Comparison

Notability vs Penbook

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

Head to head
About

Notability

Capture, organize, and enhance your thoughts with a versatile digital notebook. Seamlessly blend handwriting, typing, and multimedia to annotate documents, record lectures, and generate summaries. Ideal for students and professionals seeking to boost productivity and learning.

Highlights
  • Handwritten and typed notes
  • PDF and document annotation
  • Audio recording and transcription
  • AI-powered summaries and quizzes
  • Customizable organization
  • Cross-device sync
Features
Read full description

From your first lecture to your next big meeting, Notability helps you think, learn, and work better. Take handwritten notes, annotate documents, record audio, and stay organized in one place so your ideas are always clear, searchable, and ready when you need them. NEW: NOTABILITY CLASSIC IS BACK Prefer to pay one time for Notability? Our Classic plan is a one-time purchase with no subscription required. FREE DIGITAL NOTES FOR WORK & SCHOOL • Write, type, or sketch with digital ink, highlighters, and text tools. • Mark up anything: PDFs, textbooks, lecture slides, images, and more. • Combine handwriting, typed text, images, diagrams, and sketches on the same page. • Stay organized with customizable folders and subjects that grow with you. FOR PROFESSIONALS: WORK SMARTER AND SAVE TIME • Mark up documents, capture meetings, organize ideas, and present with confidence. • Import and handwrite on any document: PDFs, DOCs, presentations, reports, and more. • Fill out forms in the office or on a job site. • Combine handwriting, text, photos and documents in one place. • Record calls and meetings to transcribe voice in real-time. Audio is synced to your notes so nothing is missed. • Receive automated meeting notes, takeaways, and summaries. • Search handwriting, transcripts, text, and PDFs to quickly revisit decisions and action items. • Present notes, documents, and ideas in full screen, with a laser pointer to guide attention. • View and edit two notes side-by-side to stay focused and productive. • Share a PDF of your note in one tap. FOR STUDENTS: STUDY SMARTER AND ACE EXAMS • Take handwritten notes digitally or annotate lecture slides or your textbooks. • Record lectures and get instant audio transcripts and real-time summaries in your notes. • Audio recordings are synced to the exact moment you write in a note — perfect for lectures. • Import lecture slides, textbook PDFs, and assignments into organized folders and subjects. • Search across handwriting, typed notes, and transcripts to instantly find content from classes. • Study content from your note with personalized quizzes and flashcards to practice with active recall. • Chat with your notes to review concepts, clarify ideas, and prepare for exams. WORK YOUR WAY • Seamlessly switch between handwriting and typing. • Import files instantly and keep everything connected. • Share notes easily to collaborate or get feedback when needed. • Access your notes across iPad, iPhone, Mac, and the web. • Create beautiful notes using templates from the Notability Gallery. UPGRADE TO A NOTABILITY SUBSCRIPTION Notability is free to use. With an upgraded subscription, you can receive: • Unlimited note-taking • AI-powered productivity and study tools • Handwriting recognition and math conversion • Live Audio transcripts • Auto-backup and iCloud sync Download for free on iPad, iPhone, Mac, and web. Privacy Policy: notability.com/privacy Terms of Service: notability.com/terms

About

Penbook

Create custom digital notebooks with a vast library of stationery or import your own PDFs for annotation. Write naturally with a stylus and organize your notes with dynamic features like live planners and searchable handwriting.

