MarginNote 5 vs GUGA
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- 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
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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
GUGA
This app combines notebook, whiteboard, and card functionalities for diverse learning needs. It allows for importing various formats, multi-layer handwriting, and creating interconnected learning materials. Share your progress and access cross-device data with ease.
- Import various notebook formats
- Multi-layer handwriting support
- Create and link cards
- Multi-level whiteboard functionality
- Cross-device data sharing
- Community sharing platform
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GUGA is a hyper learning tool that can meet your learning needs in different scenarios. “Notebook”, “Whiteboard” and “Cards” are the three most important functions of GUGA. In addition, GUGA also provides users with a community-SharePlace to share learning data; and provides a "Inspiration Shorthand" function to send data and record information across devices; and GUGA also provides a large number of shortcuts for you to use after connecting to the keyboard mouse. The “Notebook” is the most common learning material and the most basic learning scenario. GUGA's notebook: 1. Not only other notebook software, but also support a variety of formats to be imported into notebooks, create new notebooks, add/reduce pages, provide more than 100 inner pages and cover templates, DIY outline catalogues, edit page jumps, import pictures/text, etc. 2. It also supports adding an unlimited number of handwriting layers to each page of the notebook, hiding/displaying/merging handwriting layers, which is convenient for brushing questions and other uses when learning. And, 3. You can also long press to select the content on the notebook to mark/excerpt while writing and taking notes, and make cards for other uses based on the excerpt content. The “Whiteboard” is a multi-data learning console and a richer learning scenario. GUGA's whiteboard: 1. Support the import of multiple notebooks and use them in one whiteboard at the same time. You can also add/import data in other formats to learn and use them together. 2. Provide a notebook floating window system, which makes it more convenient for you to use multiple notebooks and whiteboards at the same time. The notebook in the whiteboard can be presented in the form of a floating window. The floating window has a variety of states (maximizing/mini window/up and down left and right side windows), which can hide/close/display all floating windows with one click; support floating window memory, type again Open the whiteboard, and all floating windows that are not closed can continue to be used. 3 Provide the "multi-level" whiteboard function. The whiteboard can create a lower-layer whiteboard, or it can be connected with other whiteboards to form a link relationship, thus creating a relationship between learning scenes. 4 You can copy the selected content in the floating notebook to the whiteboard to form a card. The cards on the whiteboard can be freely combined and split, and the cards can also be connected to form a brain map; the jump relationship can be set between the cards. 5 The whiteboard can be divided by frame, and it can also be positioned with pins to make it easier to use and manage the whiteboard content. In addition, 6 The entire whiteboard can be emitted as pdf, and the frame can also be emitted as a multi-page PDF, and the jump relationship between the frames will also be retained. The card is the achievement of atomization learning, and the card package is the collection of your achievements. GUGA's card: 1. Excerpt cards in the notebook and cards on the whiteboard can be collected in the card package. 2. You can use the "Inspiration Catcher" function of the GUGA WeChat official account/browser's GUGA plug-in to transfer the information you want to save to any of your card package at any time. 3. Each card is a "blocked" rich text editor, which can be combined and split on the whiteboard, or any block can be set as an answer block in flash card mode. 4. Card packs can be converted between ordinary packs and flash card packs; the function of flash card packs is consistent with other flash card software (Anki). 5. Each flash card pack can choose different learning modes and different memory algorithms to help you better learn and review cards. In addition, 6. The daily learning plan of flash cards will automatically appear in the GUGA log (My Logbook) on the right to learn flash card packages at any time. Have Fun with GUGA 2.0, and Enjoy Your Serious Learning Power.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: GUGA at every 4 days against MarginNote 5's every 3 weeks. GUGA also leads on review sentiment (70% vs 58%) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). MarginNote 5's advantage is ratings volume (736 vs 170). On price, rating, 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
Both are free to download. MarginNote 5 sells 12 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month and GUGA sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.5 for MarginNote 5 against 4.6 for GUGA. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 736 and 170 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 58% of MarginNote 5's written reviews are positive against 70% of GUGA's.
