Comparison

NoteSam vs Libreto

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

Head to head
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

About

Libreto

This app is a versatile digital studio for note-taking, planning, sketching, and PDF editing. It offers on-device AI for document analysis and summarization, with robust drawing and writing tools for iPad users and streamlined PDF editing for iPhone.

Highlights
  • On-device AI for PDF and notebook analysis
  • Full drawing studio with layers and pressure brushes
  • Customizable planners and notebook templates
  • Comprehensive PDF annotation and editing tools
  • Handwriting recognition and conversion
  • Lecture recording with transcription and summarization
Features
Read full description

Libreto is a full drawing studio, digital notebook, planner, and PDF editor for iPad, and a streamlined PDF editor and notes app for iPhone. Private by design, with on-device AI included, and one fair price. LEARN IT IN MINUTES A 2-minute tour on first launch, then Help & Tutorials: step-by-step guides for every part of the app, each with a Try it button that takes you straight there. LIBRETO INTELLIGENCE, ON YOUR DEVICE Ask questions about any PDF or notebook and get answers with tappable page citations; each conversation is saved for next time. Summarize a document, a page range, or a selection. Turn any document into flashcards and quizzes with spaced-repetition review, or import a deck from Anki or CSV. Record a lecture, then transcribe and summarize it on-device, and tap any line to jump the audio to that moment. Have any PDF or note read aloud, page by page. Search inside every PDF, note, and transcript in your library. All of it runs with Apple Intelligence, right on your device: nothing uploaded, nothing metered, no AI credits. Prefer no AI? One switch hides every AI button. LIBRETO EVERYWHERE Send a PDF, photo, or text file from Files, Mail, or Safari straight into your library, or drag it in from another app on iPad. Start a Quick Note from the + menu, the app icon, Siri, Shortcuts, or ⌘N. Your documents show up in Spotlight. Keyboard shortcuts for undo, find, page turns, zoom, and export. DRAW & SKETCH (iPad) A full drawing canvas with pressure brushes, layers, blend modes, and a saved color palette. Real symmetry: vertical, horizontal, both axes, or radial. Smudge actual pixels at full resolution. Pro adjustments and filters: hue, curves, gradient map, blurs, halftone, chromatic aberration, and more. Pinch to zoom, add text, import photos to trace or paint over, export as PNG or PDF. Apple Pencil Pro: squeeze for brushes, double-tap to swap brush and eraser. NOTEBOOKS FOR APPLE PENCIL (iPad) Lined, dot grid, grid, graph, Cornell, and to-do paper, or import any photo as your own. Search your handwriting and convert it to text on-device, in 20+ languages, in notebooks and in the ink you write on PDFs. Write large in the Zoom Writing window and let the ink land small and neat. Add stickers, washi tape, photos, and AI art with Image Playground. No Pencil handy? Write with a finger. On iPhone, take handwritten or typed notes; iPhone does not support Apple Pencil. TEXT DOCUMENTS Prefer to type? Text Documents with markdown, headings, and checklists you can tick in the preview. PLANNERS, YOUR WAY (iPad) Six planners: Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Scheduling, Personal, and Pro, with real calendar dates and a tappable table of contents. Add habit, goal, schedule, dashboard, and journal pages. Portrait or landscape, Warm or Dark theme. Elegant cover designs you can recolor, replace with your photo, or generate with Image Playground. PDF TOOLS (iPad and iPhone) Highlights, ink, shapes, stickers, and signatures, with undo and redo for every mark. Apple Pencil Pro squeezes for the tool palette and clicks when a shape snaps. Make scans searchable with on-device OCR. Clean up photographed pages with Scan Enhance. Redact for real: the hidden text is destroyed, not just covered, across a whole document at once. Export as PDF, image, text, Word (RTF), or Markdown. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No ads. No tracking. No third-party AI. Your work stays on your devices, with optional private iCloud sync and App Lock with Face ID. MEMBERSHIP Unlock every premium feature for $19.99/year with a 3-day free trial, or $2.99/month. Prefer not to subscribe? Buy Libreto once for $59.99 and keep every feature, including future updates, forever. Terms of Use (Apple standard EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

NoteSam3 screens
Libreto4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Libreto at none against NoteSam's shown. On price, update cadence, in-app purchases and device support 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. NoteSam sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month and Libreto sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

NoteSam ships an update every 5 days, Libreto every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on September 29, 2026 and October 13, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 8 level
NoteSam versus Libreto: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterNoteSamLibreto
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Number of ratings—1 — better
Update frequencyEvery 5 days — betterEvery 10 days
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesYes
Monetization—Freemium
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details — not scored
Size15 MB12 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperCryptosam LLCJC Mobile App Studio LLC

In-app purchases

2 purchases

NoteSam

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

Libreto

Subscriptions2
  • Libreto Premium (Monthly)$0.991 Month
  • Libreto Premium (Annual)3 Days trial$7.991 Year

Questions

Is NoteSam free?
NoteSam is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Libreto free?
Libreto is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do NoteSam or Libreto have ads?
NoteSam shows ads; Libreto does not.
Which is updated more often, NoteSam or Libreto?
NoteSam ships an update every 5 days, and Libreto every 10 days. Most recently, NoteSam was updated on September 29, 2026 and Libreto on October 13, 2026.

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