Comparison

Pencil vs Perenne Note. Digital Notebook

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

Head to head
About

Pencil

This app allows users to handwrite, sketch, and annotate PDFs on their iPad and iPhone. It supports Apple Pencil and other styluses for note-taking, drawing, and even watercolor painting. Features include audio recording within notes and AI assistance for summarizing and translation.

Highlights
  • Handwrite and sketch with stylus or finger
  • Annotate and mark up PDFs
  • Record audio directly in notes
  • Create formatted text notes
  • Watercolor painting workspace
  • Scan and import documents
  • AI assistance for summaries and translation
Features
Read full description

Pencil brings handwriting, sketching, PDF annotation and watercolor painting to iPad and iPhone. Designed especially for Apple Pencil on iPad, it also works with other compatible styluses and your finger. Take notes in class, mark up a document, plan your week or paint an idea while it is still fresh. • Write and sketch your way. Use Apple Pencil on iPad, or write and draw with a compatible stylus or your finger on iPad and iPhone. Start a PDF note from a paper template, choose your ink colors and add typed text, images and shapes. Use lined or grid backgrounds to give your notes structure. • Make your PDFs useful. Highlight passages, add comments, write in the margins and insert your signature. Search inside a document, bookmark important pages and rearrange, duplicate or rotate pages as your work develops. • Keep the conversation with your notes. Record audio directly in a PDF note and play it back alongside the page. Revisit a lecture, meeting or explanation without separating the recording from your written notes. • Type when words come first. Create formatted Text Notes with fonts, colors, lists, checklists, tables and images. Turn a quick thought into a clear set of notes, a plan or a longer draft, then export it as a PDF to share. • Explore watercolor painting. Open a dedicated painting workspace, choose your paper and experiment with brushes, mixed colors and washes. Paint from a reference photo, try guided practice lessons and export your painting as an image or PDF. • Bring paper into your notebook. Scan documents with the camera, import files through the Files app and add photos to your work. Keep notes, PDFs and paintings organized in folders, ready to return to when you need them. • Get help from AI. Ask questions about your documents, summarize a passage, explain an unfamiliar concept or translate selected text. Use AI Chat to work through an idea alongside your notes. Privacy Policy: https://www.noteswriter.com/Kairoos_Privacy_Policy.html Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Perenne Note. Digital Notebook

A minimalist digital notebook designed for iPad and iPhone, offering a realistic writing and sketching experience with Apple Pencil. Organize notes, sketches, and lists with customizable notebooks and real-time syncing.

Highlights
  • Realistic pen and pencil tools
  • Customizable notebooks and paper styles
  • iPhone companion app with iCloud sync
  • Quick notes with rich text and checklists
  • Reminders and calendar integration
  • Desk feature for floating elements
  • PDF and PNG export options
Features
Read full description

