Comparison

Noteora vs Stilo

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

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • 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
Features
Read full description

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/

About

Stilo

Experience the tactile feel of a typewriter for your digital notes and journaling. Customize your writing environment with different themes, sounds, and fonts. Organize your thoughts with multi-page notebooks and easily export your work.

Highlights
  • Typewriter simulation with sound and haptics
  • Customizable notebook covers, paper, and fonts
  • Multi-page notebook creation
  • Offline writing and local storage
  • Plain text and PDF export
  • JSON library backup and restore
Features
Read full description

Stilo turns your iPhone and iPad into a personal typewriter desk. Capture a passing thought, keep a journal, or settle into a longer piece of writing with tactile keys, textured paper, and the sound of each keystroke. A TYPEWRITER WITH CHARACTER Choose Classic Black or Ivory Electronic, each with its own animated typing mechanism. Turn typing sounds and haptics on or off to suit your writing session. MAKE EACH PAGE YOURS Choose notebook covers, paper styles, and typewriter-inspired fonts. Adjust text size and formatting, and switch between black and red ribbon ink. Try typefaces on sample cards before choosing one for your writing. WRITE WITH YOUR PREFERRED KEYBOARD Use the built-in mechanical keyboard, or switch to your device's system keyboard for other languages and input methods. Move into reading mode when you want to focus on the page. KEEP YOUR THOUGHTS TOGETHER Create multi-page notebooks or start with Quick Note. Add pages, search notebook titles and page text, and use Find to locate words on the current page. Changes save automatically, and Recently Deleted lets you recover deleted notebooks and pages before permanently removing them. EXPORT AND BACK UP Share notebooks as plain text or PDF. Export a JSON library backup to preserve editable notebooks, formatting, and settings. Restore a backup when needed, with a copy of the previous library kept on your device. A PERSONAL SPACE, ON YOUR DEVICE Write offline with no account required. Stilo has no ads, tracking, or analytics SDK. Your notebooks are stored locally, and the app does not send your writing to the developer.

Screenshots

Noteora4 screens
Stilo4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Noteora at Free against Stilo's $0.99. Noteora also leads on ratings volume (4 vs 1) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). Stilo's advantage is update cadence (every 2 days vs every 2 weeks). On rating, ads, 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

Noteora is free to download; Stilo costs $0.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Noteora against 5.0 for Stilo. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 4 and 1 respectively.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Noteora ships an update every 2 weeks, Stilo every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on November 10, 2026 and November 12, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 4 level
Noteora versus Stilo: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterNoteoraStilo
PriceFree — better$0.99
Rating5.0 (4 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings)
Number of ratings4 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeksEvery 2 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree — betterPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size44 MB36 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperPerfectAiStudiojianjie lian

Customer experience

Noteora

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Stilo

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Noteora

No in-app purchases

None

Stilo

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Noteora free?
Noteora is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Stilo free?
Stilo costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Noteora or Stilo?
Noteora and Stilo are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 4 and 1 ratings respectively.
Do Noteora or Stilo have ads?
Neither Noteora nor Stilo shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Noteora or Stilo?
Noteora ships an update every 2 weeks, and Stilo every 2 days. Most recently, Noteora was updated on November 10, 2026 and Stilo on November 12, 2026.

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