen, marker, and eraser tools
  • 190 color options and 100 thickness levels
  • Image insertion into notes
  • Handwritten text to text conversion (paid)
  • Multiple paper types and colors
  • Cloud sync and backup (paid)
  • Note sharing functionality
Read full description

PottLoood is a simple handwriting notebook application. The easy-to-understand design allows intuitive operation. Anyone can use it easily! ◆Drawing tools ・Pen, marker, eraser You can choose from 190 colors and 100 levels of thickness! Frequently used colors can be registered as favorite colors. Straight line mode is also available. ・Image You can add images from your device to the note! ・Text recognition and text (paid feature) You can convert handwritten text into text! Keyboard text input is also available! ・Paper types and colors The following 10 types of paper are available! - Blank - Ruled (thin/thick) - Cornell Note - Graph (small/big) - Kanji Practice - 4 Line Ruled - 10/12 Staves You can also choose from white or black paper! ◆Other features ・Share You can share your notebooks with other users! ・Backup (paid feature) - Sync with iCloud. - Data can be backed up to Google Drive. ◆We recommend using it this way ・You can use PottLoood for all your class notes. You don't have to carry your notebooks with you anymore. ・Organize ideas for work. It is perfect for those times when you just want to write down whatever comes to your mind. ・For a diary or hobby notebook. You can also quickly paste your favorite photos. ・You can practice your beautiful handwriting in the Kanji Practice Book, which is easy to keep up because you can do it anywhere! ◆Help and Inquiries Please refer to the "FAQ" in the app if you have any problems such as "I don't know how to use this app" or "There might be a bug." If the problem persists, please contact us using the "Contact Us" link in the app. If you have any questions that require a reply, please use Contact Us instead of Review. ◇ PottLoood Home Page ◇ https://pottloood.com/ ◇ Development company's homepage ◇ https://www.aevic.co.jp/

Screenshots

Penbook4 screens
PottLoood4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Penbook at 58% against PottLoood's 36%. Penbook also leads on chart position (#162 vs unranked). PottLoood's advantage is iOS requirement (15.0 vs 18.1). On price, update cadence, 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. Penbook sells 11 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and PottLoood sells 5 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Penbook ships an update every 5 days, PottLoood every 8 days. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and October 22, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 8 level
Penbook versus PottLoood: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPenbookPottLoood
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (46K ratings) — better—
Positive reviews57.8% of reviews — better36.4% of reviews
Number of ratings46K — better—
Update frequencyEvery 5 days — betterEvery 8 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank#162 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Vision ProiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS18.115.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size143 MB79 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperPencil ResearchAEVIC CO., LTD.

Customer experience

Penbook

All ratings45,717 ratings
Positive88.4%
Neutral4.7%
Negative6.9%
Written reviews631 reviews
Positive57.8%
Neutral13.0%
Negative29.2%

PottLoood

Written reviews11 reviews
Positive36.4%
Neutral27.3%
Negative36.4%

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

PottLoood

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
5 purchases

PottLoood

One-time5
  • OCR / Text2 variants$1.99
  • Backup$1.99
  • Release Celebration Pack$1.99
Show 2 more
  • Unlimited Notes$1.99
  • Complete Pack$4.99

Questions

Is Penbook free?
Penbook is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is PottLoood free?
PottLoood is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Penbook or PottLoood have ads?
Neither Penbook nor PottLoood shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Penbook or PottLoood?
Penbook ships an update every 5 days, and PottLoood every 8 days. Most recently, Penbook was updated on October 29, 2026 and PottLoood on October 22, 2026.

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