A real notebook, on your iPad. Write with Apple Pencil on pages that feel like paper, with a pencil that leaves real graphite grain and a pen that follows your hand. Perenne Note is made for people who think better with a pen in hand. No infinite canvas, no AI, no features you'll never use: just notebooks, planners and your ideas. Plus a free iPhone app to keep them with you. WRITES LIKE PAPER Pen, fountain pen, pencil and highlighter, powered by Perenne Engine, the drawing engine we built from scratch: real scanned graphite, paper grain that responds to every stroke, tilt and pressure in every line. Any width, opacity and color, eyedropper included. Turn on real notebook mode to flip pages with your finger and write with your Pencil, without switching modes. NOTEBOOKS THAT FEEL REAL 3D covers in 10 colors, 5 textures or your own photo. Blank, ruled, grid or dotted paper, or design your own with the pattern editor. Up to 100 pages, two-page spreads in landscape, colored bookmarks and over 280 stickers: stamps, postmarks and decorations. DATED PLANNERS Daily or weekly, in six styles you can switch anytime without losing a line of what you wrote. Tap a day to open it, tap the date to see the month. If you like, your Calendar events and your Reminders to-dos appear right on the pages, ready to check off with your finger or a mark of your Pencil. Your first planner is free to try. AUDIO NOTES Record a lecture or a meeting right on the page, even with the screen locked. Where your language supports it, transcription happens on your device: your voice goes nowhere else. ON YOUR IPHONE, FREE Your notebooks and planners in your pocket: flip through your pages as you wrote them, search everything and catch ideas on the go with quick notes. Text, checklists, tables, photos and audio, ready to place on the page back on your iPad. REMINDERS THAT TAKE YOU BACK Circle anything with the lasso and set a reminder: the notification arrives with your handwriting and takes you right back to that page. One-time or repeating, in your Calendar too. THE DESK Around your notebook there's room for sticky notes, photos and text you want to keep in sight while you write. Write on the notes, draw on the photos, move, rotate and resize everything. PRIVATE, NO ACCOUNT No sign-up and no ads. Your notebooks and notes stay yours and sync between iPad and iPhone through your own iCloud. Export pages or whole notebooks as PDF or PNG anytime. MADE TO FIT YOU Toolbar at the top or bottom, controls on the side of your writing hand, gestures to undo, keyboard shortcuts. In 14 languages, ready for iOS 27 and iPadOS 27. YOUR YEAR Pages written, days in a row and, at the end of the year, an animated recap of everything you created. TRY IT FREE Start with a notebook and 6 pages to try everything, and try your first planner for free. Then it's your choice: a single notebook or planner as a one-time purchase, or a subscription for unlimited use, with a free week on the annual plan. Privacy Policy: https://perenne.app/privacy-policy Terms of Use (EULA): https://perenne.app/terms-of-service

Screenshots

Pencil4 screens
Perenne Note. Digital Notebook4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Perenne Note. Digital Notebook at 50% against Pencil's 25%. Perenne Note. Digital Notebook also leads on iOS requirement (17.6 vs 26.0). Pencil's advantage is rating (4.0 vs 3.8). On price, ratings volume, update cadence 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. Pencil sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per 7 days and Perenne Note. Digital Notebook sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Pencil holds the better App Store score, 4.0 against 3.8. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 4 and 5 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 25% of Pencil's written reviews are positive against 50% of Perenne Note. Digital Notebook's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly weekly. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and November 5, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Pencil versus Perenne Note. Digital Notebook: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPencilPerenne Note. Digital Notebook
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.0 (4 ratings) — better3.8 (5 ratings)
Positive reviews25.0% of reviews50.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings45 — better
Update frequencyWeeklyWeekly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemiumFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS26.017.6 — better
Further details — not scored
Size511 MB61 MB
Age rating4+17+
DeveloperKairoos Solutions SLNicholas Compagnoni

Customer experience

Pencil

All ratings4 ratings
Positive75.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative25.0%
Written reviews4 reviews
Positive25.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative75.0%

Perenne Note. Digital Notebook

All ratings5 ratings
Positive60.0%
Neutral20.0%
Negative20.0%
Written reviews4 reviews
Positive50.0%
Neutral25.0%
Negative25.0%

In-app purchases

4 purchases

Pencil

Subscriptions3
  • Weekly$1.997 Days
  • Unlock All and AI Assistant3 Days trial$3.991 Month
  • Pencil Annual3 Days trial$14.991 Year
One-time1
  • Pencil Lifetime$14.99
5 purchases

Perenne Note. Digital Notebook

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly$2.991 Month
  • Annual7 Days trial$22.991 Year
One-time3
  • Single Notebook$3.99
  • Yearly Planner$6.99
  • Notebook Bundle$8.99

Questions

Is Pencil free?
Pencil is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Perenne Note. Digital Notebook free?
Perenne Note. Digital Notebook is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Pencil or Perenne Note. Digital Notebook?
Pencil is rated higher. Pencil averages 4.0 out of 5 from 4 ratings, while Perenne Note. Digital Notebook averages 3.8 from 5 ratings.
Do Pencil or Perenne Note. Digital Notebook have ads?
Neither Pencil nor Perenne Note. Digital Notebook shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Pencil or Perenne Note. Digital Notebook?
Pencil ships an update weekly, and Perenne Note. Digital Notebook weekly. Most recently, Pencil was updated on November 3, 2026 and Perenne Note. Digital Notebook on November 5, 2026.

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