MarginNote 5 ships an update every 3 weeks, GUGA every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 30, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | MarginNote 5 | GUGA |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (736 ratings) | 4.6 (170 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 58.5% of reviews | 70.2% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 736 — better | 170 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | Every 4 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 371 MB | 705 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Beijing Yunsi Software Technology Co., Ltd | GutenbergGalaxy Technology Co. |
Customer experience
MarginNote 5
GUGA
User reviews
MarginNote 5
From 736 App Store ratingsWhat 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
GUGA
From 170 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 User-friendly interface
- 💡 Handwriting search capability
- 🌟 Good for note-taking and studying
- 🎨 Beautiful app design
- ✍️ Natural pen strokes
Room to improve
- 🐛 Pencil direction not rotating
- 🐛 Terms and Privacy Policy not accessible
- 🐛 Cannot log in
- 🐛 iCloud sync glitchy
- 🐛 Notes erased when switching devices
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
GUGA
Reported bugs
31 issues- Pencil direction does not rotate with pencil movement
- Cannot check Terms and Privacy Policy on first app open
- Cannot log in
- iCloud sync is glitchy
- Notes get erased when switching devices
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- All notes disappeared after not using for half a year
- Lost purchase and notes after re-login
- Cannot convert to flashcards or use mind map
- PDF viewing mode changed in version 2.0
- PDF cards open in a very small window
- Cannot view PDF in split-screen mode
- Handwritten notes on imported PDFs lost after automatic update
- Lasso tool gets stuck when moving objects
- Frequent crashes when using two-finger undo function
- Developers not responsive to English customers
- Two-finger undo is clumsy and often undoes too many steps
- Drawing a line from outside an image to inside adds points that cannot be removed by eraser
- Cannot edit curvature of drawn curves
- Lag when using ruler and pasting images
- Notes sometimes disappear and are hard to find
- Whiteboard viewing feature not yet released
- Pasting URLs no longer shows preview images
- App is laggy after update, especially when moving cards
- Cannot login with Apple account
- PDF export quality is blurry (exported as image/screenshot)
- Cannot delete pen stroke colors
- iCloud syncing is slow
- Handwriting search failed
- Card excerpt from PDF does not direct back to its location in PDF
- Vertical videos become horizontal with black bars
- Added fonts are not usable
Requested features
24 requests- Allow Apple Pencil to transition to previous tool
- Adapt to Apple Pencil Pro squeeze gesture
- Return to previous PDF card viewing mode
- Allow Mac OS version with iCloud syncing
- Add auto backup to other cloud drives (Google Drive, OneDrive)
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- Add backlinking feature
- Speedy, glitchless movement of cards
- Faster UI
- Ability to zoom with mouse scroll wheel
- Add presentation mode with set paths
- iPhone and iMac versions for syncing
- Add folder functionality for whiteboard organization
- Allow modification of pen stroke color with lasso tool
- Allow deletion of pen stroke colors
- Improve PDF export quality to vector quality
- Export whole canvas as PDF without limitation
- Allow adding more fonts
- Improve URL link preview functionality
- Allow inputting numbers to adjust pen size
- Allow editing curve curvature
- Fix issue with drawing lines from outside to inside images
- Fix issue with two-finger undo
- Allow users to see remaining free trial count
- Allow sign in with Google
In-app purchases
MarginNote 5
- 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
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- Subscription to MAX (Annually)1 Month trial$12.991 Year
- MarginNote Max Annual1 Month trial$16.991 Year
- 14 days Free Trial2 variantsFree
- Upgrade to PRO from MN3(iOS)$4.99
- Unlock PRO Forever (New)$12.99
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- 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
GUGA
- Limited-time Discount C$4.99
- Limited-time Discount B$6.99
- Unlock GUGA PRO$9.99








