Reader's Bench vs Good PDF Notebook
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Reader's Bench
This app is a PDF reader and markup tool designed for serious study and research. It allows users to read, annotate, take notes, and review highlighted content from PDF documents with efficient performance and a distraction-free interface.
- PDF reading and markup
- Handwriting and typed notes
- Annotation extraction for review
- Highlight, underline, strikethrough
- Image capture and insertion
- Export notes and annotated PDFs
- Word definition and sentence translation
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Reader's Bench — Read, Annotate & Take Notes Reader's Bench is a powerful PDF and ePub reader built for students, researchers, and professionals who need to study documents deeply. Import PDFs and ePub files, annotate them with a rich set of tools, take handwritten notes side by side, and organize everything in one place. KEY FEATURES • PDF & ePub Reader Import PDFs from the Files app, share sheet, or Safari. Supports vertical and horizontal scrolling, single-page and continuous page views, and a comfortable dark mode for reading in any lighting. • Rich PDF Annotations Highlight, underline, and strikethrough text. Add text boxes, image boxes, freehand drawings, and capture areas with Apple Pencil or your finger. Every annotation can be edited, moved, or deleted at any time. • Annotation Review View all your annotations in a summary list, filter by type, and export the review as a separate PDF report. Revisit key points without re-reading the entire document. • Handwritten Notes Take notes on a digital canvas with Apple Pencil. Switch between Canvas (infinite scroll) and Page (discrete pages) modes. Choose from dotted, squared, lined, or blank backgrounds and customize colors. Shape detection automatically perfects hand-drawn shapes. • Split View Work with your PDF and notes side by side. Switch between horizontal and vertical layouts and resize panels with a draggable divider. • Bookmarks & Search Bookmark pages for quick access and browse them in one place. Search inside documents and jump to results by page instantly. • Export & Share Export annotated PDFs, handwritten notes as PDFs, or annotation reviews as reports. Share via the iOS share sheet or print directly from the app. • iCloud Sync Documents and annotations sync across your devices via iCloud, so your work is always with you. • ePub Support Import ePub books and convert them to PDF for reading and annotation. • Share Extension Import PDFs directly from any app using the system share sheet. Reader's Bench turns your iPad and iPhone into a complete study and research workstation.
Good PDF Notebook
Create beautiful notes, sketch ideas, and annotate PDFs with advanced ink tools and AI assistance. Convert handwriting to text, scan documents, and organize files seamlessly across cloud services. Enjoy a realistic ink-on-paper feel with stylus support.
- Advanced ink tools for writing and sketching
- AI Assistant for summarization and translation
- Handwritten notes to editable text conversion
- Document scanning with automatic frame recognition
- Cloud service integration for file management
- Full-text search for PDFs
- PDF reader with highlighting and read aloud
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Pencil Notepad is a new, modern, powerful yet easy to use note-taking, draw and PDF markup app that allows you to create useful and beautiful notes, edit and annotate PDF documents and books and sketch your ideas quickly, and easily using your Apple Pencil, Stylus or even finger! It lets you feel the ink and paper thanks to the intuitive, fast and pixel-perfect precise control of your Pencil with useful tilt and pressure sensitivity, and support for palm rejection. Pencil Notepad means also smart notes: it uses machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms to draw perfect shapes, convert your handwritten notes to text using Scribble, scan documents with automatic page frame recognition, search by text your photo library and insert them on your notes and other innovative smart features. Main features: + Use advanced 7 Ink tools to write and sketch: Marker, Pen, Pencil, Monoline, FountainPen, Watercolor and Crayon. + Floating bar to choose from 8 customizable colors and stroke width. + Open multiples documents side by side using multi-windows and multitask. + AI Assistant: What’s that word? Allow the AI Assistant to explain. Need a brief? Ask it to summarize. Language barrier? Request for a translation. Your assistant is ready to lend a hand. Chat with the AI Assistant about your document! + Convert handwritten text into editable text and share it. (No Internet needed!) + Convert locally (No Internet needed!) on your device all kind of documents like Excel, PowerPoint, JPEG& PNG images, etc. to PDF and annotate them. + Lets you feel the ink and paper thanks to the intuitive, fast and pixel-perfect precise control of your Apple Pencil with useful tilt and pressure sensitivity, and support for palm rejection. + Powerful document browser integrated with Files app and any cloud services like iCloud, Dropbox, Box, GDrive, oneDrive, etc. to import, export and sync your files. + Full-text search makes finding PDFs files much easier and faster, so you don’t have to waste time opening folder after folder trying to find that one document you need. + Powerful PDF reader with search, bookmarks, highlighting and voice read aloud. + You can use your iPad and Apple Pencil (and other supported styluses) to write by hand in any text field in the PDF or in your own rich text boxes, like the search field in Safari or a text field in Mail. All handwriting and conversion to text happens on your iPad, keeping your writing private and secure. + Reader mode interface for distraction free moments. + Dark mode support in documents. Ready for aviation use. + Paper background guides (squared, lined, coloured, etc.) for your handwriting and sketching. + Use the iOS camera to scan documents then edit and annotate them. + User Interface available in multiple languages including Right to Left like Arabic and other like English, Japanese, Chinese Simplified, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, etc. Privacy Policy http://www.noteswriter.com/Kairoos_Privacy_Policy.html EULA https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ This app requires users to have a subscription to unlock all the features after a 3-day risk-free trial.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Reader's Bench at 100% against Good PDF Notebook's 0%. Good PDF Notebook's advantage is rating (3.7 vs 3.5). On price, ratings volume, update cadence 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
Both are free to download. Reader's Bench sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month and Good PDF Notebook sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Good PDF Notebook holds the better App Store score, 3.7 against 3.5. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2 and 3 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 100% of Reader's Bench's written reviews are positive against 0% of Good PDF Notebook's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Reader's Bench ships an update weekly, Good PDF Notebook every 8 days. The most recent releases landed on September 6, 2026 and September 8, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Reader's Bench | Good PDF Notebook |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.5 (2 ratings) | 3.7 (3 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better | 0.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 2 | 3 — better |
| Update frequency | Weekly — better | Every 8 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 16.4 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 7 MB | 291 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Rohmiapps Inc. | Kairoos Solutions SL |
Customer experience
Reader's Bench
Good PDF Notebook
In-app purchases
Reader's Bench
- Reader's Bench Subscription14 Days trial$0.991 Month
- Pro Monthly$5.991 Month
- Pro Yearly$39.991 Year
- Pro Lifetime$69.99
Good PDF Notebook
- Unlock All and AI Assistant3 Days trial$2.991 Month
- GoodPencil Upgrade$3.99
Questions
Is Reader's Bench free?
Is Good PDF Notebook free?
Which has better reviews, Reader's Bench or Good PDF Notebook?
Do Reader's Bench or Good PDF Notebook have ads?
Which is updated more often, Reader's Bench or Good PDF Notebook?
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