Comparison

MarginNote 5 vs flomo浮墨

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

Head to head
About

MarginNote 5

This app enhances reading and study with integrated note-taking and flashcard creation. It offers task-based templates for focused learning, AI assistance for content breakdown, and spaced repetition for effective review. Organize your research and master material efficiently.

Highlights
  • Task-based reading templates
  • AI-powered content breakdown and question extraction
  • Integrated flashcard creation and spaced repetition
  • Mind-map organization of notes
  • PDF and EPUB import
  • Handwriting and annotation tools
  • Sync across devices
Features
Read full description

MarginNote is a PDF tool for in-depth reading and study. Keep PDF highlights linked to mind-map cards, then add those cards to review. MarginNote 5 introduces task-based templates for reading, question practice, and vocabulary. MarginNote has evolved since 2013. The upgrade from MarginNote 4 is free. Your study sets, notes, and purchases remain intact. MARGINNOTE 5: ONE TASK, ONE SETUP • Templates — a template sets the bottom tools, menus, pens, and excerpt colors. The "Standard" template has four modes: Excerpt, Handwrite, Organize, and Recall. Each mode groups tools for that task. • Template Gallery — install official templates in one tap. Some templates include examples to help you get started: – Card Practice: write answers by hand on question cards, check your answers, and focus your next review on questions you haven't mastered yet. AI can split a whole workbook into cards. – Reading Vocabulary: collect words while reading English; an offline dictionary provides base forms, pronunciation, and definitions, and finished cards join review when automatic review is enabled. • Make it yours — the corresponding controls are highlighted as you edit. Find features and settings with Feature Search, and export or share your templates. • Traditional Interface — open the template menu and choose "Traditional Interface" (except on iPhone Duo). SYNC YOU CAN SEE The home screen shows where sync stands. The Sync Center lists notes and original documents separately and tells you when a document is still downloading. Manual sync reports results and offers a protective snapshot. Applying cloud changes also protects local study data. THE CARD AT THE CENTER • Organize excerpts by chapter; for books without a table of contents, AI can build one. • Title Links — notes on concepts you've studied resurface as you read new documents. • Extend — open writing space anywhere on a PDF: inline, in the margin, or folded away. AI AS AN ASSISTANT, NOT A SUBSTITUTE AI Breakdown · Question Extraction · AI TOC · AI OCR card templates · translation · chat. Save any answer as a card, or turn its outline into mind-map branches. Online AI sends task text or images to the service provider used for the request. REVIEW: THINK FIRST, THEN LOOK Use Recall mode to hide and reveal answers in the mind map. Add cards to a review deck for FSRS spaced repetition. Write directly on card snapshots while you review. On iOS/iPadOS/macOS 26+, when Apple Intelligence is enabled and its model is available on a supported device and in a supported region, on-device recall hints work offline without MarginNote credits. THE FULL WORKFLOW PDF, EPUB, Office-to-PDF import (online), video and audio · Zotero, cloud drives and external folders · side-by-side documents · handwriting layers and mind-map backgrounds · mind-map PDF export (structure or card flow) · read aloud · fast OCR WHO IT IS FOR Anyone who rereads material and needs to remember it: medical and law students, exam takers, researchers, language learners, serious readers. ACROSS YOUR DEVICES iPhone, iPad and Mac with one Apple Account; iCloud syncs study sets, notes and review progress. Native Apple Pencil handwriting on iPad. Also adapted for iPhone Duo. ABOUT PURCHASES Free to download. Some features require Pro (one-time unlock) or Max (subscription or one-time unlock). MarginNote Agent requires Max and uses MarginNote credits. Some online AI uses MarginNote credits; external AI is billed by its provider. A Max subscription includes 500 credits/month while active. Questions: service@marginnote.com Terms of Use: https://dist.marginnote.cn/MarginNote_Terms_and_Conditions.pdf Privacy Policy: https://dist.marginnote.cn/MarginNote_Privacy_Policy.pdf

About

flomo浮墨

Capture fleeting thoughts and ideas with a minimalist note-taking tool designed for quick entry and organization. Review past entries, discover related notes, and quantify your daily records without intrusive ads or privacy concerns.

Highlights
  • Easy typing
  • Full platform sync
  • Organize with #tags
  • Daily review of past notes
  • Relevant note suggestions
  • Quantify daily records
  • Quick entry via API
Features
Read full description

flomo is the Next Generation note-taking tool, focusing on helping your record more ideas rather than complex articles. We are overjoyed to announce that we ranked in the No.4 of the Golden Kitty Awards 2021 on Product Hunt in the Mobile Apps category. Thank you for your support and suggestions. We can’t keep making progress without your voice. Key features - Easy typing like Twitter - Full platform sync - Manage MEMOs by #tags/sub-tags - Daily review of past MEMOs - Relevant MEMOs - Quantify daily records - Quick entry with API - No ads or privacy sharing What flomo doesn't do well We know it's hard enough to be good at one small thing, so we won't try to be ALL-IN-ONE in features. Here's what we're NOT good at, and we recommend you to choose a better product. - Not good at Document writing or markdown - Not good at Web Clipper - Not good at TODO - Not good at Mind mapping flomo CARES about privacy and security - All content is only visible to you - All data transfers are encrypted - No commercial advertising - No sharing or selling of personal data - Real-time database backup —————————— Price may vary by location. Subscriptions will be charged to your credit card through your iTunes account. Your subscription will automatically renew unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. You will not be able to cancel the subscription once activated. After purchase, manage your subscriptions in App Store Account Settings. Any unused portion of a free trial period, will be forfeited when the user purchases a subscription. —————————— 2024@flomoapp.com Privacy Policy: https://help.flomo.app/terms-and-privacy/privacy Terms of Service: https://help.flomo.app/terms-and-privacy/terms

