Penned vs Calculator Advanced
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
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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.
Calculator Advanced
This app allows you to save and reuse complex mathematical formulas, eliminating the need to re-enter them. Simply input variables to perform calculations repeatedly, making it ideal for frequent use of specific equations.
- Save and reuse formulas
- Variable input for calculations
- Supports advanced trigonometric and logarithmic functions
- List variable calculations (sum, count, median, standard deviation)
- Includes 84 built-in formulas
- Scientific calculator with math keyboard
- User manual included
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Calculator Advanced: The Fx saves your formulas and then you can easily do the calculations you want using these formulas. After you save your formula, YOU DO NOT NEED TO REWRITE YOUR FORMULA. ONLY IT IS ENOUGH TO ENTER THE VARIABLES. So you can use the formula you want over and over again. Features *Supported sine, cosine, tangent, cotangent, arcsine, arccosine, arctangent, arccotangent, absolute value, logarithm, natural logarithm, combination, permutation, factorial *Supported list variable. You can calculate sum of the elements, number of elements, Multiply all numbers, Median, Sum of the inverse of the elements by multiplication, standard deviation *Built-in 84 formulas *With Scientific Calculator with Math keyboard *With User Manual
Screenshots
Verdict
Penned and Calculator Advanced both sit at 4.6 stars, but that hides the real split: 50% of Penned's written reviews are positive against 22% of Calculator Advanced's. Penned also leads on update cadence (every 2 months vs every 5 months). Calculator Advanced's advantage is price ($0.99 vs $4.99) and iOS requirement (14.2 vs 16.6). On rating, 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 Calculator Advanced $0.99 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 4.4. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 87 and 98 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 50% of Penned's written reviews are positive against 22% of Calculator Advanced's.
Penned ships an update every 2 months, Calculator Advanced every 5 months. The most recent releases landed on September 22, 2026 and September 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Penned | Calculator Advanced |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $4.99 | $0.99 — better |
| Rating | 4.6 (87 ratings) — better | 4.4 (98 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 50.0% of reviews — better | 22.2% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 87 | 98 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months — better | Every 5 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.6 | 14.2 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 1 MB | 2 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | +4 |
| Developer | Edwing H Santos Mena | Mert Can Kus |
Customer experience
Penned
Calculator Advanced
In-app purchases
Penned
No in-app purchases
Calculator Advanced
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Penned free?
Is Calculator Advanced free?
Which has better reviews, Penned or Calculator Advanced?
Do Penned or Calculator Advanced have ads?
Which is updated more often, Penned or Calculator Advanced?
Other comparisons
