# Noteful vs NoteSam

The clearest difference is ads: Noteful at none against NoteSam's shown. NoteSam's advantage is update cadence (every 5 days vs fortnightly). On price, in-app purchases, device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.

Both are free to download. Noteful sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and NoteSam sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

Noteful ships an update fortnightly, NoteSam every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 3, 2026 and September 10, 2026 respectively.

## The numbers

| Metric | Noteful | NoteSam |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | **[4.8 (24K ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/noteful-notes-and-pdf-markup/id1587904334/reviews)** | — |
| Number of ratings | **24K** | — |
| Positive reviews | 87.4% of reviews | — |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Ads | **No** | Yes |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | **Every 5 days** |
| Monetization | Freemium | — |
| Size | 157 MB | 15 MB |
| Requires iOS | **16.4** | 17.0 |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | [Noteful Technologies Ltd](https://appshunter.io/developer/1587904336) | [Cryptosam LLC](https://appshunter.io/developer/1888681535) |

## What reviewers say

### Noteful

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/noteful-notes-and-pdf-markup/id1587904334)

This app revolutionizes paperless note-taking on iPad, allowing for handwritten notes, document annotation, and knowledge organization. It offers a fluid writing experience, PDF markup, powerful tagging, and audio recording synced with notes.

**Highlights:** Handwritten notes with Apple Pencil, PDF and document annotation, Organize notes with tags, Layers for annotations, Audio recording synced with notes, Import PDFs and MS Office documents

**Features:** macOS Compatibility, Family Sharing, Vision Pro support

**In-app purchases (1)**

| Purchase | Price | Billing |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Noteful Pro, Lifetime | $6.99 | one-time |

**What reviewers like**

- 🚀 Smooth writing experience
- 👍 Intuitive and easy to use
- 💡 Layers feature
- 👍 Affordable one-time purchase
- 🚀 Efficient and lightweight

**What reviewers complain about**

- 🐛 Occasional crashes or freezes
- 🔍 No handwriting recognition or search
- 🔍 Limited text editing options
- 🔍 Lack of advanced features like math conversion
- 🔍 Exporting PDFs loses some formatting

**Reported bugs**

- Syncing issues across devices
- Lasso tool not working properly with PDFs
- Eraser tool not functioning as expected

**Requested features**

- Handwriting recognition and search
- More text editing options (bullet lists, etc.)
- Improved PDF handling and annotations
- Custom templates and sticker support
- Expanded cloud storage options (Dropbox, OneDrive, etc.)


### NoteSam

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/notesam-handwritten-notes/id6762164734)

**Features:** macOS Compatibility, Vision Pro support

**In-app purchases (2)**

| Purchase | Price | Billing |
| --- | --- | --- |
| NoteSam Pro Monthly | $2.99 | per month |
| NoteSam Pro Yearly | $19.99 | per year |


## Frequently asked questions

### Is Noteful free?

Noteful is free to download, with in-app purchases available.

### Is NoteSam free?

NoteSam is free to download, with in-app purchases available.

### Do Noteful or NoteSam have ads?

NoteSam shows ads; Noteful does not.

### Which is updated more often, Noteful or NoteSam?

Noteful ships an update fortnightly, and NoteSam every 5 days. Most recently, Noteful was updated on October 3, 2026 and NoteSam on September 10, 2026.

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*Compared by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/) from daily US App Store data. Review summaries are generated from verbatim App Store reviews.*