Marginalis vs Marginalia
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Marginalis
This app helps you capture and organize highlights from physical books. It allows you to save quotes, ideas, and summaries, and track your reading habits. Enjoy private AI-powered book summaries and share your favorite passages.
- Capture highlights with Live Text
- Organize books into custom lists
- Five types of notes (quote, idea, etc.)
- Share passages as image cards
- Reading activity insights
- On-device AI book summaries
- Home Screen widget for quotes
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Every great book leaves a mark. Marginalis makes sure you never lose it. A reading journal for physical book readers — capture highlights, organise your library, and revisit the passages that changed how you think. Capture quotes without the friction Point your camera at any page. iOS Live Text does the rest — your highlight is captured in seconds, no typing, no losing your place. Prefer to highlight in other apps? Send any selected text straight to Marginalis from Kindle, Apple Books, Safari, or anywhere with a share sheet. Five kinds of notes, because not every thought is the same Quote. Idea. Question. Reaction. Summary. Each note type gives your thinking room to breathe — and makes it easy to find exactly what you were looking for when you come back. Your library, the way you actually read Organise books across Reading, Up Next, Wishlist, and Finished. Browse by genre or reading status. Add any title by scanning its barcode, searching by name, or entering it manually. Cover images fetch automatically. Share the passages that moved you Turn any note into a beautiful image card — paper or editorial style, portrait or square. Edit inline, then share anywhere. Because some quotes deserve more than a screenshot. Explore your reading with AI Synthesis lets you have a real conversation with your reading. Select books or tags, then ask anything — what themes keep coming back, what tensions you noticed, what remains unresolved. Your reading assistant answers from your own notes, citing exactly where each idea came from. When something is worth keeping, save it as a permanent insight. On supported devices, Marginalis can also generate an intelligent summary of your notes for any book — powered by Apple Intelligence, processed entirely on your iPhone. Understand your reading life A heatmap of your annotation activity. Note type breakdowns. Most highlighted books. Favourite authors. A tag cloud built from your own words. Marginalis reflects your reading back to you in ways that are actually interesting. Your favourite quotes, on your Home Screen The Marginalis widget brings a daily highlight to your iPhone's Home Screen — a small reminder of why you read. Seamless iCloud sync Your library and notes sync automatically across your devices via iCloud. Private, seamless, requiring nothing beyond your Apple ID. Built for privacy, from the ground up No account required. No subscription. No analytics. No advertising SDKs. Your library, your notes, and your reading life belong entirely to you. Free to start. Yours forever. Marginalis is free to download. Up to 5 books, unlimited notes, every feature available to try. A one-time unlock gives you unlimited books, Markdown export, and full reading stats. No subscription. Ever. Reading that leaves a mark.
Marginalia
Transform passive reading into active learning with this app. It functions as an EPUB and PDF reader with powerful note-taking and annotation tools, all stored locally for maximum privacy. Export your notes in Markdown format for seamless integration with other productivity tools.
- Personal EPUB and PDF library
- Keyboard and stylus annotation
- Multi-color highlighting
- Smart book navigation
- Customizable reading experience
- Offline-first and privacy-focused
- Markdown note exporting
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Marginalia is where your reading lives on: the quotes that stopped you, the thoughts they sparked and the books that shaped you, all in one place. Read EPUB and PDF books in a clean, distraction-free reader, or keep notes for the paper books on your shelf. Highlight a passage, write what you think in the margin, and come back to it anytime. NOTES THAT STAY WITH YOU - Highlight in color and add a note to any passage - Type, speak or handwrite your notes - Tag notes by your stance and topic, then filter them in seconds - Notebooks for paper books: save quotes and thoughts from books you read outside the app - Jump from any note straight back to its place in the book THINK DEEPER WITH AI - Discuss any note with an AI companion that knows the book, the quote and your stance, and helps you dig further SHARE AND EXPORT - Turn a favorite quote into a beautiful image for stories and posts - Export your notes as Markdown (ready for Obsidian and other note apps), Word or PDF BUILD A READING HABIT - Daily reading goal with streaks - Yearly book goal with your finished books on display - Reading timer for paper books MADE FOR READING - Adjustable fonts, margins and page colors, including sepia and dark - Full interface in 8 languages - Light and dark theme MARGINALIA PRO Voice and handwritten notes, all tag groups, Word and PDF export, and AI note discussions. Payment is charged to your Apple ID. Subscriptions renew automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel anytime in your App Store account settings. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Marginalia at every 9 days against Marginalis's every 5 weeks. Marginalia also leads on device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (15.5 vs 17.0). Marginalis's advantage is ratings volume (3 vs 1). On price, rating, 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. Marginalis sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Marginalia sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Marginalis against 5.0 for Marginalia. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3 and 1 respectively.
Marginalis ships an update every 5 weeks, Marginalia every 9 days. Both last shipped on October 24, 2026.
| Parameter | Marginalis | Marginalia |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (3 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | — | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 3 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 5 weeks | Every 9 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 15.5 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 8 MB | 42 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 17+ |
| Developer | TIAGO KHZOUZ SANCHEZ | FURKAN TURGUT |
Customer experience
Marginalis
Marginalia
In-app purchases
Marginalis
- Marginalis Unlock$4.99
Marginalia
- Marginalia Pro - Monthly$4.991 Month
- Marginalia Pro - Yearly7 Days trial$24.991 Year
- Marginalia Pro Life Time$79.99








