Noteora vs Zebra
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Noteora
This app allows you to type or handwrite notes, sketch diagrams, and annotate PDFs. It offers a natural writing experience with various pen tools and paper templates. Your notes are private and stored only on your device.
- Handwritten notes with natural pen strokes
- Annotate and sign PDFs
- Type text notes with rich formatting
- Organize notes with folders and tags
- Offline functionality and device-only storage
- Export notes as PDFs
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Noteora is a free note-taking app for everything you write. Type it, handwrite it or write right on top of a PDF, and every page looks exactly like the real thing. No account, no cloud: your notes never leave your device. Open a PDF or Word file, mark it up with Apple Pencil, add a table, sketch a diagram and export a pixel-perfect PDF in seconds. HANDWRITING THAT FEELS LIKE PAPER • Pressure- and tilt-aware pen, pencil and highlighter with smooth, natural strokes • Pen-only mode with palm rejection: rest your hand on the screen and write • Apple Pencil double-tap switches between the eraser and your last pen • A felt-tip highlighter that keeps one even thickness • Seven paper templates: blank, lined, narrow ruled, wide ruled, grid, dotted and Cornell notes • Portrait or landscape, with as many pages as you need • Add photos to handwritten pages and annotate them • Shape recognition: hold the pen to snap a perfect line, rectangle, square or circle • Object pen to select, move, rotate and resize anything on the page • Snapped shapes come with handles to resize them, and rectangles keep the angle you drew ANNOTATE ANY PDF Open a PDF from Files, Mail or Safari straight into Noteora. Handwrite over its pages or type on them, start a new note or add the pages to one you already have, at the beginning or at the end. Ideal for lecture slides, worksheets, research papers, contracts and forms you need to fill in and sign. Photos open the same way, as a one-page note you can write on. WORD-LEVEL TEXT NOTES • Real pages that reflow as you type, just like a word processor • Bold, italic, underline, strikethrough and four heading levels • Bullet lists, numbered lists, checklists, quotes, code blocks and links • Tables you can create, fill and export • Nine fonts, text and highlight colors, and all four alignments • Insert, drag, resize and rotate images; attach PDFs and files as cards • Import .docx documents with the same fonts, sizes, line spacing and page count PAGES YOU CONTROL Every note has a pages panel: duplicate, rename, reorder, copy and paste, or multi-select pages to share or delete. Copy pages from one note into another, several at a time. Switch between continuous scroll and a two-page book view, and pinch to zoom in on detail. Each note reopens on the exact page you left off. ORGANIZE EVERYTHING • Nested folders with a folder tree; drag a note onto a folder to move it • Pinned folders, favorites, tags and tag filters • Due dates and reminders on any note, so no deadline slips by • Fast full-text search across titles and content • Sort by date modified, date created, title or deadline • Duplicate any note in one tap • Trash keeps deleted notes for 30 days, so nothing is lost by accident PRIVATE BY DESIGN Lock any note or folder with its own PIN and an optional hint. Locked notes are encrypted on your device with a key derived from your PIN. Noteora works fully offline, needs no sign-up and never uploads your notes anywhere. EXPORT & SHARE Export typed or handwritten notes as pixel-perfect PDFs or plain text, and text notes as Word documents. Export the whole note or only the pages you pick, then share instantly through the native share sheet. • Vector PDF export: razor sharp at any zoom, far smaller files. Convert anything into pdf. MADE FOR iPHONE AND iPAD Light, dark and system themes, a full color palette, adjustable zoom and a guided tour that has you writing within a minute. Available in 12 languages. PERFECT FOR • Students: lecture notes, Cornell notes, homework, exam revision and annotated slides • Professionals: meeting minutes, reports, Word drafts and signed PDFs • Planners and journalers: daily pages, to-do lists, bullet journals and sketches Studying for finals, planning your week or keeping a private diary? Noteora gives typed and handwritten pages the same care. Download it free and take your first note in seconds. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Zebra
A native Markdown notebook for iPhone and iPad that allows offline writing and syncing. It supports diagrams, math formulas, code blocks, and organizational features like folders and wiki links.
- Offline Markdown writing
- Mermaid diagrams and LaTeX math
- Code blocks with syntax coloring
- Folders, nested tags, and wiki links
- iCloud sync with smart text merging
- Customizable themes and fonts
- Note attachments (photos, files)
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A little space for big ideas. Catch a line on the way. Sit down and shape a whole piece. Zebra is a native Markdown notebook for iPhone and iPad. No Zebra account is needed. Notes stay on your device by default, and writing works offline. Write and read in one place Relevant Markdown marks appear where you edit and fold away as the caret leaves. Headings, lists, tasks, quotes, callouts, footnotes and text highlights give the page structure. Set fonts for body text, headings and code, with adjustable size, line height and width. Keep diagrams, math and words together Write Mermaid flowcharts, sequence diagrams, mind maps and more. Add LaTeX formulas inline or as full working. Diagrams and math render offline with editable source. Code blocks and inline code use syntax colors; text highlights mark what matters. Give ideas a place to connect Folders hold projects, nested tags follow subjects, and [[wiki links]] connect notes. Search the library by keyword and find a passage inside a note. Plans grow clearer Edit table cells directly, add or move rows and columns, and adjust alignment. Your tables remain standard Markdown. A theme for your mood 22 light and dark themes coordinate words, code, tables and math. Custom color editing and theme-file import and export are available on Mac. Keep the useful things Insert photos and files as note attachments. Share Markdown or package a note with its attachments. Document conversion and additional exports such as PDF, DOCX and ePub are available on Mac. iCloud sync, smart text merging Use the same Apple Account on iPhone, iPad and Mac. Enable iCloud sync to use your own private database. Concurrent text changes merge automatically, preserving each device’s additions. Write offline; sync continues when you reconnect. Sync is off by default. About note passwords A password controls viewing, not encryption. Note text and attachments remain unencrypted in storage, backups and sync. Notes with a password sync like other notes. Zebra syncs a password check and an optional hint, never the password itself.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ratings volume: Noteora at 4 against Zebra's 1. Noteora also leads on iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Noteora against 5.0 for Zebra. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 4 and 1 respectively.
| Parameter | Noteora | Zebra |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (4 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) |
| Number of ratings | 4 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks | — |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, Mac |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 44 MB | 57 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | PerfectAiStudio | 飞 翟 |
In-app purchases
Noteora
No in-app purchases
Zebra
No in-app purchases





