OrigNotes vs UnivNote

OrigNotes is a powerful, free digital note-taking app built for iPad and iPhone. Whether you're taking handwritten notes, annotating PDFs, organizing ideas with mind maps, or capturing inspiration with images, audio, and video, OrigNotes gives you the tools to keep everything in one place. Write naturally with Apple Pencil, convert handwriting into editable text, search through your notes, and customize your workspace to fit the way you think and work. OrigNotes is free to use, and we're committed to keeping it that way. If you're enjoying OrigNotes, we'd greatly appreciate a 5-star review. Your support helps us continue improving the app and building new features for everyone. Have an idea or feature request? Leave us a review or contact us directly through the app. You can also check our Future Plans inside OrigNotes to see what we're working on and follow the progress of upcoming features. KEY FEATURES • Handwriting & Drawing Enjoy a natural writing experience with a variety of pens, brushes, and creative tools designed for Apple Pencil. • PDF Reading & Annotation Import PDFs to read, highlight, annotate, draw, and take notes directly on your documents. • Mind Maps Create mind maps to organize ideas, study topics, and brainstorm visually. Add topics and subtopics, drag and rearrange nodes, and customize your mind map to fit your ideas. • Handwriting to Text Turn handwritten notes into editable text for easier editing, organizing, and reuse. • Powerful Search Find information faster by searching handwritten notes and text inside PDFs. • Images, GIFs, Audio & Video Bring your notes to life with images, animated GIFs, audio, and video—all within your notebook. • Personalized Notebooks Customize covers, paper templates, and themes to create a workspace that feels like your own. • Custom Toolbar & Tool Box Arrange your favorite tools around the way you work and keep the ones you use most within easy reach. • Smooth Writing Experience Optimized handwriting, palm rejection, and Apple Pencil interactions help writing feel smooth, responsive, and natural. • Easy Organization Organize and sort your documents, bookmark important pages, and quickly get back to the content you need. • Data Protection & Backup Multiple backup options and improved data protection help keep your important notes safe. • Cloud Backup Back up your notebooks to cloud storage for easier long-term storage and management. MADE FOR THE WAY YOU TAKE NOTES From class notes and study materials to work documents, PDF annotation, brainstorming, and everyday ideas, OrigNotes gives you a flexible space to capture, organize, and develop your thoughts. Simple when you need it. Powerful when you need more. Write. Think. Create. Organize. All in OrigNotes.

UnivNote — Smooth PDF Note App UnivNote makes the fundamentals — writing, reading, and organizing on PDFs — fast and reliable, instead of leading with AI. Write on textbooks, slides, papers, and books with iPad and Apple Pencil — open your notes on iPhone and Mac. Recent updates added layers, shapes, memorization tests, exam countdowns, and study time tracking while improving speed, heat, and battery on stroke-heavy pages. ▶ What Makes UnivNote Different · A simple writing tool without AI clutter Responsive pen, fast lasso, easy copy and paste, and a stable PDF reader come first. · Layers — keep the original and your notes apart Keep handwriting, answers, and corrections on 5 layers per note. One tap hides or shows the answer layer everywhere; lock layers to protect originals, move lassoed ink between them. Unused, they tuck behind one button. · Study tools for memorization and review Cover answers with the masking highlighter, tap to reveal. Hide or show all masks, self-grade right/wrong tests, move down the mask list — flow never breaks. Each subject folder shows an exam countdown and logs study time. · Shapes you can re-edit anytime 30+ shapes — lines, arrows, polygons, cylinders, cones, spheres. Drag handles after inserting to tune an ellipse's flatness or a cylinder's shell thickness — great for math and science. · Fast writing with lower heat Input stays responsive as strokes pile up; eraser, paste, undo, and lasso stay smooth. Heat and battery keep improving under load — Split View, screen recording. · Built for lectures and class notes Laser pointer, reading mode, gesture shortcuts, recording, handwriting-synced playback. Recordings survive crashes and continue in the background. · Extend PDF margins on all four sides Add the mm you want per side for problem solving and notes. · Word-aware highlighting on PDF text Long-press and highlights snap to words; text stays black, never washed out. ▶ Main Features · Pen, highlighter, eraser, fountain pen — widths, colors, line styles · Layers — 5 per note, hide, lock, rename, move via lasso · Shape insertion — 30+ flat and 3D shapes, re-edit with handles · Masking highlighter — masks, right/wrong tests, mask list · Exam countdowns + auto study time per subject · Lasso selection — move, resize, rotate, copy, cut, duplicate, delete · Eraser capture delete — wipe all ink inside a closed area · Paste images — photos, screenshots, crop · Share sheet import — PDFs and photos from any app · Audio synced to handwriting — tap a stroke to jump there, up to 3x · Backlinks — all links pointing to this note · Text boxes with text style presets · Favorite pens + per-note tool memory · No-Pencil mode — finger writing, two-finger scroll · Page manager — add, delete, duplicate, rotate, multi-select · Sidebar table of contents — detects and edits PDF Outline · Unified search — PDF text, text boxes, note titles · Reading mode, laser pointer, gesture shortcuts · Design templates — study, planner, journal, creator · Folder library — nested folders, colors, favorites · iCloud sync — notes stay on device when off · WebDAV — import and full backup upload · 27 languages — 한국어/English/日本語/简体中文/繁體中文/Español/Deutsch/Français/Italiano/Português/Nederlands/Svenska/Dansk/Norsk/Suomi/Polski/Čeština/Magyar/Română/Ελληνικά/Русский/Українська/Türkçe/Tiếng Việt/ไทย/Bahasa Indonesia/Bahasa Melayu ▶ Pricing · Free for up to 20 notes · Unlimited Notes is a one-time lifetime purchase · No subscription · No ads · Family Sharing supported · Early Supporters automatically get Unlimited Notes ▶ Privacy · No note data is sent externally · Notes stay on your device or your own iCloud ▶ Recommended Setup · iPad + Apple Pencil recommended; iPhone and Mac supported · iPadOS 18 or later, optimized for 13" and 11" iPad Pro / iPad Air