Study On vs Pencora
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Study On
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Your perfect study mate, Study On! The most intuitive and complete study planner app for everyone running toward their goals. Gather your scattered school timetables, academy schedules, and daily assignments all in one place! Our smart timer keeps you from getting distracted, and the ranking system with friends will definitely keep you motivated. With Study On, boring study sessions turn into an exciting quest. [ Study On's Special Core Features ] 1. Smart Calendar & Timetable at a Glance • Clearly separate and manage your regular school classes and academy/tutoring schedules. • Flexibly adjust everything from your macro exam plans to today's detailed timeline with support for monthly, weekly, and daily views. • Easily register and manage recurring academy schedules or regular study sessions all at once. 2. Block Distractions! Pure Focus Timer • Accurately measure your "pure" focus time today with our intuitive stopwatch and timer features. • Helps you put your smartphone away and completely immerse yourself in your studies. • Your daily measured focus time is meticulously recorded in the calendar, allowing you to review and reflect on your study patterns anytime. 3. ZERO Missed Assignments! Today's Quests & D-Days • Automatically categorizes all approaching deadlines—like performance assessments, school homework, academy assignments, and materials to prepare—into the "Today's Quests" list. • Maintain your focus by checking the remaining days for important midterms, finals, mock exams, and college entrance exams every day through the D-Day banner on the main dashboard. • Convert what you've learned into long-term memory with the review quest feature, tailored perfectly to the Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve. 4. Weekly Study Rankings with Friends • Register study mates in real-time by sharing your unique friend code. • A real-time TOP 3 ranking among friends is displayed on your dashboard based on this week's "accumulated study time." • Get twice the motivation and positive study stimulation compared to studying alone! 5. Customize Your Own Aesthetic Planner • Earn coins and EXP (Experience) by checking in daily, completing quests, and achieving your target study times! • Use your collected coins in the shop to unlock various planner background textures (like grid paper, vintage drawing paper, etc.). • Decorate your one-and-only, unique planner with a variety of free custom fonts and aesthetic stickers. 6. Perfect Sync Between iPhone & iPad (iCloud Support) • Lightly check your quests on your iPhone while on the go, and set up in-depth study plans on your iPad's wide screen at your desk! • Supports real-time syncing between devices via Apple iCloud and Firebase, providing the optimal, seamless study environment anytime, anywhere. 7. Quick Memo to Capture Brilliant Ideas • Provides a "Quick Memo" canvas accessible right from the home screen without any complex steps. • Instantly type and safely store ideas that suddenly pop up while studying, important appointments, or urgent notes. Study On sincerely cheers on your fierce and hardworking days. Download now and start your very own shining study record!
Pencora
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Pencora is paper that thinks: a fast, private notebook for serious study that keeps up with your hand and helps you find, build, and protect what you learn. Everything is free. No subscription. No ads. No account. FIND ANYTHING YOU WROTE Your handwriting becomes searchable as you write—on your iPad, without uploading your notes. Search across every notebook, jump straight to the highlighted word, and find text inside added photos too. Pencora supports English, Russian, Ukrainian, Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Portuguese, and handles messy handwriting, close matches, and typos. WRITE WITHOUT THE LAG A custom Metal engine draws each stroke immediately with pressure, tilt, hover, and Apple Pencil Pro squeeze. Even large notebooks stay smooth. Prefer a finger? You can write with that too. MOVE IN WITHOUT STARTING OVER Export your notebooks from Goodnotes, Notability, or any other note app as PDF. Pencora detects the paper ruling, keeps pages in order, and converts handwriting stored as vector ink into editable strokes instead of locking it inside a picture. Large documents open quickly and keep converting in the background. TYPE IT. GET YOUR HANDWRITING. Write a set of sample words once—or pick a ready-made hand—then type or paste Markdown, lists, and LaTeX formulas. The on-device handwriting model places them on the page as real, erasable strokes in your style, following the ruling of the paper. Available in English and Russian. Nothing is uploaded for generation. MATH THAT STAYS LIVE Add interactive graph planes directly to a page. Plot functions, implicit curves, points, and tables; import CSV; or draw a table by hand and let Pencora read it. Ink written on the plane stays attached to its coordinates. Build exact geometry beside your proof: points, segments, lines, circles, polygons, curves, midpoints, perpendicular and angle bisectors, parallels, tangents, intersections, reflections, and triangle centers. Drag a point and every dependent construction moves with it. Measure in real millimeters and label points in your own handwriting. THE TOOLS A REAL NOTEBOOK NEEDS • Lined, grid, dotted, or PDF paper • Shape snapping for lines, circles, and polygons • Highlighter, study tape, and scribble-to-erase • A lasso that moves, scales, rotates, and changes stroke width • A zoom-write strip for small, neat writing • Calligraphy nibs and an eyedropper • Markdown text boxes and live formulas • True-vector PDF export that stays crisp at any zoom • Folders, tags, and tabs • An infinite board with a minimap for every notebook NEVER LOSE A PAGE Connect Google Drive for automatic daily backups to your own account. Pencora keeps the five newest copies and can restore your library on a new iPad. It uses Google's limited-access permission, so it sees only its own backup files—not the rest of your Drive. You can also export your entire library into one backup file whenever you want. YOUR NOTEBOOKS ON IPHONE Connect the same Google Drive on your iPhone to read the notebooks from your iPad's latest backup, with folders and names intact. You can also open any .handynotes notebook someone sends you. Editing stays on iPad; on iPhone, notebooks are read-only. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Recognition, search, and handwriting generation run on your device. Pencora has no accounts, ads, or tracking, and never sells your data. Anonymous usage statistics can be turned off in Profile, and sharing handwriting samples for research is strictly opt-in. Your notes are not the product. Built by one developer who uses handwritten notes every day. Your feedback helps decide what gets built next.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Pencora at none against Study On's shown. Study On's advantage is update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 6 weeks). On price, in-app purchases, device support and iOS requirement 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.
Study On ships an update every 2 weeks, Pencora every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 6, 2026 and October 3, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Study On | Pencora |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks — better | Every 6 weeks |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 17.6 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 113 MB | 144 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Moon Su Choi | Anastasia Naumkina |
In-app purchases
Study On
No in-app purchases
Pencora
No in-app purchases