Screenshots

MarginNote 54 screens
flomo浮墨4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: flomo浮墨 at 92% against MarginNote 5's 58%. flomo浮墨 also leads on rating (4.9 vs 4.5) and update cadence (every 9 days vs every 3 weeks). On price, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. MarginNote 5 sells 12 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month and flomo浮墨 sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

flomo浮墨 holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.5. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 736 and 1.2K respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 58% of MarginNote 5's written reviews are positive against 92% of flomo浮墨's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

MarginNote 5 ships an update every 3 weeks, flomo浮墨 every 9 days. The most recent releases landed on October 30, 2026 and October 29, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
MarginNote 5 versus flomo浮墨: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMarginNote 5flomo浮墨
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (736 ratings)4.9 (1.2K ratings) — better
Positive reviews58.5% of reviews92.2% of reviews — better
Number of ratings7361.2K — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksEvery 9 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, MaciPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS17.015.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size371 MB137 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperBeijing Yunsi Software Technology Co., LtdShanghai Xiandi Network Technology Co., Ltd

Customer experience

MarginNote 5

All ratings736 ratings
Positive86.5%
Neutral3.4%
Negative10.1%
Written reviews568 reviews
Positive58.5%
Neutral15.5%
Negative26.1%

flomo浮墨

All ratings1,154 ratings
Positive98.0%
Neutral0.7%
Negative1.3%
Written reviews167 reviews
Positive92.2%
Neutral3.0%
Negative4.8%

User reviews

MarginNote 5

From 736 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Powerful features
  • 📚 Great for academic/research use
  • 👍 Useful note-taking and organization
  • 🖊️ Improved handwriting and annotation

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Buggy and crashes frequently
  • 🕰️ Slow and laggy sync between devices
  • 🤯 Steep learning curve, poor documentation
  • 💰 Expensive upgrade from previous version

flomo浮墨

From 1.2K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Efficient and convenient note-taking
  • 👍 Intuitive and user-friendly interface
  • 💡 Powerful tag and sub-tag system
  • 🔒 Secure and private
  • 📚 Great for organizing thoughts and ideas

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Some bugs and glitches reported
  • 💰 Concerns about excessive paid features
  • 📱 Needs better iPad support
  • 🌐 Translation issues for non-Chinese users

Bugs and requests

MarginNote 5

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Disappearing annotations when using extend function
  • Inability to restore accidentally deleted mind maps
  • Inconsistent behavior with PDF file management

Requested features

4 requests
  • Improved iCloud/cloud sync reliability
  • More intuitive and user-friendly interface
  • Better support for external document libraries
  • Ability to disable auto-excerpt selection

flomo浮墨

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Inconsistent behavior with list indentation
  • Issues with text scanning functionality
  • Problems with time stamp recognition

Requested features

5 requests
  • Expand note-taking window size
  • Add support for Markdown syntax
  • Integrate with more apps and services
  • Implement dark mode option
  • Add sorting by time/date

In-app purchases

12 purchases

MarginNote 5

Subscriptions5
  • Subscription to MAX (Monthly)7 Days trial$1.991 Month
  • Subscription to MAX (3 months)7 Days trial$4.993 Months
  • Subscription to MAX (6 months)7 Days trial$7.996 Months
Show 2 more
  • Subscription to MAX (Annually)1 Month trial$12.991 Year
  • MarginNote Max Annual1 Month trial$16.991 Year
One-time7
  • 14 days Free Trial2 variantsFree
  • Upgrade to PRO from MN3(iOS)$4.99
  • Unlock PRO Forever (New)$12.99
Show 4 more
  • Upgrade to MAX from MN3(macOS)$19.99
  • Unlock MAX based on PRO$39.99
  • Unlock MAX based on PRO (New)$40.00
  • Unlock MAX Forever (New)$51.99
10 purchases

flomo浮墨

Subscriptions5
  • Monthly Pro subscription$1.991 Month
  • Monthly Max subscription$5.991 Month
  • Yearly Pro subscription$14.991 Year
Show 2 more
  • Yearly Max subscription$39.991 Year
  • Yearly Max subscription1 Year trial$39.991 Year
One-time5
  • 3,000 Agent Points$0.99
  • 10,000 Agent Points$3.99
  • 30,000 Agent Points$9.99
Show 2 more
  • flomo Pro 年度会员-教育优惠$14.99
  • flomo Max 年度会员-教育优惠$34.99

Questions

Is MarginNote 5 free?
MarginNote 5 is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is flomo浮墨 free?
flomo浮墨 is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, MarginNote 5 or flomo浮墨?
flomo浮墨 is rated higher. MarginNote 5 averages 4.5 out of 5 from 736 ratings, while flomo浮墨 averages 4.9 from 1.2K ratings.
Do MarginNote 5 or flomo浮墨 have ads?
Neither MarginNote 5 nor flomo浮墨 shows ads.
Which is updated more often, MarginNote 5 or flomo浮墨?
MarginNote 5 ships an update every 3 weeks, and flomo浮墨 every 9 days. Most recently, MarginNote 5 was updated on October 30, 2026 and flomo浮墨 on October 29, 2026.

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