Ultimate Planner App vs Penlog
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Ultimate Planner App
This app blends the tactile feel of handwriting with digital flexibility for personalized planning. Create custom layouts, track habits, and manage tasks across multiple devices. It offers a supportive system for organizing work, study, and personal life.
- Handwriting and digital planning integration
- Customizable templates and layouts
- Habit tracking and goal setting
- Task management with subtasks and reminders
- Cross-device synchronization
- Journaling and note-taking capabilities
- Unlimited personal planners
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Ultimate Planner is a flexible digital planner app for iPad and iPhone, built for handwriting, calendar planning, tasks, notes, habits, goals, routines, and personal organization. Plan your day, week, month, and year on visual planner pages, write naturally with Apple Pencil or your finger, type text when needed, and sync your real schedule with Apple Calendar and Google Calendar. Use Ultimate Planner as your daily planner, weekly planner, monthly planner, yearly planner, task planner, habit tracker, goal planner, note-taking app, and visual calendar planner in one simple planning system. It is designed for people who want the feel of a real planner with the flexibility of a modern productivity app. More than a to-do list, Ultimate Planner gives you real planner pages for daily schedules, weekly routines, monthly plans, yearly goals, notes, trackers, budgets, meal planning, projects, journaling, wellness, study, work, and home organization. It helps you build a planner that fits the way you actually plan. Ultimate Planner is not a static PDF planner. You can customize layouts, add pages, create multiple planners, change covers and themes, sync calendar events, type text, use checkboxes, add images, paste content, write by hand, and continue planning across future years without rebuilding your planner from scratch. Capture plans without friction. Add tasks, notes, ideas, reminders, routines, and calendar events, then organize everything into daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, or custom planner pages when you are ready. Ultimate Planner is flexible enough for detailed planning, but simple enough to keep using every day. Key Features: • Digital planner app for iPad and iPhone • Handwriting with Apple Pencil or finger • Apple Calendar sync and Google Calendar sync • Daily planner, weekly planner, monthly planner, quarterly planner, and yearly planner pages • 500+ flexible planner layouts, templates, and page designs • Checklists, reminders, recurring plans, and routines • Habit tracker, goal planner, routine tracker, progress tracker, and wellness planner pages • Notes, journals, sketches, stickers, images, handwriting, typed text, and pasted content • Budget planner, meal planner, project planner, student planner, teacher planner, ADHD-friendly planner pages, and more • Light and dark mode, planner themes, covers, colors, fonts, and custom sections • Multiple planners for work, study, home, wellness, school, projects, and personal life • Cross-device and cross-platform sync • Offline planning support when you do not have internet access Use Ultimate Planner for: • Daily planning and time blocking • Weekly routines and recurring tasks • Monthly planning and long-term goals • Work planning, project planning, and meeting notes • Budget planning, expense tracking, and personal finance organization • Meal planning, grocery planning, wellness planning, habits, and journaling • ADHD planning, visual planning, flexible routines, and personal productivity • Notes, checklists, schedules, trackers, and custom planner pages Ultimate Planner helps you organize your life without forcing you into one rigid productivity system. Start free and build a digital planner that works the way you do. Subscriptions: - App subscriptions are paid on either monthly or yearly intervals - Payment will be charged to iTunes Account at confirmation of purchase - Subscription automatically renews unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24-hours before the end of the current period - Account will be charged for renewal within 24-hours prior to the end of the current period, and identify the cost of the renewal - Subscriptions may be managed by the user and auto-renewal may be turned off by going to the user's iTunes Account Settings after purchase - Any unused portion of a free trial period will be forfeited when the user purchases a subscription - Privacy Policy: https://ultimate-planner.app/privacy/ - Terms of Service: https://ultimate-planner.app/terms/
Penlog
This app allows you to write handwritten notes and tasks on your iPad with Apple Pencil. It automatically syncs these entries with your Notion workspace, converting your handwriting into actionable tasks and organized notes. The app also offers features like task carry-forward and a morning briefing with integrated AI.
