Comparison

CROSSNote HLM vs Pencil Paperpad

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

CROSSNote HLM

Read full description

CROSSNote: your life, connected. Calendar, tasks, ideas, notes, health and goals in one place. Because your life doesn't happen in separate apps. CROSSNote is a personal operating system for the Apple ecosystem. It helps you organize your day, preserve what matters and understand how you spend your time and energy. YOUR DAY, ALL CONNECTED Plan and see what's ahead without separating your tasks from your activities. - Calendar and tasks in one unified view. - Day, week and month views. - Workouts integrated into your schedule. - Priorities, deadlines and subtasks. - Areas and lists to organize your projects. MORE THAN A TASK A meeting can include notes, a recording and decisions. A project can bring together files, images and ideas. In CROSSNote, everything stays connected to the relevant record. - Add notes, photos, drawings, files and audio. - Record and transcribe conversations. - Organize records with AI assistance. - Capture ideas without having to classify them immediately. - Find what you've saved with text or semantic search. Capture now. Find it later. SEE HOW YOU LIVE Where does your time really go? Which areas of your life take up the most space? Life Model brings your activities together and organizes them by life area, showing how you spend your time across weeks, months and years. A perspective for reflection, not judgment. UNDERSTAND YOUR HEALTH IN CONTEXT Your calendar shows what you do. Your body tells another part of the story. CROSSNote brings information from Apple Health and compatible devices into a more complete picture: - Sleep, sleep stages and efficiency. - Heart rate and heart rate variability (HRV). - Workouts, training load and estimated recovery. - Energy, stress and mental focus indicators. - Charts and trends over time. Health indicators are estimates for informational purposes and are not medical diagnoses. LIVE WITH INTENTION It's not about doing more and more. Set intentions for your day, week or longer periods, record how you feel and keep the things that truly matter to you in sight. FIND WHAT YOU THOUGHT YOU'D FORGOTTEN Ideas, meetings, conversations, notes and projects can remain valuable long after they happened. With semantic search, you can find records by meaning, even when you don't remember the exact words you used. AN ASSISTANT WITH CONTEXT CROSSNote's AI assistant can access selected information from your calendar, tasks and health to answer questions about your day, help you review a task or explain how you slept. It's not here to make decisions for you, but to help you better understand your information. YOUR LIFE. YOUR DATA. Your personal records are stored on your device and in your iCloud, not on CROSSNote's own servers. Some AI features send the necessary context to external providers to process your requests. Privacy, autonomy and user control are built into the design. Start by organizing your day. Discover everything you can connect over time. CROSSNote. Your life, connected.

About

Pencil Paperpad

Create custom notepads with various paper styles, including your own images and PDFs. Save drawings as new paper and export your notes as PDF documents. Optimized for iPad with Apple Pencil support.

Highlights
  • Customizable notepads
  • Use own images/PDFs as paper
  • Save drawings as new paper
  • Export pages as PDF
  • Optimized for iPad
  • Apple Pencil support
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- Pencil Papepad requires iOS15~ device. (iPad(iOS15~) and Apple Pencil are recommended) With this App, you can... - Create note pad with a paper which you like. You can add new pages with the paper. - Use your .png, .jpg files and PDF document as a paper. - Save your drawing on paper, as a new paper. - Export pad's pages as PDF document.

Screenshots

CROSSNote HLM4 screens
Pencil Paperpad4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: CROSSNote HLM at Free against Pencil Paperpad's $4.99. CROSSNote HLM also leads on update cadence (every 6 days vs every 6 months). Pencil Paperpad's advantage is iOS requirement (15.0 vs 18.6). On 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

CROSSNote HLM is free to download; Pencil Paperpad costs $4.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

CROSSNote HLM ships an update every 6 days, Pencil Paperpad every 6 months. Both last shipped on October 20, 2026.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
CROSSNote HLM versus Pencil Paperpad: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCROSSNote HLMPencil Paperpad
PriceFree — better$4.99
Rating—3.3 (3 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings—3 — better
Update frequencyEvery 6 days — betterEvery 6 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
Monetization—Paid
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS18.615.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size101 MB3 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperOS3e Technologies LLCMasanori Kobayashi

In-app purchases

None

CROSSNote HLM

No in-app purchases

None

Pencil Paperpad

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is CROSSNote HLM free?
CROSSNote HLM is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Pencil Paperpad free?
Pencil Paperpad costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Do CROSSNote HLM or Pencil Paperpad have ads?
Neither CROSSNote HLM nor Pencil Paperpad shows ads.
Which is updated more often, CROSSNote HLM or Pencil Paperpad?
CROSSNote HLM ships an update every 6 days, and Pencil Paperpad every 6 months. Most recently, CROSSNote HLM was updated on October 20, 2026 and Pencil Paperpad on October 20, 2026.

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