Penned vs Text4Me
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Penned
A minimalist handwriting app designed for privacy, keeping all your notes securely on your device. It features natural writing with Apple Pencil, on-device AI text recognition, and smart tagging for easy searching. Export your notes as PDFs in a clean, distraction-free interface.
- Natural Apple Pencil writing
- On-device AI text recognition
- 100% private, no cloud
- Export beautiful PDFs
- Smart tagging and search
- Distraction-free interface
Read full descriptionHide full description
Your thoughts deserve privacy. Penned Notes is a minimalist handwriting app that keeps everything on your device. - Natural Apple Pencil writing - AI text recognition (on-device) - 100% private - zero cloud required - Export beautiful PDFs - Smart tagging & search - Clean, distraction-free interface Unlike other note apps, Penned Notes uses Apple's Neural Engine to recognize your handwriting locally and nothing leaves your device. No accounts, no tracking, no subscriptions to complex features you don't need. Perfect for: - Daily journaling - Class notes & studying - Meeting notes - Sketches & brainstorming - Sensitive work documents Privacy-first architecture means your notes stay truly yours. Download Penned Notes. Where your thoughts are penned, not surveilled.
Text4Me
This app transcribes text from popular messaging apps, videos, and audio files. It utilizes internal device functionality for secure audio processing, ensuring your data remains private. Simply install and set up the extension to begin converting speech to text.
- Transcribe messages from popular apps
- Recognize text from videos
- Convert audio files to text
- Secure internal audio processing
- Easy extension setup
Read full descriptionHide full description
Text4Me is transcriber application for ability recognise text from popular messages like: Telegram, WhatsApp, Signal, Youtube, TikTok, Files, Videos. You should just install application and setup extension via instructions in application. Also it can help recognise text from audio and video files. It's secure for user, you can use internal device functionality for audio processing without sending audio to any service via internet.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Penned at 4.6 against Text4Me's 4.2. Text4Me's advantage is update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 2 months) and price ($2.99 vs $4.99). On review sentiment, ratings volume, 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
Penned costs $4.99 and Text4Me $2.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Penned holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 4.2. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 87 and 95 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 50% and 50% positive.
Penned ships an update every 2 months, Text4Me every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 22, 2026 and September 10, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Penned | Text4Me |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $4.99 | $2.99 — better |
| Rating | 4.6 (87 ratings) — better | 4.2 (95 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 50.0% of reviews | 50.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 87 | 95 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 16.6 | 15.6 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 1 MB | 13 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Edwing H Santos Mena | Dmytro Hrebeniuk |
Customer experience
Penned
Text4Me
In-app purchases
Penned
No in-app purchases
Text4Me
No in-app purchases