Highlights
  • Live Paper dynamic stationery
  • Over 400 stationery types
  • Import and annotate PDFs
  • Natural handwriting with stylus
  • Searchable handwritten notes
  • Shape recognition
  • Customizable notebook covers
Features
Read full description

Write naturally with your Apple Pencil on Live Paper with Penbook. Build your perfect notebook from more than four hundred types of stationery. Then, use the best digital inking technology to pour your ideas, notes, plans, and dreams into it. Penbook's Live Paper is way smarter than ordinary stationery. Schedule your life on a monthly planner that shows a real calendar, organize your day with a day planner that shows you what time it is, and record your nutrition on a food diary that knows what day it is. Or, bring your own stationery! Import your PDFs into Penbook for quick annotation and editing. Give your notebooks colorful covers with fun art, and share them so your notes are always where you need them. FEATURES • Live Paper, the dynamic stationery that uses the smarts of your iPad and iPhone • Over 400 of academic, scientific, and planning stationeries • Import PDFs and use them as notebooks • Write naturally with your Apple Pencil, stylus, or finger • Unlimited unique cover combinations for your notes • Search your handwritten notes for words or phrases • Snap your strokes to perfect shapes with shape recognition INCLUDED STATIONERIES Penbook has a huge selection of customizable stationery. Each page of your notebook can be different, turning your iPad or iPhone into a magic notebook: • Blank stationery, with an optional date and configurable margin • Ruled paper with variable density • Graph paper with four options for square sizes • Dot stationery, either squared or isometric (offset) • Cross stationery with configurable margins and density • To Do pages with four layout options • Monthly habit paper for tracking streaks, habits, and goals • Day planner paper with a live updating timeline and calendar, and three layouts • Weekly planner paper that highlights the current time and date • Monthly planner paper that keeps track of the current day and shows you what's coming next • Yearly stationery for getting a complete overview of your next 365 days • Cornell paper for taking perfect study notes • French ruled (Séyès) paper • Penmanship practice paper • Table stationery for hand-written spreadsheets • Polar graph paper for plotting radial data • Semi-log and loglog paper for data with exponential growth or decay • Isometric stationery with equilateral (60-60-60) or isosceles (75-75-30) triangles • Perspective paper, configurable with one, two, or three vanishing points • Developer stationery with device stencils and configurable note-taking areas • Storyboard paper with 3 frame aspect ratios • Engineering paper with variable density • Chemistry paper for easily sketching molecules • Staff and tablature (music) paper with optional linked staves GET THE MOST OUT OF PENBOOK Use all of Penbook's stationery and writing features in a single notebook for free for as long as you like. Upgrade to Penbook Premium to create and export unlimited notebooks, receive access to new stationery and covers as they're designed, and get regular app updates. Penbook Premium is available by purchasing a yearly subscription or a one-time (lifetime) in-app purchase. When you choose to upgrade with the yearly subscription, you can start using Penbook Premium for free with a 7-day free trial. During the trial, cancel any time until 24 hours before the trial expires, and you will not be charged. If you do not cancel, you will be automatically billed for the yearly subscription when your free trial ends. Payment will be charged to your Apple ID account at the confirmation of purchase. Subscription automatically renews unless it is canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Your account will be charged for renewal within 24 hours prior to the end of the current period. You can manage and cancel your subscriptions by going to your account settings on the App Store after purchase. Our customer-first privacy policy: https://penbook.app/privacy-policy Penbook's terms of use: https://penbook.app/terms-of-use

Screenshots

Notability4 screens
Penbook4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Notability at 4.8 against Penbook's 4.5. Notability also leads on ratings volume (457K vs 45K) and chart position (#79 vs unranked). Penbook's advantage is review sentiment (57% vs 37%). On price, update cadence, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Notability sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $5.99 per month and Penbook sells 11 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Notability holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Notability has 457K ratings behind it against 45K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 37% of Notability's written reviews are positive against 57% of Penbook's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Notability ships an update weekly, Penbook every 6 days. Both last shipped on September 24, 2026.

