Absolute Board vs Notes Writer
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Absolute Board
This free drawing and handwriting app allows users to sketch and take notes with unlimited board size and color options. Save and share your ideas easily, with features like a traceable eraser, photo import, and printing capabilities.
- Unlimited board size
- Unlimited color choice
- Path traceable eraser
- Email snapshot of drawing
- Zooming and panning
- Undo/Redo functions
- Import photos
- Print snapshot
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* April 2011 - "New & Noteworthy" (Productivity) application on the American App Store * * April 2011 - "What's Hot" (Productivity) application on the American App Store * * April 2011 - "Staff Favorites" (All) application on the Korean App Store * * April 2011 - "No. 1 Free App" (Productivity) application on the Korean App Store * Best quality FREE drawing & handwriting app for iPad It's so simple & convenient - just sketch & take notes about anything in your mind. Save and share your novel ideas in the school, cafeteria, office or even on the bed. ▶ Unlimited board size ▶ Unlimited color choice for pen & background ▶ Path traceable eraser ▶ Ability to email snapshot of your drawing ▶ Zooming in/out & moving with two fingers ▶ Undo/Redo functions ▶ Import a Photo ▶ Print Snapshot (Air Print)
Notes Writer
This app is a comprehensive note-taking and PDF editing solution for mobile devices. It allows users to write, format, and organize notes, annotate PDFs, fill forms, and scan documents. The app offers advanced editing tools, powerful search, and seamless sharing and export options.
- Write and format notes
- Annotate PDFs and fill forms
- Organize with unlimited notebooks
- Powerful full-text search
- Document scanning
- Sync with cloud services
- Export to multiple formats
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Notes Writer brings handwriting, PDF annotation, rich text, Math Notebooks, voice recordings and AI writing tools into one workspace for iPad and iPhone. Capture a lecture, mark up a paper, plan a project or turn a rough draft into something ready to share. WRITE AND MAKE IT YOURS Create beautifully formatted notes with headings, lists, colors and highlights. Work with Word documents, RTF, Markdown and plain text. Open documents in tabs and move between your ideas and reference material without losing your place. WRITE ON PDFs WITH APPLE PENCIL Take handwritten notes, sketch in the margins and highlight what matters. Choose from pens, pencils, markers, fountain pens and watercolor tools. Use the eraser, lasso and ruler to refine your work. Add text, shapes, images, signatures and audio to PDF notes. Fill forms, organize pages and keep your reading and annotations together. Measure distances and areas on scaled drawings, and apply text redactions in supported PDFs. GIVE YOUR WRITING AN AI ASSIST Rewrite a passage, simplify difficult language, fix spelling and grammar, or adjust the tone. Summarize, translate and explore ideas with AI tools and chat. Keep control of what goes into your notes and documents. CAPTURE VOICE, FIND THE WORDS Record lectures, meetings and ideas while they are fresh. Play recordings back at your pace and generate transcripts to revisit the details. Add recordings to your PDF notes and whiteboards for more context. THINK BEYOND THE PAGE Build visual whiteboards with notes, images and recordings. Capture quick thoughts on sticky notes. Structure ideas in Outline Notes with nested branches, rich text and images. Collapse sections, rearrange your thinking, and import or export outlines in OPML format. WORK THROUGH THE NUMBERS Combine explanations and calculations in Math Notebooks. Explore formulas with the built-in calculation tools and run Python cells when you need more. Create charts, write LaTeX documents and preview the finished PDF alongside your source. ORGANIZE YOUR STUDY AND RESEARCH Bring your notes, readings and research together in Study Projects. Organize subjects, lectures and sources in the Binder, plan ideas on the Corkboard and keep reference material beside your notes. Study Projects give everything a place as your understanding grows. TAKE BIG WRITING PROJECTS FURTHER Organize writing projects into sections in the Binder, plan with a Corkboard and review your writing as a manuscript. Keep research beside your draft, save snapshots and compile your work into a finished document or ebook. ORGANIZE, SCAN AND SHARE Keep notes and documents in folders with recognizable covers. Scan paper documents, import files and find what you need with search. Export supported documents to formats including PDF, DOCX, RTF, HTML and EPUB. Use the Files app and supported cloud locations to bring your work with you. LOOK AFTER YOUR WORK Autosave, document recovery and automatic backups help protect your progress. Use app and folder passcodes for an extra layer of privacy. Continue opening your existing Notes Writer PDF notes and outlines as you move to the new workspace. From your first handwritten idea to your final document, make room for the way you think. Privacy Policy http://www.noteswriter.com/Kairoos_Privacy_Policy.html Terms of Use https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Absolute Board at 90% against Notes Writer's 45%. Absolute Board also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 9) and iOS requirement (8.0 vs 26.0). Notes Writer's advantage is rating (4.5 vs 3.6) and update cadence (every 5 days vs every 2 months). On price, 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
Both are free to download. Notes Writer sells 8 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per 7 days. Absolute Board asks for nothing beyond the download.
Notes Writer holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 3.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Notes Writer has 7.3K ratings behind it against 12, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 90% of Absolute Board's written reviews are positive against 45% of Notes Writer's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Absolute Board ships an update every 2 months, Notes Writer every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 26, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Absolute Board | Notes Writer |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.6 (12 ratings) | 4.5 (7.3K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 89.7% of reviews — better | 45.1% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 12 | 7.3K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 5 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPad | iPhone, iPad — better |
| Requires iOS | 8.0 — better | 26.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 9 MB | 658 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Hyeoseong Hwang | Kairoos Solutions SL |
Customer experience
Absolute Board
Notes Writer
Bugs and requests
Absolute Board
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Notes Writer
Reported bugs
4 issues- Notes randomly disappearing or getting corrupted
- Inability to recover deleted documents
- Unexpected behavior when adding/deleting pages
- Syncing issues and broken links between documents
Requested features
4 requests- Add more brushes and pen customization options
- Improve the clipping/selection tool
- Implement OCR and handwriting search
- Provide a Mac version
In-app purchases
Absolute Board
No in-app purchases
Notes Writer
- Weekly$1.997 Days
- Notes Writer Unlock All and AI3 Days trial$3.991 Month
- Notes Writer Unlock All and AI3 Days trial$14.991 Year
- Full Version Unlock Pro$3.99
- Full Version Unlock Pro$4.99
- Full Version Unlock Pro2 variants$5.99
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- Full Version Unlock Pro$6.99
- Lifetime Pro Full Unlock$14.99
Questions
Is Absolute Board free?
Is Notes Writer free?
Which has better reviews, Absolute Board or Notes Writer?
Do Absolute Board or Notes Writer have ads?
Which is updated more often, Absolute Board or Notes Writer?
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