LivePen vs inq
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
LivePen
Instantly digitize your handwritten notes and drawings from paper to your smartphone. Capture ideas, sketches, and important information in ink and bring them into your digital world for easy access and sharing.
- Instant digital capture of handwritten content
- Syncs ink from paper to smartphone
- Converts handwritten notes to text
- Share digital notes and sketches
- Organize captured ideas and sketches
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The companion app for LivePen from Livescribe. When used together, whatever you write and draw in ink on paper in the real world is instantly captured on your smartphone to use in your digital world. It’s kind of like magic! For millennia, we have written on paper to capture our ideas, sketches and notes. But all of that content, all of those imaginative thoughts have been trapped in ink on paper in the real world to probably be misplaced, lost or forgotten. Not anymore. With the LivePen app paired with LivePen, we’ve unlocked the ability to instantly bring your handwritten world, captured in ink on paper, to digital life. So, a scribbled down shopping list? Immediately on your phone. Handwritten notes from the classroom? Immediately available on your phone. Important notes from a business meeting? Already converted to text on your phone. Inspired sketched idea? Ready to share, instantly on your phone.
inq
Digitize your handwritten notes and drawings for access across all devices. Automatically transcribe and search your content, with options to export in specialized formats like LaTeX or CSV. Share your work with live updates for collaborators.
- Digitize notes and drawings
- Access notes anywhere (web, any device)
- Automatic transcription and search
- Export to LaTeX, CSV, mermaid
- Share notes with live updates
- Integrated voice recording synced to handwriting
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- Access your notes and drawings anywhere, including on the web with any device. - Transcribe and search your notes automatically. - Export special formats including LaTeX for math, CSV for data, and mermaid for diagrams. - Share your notes, including on the web where recipients can get live updates. - Integrated voice recording through your phone - synced to your handwriting.
Screenshots
Verdict
LivePen and inq both sit at 3.0 stars, but that hides the real split: 54% of inq's written reviews are positive against 34% of LivePen's. LivePen's advantage is monetization model (free vs ad-supported). On price, rating, ratings volume and update cadence 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 3.0 for LivePen against 3.1 for inq. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 34 and 21 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 34% of LivePen's written reviews are positive against 54% of inq's.
LivePen ships an update every 11 days, inq every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on June 8, 2026 and September 22, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | LivePen | inq |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.0 (34 ratings) | 3.1 (21 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 34.2% of reviews | 53.8% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 34 — better | 21 |
| Update frequency | Every 11 days — better | Every 3 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free — better | Ad-supported |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 | 15.1 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 46 MB | 59 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Livescribe Inc. | inq incorporated |
Customer experience
LivePen
inq
In-app purchases
LivePen
No in-app purchases
inq
No in-app purchases
