Comparison

Phystech vs Pencora

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

Head to head
About

Phystech

This app provides students, staff, and applicants with essential information about Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. Access your schedule, get campus news, connect with others, and find important contacts. It also features a helpful chatbot and appointment booking for psychological support.

Highlights
  • Editable group timetable
  • Class notifications and widget
  • Campus news feed
  • Smart chatbot for inquiries
  • Connect with teachers and classmates
  • Psychologist appointment booking
  • Campus navigation and contacts
Features
Read full description

The official app for Phystech students, staff, and applicants. Here you can find all the useful information you need about life and studies at Phystech. • Continue as a guest or sign in with your corporate or student account • Access your group schedule with editing options, notifications about upcoming classes, and a convenient widget • Browse the latest news from various sources in one place • Ask our smart assistant bot any questions about Phystech • Chat with professors and classmates • Use a convenient form to book an appointment with a psychologist • Use the navigator to learn all about the campus layout, find important phone numbers and addresses, and dive into the past through Phystech legends

About

Pencora

This app transforms your handwriting into searchable text, allowing for quick retrieval of notes, formulas, and even math equations. It offers a lag-free writing experience with advanced tools and supports importing from other note-taking applications. Backups are automatically managed via Google Drive.

Highlights
  • Searchable handwriting
  • Lag-free writing engine
  • Import from PDF and other apps
  • Interactive math graphing
  • On-device handwriting generation
  • Automatic Google Drive backups
Features
Read full description

Pencora is paper that thinks: a fast, private notebook for serious study that keeps up with your hand and helps you find, build, and protect what you learn. Everything is free. No subscription. No ads. No account. FIND ANYTHING YOU WROTE Your handwriting becomes searchable as you write—on your iPad, without uploading your notes. Search across every notebook, jump straight to the highlighted word, and find text inside added photos too. Pencora supports English, Russian, Ukrainian, Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Portuguese, and handles messy handwriting, close matches, and typos. WRITE WITHOUT THE LAG A custom Metal engine draws each stroke immediately with pressure, tilt, hover, and Apple Pencil Pro squeeze. Even large notebooks stay smooth. Prefer a finger? You can write with that too. MOVE IN WITHOUT STARTING OVER Export your notebooks from Goodnotes, Notability, or any other note app as PDF. Pencora detects the paper ruling, keeps pages in order, and converts handwriting stored as vector ink into editable strokes instead of locking it inside a picture. Large documents open quickly and keep converting in the background. TYPE IT. GET YOUR HANDWRITING. Write a set of sample words once—or pick a ready-made hand—then type or paste Markdown, lists, and LaTeX formulas. The on-device handwriting model places them on the page as real, erasable strokes in your style, following the ruling of the paper. Available in English and Russian. Nothing is uploaded for generation. MATH THAT STAYS LIVE Add interactive graph planes directly to a page. Plot functions, implicit curves, points, and tables; import CSV; or draw a table by hand and let Pencora read it. Ink written on the plane stays attached to its coordinates. Build exact geometry beside your proof: points, segments, lines, circles, polygons, curves, midpoints, perpendicular and angle bisectors, parallels, tangents, intersections, reflections, and triangle centers. Drag a point and every dependent construction moves with it. Measure in real millimeters and label points in your own handwriting. THE TOOLS A REAL NOTEBOOK NEEDS • Lined, grid, dotted, or PDF paper • Shape snapping for lines, circles, and polygons • Highlighter, study tape, and scribble-to-erase • A lasso that moves, scales, rotates, and changes stroke width • A zoom-write strip for small, neat writing • Calligraphy nibs and an eyedropper • Markdown text boxes and live formulas • True-vector PDF export that stays crisp at any zoom • Folders, tags, and tabs • An infinite board with a minimap for every notebook NEVER LOSE A PAGE Connect Google Drive for automatic daily backups to your own account. Pencora keeps the five newest copies and can restore your library on a new iPad. It uses Google's limited-access permission, so it sees only its own backup files—not the rest of your Drive. You can also export your entire library into one backup file whenever you want. YOUR NOTEBOOKS ON IPHONE Connect the same Google Drive on your iPhone to read the notebooks from your iPad's latest backup, with folders and names intact. You can also open any .handynotes notebook someone sends you. Editing stays on iPad; on iPhone, notebooks are read-only. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Recognition, search, and handwriting generation run on your device. Pencora has no accounts, ads, or tracking, and never sells your data. Anonymous usage statistics can be turned off in Profile, and sharing handwriting samples for research is strictly opt-in. Your notes are not the product. Built by one developer who uses handwritten notes every day. Your feedback helps decide what gets built next.

Screenshots

Phystech4 screens
Pencora4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Phystech at fortnightly against Pencora's every 6 weeks. On price, rating, ratings volume and ads 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Phystech against 4.9 for Pencora. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3 and 7 respectively.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Phystech ships an update fortnightly, Pencora every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and November 15, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
Phystech versus Pencora: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPhystechPencora
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (3 ratings) — better4.9 (7 ratings)
Positive reviews75.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings37 — better
Update frequencyFortnightly — betterEvery 6 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details — not scored
Size46 MB144 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperFIZTEKH-TSENTR, OOOAnastasia Naumkina

In-app purchases

None

Phystech

No in-app purchases

None

Pencora

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Phystech free?
Phystech is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Pencora free?
Pencora is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Phystech or Pencora?
Phystech is rated higher. Phystech averages 5.0 out of 5 from 3 ratings, while Pencora averages 4.9 from 7 ratings.
Do Phystech or Pencora have ads?
Neither Phystech nor Pencora shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Phystech or Pencora?
Phystech ships an update fortnightly, and Pencora every 6 weeks. Most recently, Phystech was updated on November 3, 2026 and Pencora on November 15, 2026.

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