Penbook vs Corgo
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
Corgo
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Never leave your charger behind again. Corgo is a delightful pack-up checklist for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Vision Pro. Build a kit, get a friendly nudge as you head out, and walk out the door with everything you need. A CHECKLIST FOR EVERY BAG Build a kit once — Work Bag, Gym Bag, Camera Bag — and Corgo tracks what's in and what's missing with a satisfying packed ring. Check things off as they go in, and see at a glance when you're good to go. NUDGED RIGHT AS YOU HEAD OUT Set reminder times that fit your day — heading to work, leaving the office, gym night. Switch between profiles for everyday and trips, so a weekend away never throws off your routine. REMINDS YOU AS YOU LEAVE A PLACE Save the spots where you forget things — the office, the gym, a hotel on a trip — and Corgo gives you a heads-up as you walk out. It works even when the app is closed. ON EVERY DEVICE On Mac, your checklist sits one click from the clock. On iPhone and iPad it's a tap away, with widgets, Lock Screen tracking, and the Dynamic Island. Apple Watch and Vision Pro, too. Your kits sync across everything with iCloud. SIX THEMES, MAKE IT YOURS Choose from six color-and-type themes — from Sunset Pop to Electric to a clean Graphite — and the whole app restyles to match. PRIVATE BY DESIGN There's no Corgo account and no sign-up. Your kits, places, and reminders live on your devices and sync through your own iCloud — never through us. No third-party tracking, no data brokers, no ads. FREE TO USE, PRO WHEN YOU WANT MORE Corgo is free — build kits, set reminders, and never forget your charger. Corgo Pro lifts every limit and adds smart auto-reminders: $14.99/year (with a 7-day free trial) or $1.99/month. Cancel anytime. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Penbook at every 5 days against Corgo's every 2 months. On price, ads, in-app purchases 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
Both are free to download. Penbook sells 7 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and Corgo sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Penbook ships an update every 5 days, Corgo every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on November 4, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Penbook | Corgo |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (46K ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 57.8% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 46K — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 5 days — better | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Vision Pro | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Vision Pro — better |
| Requires iOS | 18.1 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 143 MB | 5 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Pencil Research | Rui Hu |
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
Corgo
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Penbook
- Penbook Premium2 variants$4.991 Month
- Penbook Premium$7.991 Month
- Penbook Premium7 Days trial3 variants$14.991 Year
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- Penbook Premium7 Days trial$19.991 Year
- Penbook Premium7 Days trial$29.991 Year
- Penbook Premium7 Days trial$39.991 Year
- Penbook Premium Lifetime$49.99
Corgo
- Corgo Pro Monthly$1.991 Month
- Corgo Pro Yearly7 Days trial$14.991 Year









