Comparison

Chirys Draw vs QuickNotes X

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

Head to head
About

Chirys Draw

Easily create complex molecular structures and reaction schemes with intuitive gestures. This app offers chemically aware text, automatic calculations, and publication-quality export options for scientists and students.

Highlights
  • Draw complex molecular structures and reaction schemes
  • Chemically aware text and automatic calculations
  • Intuitive circle gesture for ring creation
  • Publication-quality image and PDF export
  • Airdrop sharing and cross-platform compatibility
  • Import/export MOL files
Read full description

Draw complex molecular structures and reaction schemes using your fingertips. An easy circle gesture (U.S. Patent No. 9754085 and No. 10,424,399) makes even complicated polycyclic rings easy and fun to draw. Multiple double bonds or multiple functional groups are simple to add all at one time. Annotation and reaction condition text is chemically aware and properly subscripts numbers. With over 175k downloads, Chirys Draw is speeding the way scientists draw and communicate. Imagine what you will create! Take notes at those seminars or class lectures! Present your ideas at project or group meetings! Draw structures and reaction schemes for your next paper! See the how-to videos on the Chirys web site. Key Features: • Create saturated, aromatic rings and chains • Draw reactions and reaction schemes with reaction conditions • Draw retrosynthetic pathways • Create multi-line text annotations with fonts and colors • Create complex fused and spirocyclic ring systems • Generate ion pairs • Airdrop sharing with colleagues • Airdrop transfer to your Macintosh • Copy and paste images or PDFs into Pages®, Keynote®, and other applications • Copy images to the Camera Roll • Send images of molecular structures by email, ready for publication • Make publication-quality prints and images • User-defined Groups • Export drawings as a scalable graphics PDF • Import and export molecules as MOL files Additional Features: • Automatic identification of molecular formulas in text • Molecular formula, weight, elemental composition, and exact mass calculations • Automatic layout of functional groups • Resonance and equilibrium arrows • 24 levels of undo and redo User feedback: “Wow. First of all, please let me say that this is the single best iPad application that I have ever used (not to mention one of the best structure drawing programs on any platform). You really nailed using gestures to design and manipulate structures. The app is an awesome example of harnessing the spirit of the iPad. I was up and drawing in 30 seconds. The interface is clean, intuitive, and so very well designed. Beautiful output too.” — Stephen “I use this for all my structure drawing needs now - desktop applications are so expensive and actually harder to use than Chirys Draw. Developer is very responsive. Improvements to the app keep coming. If you're a student, or a lecturer like myself, and need to draw quality chemical structures, then look no further. Exporting features make it easy to create a structure, then email to yourself for incorporation into a Powerpoint, Keynote, Word or any other sort of document. Highly recommended, and well worth the cost (much cheaper than desktop apps and for most purposes just as functional).” — Australian user “Extremely well-done, very easy to learn, and elegant. It will be easier and faster other competitors to sketch high-quality structures and could be really handy for taking notes in meetings.” — Jeff “Brilliant addition to the iPad workload. This is clearly a creative application and the most full featured molecular drawing app. I think the developers here have the most motivation, and have put more original thought into this. I hope they will be encouraged to continue with their vision…” — Cascade “I wanted to let you know directly how much I appreciate this app. It works exactly as advertised, is highly capable, and is now substituting for a desktop-based chemical structure drawing app. I am right now using it to prepare structures for my pharmacognosy lectures, and it is working well.” — Ian “The words that come to mind: Impressive. Quality. The development of Chirys Draw shows your deep, consistent, and scholarly chemistry flair and precision, and is impressive. Professional chemists will continue to love this.” — Atsuo “ChirysDraw represents the best chemical drawing package to date on the iPad.” — Brian “Thank you again for such a lovely program.” — Olivia

About

QuickNotes X

This app offers a fluid and precise note-taking experience with a custom vector ink engine, voice recording synced to writing, and ML-powered shape recognition. Organize notes with notebooks and folders, protect them with passwords and biometrics, and sync seamlessly across devices via iCloud. Mark up PDFs and presentations, and customize your notes with various tools and templates.

Highlights
  • Vector ink engine for fluid writing
  • Voice recording synced to notes
  • ML-powered shape recognition
  • Notebook and folder organization
  • Password and biometric protection
  • PDF and presentation annotation
  • iCloud sync across devices
Features
Read full description

