Comparison

Note Weaver vs FairScan

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

Head to head
About

Note Weaver

Features
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Note Weaver is both a Rich Text and a Markdown editor with a notes library to organize your notes. Note Weaver is designed for people who want a calm, capable writing space that still respects the private nature of personal notes, journals, technical material, research, and working drafts. You can write in rich text or Markdown, organize notes into folders, embed images, preview pages, and export documents, while keeping your library local-first. You will receive a license via email after starting a subscription. A single license enables you to synchronize up to five devices across Mac, iOS, among others (see website). No further purchase required. Authentication when using Note Weaver is performed once each day. If you go offline and Note Weaver cannot validate your license, you have a 30-day grace period, so you won't be locked out of your notes when visiting remote locations. From Version 1.0.3 on the Desktop versions, included in your subscription, you can now import notes from Bear, Obsidian, and OneNote, with auto-tagging to make organizing imported notes a breeze! Change History Version 1.1.0 (July 23, 2026) * Added authenticated local-network synchronization for devices on the same network, while preserving end-to-end encryption. * Note Weaver automatically falls back to the secure Fiction Loom relay when a direct local connection is unavailable. * Improved synchronization across multiple licensed devices, including more reliable change distribution, inventory verification, and library repair. * Updated backend components for better stability and performance. V1.0.5 (July 14, 2026) * Introduced a load-balanced synchronization relay architecture for improved reliability, capacity, and performance. * Added a verified, resumable onboarding process that gives newly added or reinstalled devices a complete copy of the note library and embedded assets. * Strengthened synchronization with inventory reconciliation, causal version tracking, improved multi-device convergence, and more accurate conflict detection. * Improved desktop background synchronization and made the desktop synchronization helper part of the standard setup. * Rebuilt the rich-text editor using Tiptap for more reliable rich-text and Markdown editing. * Significantly improved image handling, including drag-and-drop insertion, touch resizing, percentage-based sizing, inline images, page-edge anchoring, alignment, and Fit to Page Width. * Added OneNote import support on Windows, including imported-note tagging and color-assisted organization. * Improved Bear imports with hierarchical tag support, automatic folder and subfolder creation, and better imported-image sizing. * Added color-coded tags and folder highlighting to help organize imported and tagged notes. * Improved page layout, page breaks, text alignment, preview stability, and persistence of document-specific settings. * Reorganized Editor Settings and Page Settings, with additional fonts and improved support for Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and other Unicode text. * Improved dual-sidebar keyboard navigation, selection visibility, scrolling, mobile sizing, and multi-note movement. * Improved folder creation by supporting nested folders and preventing accidental duplicate folder names. * Added reliable restoration of deleted folders, their subfolders, and contained notes. * Improved conflict review by keeping the currently reviewed conflict copies visible. * Improved startup performance, responsiveness, and keyboard behavior. * Improved mobile sidebar resizing, image controls, and touch interaction. * Updated subscription-management routing. * Updated and expanded the bundled Note Weaver User Manual. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

FairScan

Features
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No weekly subscription. FairScan turns paper into a clean PDF in seconds, and everything, including reading the text, happens on your iPhone. Your documents never leave the device. WHAT IT DOES โ€ข Point and shoot. The edges are found and straightened for you. โ€ข Capture many pages in one go. Reorder, rotate, retake, delete. โ€ข Five looks for the page: original, color boost, grayscale, black & white, high contrast. โ€ข One PDF, at the size you choose: light for email, standard, or high quality. โ€ข Read the printed text (Japanese, English, Chinese, Korean). Copy it, search it, or export it as TXT. โ€ข Keep everything in folders, mark favorites, and search by name or by the words inside a document. PRICING YOU CAN READ IN ONE LINE There is no weekly plan. Monthly, yearly, or a one-time purchase. You pick, and the price is on screen before you buy. Free: 5 new documents a month, up to 10 pages each. No ads. No watermark. Every feature unlocked, text recognition included and unlimited. Pro: unlimited documents and unlimited pages. Documents you have already made stay open and shareable even if you stop paying. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No account. No sign-in. No cloud of ours. Scanning, filtering, text recognition and PDF creation all run on your device, so the app works in airplane mode. GOOD FOR Receipts you file each month. Forms for school or the city office. Contracts and invoices worth keeping. Handouts you want as a single file. Anything printed you would rather have as text. Requires iOS 18 or later. iPhone and iPad. Terms and privacy Monthly and yearly are auto-renewing subscriptions. Unless canceled at least 24 hours before the period ends, they renew for the same period. You can cancel any time in your Apple ID settings. The one-time purchase does not renew. https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ https://fillapps.com/privacy/

Screenshots

Note Weaver4 screens
FairScan4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: FairScan at none against Note Weaver's 2. Note Weaver's advantage is iOS requirement (15.0 vs 18.0). On price, update cadence, ads and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price ยท Rating ยท Positive reviews ยท Number of ratings ยท Update frequency ยท Ads ยท In-app purchases ยท Monetization ยท Best chart rank ยท Devices ยท Requires iOS

CostPrice ยท In-app purchases ยท Ads ยท Monetization

Both are free to download. Note Weaver sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $5.99 per month. FairScan asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Note Weaver ships an update weekly, FairScan every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 4, 2026 and October 12, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences ยท 4 level
Note Weaver versus FairScan: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterNote WeaverFairScan
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyWeeklyEvery 5 days โ€” better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo โ€” better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod โ€” betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.0 โ€” better18.0
Further details โ€” not scored
Size14 MB6 MB
Age rating4++4
DeveloperMartin Bailey Photography K.K.Seiya.k

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Note Weaver

Subscriptions2
  • Note Weaver Monthly Subscription$5.991 Month
  • Note Weaver Annual Subscription$59.991 Year
None

FairScan

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Note Weaver free?
Note Weaver is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is FairScan free?
FairScan is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Note Weaver or FairScan have ads?
Neither Note Weaver nor FairScan shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Note Weaver or FairScan?
Note Weaver ships an update weekly, and FairScan every 5 days. Most recently, Note Weaver was updated on October 4, 2026 and FairScan on October 12, 2026.

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