Comparison

Pen and Paper vs Simple Note

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

Head to head
About

Pen and Paper

Create handwritten notes and drawings, annotate PDFs, and add text and shapes. Zoom in for detailed editing, organize content with layers, and import custom fonts and page styles. Share your creations as PDFs or JPEGs.

Highlights
  • Handwritten notes and drawings
  • PDF import and annotation
  • Text and shape insertion
  • Zoom and split view
  • Layer management
  • Custom font installation
  • PDF export
Features
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Pen and Paper is perfect for hand-written notes on your iPad or iPhone. You can even import and write on PDFs. INK Draw ink with your finger. Resize, recolor, and move your doodles. TEXT Add text and text boxes. Change alignment, fonts, color, and install additional fonts. Perfect for adding comments to PDF. SHAPES Add geometric primitives, arrows, curves, and polygons Use the built in diagram elements and arrows to create diagrams. Create clip art of portions that you wish to reuse. shapes can be colored using gradients and fill with patterns. Use "rough" outline to make it look more like a drawing. ZOOM AND SPLIT VIEW Zoom more than 10 times to edit and draw even tiny details. Use split view (iPad only) to see full page view or look at another page PHOTOS Include photos. You can crop and rotate photos. BOOKMARKS Add bookmarks to navigate in your documents PDF SUPPORT AND SLIDE NOTES Import and annotate PDFs from other apps or Files. Use any of the built-in "Slide Note" templates to annotate presentations. When you are done export as PDF again. Use the "clone" tool to copy a portion a PDF and marker to mark text in the PDF for easy search. SHARING To share your notes with the world, simply email them as PDF. You can also extract individual pages as JPEG images. LAYERS Use the layer list to organize order of shapes and ink on the page PAGE STYLES Pen and paper comes with a variety of page styles, but you can also create your own. Import a PDF of your favourite page style and store it as a "page style" in the app. ICLOUD SUPPORT Documents, clipart and page styles, can be stored in iCloud. FONTS Are the built-in fonts not interesting enough? Install extra Truetype fonts from sites like FontSquirrel and Blambot within the app. Features: • Layers • Pen tool with color and thickness • Marker tool for marking text in PDFs • Smooth pan and zoom • Split-view to see two parts of your documents at the same time • Bookmarks and search • Insert text, arrows, photos, rectangles, circles and polygons easily • Fill shapes with gradients and patterns • Area selection, for moving and resizing large areas of your note • Built-in icon library • PDF import and export (email or other accounts) • Install additional fonts (Truetype) • Various page styles and add your own. • Fullscreen mode • iCloud support SUBSCRIPTION Subscription removes watermark (on export) and enables lasso tool. All other features are part of free version. TERMS OF USE (EULA) Uses Apple's standard terms of use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Simple Note

Features
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Minimalism is fundamental for this app. This also applies to app description. It is simplest note-taking app. Period.

Screenshots

Pen and Paper4 screens
Simple Note3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Pen and Paper at none against Simple Note's shown. Simple Note's advantage is update cadence (every 2 days vs every 5 weeks) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 15). On price, in-app purchases 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

Both are free to download. Pen and Paper sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month and Simple Note sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Pen and Paper ships an update every 5 weeks, Simple Note every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 15, 2026 and October 12, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Pen and Paper versus Simple Note: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPen and PaperSimple Note
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.4 (41 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews69.7% of reviews—
Number of ratings41 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 5 weeksEvery 2 days — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemium—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — betteriPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS1513.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size50 MB6 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperVivid AppsTools Products FZ-LLC

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Pen and Paper

Subscriptions2
  • Pen and Paper PRO monthly$0.991 Month
  • Pen and Paper PRO$5.991 Year
One-time1
  • Pen and Paper PRO$7.99
1 purchases

Simple Note

One-time1
  • Simple note-taking pro$5.99

Questions

Is Pen and Paper free?
Pen and Paper is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Simple Note free?
Simple Note is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Pen and Paper or Simple Note have ads?
Simple Note shows ads; Pen and Paper does not.
Which is updated more often, Pen and Paper or Simple Note?
Pen and Paper ships an update every 5 weeks, and Simple Note every 2 days. Most recently, Pen and Paper was updated on October 15, 2026 and Simple Note on October 12, 2026.

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