ESCAPE THE LIMITS OF PHYSICAL PAPER • Experience a fluid, precise and natural note taking experience powered by the unparalleled performance of QuickNotes X custom vector ink engine; • Choose your drawing style with numerous included tools, such as fountain and ballpoint pen; • Freely customize your stroke color as well as line thickness and pressure sensitivity; • Record and play back lectures with Voice Recording: your writing will be synced to the audio! • Draw perfect shapes and straight lines thanks to automatic, ML-powered shape recognition; • Move, resize, rotate and zoom your handwriting to take notes like a pro; • Never run out of paper: swipe to the next page and a new page will be created if needed! • Take perfect notes with your Apple Pencil, Logitech Crayon or other capacitive styluses. ORGANIZE & PROTECT YOUR THOUGHTS • Never lose your notes again thanks to the powerful organization provided by QuickNotes X; • Create Notebooks to organize your notes; • Add unlimited Folders & Subfolders to group your Notebooks; • Lock individual Notebooks and Folders with a Password to protect your thoughts from prying eyes; • Unlock protected notebooks using Face ID, Touch ID or by entering your Password; • Rearrange your Notebooks and Folders however you like to make sure they are always in the correct order. SEAMLESSLY SYNC TO ALL YOUR DEVICES • Seamlessly back up & sync your notebooks and folders to all your devices thanks to iCloud; • Write once, edit anywhere: when iCloud Sync is active all your content is automatically available on all your devices; • Use the native Mac app to view your notes on the bigger screen and edit them right on your computer. MARK UP & WRITE ON PDFs, SLIDES AND MORE • Import and edit PDFs, PowerPoint presentations more; • Annotate documents on your device with all the tools available, including fountain & ballpoint pen, highlighter and shape recognition; • Open notes and documents side-by-side on your iPad for maximum flexibility; • Quickly export your notes as images, PDF or QuickNotes X Documents for easy sharing ENDLESS CUSTOMIZATION FOR YOUR CREATIVITY • Create an unlimited number of presets for stroke color and line thickness to always have the right one ready at your fingertips; • Choose between Dual or Single Bar Mode to take notes with the maximum level of flexibility and customizability; • Choose to erase entire strokes on only some parts thanks to the new Precision and Whole Stroke Erasers; • Use the Lasso tool to cut, copy, paste or delete groups of strokes or entire pages; • Customize the look of your Notebooks and Folders by choosing from more than 80 options; • Make each notebook cover yours: the Notebook cover is now fully editable so you can draw on it! • Choose the right paper template for your Notebooks, such as Blank Paper, Cornell Paper, Chemistry Paper, Engineering Grid Paper, Music Paper and more! TYPE AND WRITE ANYWHERE • Add Text Boxes anywhere in a page to start typing, with plenty of customization options for color, font style and size, available right at your fingertips in the new Tool Bar; • Move, rotate and scale text boxes to never run out of space; • Combine handwritten notes with typed content and annotate or highlight key words in your Text Boxes; AND THERE IS EVEN MORE! • Swipe left or right to quickly move to the previous or next page in the notebook; • Quickly jump to any page in the Notebook by using the Notes List menu in the Note Editor; • Customize any new page you create thanks to the new "New Page" menu in the Editor; • Create a QuickNotebook to always have a fresh new page when you open the app; • Changing the paper template for a single page or the entire Notebook is only one tap away; QuickNotes X: Note-Taking, Made Easy. Website: https://www.quicknotesx.com Twitter: @QuickNotesX Instagram: @quicknotesx ----------- Privacy Policy: https://www.quicknotesx.com/privacy Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula

Screenshots

QuickNotes X4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: QuickNotes X at 4.3 against Chirys Draw's 2.6. QuickNotes X also leads on update cadence (every 5 weeks vs every 9 months) and ratings volume (3.8K vs 8). Chirys Draw's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 11) and review sentiment (67% vs 38%). On price and ads 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. QuickNotes X sells 11 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per 3 months. Chirys Draw asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

QuickNotes X holds the better App Store score, 4.3 against 2.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: QuickNotes X has 3.8K ratings behind it against 8, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 67% of Chirys Draw's written reviews are positive against 38% of QuickNotes X's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Chirys Draw ships an update every 9 months, QuickNotes X every 5 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 15, 2026 and October 16, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard8 real differences · 2 level
Chirys Draw versus QuickNotes X: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterChirys DrawQuickNotes X
PriceFreeFree
Rating2.6 (8 ratings)4.3 (3.8K ratings) — better
Positive reviews66.7% of reviews — better38.0% of reviews
Number of ratings83.8K — better
Update frequencyEvery 9 monthsEvery 5 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPadiPhone, iPad, Mac — better
Requires iOS10.0 — better16.0
Further details — not scored
Size18 MB354 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJohn ClarkAlessandro Sassi

Customer experience

Chirys Draw

All ratings8 ratings
Positive37.5%
Neutral0.0%
Negative62.5%
Written reviews15 reviews
Positive66.7%
Neutral0.0%
Negative33.3%

QuickNotes X

All ratings3,753 ratings
Positive82.4%
Neutral6.1%
Negative11.5%
Written reviews158 reviews
Positive38.0%
Neutral13.9%
Negative48.1%

Bugs and requests

Chirys Draw

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

QuickNotes X

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Notes randomly disappearing or becoming corrupted
  • Pen input not registering correctly or lagging
  • Unexpected page flipping or navigation issues
  • Syncing problems between devices

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add text typing option for those with poor handwriting
  • Implement cloud sync and cross-device access
  • Include more customization options like templates and colors
  • Improve shape recognition and drawing tools
  • Allow rearranging and organizing of pages/notebooks

In-app purchases

None

Chirys Draw

No in-app purchases

11 purchases

QuickNotes X

Subscriptions1
  • Cloud & ML Pack$0.993 Months
One-time10
  • Covers Pack$0.99
  • Templates Pack$0.99
  • QuickNotes X AI: 50000 Tokens$0.99
Show 7 more
  • QuickNotes X AI: 100000 Tokens$1.99
  • Notebooks & Folders Pack$2.99
  • Tools Pack$2.99
  • QuickNotes X AI: 300000 Tokens$3.99
  • QuickNotes X Pro$4.99
  • Pro Pack$5.99
  • QuickNotes X AI: 500000 Tokens$5.99

Questions

Is Chirys Draw free?
Chirys Draw is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is QuickNotes X free?
QuickNotes X is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Chirys Draw or QuickNotes X?
QuickNotes X is rated higher. Chirys Draw averages 2.6 out of 5 from 8 ratings, while QuickNotes X averages 4.3 from 3.8K ratings.
Do Chirys Draw or QuickNotes X have ads?
Neither Chirys Draw nor QuickNotes X shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Chirys Draw or QuickNotes X?
Chirys Draw ships an update every 9 months, and QuickNotes X every 5 weeks. Most recently, Chirys Draw was updated on October 15, 2026 and QuickNotes X on October 16, 2026.

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