Comparison

Acto|Handwritten Planner vs Polite Fish Planner

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

Head to head
About

Acto|Handwritten Planner

Features
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Acto is a handwritten planner built for iPad. Open it like a paper notebook, write your goals, plan your week by hand, and find what you wrote later — across every page(premium). WHAT IS ACTO? A digital planner where every page is yours to draw on. Five sections work together: a Cover you sign yourself, a Projects index, one Detail page per project, a weekly two-page spread that updates with your calendar, and free Notes pages you can add anywhere. DESIGNED FOR APPLE PENCIL ・Pressure, tilt, and hover support ・Markup tool picker appears the moment your Pencil touches the page ・Palm rejection follows your iPadOS system setting ・Pencil 2 double-tap and Pencil Pro squeeze respect your system shortcut ・Undo, redo, lasso select, and clear page from the toolbar YOUR PLANNER, FOR YEARS The Cover and weekly spreads read your device's date, so the same planner carries from 2026 into 2027 and beyond. No yearly re-purchase, no migration, no "2026 edition" expiring on you. SEARCH YOUR HANDWRITING (PREMIUM) On-device OCR reads Japanese and English handwriting after you leave a page, then lets you search by word, date range, or section. Even rough notes become findable. Recognition runs locally with Apple's Vision framework — your handwriting never leaves your device. ICLOUD SYNC Sign in to iCloud and your planner appears on every iPad with the same Apple ID. Your data stays in your own iCloud — only you can see it. FOUR LIQUID GLASS THEMES (PREMIUM) Sand, Fog, Graphite, and Linen. Free users start with one theme; Premium unlocks all four to match your week or your room. EXPORT WHEN YOU NEED TO PDF export collects every page in order. Single pages export as PNG. Share via Files, Mail, AirDrop, or any Share Sheet target. PLANS ・Free: 3 projects, 10 pages, one theme, PDF / PNG export, every handwriting tool. ・Premium (¥600/month or ¥4,800/year): unlimited pages, all themes, Monthly View, OCR search, every sticker. ・Content Store: stickers WHO IS ACTO FOR? ・People who plan and journal by hand and want their iPad to feel like paper ・Founders, freelancers, and students tracking several projects in parallel ・Apple Pencil users who want a structured planner alongside the note-taking apps they already use ・Bullet journal practitioners who want digital search and sync on top of paper-style layouts PRIVACY Handwriting recognition runs on-device. iCloud sync uses your own iCloud account — only you can access your notes. Acto does not collect, sell, or analyze your notes. REQUIREMENTS iPad running iPadOS 18 or later. Apple Pencil recommended (1st generation, 2nd generation, USB-C, or Pencil Pro). LANGUAGES Japanese, English. TERMS OF USE (EULA) https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Polite Fish Planner

Design and write in your own custom digital planners and travel journals on your iPad. Tailor pages, layouts, and integrate important dates. Use Apple Pencil for writing and add stickers or photos.

Highlights
  • Custom planner and journal design studio
  • Tailored page selection and layout
  • Apple Pencil writing support
  • Sticker and photo import/layering
  • Customizable travel journal modules
  • Integrated map design studio
Features
Read full description

Design your planner and write in it — all in one iPad app. Instead of buying a static, bloated PDF template and importing into another app you have to also pay for, customize and create your planner or travel journal on your iPad, then start writing in it using the same app. TRULY YOUR PLANNERS AND TRAVEL JOURNALS Include only the pages you want across categories like ADHD, finance, faith, content creation, sobriety & recovery, wellness, solopreneurship, travel and more. Add your name and word of the year to the cover, specify your favorite color, specify labels for habit tracker and other pages, choose your layout, the start and end time for your daily schedule and more. Integrate important dates right into the planner. Your planner will be generated and available on your iPad in seconds. After that, open it in the app and start writing. Instead of committing to a single planner for an entire year consider creating a new planner every month. Change the color with the seasons. Adjust the pages according to the changes in your life throughout the year. Each document a chapter in your year. Pages are thoughtfully designed with lots of open space for writing and decorating with stickers. Create planners and travel journals in landscape or portrait orientation. WRITE WITH APPLE PENCIL Write in your planner or travel journal using the Apple pencil. Both pen and pencil line styles are included, as well as three line weights, highlighter, color picker, eraser and lasso tool. STICKERS AND PHOTOS Import sticker packs or photos from your library. Place, resize, rotate, and layer them on any page. Stickers stay with your planner, exactly where you left them. CUSTOM TRAVEL JOURNALS WITH YOUR DESTINATIONS AND BEAUTIFUL MAPS Create travel journals that are not only in your favorite color they have your planned destinations built in. Using the design studio customize your destinations and the number of days you'll be in each destination. Page counts are adjusted for each destination and the name of the destination is printed on each page. There are three separate travel modules, pre-trip planner, daily travel journal and post trip memoir. You can create three separate documents for each stage of your trip or combine them into a single document. You choose which pages you want. You can also use the map design studio to create stunning maps to add to your travel journal pages along with your photos and stickers. With the Pro plan you can create as many travel journal documents as you like. Create a travel journal that compliments your memories. KEY FEATURES • Customize and use your planners and travel journals in one app with the built in design studio — no import needed • Custom-generated PDF tailored to your personal preferences • Apple Pencil writing with full color palette and highlighters • Built in map design studio for adding beautiful maps to your travel journals • Sticker support — import from Photos, Files, or ZIP packs • iCloud sync across all your iPads • Tap-to-navigate links built into every planner and travel journal • Create links from your writing to the calendar, other pages, locations and more • Export individual pages as PDF documents • Undo/redo, archiving, and iCloud sticker library FREE TO START — PLANNER PRO Try it free: create a single 1-week planner and a single travel journal, no subscription needed. Upgrade to Planner Pro ($19.99/year) for unlimited 1-12 month planners , unlimited journals with up to 20 destinations.

Screenshots

Acto|Handwritten Planner4 screens
Polite Fish Planner1 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Polite Fish Planner at none against Acto|Handwritten Planner's 4. On price, update cadence, ads 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. Acto|Handwritten Planner sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. Polite Fish Planner asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Acto|Handwritten Planner ships an update every 4 days, Polite Fish Planner weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 17, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 8 level
Acto|Handwritten Planner versus Polite Fish Planner: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterActo|Handwritten PlannerPolite Fish Planner
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Number of ratings—1 — better
Update frequencyEvery 4 days — betterWeekly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
Monetization—Free
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS18.017.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size5 MB10 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMatsu LLC.Seth Bourget

In-app purchases

4 purchases

Acto|Handwritten Planner

Subscriptions2
  • Acto Premium - monthly$3.991 Month
  • Acto Premium - yearly$29.991 Year
One-time2
  • Basic Stickers$1.99
  • Monthly View$1.99
None

Polite Fish Planner

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Acto|Handwritten Planner free?
Acto|Handwritten Planner is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Polite Fish Planner free?
Polite Fish Planner is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Acto|Handwritten Planner or Polite Fish Planner have ads?
Neither Acto|Handwritten Planner nor Polite Fish Planner shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Acto|Handwritten Planner or Polite Fish Planner?
Acto|Handwritten Planner ships an update every 4 days, and Polite Fish Planner weekly. Most recently, Acto|Handwritten Planner was updated on October 17, 2026 and Polite Fish Planner on October 31, 2026.

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