Comparison

Recto Notes vs MaxScan

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

Head to head
About

Recto Notes

Features
Read full description

For years I kept separate apps: one for writing, one for reminders and to-do's. They never talked to each other. The idea lived in the notes app, the deadline in the to-do app, and I lived somewhere in between. So I built Recto. All on the same page. You just write a note and if you give a task a date with '@', that task automatically becomes part of your neatly organised Task Center. You work inside a note, focused on a single project. As ideas turn into things that need doing, you capture them right there and give them a date, without breaking your train of thought. The plan grows out of the writing instead of living apart from it. Recto - Inline tasks with dates, captured without leaving the note - Task Center: overdue, today, tomorrow, this week, next week - Native iOS, fast and quiet Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internetservices/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

MaxScan

Features
Read full description

MaxScan turns your iPhone into a fast, private document scanner. Point the camera at a page and it is detected, captured and perspective-corrected automatically — a multi-page document is ready to share as PDF in seconds. MaxScan is free to use: scan as much as you like, with no watermark and no page limit. SCAN ANYTHING • Automatic edge detection with perspective correction • Adjust Frame: fine-tune the crop with draggable corners at any time • Import photos — documents are detected and cropped automatically • Color, grayscale and crisp black & white modes • Add, reorder, rotate and delete pages whenever you like SMART, SEARCHABLE LIBRARY • Text recognition (OCR) on every page — search your documents by their content (Pro) • Smart naming: scans title themselves from the recognized text (Pro) • Automatic categories: receipts, invoices, ID cards, letters and notes (Pro) • Smart filing sorts new scans into matching folders for you (Pro) • Folders, merge, and a Recently Deleted bin with 30-day recovery BUILT FOR RECEIPTS & EXPENSES • Totals, currencies and dates are detected on receipts automatically (Pro) • Export any folder as an expense CSV for spreadsheets and reports (Pro) SIGN & ANNOTATE • Draw your signature or highlight text right on the page (Pro) • Markup stays editable — change filters or rotate without losing it (Pro) SHARE IT YOUR WAY • PDF or JPEG, in three quality sizes • Searchable PDFs — the recognized text travels with the file (Pro) • Password-locked PDFs for sensitive documents (Pro) • “Email to myself” with a single tap • Save to Photos, print via AirPrint, AirDrop, Files and iCloud Drive PRIVATE BY DESIGN • Face ID & passcode lock • No accounts, no ads, no analytics — your documents never leave your device unless you share them FREE AND MAXSCAN PRO • Free: unlimited scanning, edge detection, filters, multi-page documents, folders and PDF or JPEG export — no watermark, no page limit • MaxScan Pro unlocks everything marked (Pro): search inside your scans, receipt totals with CSV export, password-locked PDFs, and signatures • A one-time purchase, not a subscription — restore it any time on your other devices Scan it once, find it forever — with MaxScan.

Screenshots

Recto Notes4 screens
MaxScan4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is iOS requirement: MaxScan at 17.0 against Recto Notes's 27.0. On price, update cadence, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Recto Notes ships an update every 6 days, MaxScan every 9 days. The most recent releases landed on October 6, 2026 and October 4, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 5 level
Recto Notes versus MaxScan: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterRecto NotesMaxScan
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 6 days — betterEvery 9 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhone, Mac, Apple Watch — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS27.017.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size6 MB2 MB
Age rating+44+
DeveloperThijs KremersSensonet

In-app purchases

None

Recto Notes

No in-app purchases

None

MaxScan

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Recto Notes free?
Recto Notes is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is MaxScan free?
MaxScan is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Recto Notes or MaxScan have ads?
Neither Recto Notes nor MaxScan shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Recto Notes or MaxScan?
Recto Notes ships an update every 6 days, and MaxScan every 9 days. Most recently, Recto Notes was updated on October 6, 2026 and MaxScan on October 4, 2026.

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