Comparison

Inkroll vs BookWrite

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

Head to head
About

Inkroll

Features
Read full description

Inkroll is the companion app for people who love writing by hand but hate losing their notes. Keep a digital index of everything in your physical notebooks (page numbers, titles, notes, tags, and photos) so you can always find what you wrote, even years later. -- WHY INKROLL -- Your paper notebooks are irreplaceable. But finding a specific idea, quote, or sketch from six months ago is another story. Inkroll solves this by giving each notebook entry a searchable digital record, linked to the exact page in the exact notebook where it lives. -- FEATURES -- • Multiple Notebooks — organise entries across as many notebooks as you own, each with its own colour. • Page Entries — log the page number, a title, a note, and tags for any page worth remembering. • Full-Text Search — instantly find entries by title, note content, or tag name across all your notebooks. • Tags — colour-coded tags let you group related entries across different notebooks. • Widget — glance at your most recent entry straight from your Home Screen (small and medium sizes). • Quick Entry — add an entry to your default notebook without leaving the Home Screen widget. -- INKROLL PRO -- One-time purchase. No subscription, ever. • Photo Attachments — photograph the page and attach it to your entry. Tap to view full-screen. • iCloud Sync — your entire index syncs automatically across every iPhone and iPad on your Apple ID. • Export as PDF — generate a clean, printable PDF of any notebook's entries. • Export as CSV — export a spreadsheet-ready file for use in Excel, Numbers, or any data tool. -- DESIGNED FOR ANALOG LOVERS -- Inkroll doesn't try to replace your notebooks. It makes them smarter. Write with your favourite pen, on your favourite paper — then take ten seconds to log the page in Inkroll. That's it. No subscriptions. No cloud lock-in. Your data lives in your iCloud account.

About

BookWrite

This app transforms your writing experience by allowing you to craft books with customizable aesthetics, from cover design to page style. It offers tools for organizing stories, drawing, illustrating, and exporting your work in various formats. It also includes features to help you maintain writing habits and ensure your work remains private.

Highlights
  • Customizable book aesthetics (cover, pages, pen)
  • Locked diary with Face ID/passcode
  • Drawing and illustration tools
  • Story organization (plot board, story bible)
  • Export to PDF, EPUB, TXT, audiobook
  • Writing goal tracking and prompts
  • Privacy-focused with no ads or tracking
Features
Read full description

Step through the door of an old bookshop and write. Open ScribeMe and you're standing at the door of a bookshop. Push it open, step inside, and your library is waiting on the shelf - every book you've written, standing spine-out, in whatever order you like. MAKE A BOOK, NOT A DOCUMENT Choose how a book feels before you write a word: hardcover, leather, cloth or paperback; the colour of the boards; cream, white or parchment pages; and the pen in your hand - fountain pen, ballpoint, pencil or marker, each with its own ink and weight of line. Pick a typeface with real character. Every cover gets its own grain, so no two books on your shelf look alike. Tall, square and wide picture-book shapes are all here. A DIARY THAT LOCKS Any book can be locked with Face ID or your passcode - a private diary that stays private. Night pages give you dark paper and light ink for writing after bedtime. WRITE, DRAW, ILLUSTRATE Real styling: bold, italics, centred lines, scene breaks. Draw straight onto the page with Apple Pencil or a fingertip, and add photo illustrations wherever you like. Draw your own cover, too. ORGANIZE A REAL STORY Chapters with a contents sheet. A plot board that lays your pages out at a glance. A story bible that interviews your characters and remembers your places. Story templates - three acts, hero's journey, fairy tale, mystery - that scaffold the chapters for you. Find and replace, and search across the whole shelf. TAKE IT OFF THE DEVICE Export a typeset PDF with cover, dedication, contents and illustration plates. Print a fold-at-home booklet. Make an EPUB ebook, a plain-text file, or an audiobook read aloud. Back up your whole library to a single file and carry it to another device. KEEP GOING Daily goals, streaks, milestones and writing sprints. A home-screen widget with your shelf and your streak. An evening writing prompt if you want one. Read a finished book with a real page curl, or have it read to you. YOURS, AND PRIVATE No account, no sign-up, no ads, no tracking, no subscriptions, and nothing is ever collected. Your books live on your device. Turn on iCloud sync (beta) and they sync through your own private iCloud - still nobody else's. Automatic version snapshots mean nothing you write is ever really lost. Everything in ScribeMe is included, free. It always will be. Made for iPhone and iPad.

Screenshots

Inkroll4 screens
BookWrite2 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: BookWrite at none against Inkroll's 1. BookWrite also leads on iOS requirement (18.1 vs 26.0). 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. Inkroll sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. BookWrite asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Inkroll ships an update every 2 weeks, BookWrite every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 10, 2026 and October 8, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 7 level
Inkroll versus BookWrite: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterInkrollBookWrite
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Number of ratings—1 — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeks — betterEvery 3 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
Monetization—Free
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS26.018.1 — better
Further details — not scored
Size14 MB5 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperALEXANDRU CORNEL CHIREARichard Wheatley

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Inkroll

One-time1
  • Inkroll Pro$4.99
None

BookWrite

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Inkroll free?
Inkroll is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is BookWrite free?
BookWrite is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Inkroll or BookWrite have ads?
Neither Inkroll nor BookWrite shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Inkroll or BookWrite?
Inkroll ships an update every 2 weeks, and BookWrite every 3 weeks. Most recently, Inkroll was updated on October 10, 2026 and BookWrite on October 8, 2026.

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