Comparison

Notability vs Sticky Note Widget Memo Pad

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

Sticky Note Widget Memo Pad

Create and display customizable sticky notes directly on your home screen using a variety of widgets. Personalize backgrounds, fonts, and colors for each note. Easily manage, edit, and reorder your memos, with iCloud backup for cross-device syncing.

Highlights
  • Home screen widgets
  • Customizable backgrounds
  • Handwritten-style fonts
  • Adjustable text color and size
  • Drag-and-drop reordering
  • iCloud data backup and sync
  • Supports iOS 18 control widgets
Features
Read full description

Sticky Note Widget is a memo app built for widgets. Write a note, then put it straight onto your Home Screen. UNLIMITED WIDGETS Turn as many notes as you like into widgets. A shopping list, something you need to remember, today's plan — just glance at your Home Screen. LOCK SCREEN TOO Supports Lock Screen widgets (inline and rectangular), plus an iOS 18 Control Center control to open the app instantly. STYLE EVERY NOTE • Free choice of background, text and side-stripe colors • Gradient backgrounds • Text size 10 to 50, plus bold • 5 fonts, including a handwriting style • 20 icons • Use your own photo as the background HANDY EXTRAS • Capture text with your camera and drop it into a note • Summarize or bullet-point a note with Apple Intelligence (iOS 26 on supported devices) • Back up and restore via iCloud • Drag and drop to reorder, swipe to delete GETTING STARTED 1. Tap + to create a note 2. Long-press the Home Screen, tap +, and choose Sticky Note Widget 3. Long-press the widget and choose Edit Widget to pick which note it shows If a widget doesn't refresh, use "Update widgets" in Settings. Free to use, supported by ads. A monthly plan removes all ads. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Notability4 screens
Sticky Note Widget Memo Pad4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Notability at none against Sticky Note Widget Memo Pad's shown. Notability also leads on ratings volume (458K vs 279) and chart position (#106 vs unranked). Sticky Note Widget Memo Pad's advantage is review sentiment (57% vs 36%) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 18.0). On price, rating, update cadence 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 Sticky Note Widget Memo Pad sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $0.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for Notability against 4.7 for Sticky Note Widget Memo Pad. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Notability has 458K ratings behind it against 279, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 36% of Notability's written reviews are positive against 57% of Sticky Note Widget Memo Pad's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Notability ships an update weekly, Sticky Note Widget Memo Pad every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 22, 2026 and October 20, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 6 level
Notability versus Sticky Note Widget Memo Pad: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterNotabilitySticky Note Widget Memo Pad
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (458K ratings) — better4.7 (279 ratings)
Positive reviews36.2% of reviews57.1% of reviews — better
Number of ratings458K — better279
Update frequencyWeeklyEvery 4 days — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemiumFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank#106 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, MaciPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS18.015.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size408 MB49 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperGinger Labskazuhiro aonuma

Customer experience

Notability

All ratings458,199 ratings
Positive94.8%
Neutral1.3%
Negative3.9%
Written reviews3,744 reviews
Positive36.2%
Neutral8.7%
Negative55.2%

Sticky Note Widget Memo Pad

All ratings279 ratings
Positive93.9%
Neutral2.9%
Negative3.2%
Written reviews35 reviews
Positive57.1%
Neutral25.7%
Negative17.1%

User reviews

Notability

From 458K 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

Sticky Note Widget Memo Pad

From 279 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Easy to use
  • 👍 Great for memory issues
  • 👍 Simple and straightforward
  • 👍 Customizable note colors
  • 👍 Notes on Home Screen

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Notes get cut off
  • 🐛 Font size too small
  • 🐛 Notes don't update automatically
  • 🐛 App crashes frequently
  • 🐛 Notes content duplicates

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

Sticky Note Widget Memo Pad

Reported bugs

10 issues
  • App freezes and won't open after iOS update
  • App crashes when trying to delete notes
  • Text becomes garbled in widgets
  • Notes content duplicates across widgets
  • Cannot specify cursor position for editing
Show 5 more
  • Add button obscured by Google search bar
  • App crashes after a single note
  • Line breaks occur prematurely in small widgets
  • App crashes when creating a new page
  • Notes disappear after touching them

Requested features

11 requests
  • Increase font size
  • Add larger font size option
  • Allow checking off completed items
  • Allow image attachments
  • Enable iCloud synchronization
Show 6 more
  • Enable iPad and iPhone synchronization
  • Allow more freedom in moving notes
  • Improve widget update process
  • Allow editing directly from widget
  • Increase widget size to two icon widths
  • Improve note ordering functionality

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 Plus7 Days trial$19.991 Year
  • Notability Plus$19.991 Year
  • Notability Pro$19.991 Month
  • Notability Pro3 Days trial$99.991 Year
One-time1
  • Notability Classic$49.99
1 purchases

Sticky Note Widget Memo Pad

Subscriptions1
  • Premium Plan$0.991 Month

Questions

Is Notability free?
Notability is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Sticky Note Widget Memo Pad free?
Sticky Note Widget Memo Pad is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Notability or Sticky Note Widget Memo Pad?
Notability is rated higher. Notability averages 4.8 out of 5 from 458K ratings, while Sticky Note Widget Memo Pad averages 4.7 from 279 ratings.
Do Notability or Sticky Note Widget Memo Pad have ads?
Sticky Note Widget Memo Pad shows ads; Notability does not.
Which is updated more often, Notability or Sticky Note Widget Memo Pad?
Notability ships an update weekly, and Sticky Note Widget Memo Pad every 4 days. Most recently, Notability was updated on October 22, 2026 and Sticky Note Widget Memo Pad on October 20, 2026.

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