- Handwritten note-taking with Apple Pencil
- Two-way task synchronization with Notion
- Automatic notation reading (tasks, notes, headings)
- Carry-forward of unfinished tasks
- Morning briefing with AI integration
- REST API and MCP server for developers
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Write a task by hand. Watch it show up in Notion. Penlog is a handwritten daily journal. You write with Apple Pencil on iPad. On iPhone you see today, add and check off tasks, and read every page. Every day gets its own page, so there is nothing to name, nothing to file, and no folder to choose. You write. Your other apps update themselves. Rick Thomas, a solo founder in Indianapolis, builds Penlog for people who think in ink. TWO-WAY TASK SYNC WITH NOTION A task you write by hand becomes a real task in your Notion tasks database. Cross it off with Apple Pencil, or tap it on iPhone, and it completes in Notion. Complete it in Notion and it shows as done on your page. Task status moves in both directions automatically. There is no export step and no copying and pasting. NOTATION READING Penlog reads your notation, not only your words. A bullet is a task. A dash is a note. An X means done. An underline makes a heading. Your page arrives sorted into tasks and notes instead of a wall of transcribed text. Penlog reads a page after you stop writing, not while you write. It waits for a finished thought rather than reacting to a half-formed stroke. CARRY-FORWARD An open task stays with you. If you do not finish it today, Penlog carries it forward to tomorrow's page, and to the day after, until you cross it off. Nothing gets lost because you turned the page. THE MORNING BRIEFING Connect Notion, your calendar, Claude, or ChatGPT. Penlog places today's events and open tasks on your page before you open it. That is the Morning Briefing. You can edit or hide anything in it before you start writing. SEEDING FROM AN AI ASSISTANT Ask Claude or ChatGPT to put something on tomorrow's page and it is waiting when you sit down. Penlog calls this seeding. It works in the other direction too, because an assistant can read the page you wrote by hand. FOR AGENTS, SCRIPTS, AND DEVELOPERS Every page is available through a REST API. Penlog also runs a Model Context Protocol server, usually written MCP, so any assistant that supports MCP can read your page and write to it the same way it reads your calendar. Penlog is listed in the Notion Integration Gallery and in the official MCP Registry. WHAT IS FREE AND WHAT NEEDS PRO The journal is free. You can write every day, have your notation read into tasks and notes, carry unfinished tasks forward, and export your pages without a subscription. Penlog Pro adds the destinations, and you can try it free for 14 days. Two-way Notion sync, calendar import, the REST API, and the MCP server require Pro. Pro also removes the daily limit on handwriting reads that applies to free accounts. WHAT PENLOG IS NOT Penlog does not replace Notion and it does not ask you to move your tasks somewhere new. If you keep tasks in Notion and write by hand on iPad, you are doing both today and reconciling them yourself. Penlog is the part in between. FROM A FIVE-STAR REVIEW sleepypeach wrote: "I loved notion but really struggle to refer to it on a daily basis... Written systems worked better but didn't allow me to plan long term. Penlog has been the perfect solution to my workflow issues." PRIVACY AND SECURITY Penlog encrypts all network traffic in transit with TLS. You can delete your account in Settings, which permanently removes your data from Penlog's servers. Writing needs an iPad and Apple Pencil. SUBSCRIPTION AND PURCHASE TERMS Penlog Pro is an auto-renewable subscription, offered monthly or annually. Eligible new subscribers get a 14-day free trial. Payment is charged to your Apple Account when the trial ends, or when you confirm the purchase if there is no trial. The subscription renews automatically unless you turn off auto-renew at least 24 hours before the current period ends, and renewal is charged within 24 hours of the end of that period. You can manage or cancel your subscription in your Apple Account settings. Terms of Use (EULA): https://penlog.app/terms/ Privacy Policy: https://penlog.app/privacy/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Penlog at 4.8 against Ultimate Planner App's 4.0. Penlog also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 60%) and update cadence (every 4 days vs fortnightly). On price, ratings volume, ads and in-app purchases 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. Ultimate Planner App sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and Penlog sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $8.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Penlog holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 6 and 6 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 60% of Ultimate Planner App's written reviews are positive against 100% of Penlog's.
Ultimate Planner App ships an update fortnightly, Penlog every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 28, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Ultimate Planner App | Penlog |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.0 (6 ratings) | 4.8 (6 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 60.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 6 | 6 |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | Every 4 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 58 MB | 9 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Evopaper | RT Indianapolis Holdings LLC |
Customer experience
Ultimate Planner App
Penlog
In-app purchases
Ultimate Planner App
- All in One Access$4.991 Month
- All in One Access (Yearly)$39.991 Year
Penlog
- Penlog Pro Monthly14 Days trial$8.991 Month
- Penlog Pro Annual14 Days trial$89.991 Year
Questions
Is Ultimate Planner App free?
Is Penlog free?
Which has better reviews, Ultimate Planner App or Penlog?
Do Ultimate Planner App or Penlog have ads?
Which is updated more often, Ultimate Planner App or Penlog?
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