Scorecard4 real differences · 7 level
Notability versus Penbook: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterNotabilityPenbook
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (457K ratings) — better4.5 (45K ratings)
Positive reviews36.5% of reviews57.4% of reviews — better
Number of ratings457K — better45K
Update frequencyWeeklyEvery 6 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemiumFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank#79 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, MaciPhone, iPad, Vision Pro
Requires iOS17.5 — better18.1
Further details — not scored
Size411 MB136 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperGinger LabsPencil Research

Customer experience

Notability

All ratings456,880 ratings
Positive94.8%
Neutral1.3%
Negative3.9%
Written reviews3,594 reviews
Positive36.5%
Neutral8.6%
Negative54.8%

Penbook

All ratings45,245 ratings
Positive88.4%
Neutral4.7%
Negative6.9%
Written reviews486 reviews
Positive57.4%
Neutral13.0%
Negative29.6%

User reviews

Notability

From 457K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Great app for note-taking
  • 👍 Smooth handwriting experience
  • 📝 Excellent organization and file management
  • 🎙️ Useful audio recording feature
  • 🔍 Handwriting recognition and search

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Sync issues with iCloud
  • 🔍 Limited search and organization options
  • 🖍️ Frustrating highlighter behavior
  • 🔒 Concerns about subscription model
  • 🔧 Buggy after recent updates

Penbook

From 45K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Intuitive and user-friendly interface
  • 🎨 Variety of customization options for notebooks
  • 📝 Smooth writing experience with Apple Pencil
  • 🗓️ Useful calendar integration
  • 💡 Innovative features like washi tape and stickers

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional crashes and data loss issues
  • 🔒 Lack of password protection or locking feature
  • 🔧 Glitchy zooming and ruler functionality
  • 🧭 Poor notebook and page management
  • 💰 Restrictive free version, expensive subscription

Bugs and requests

Notability

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Notes disappearing or getting corrupted
  • Frequent crashes and performance issues
  • Palm rejection problems after updates
  • Inconsistent behavior when importing files

Requested features

5 requests
  • Improved folder/hierarchy organization
  • More shape recognition and drawing tools
  • Side-by-side viewing of multiple notes
  • Ability to edit/rename audio recordings
  • Better integration with other apps and services

Penbook

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Sticker resizing issues causing app freezes
  • Ruler placement and alignment problems
  • Inconsistent behavior when switching between pages
  • Calendar sync not working as expected
  • PDF import and annotation functionality not reliable

Requested features

5 requests
  • Allow custom notebook covers or images
  • Add text box and typing capabilities
  • Improve organization with folders or tags
  • Provide more customization options for templates
  • Implement a more intuitive undo/redo system

In-app purchases

10 purchases

Notability

Subscriptions9
  • Notability Lite$5.991 Month
  • Notability Plus$7.991 Month
  • Notability Plus$12.993 Months
Show 6 more
  • Notability Lite$14.991 Year
  • Notability Plus1 Year trial2 variants$19.991 Year
  • Notability Plus$19.991 Year
  • Notability Pro$19.991 Month
  • Notability Plus$29.991 Year
  • Notability Pro3 Days trial$99.991 Year
One-time1
  • Notability Classic$49.99
11 purchases

Penbook

Subscriptions7
  • Penbook Premium5 variants$4.991 Month
  • Penbook Premium$7.991 Month
  • Penbook Premium7 Days trial3 variants$14.991 Year
Show 4 more
  • Penbook Premium7 Days trial2 variants$19.991 Year
  • Penbook Premium7 Days trial2 variants$29.991 Year
  • Penbook Premium$29.991 Year
  • Penbook Premium7 Days trial3 variants$39.991 Year
One-time4
  • Premium Lifetime (Loyalty)$29.99
  • Penbook Premium Lifetime2 variants$49.99
  • Penbook Premium Lifetime$59.99
Show 1 more
  • Penbook Premium Lifetime$69.99

Questions

Is Notability free?
Notability is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Penbook free?
Penbook is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Notability or Penbook?
Notability is rated higher. Notability averages 4.8 out of 5 from 457K ratings, while Penbook averages 4.5 from 45K ratings.
Do Notability or Penbook have ads?
Neither Notability nor Penbook shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Notability or Penbook?
Notability ships an update weekly, and Penbook every 6 days. Most recently, Notability was updated on September 24, 2026 and Penbook on September 24, 2026.

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