Pentip vs Nib
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side ā with what reviewers say about each.
Pentip
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Pentip is a notebook for people who take a lot of notes, and who write some of them by hand and type the rest. FIND WHAT YOU WROTE BY HAND Search your notes and Pentip reads your handwriting. It also searches typed text, floating text frames, the text inside any PDF you imported, and the values you filled into PDF form fields. Search your whole library, or find every match inside the document you have open and jump straight to it. Handwriting is recognised in all ten languages Pentip speaks, Arabic and Turkish included. Searching costs nothing extra. TYPE AND HANDWRITE ON THE SAME PAGE Type straight onto the page. Your text flows from one page to the next, the way it does in a word processor, instead of sitting in a small box you have to drag around. Then pick up your Apple Pencil and draw on that same page. There is no drawing mode to switch into: the Pencil draws, the keyboard types where the cursor is, and your finger scrolls. YOUR DRAWINGS MOVE WITH YOUR TEXT Every pen stroke remembers the line of text it was drawn beside. So if you come back weeks later and add a paragraph, the arrow you drew still points at the same sentence, even once that sentence has moved onto the next page. READ IN THE DARK WITHOUT CHANGING YOUR WORK Turn on Smart Dark and a light document is drawn dark while you read and write it. It is a viewing mode, so what you export is exactly what you made. TOOLS THAT FEEL RIGHT Pen, brush, highlighter and a precise eraser, all with Apple Pencil pressure and tilt. Hold at the end of a stroke and it snaps into a clean shape. Straighten lines with the ruler or turn it into a protractor to measure an angle. Squeeze an Apple Pencil Pro and a small palette of colours and sizes opens at the tip of the pen. WORK ON YOUR HANDOUTS Import a lecture PDF and mark it up like paper, or scan pages straight in with the camera. Tap a form field and type into it, in any script, right to left included. Select the text in the PDF itself to copy, look up or translate it. And if your lecturer sends a corrected version, swap it in and every note you made stays where it was. BUILT FOR BIG DOCUMENTS Notebooks of any length, page templates, five layers, and sections that hold several canvases in a single file. Star the ones you live in and they gather on a Favorites page. TEN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING RIGHT TO LEFT Arabic, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Russian, Spanish and Turkish. Text direction is set for each paragraph, so an Arabic note sits correctly next to an English source. Export to PDF or as an image, and sync across your devices with iCloud. Pentip runs on iPhone and Mac too. Terms of Service: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://pentip.app/privacy/
Nib
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ā Where thoughts unfold Nib is a warm handwritten diary for iPad and Apple Pencil. The feeling of writing with a fountain pen on paper ā captured in digital form. For anyone who wants to record today, organize class notes, or let ideas flow freely on the page. ā Features āø Natural handwriting - Fountain pen, pencil, highlighter, eraser, lasso ā optimized for Apple Pencil - 21 colors to express yourself - Blank, lined, and grid backgrounds āø Write directly on PDFs - Import textbooks, handouts, papers and annotate right away - Import from iCloud Drive, Files app, or anywhere - Select page ranges to import only what you need - Your annotations save separately ā the original PDF stays intact āø Daily journal - End the day with a short note - Five moods (Heavy Ā· Quiet Ā· Even Ā· Bloom Ā· Radiant) to capture the feeling - Browse past days in the calendar āø Recording + auto-transcription - Record lectures or meetings while you write - Automatic transcription in Korean, English, and Japanese - Notes and audio live side-by-side on the same page āø Organize by subject - Create subjects with 31 icons or draw your own - Tag notes with subjects - Browse by subject in the Shelf āø Three languages supported - ķźµģ“ Ā· English Ā· ę„ę¬čŖ - Switch language directly in the app ā Made for - People who want a handwritten journal on iPad - Students annotating PDF textbooks - Anyone recording lectures while taking notes - Those looking for a beautifully-designed diary app - Digital note-takers who miss the feel of paper ā What's coming Nib is actively being improved. Dark mode, iCloud sync (across devices), and more transcription languages are on the way. Feedback and suggestions welcome at stockhub.kr@gmail.com ā About the developer Nib is crafted by an independent developer. stockhub.kr
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Nib at none against Pentip's 2. Nib also leads on update cadence (every 2 days vs every 6 weeks). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price Ā· Rating Ā· Positive reviews Ā· Number of ratings Ā· Update frequency Ā· Ads Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Monetization Ā· Best chart rank Ā· Devices Ā· Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Pentip sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. Nib asks for nothing beyond the download.
Pentip ships an update every 6 weeks, Nib every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on September 10, 2026 and September 21, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Pentip | Nib |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Every 6 weeks | Every 2 days ā better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No ā better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 18.2 | 17.0 ā better |
| Further details ā not scored | ||
| Size | 43 MB | 35 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Khalil Khalil | YONGGYU KIM |
In-app purchases
Pentip
- Pentip Pro Monthly7 Days trial$0.991 Month
- Pentip Pro Yearly7 Days trial$8.991 Year
Nib
No in-app purchases









