Comparison

BindNotes vs NoteSam

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

Head to head
About

BindNotes

Features
Read full description

Your notes. Linked. Notes shouldn't be limited by the size of a page. But linear pages and infinite canvas aren't the answer — you just get lost. BindNotes takes a different approach: go infinitely deep, not infinitely long. Lasso any handwriting with Apple Pencil, link it to another page, and tap to jump. Pages give you focus. Links give you depth. Your notes become a connected network of ideas — not a stack of dead-end pages. BindNotes is a notebook app built for Apple Pencil. Write, sketch, and draw like any notebook — then connect your pages. Headers & Outline Assign header levels (H1–H5) to any page. Headers build a navigable outline for your notebook — tap to see the full structure, drill into sections, jump to any page. Color-coded by level so you can see hierarchy at a glance. Links let you follow a thought. Headers let you see the shape of your notebook. Together, they turn a stack of pages into a system. Page Overview See every page connection in your notebook as a visual graph. Arrows show which pages link where. Spot structure, find orphaned pages, navigate by tapping. PDF Annotation (Pro) Import any PDF into a notebook. Annotate with pen, highlighter, and lasso. The highlighter lifts actual pixels from the PDF — highlighted content becomes a visual element you can work with. Add headers to organize the PDF. Create links between pages. Turn a static document into something navigable. PDF Export (Pro) Export your notebook as a PDF. Links become clickable cross-references. An outline page is auto-generated. Your handwritten notebook exports like a professional document. Sync with iCloud Drive Notebooks sync across iPhone, iPad, and Mac via iCloud Drive. No account. No server. You control where your data lives. Free — No Limits on Note-Taking Everything you need to write, draw, and link is free: • Unlimited notebooks and pages • All drawing tools — pen, highlighter, eraser, lasso • Page-to-page linking • Headers and outline navigation • Page overview (link graph) • iCloud Drive sync • 5 page templates (blank, ruled, graph, dots) BindNotes Pro — One-Time Purchase Unlock tools for serious workflows. No subscription. Buy once, own forever. • PDF import and annotation • PDF export with clickable links and bookmarks • Tags for notebook organization • Dark page templates • Full link and header color palettes Your notes stay on your device. We collect no data. No analytics. No tracking. No server. Your notebooks are stored locally or in your iCloud Drive — nowhere else. See our privacy policy at bindnotes.com/privacy.

About

NoteSam

Features
Read full description

NoteSam — Handwritten Notes for iPad Built by a mathematician who needed a handwriting notebook that actually kept up with the Apple Pencil. Couldn't find one. Wrote it. Private by design. Your notes live on your device. Sync goes only where you point it — iCloud, Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, WebDAV, S3, SFTP. No third-party tracking SDKs, no ad networks, no behavioral profiling. WRITING • Native PencilKit engine tuned for low-latency Apple Pencil • Vector strokes — infinite zoom, no pixelation • Pressure + tilt sensitivity • Palm rejection that just works READING & ANNOTATION • PDF import — annotate textbooks, contracts, lecture notes • EPUB reader with text-anchored highlights that survive font-size changes • Voice memos attached to the page ORGANIZATION • Unlimited folders and notebooks • Template marketplace — grid, dot, music, planner, more • OCR search across handwritten notes PRIVACY End-to-end encryption (AES-256-GCM + Argon2id). Your cloud provider sees ciphertext only. Product analytics is limited to anonymous conversion events (sign-up, purchase). Your handwriting, your PDFs, your voice memos — those never leave your device unless you sync them yourself. OFFLINE-FIRST Everything works without a network connection. Sync is additive. Free tier: unlimited notebooks, PDF + EPUB import, all core drawing tools. Pro unlocks the template marketplace and multi-provider sync. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Custom Terms: https://notesam.app/terms Privacy Policy: https://notesam.app/privacy

Screenshots

BindNotes4 screens
NoteSam3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: BindNotes at none against NoteSam's shown. NoteSam's advantage is update cadence (every 5 days vs every 3 weeks) and iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.0). On price, in-app purchases and device support 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

CostPrice Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Ads Ā· Monetization

Both are free to download. BindNotes sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and NoteSam sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

BindNotes ships an update every 3 weeks, NoteSam every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on September 30, 2026 and September 10, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences Ā· 3 level
BindNotes versus NoteSam: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBindNotesNoteSam
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksEvery 5 days — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS26.017.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size9 MB15 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperEvgenii EremeevCryptosam LLC

In-app purchases

1 purchases

BindNotes

One-time1
  • BindNotes Pro$2.99
2 purchases

NoteSam

Subscriptions2
  • NoteSam Pro Monthly$2.991 Month
  • NoteSam Pro Yearly7 Days trial$19.991 Year

Questions

Is BindNotes free?
BindNotes is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is NoteSam free?
NoteSam is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do BindNotes or NoteSam have ads?
NoteSam shows ads; BindNotes does not.
Which is updated more often, BindNotes or NoteSam?
BindNotes ships an update every 3 weeks, and NoteSam every 5 days. Most recently, BindNotes was updated on September 30, 2026 and NoteSam on September 10, 2026.

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