Comparison

InkPlanner vs Penciled In.

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

Head to head
About

InkPlanner

A digital wall calendar app for iPad and Apple Pencil, offering a clear yearly overview. It allows handwritten entry of appointments and notes with a customizable color-coded legend for enhanced organization and a minimalist planning experience.

Highlights
  • Yearly overview at a glance
  • Handwritten notes and appointments
  • Customizable color-coded legend
  • Minimalist and simple design
  • Digital replication of physical wall calendars
Read full description

InkPlanner: Your digital wall calendar for iPad & Apple Pencil. Features: + Clear planning: your entire year at a glance. + Developed for Apple Pencil: Simply enter appointments and notes by hand. + Customized legend: Color-coded legend with five categories. Why did we develop InkPlanner? With InkPlanner, we want to transfer the proven clarity of a physical wall calendar to the digital world. With iPad and Apple Pencil, this feeling can be replicated in the best possible way, leading to more clarity, minimalism and simplicity. What does InkPlanner cost? InkPlanner is available for you to test free of charge. After the trial, you can unlock unlimited entries with a one-time payment. We do not use monthly subscription fees.

About

Penciled In.

Features
Read full description

Penciled In is a planner you can write in. Type "dinner with Anna Friday 7pm" and it lands on Friday at 7. Type "mum's birthday on the 14th" and it lands on the 14th, all day. No date pickers, no five-field form, no waiting on a spinner — it reads the sentence as you type and shows you what it understood before anything is saved. And when it guesses wrong, every part of that guess is one tap from right. Quick Add works on every iPhone and iPad, instantly, and it's free. It doesn't need Apple Intelligence and never has. A PLANNER, NOT A TO-DO LIST Month, week, day and agenda views. Events, tasks, reminders, grocery lists and trips, colour-coded and filterable. Repeating entries show on every day they repeat, and you can tick things done right from the calendar. A Notes tab with checklists, #tags and search for the things that don't have a date yet. A Reflect tab for the end of the day. Everything syncs privately through your own iCloud account. No sign-up, no account to create, and no server of ours in the middle. MADE FOR IPAD A sidebar, notes side by side with their list, keyboard shortcuts, and drag an entry to another day to move it. ON YOUR HOME SCREEN An Up Next widget shows your next few entries without opening anything, and a Quick Add widget puts a sentence straight into your planner from the Home Screen. Ask Siri to add an event, a reminder or a note and it goes to the same place. APPLE INTELLIGENCE, WHERE IT ACTUALLY HELPS On supported iPhones, Penciled In can read your week back to you in plain language — which days are heavy, what's clustered too tightly. It runs entirely on your device. FREE, AND WHAT ISN'T Free covers the actual planner: unlimited events, tasks, notes, lists and reflections, Quick Add, the widgets, Siri, and five AI week summaries a month. We don't cap what you write. Premium adds the full meal planner (lunch, dinner and snacks, recipe photos and generated shopping lists), themes and appearance customisation, note locking, and unlimited AI summaries. Premium is $6.99/month or $34.99/year with the first week free, or $69.99 once for Lifetime. Subscriptions can be cancelled any time in Settings. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://my7h4zntv5-alt.github.io/penciled-in-legal/

Screenshots

Penciled In.4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Penciled In. at every 4 weeks against InkPlanner's every 4 months. On price, 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

Both are free to download. InkPlanner sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Penciled In. sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $6.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

InkPlanner ships an update every 4 months, Penciled In. every 4 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and November 5, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
InkPlanner versus Penciled In.: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterInkPlannerPenciled In.
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.2 (10 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews37.5% of reviews—
Number of ratings10 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 4 monthsEvery 4 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPadiPhone, iPad — better
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details — not scored
Size6 MB6 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperChristian MerkDylan Dalmeida

In-app purchases

1 purchases

InkPlanner

One-time1
  • Calendar$6.99
3 purchases

Penciled In.

Subscriptions2
  • Premium Monthly7 Days trial$6.991 Month
  • Premium Annual7 Days trial$34.991 Year
One-time1
  • Premium Lifetime$69.99

Questions

Is InkPlanner free?
InkPlanner is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Penciled In. free?
Penciled In. is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do InkPlanner or Penciled In. have ads?
Neither InkPlanner nor Penciled In. shows ads.
Which is updated more often, InkPlanner or Penciled In.?
InkPlanner ships an update every 4 months, and Penciled In. every 4 weeks. Most recently, InkPlanner was updated on November 3, 2026 and Penciled In. on November 5, 2026.

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