Comparison

System Activity Monitors vs Penned

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

Head to head
About

System Activity Monitors

Monitor your device's health with this comprehensive tool. Track memory, battery performance, storage, and network details. Get detailed camera information and helpful battery-saving tips to optimize your iPhone.

Highlights
  • Memory usage tracking
  • Battery performance monitoring
  • Device IP and hardware address
  • Battery saving tips
  • Used and free space indicator
  • Detailed camera information
  • System and hardware specs
Features
Read full description

The System Activity Monitor stands out as the most inclusive health check application available on the App Store. It diligently tracks memory usage, battery performance, device details such as IP address and hardware address, provides battery tips, furnishes comprehensive system information, and indicates used space on your iOS device. Now, it comes with enhanced camera information, offering detailed insights into your iPhone camera system, covering telephoto, wide, and ultra-wide lenses. This app serves as a precise tool to monitor battery life, delivering timely tips that maximize your battery usage for an optimal and prolonged battery life. KEY FEATURES: 1. Battery tips are shown to help save battery life while using the iPhone. 2. Tap battery to see the battery capacity for your favorite apps. 3. Shows the used and free space on your iPhone/iPod. 4. Shows the IP address acquired, and hardware address of your device. 5. Displays a long list of device information, like physical specs, hardware info, and many more. These are the different views on the App. Memory view: Shows the used and free iPhone memory available as used by other apps. This is shown in an excellent speedometer animation view. Close out the other apps, and see the memory being reclaimed in this app, when the speedometer shows the free memory available increase. This has an LED indicator with blue, green, yellow and red colors indicating the amount of memory being used. Battery view: This view shows the battery available for discharge, how much time to recharge to make it full, and when it is charged to FULL, displays an indication, as "FULLY CHARGED", as opposed to quick charge. It has glow panels on the top to let you know, how much battery is available. Tap the battery on the fill, to show the detailed break up of battery availability for 3G talk time, browsing, videos, games etc. Animated battery charging with current flashes inside the battery. Space used view: This is shown as a pie-chart that presents the used and free space available on your iOS device. Info view: Now it shows a lot more device information, like system information, camera information, display, hardware and physical characteristics. It shows whether you device is connected to Wi-Fi or cellular and its IP address. ## Few of our user TESTIMONIALS ## $ Way cool This is a terrific system tracker. - Macquest $ Definitely get this App.! Love the cool dashboard. Tells you what's going on in the Apple brain in your iPad or iPhone. This App rules. - Battyguy $ Simple App ! Great tool! Helps to keep your standby time ridiculously long and device running smoothly. - Spader1969. $ I have tried many products like this one and so far I keep coming back to this one. - Markeith3000 Subscription Info Sysmon, our paid subscription product, is paid per year for annual subscriptions, per month for monthly subscriptions, and per week for weekly subscriptions. Payment will be charged to iTunes Account at confirmation of purchase. Subscription automatically renews unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Account will be charged for renewal within 24 hours prior to the end of the current period an annual subscription, monthly subscription, and weekly subscription, as the case may be. Subscriptions may be managed by the user and auto-renewal may be turned off by going to the user's Account Settings after purchase Any unused portion of a free trial period, if offered, will be forfeited when the user purchases a subscription, where applicable.” Privacy policy and terms of use https://tektontek.com/termsofuse.php STAY UPDATED - Website - https://sysmon.tektontek.com Twitter - @AppLifeStyle Facebook - facebook.com/tektontek

About

Penned

A minimalist handwriting app designed for privacy, keeping all your notes securely on your device. It features natural writing with Apple Pencil, on-device AI text recognition, and smart tagging for easy searching. Export your notes as PDFs in a clean, distraction-free interface.

Highlights
  • Natural Apple Pencil writing
  • On-device AI text recognition
  • 100% private, no cloud
  • Export beautiful PDFs
  • Smart tagging and search
  • Distraction-free interface
Features
Read full description

Your thoughts deserve privacy. Penned Notes is a minimalist handwriting app that keeps everything on your device. - Natural Apple Pencil writing - AI text recognition (on-device) - 100% private - zero cloud required - Export beautiful PDFs - Smart tagging & search - Clean, distraction-free interface Unlike other note apps, Penned Notes uses Apple's Neural Engine to recognize your handwriting locally and nothing leaves your device. No accounts, no tracking, no subscriptions to complex features you don't need. Perfect for: - Daily journaling - Class notes & studying - Meeting notes - Sketches & brainstorming - Sensitive work documents Privacy-first architecture means your notes stay truly yours. Download Penned Notes.  Where your thoughts are penned, not surveilled.

Screenshots

System Activity Monitors4 screens
Penned4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: System Activity Monitors at Free against Penned's $4.99. System Activity Monitors also leads on review sentiment (76% vs 50%) and ratings volume (774 vs 87). Penned's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 4) and rating (4.6 vs 4.2). On update cadence, ads 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

System Activity Monitors is free to download; Penned costs $4.99 up front. System Activity Monitors sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per 7 days. Penned asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Penned holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 4.2. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: System Activity Monitors has 774 ratings behind it against 87, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 76% of System Activity Monitors's written reviews are positive against 50% of Penned's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

System Activity Monitors ships an update every 3 months, Penned every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 1, 2026 and September 26, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
System Activity Monitors versus Penned: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSystem Activity MonitorsPenned
PriceFree — better$4.99
Rating4.2 (774 ratings)4.6 (87 ratings) — better
Positive reviews76.0% of reviews — better50.0% of reviews
Number of ratings774 — better87
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsEvery 2 months — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases — betterPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS13.0 — better16.6
Further details — not scored
Size28 MB1 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperTekton Technologies (P) Ltd.Edwing H Santos Mena

Customer experience

System Activity Monitors

All ratings774 ratings
Positive79.6%
Neutral5.6%
Negative14.9%
Written reviews658 reviews
Positive76.0%
Neutral7.6%
Negative16.4%

Penned

All ratings87 ratings
Positive92.0%
Neutral3.4%
Negative4.6%
Written reviews14 reviews
Positive50.0%
Neutral21.4%
Negative28.6%

Bugs and requests

System Activity Monitors

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Crashes on certain devices
  • Login/registration issues
  • Incorrect memory/CPU usage reporting

Requested features

5 requests
  • Ability to close/manage running apps
  • More detailed app-level usage breakdown
  • Dark mode option
  • Widgets for quick access
  • Ability to reclaim memory/free up storage

Penned

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

4 purchases

System Activity Monitors

Subscriptions3
  • Sysmon Pro$3.997 Days
  • Sysmon Pro3 Days trial$6.991 Month
  • Sysmon Pro7 Days trial$29.991 Year
One-time1
  • Real Time Graphs$2.99
None

Penned

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is System Activity Monitors free?
System Activity Monitors is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Penned free?
Penned costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, System Activity Monitors or Penned?
Penned is rated higher. System Activity Monitors averages 4.2 out of 5 from 774 ratings, while Penned averages 4.6 from 87 ratings.
Do System Activity Monitors or Penned have ads?
Neither System Activity Monitors nor Penned shows ads.
Which is updated more often, System Activity Monitors or Penned?
System Activity Monitors ships an update every 3 months, and Penned every 2 months. Most recently, System Activity Monitors was updated on October 1, 2026 and Penned on September 26, 2026.

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