Notelit vs Mena
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Notelit
A fast and beautiful notebook app for handwriting, typing, sketching, and organizing notes. Offers various drawing tools, text formatting, and organizational features. Syncs across devices and supports multiple languages.
- Handwriting with Apple Pencil support
- Nine drawing tools with custom colors and widths
- Text formatting with Markdown preview
- Customizable page styles and sizes
- Organize notes into colorful files
- iCloud sync across devices
- Apple Watch companion app
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Notelit is a beautiful, fast notebook for your iPhone and iPad — for handwriting, typing, sketching, and keeping everything you learn in one place. Write with Apple Pencil the way you would on paper. Notelit uses PencilKit, so pressure, tilt, and palm rejection just work — while your fingers scroll and select. DRAW WITH REAL INK • Nine tools: pen, pencil, fountain pen, monoline, marker, highlighter, crayon, and watercolor • Any color and stroke width • Two erasers: rub out ink, or lift a whole stroke at a touch TYPE AND FORMAT • Text boxes with bold, italic, underline, color, and alignment • Every font iOS ships • Live Markdown preview — headings, bold, lists MAKE EVERY PAGE YOURS • Page styles: blank, ruled, or grid • Page sizes: fit the app, A4, Letter, or square • Drop in shapes, photos, files, and sticker packs STAY ORGANIZED • Group notes into colorful files with custom icons • Pin your favorites to the top • Search across notes and subjects • List or grid layouts EVERYWHERE YOU ARE • Save to iCloud and sync across your devices • Home Screen widgets for your files and a quick note • Apple Watch companion • Custom app icons SPEAKS YOUR LANGUAGE • 14 languages built in, with full right-to-left support for Arabic and Urdu — switch instantly, no restart Notelit is a student-built app, made with care. Start free, and unlock iCloud backup, stickers, every font, custom icons, widgets, and more with Notelit Pro. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Mena
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Private visual notes for iPad. Build mind maps on an infinite canvas, study with FSRS flashcards, and sync through your private iCloud storage — no account required. Mena is an infinite canvas and visual second brain for iPad. Sketch ideas, build mind maps, embed media, and turn any board into spaced-repetition flashcards you actually review — no account required. INFINITE CANVAS Pan, zoom, and draw with no page limits. Pastel sticky notes, shapes and connectors for mind maps and flowcharts, frames, tables, and 19 polygon shapes. Apple Pencil support with Draw to Shape — sketch a rough shape and Mena snaps it perfect. EVERY KIND OF CONTENT Drop anything onto your board: sticky notes, rich text and Markdown, code blocks with syntax highlighting, images, PDFs with full page navigation, video, audio files, and live maps. Record voice memos directly on the canvas — ink drawn during recording is seekable by playback time. Web embeds and URL preview cards keep sources right where you need them. PAPER TEMPLATES Note pages come in blank, lined, dotted, and grid. Change one page or every blank page at once, and choose auto, light, or dark paper independently of your system theme. The same page renders identically in the reader, sidebar, overview grid, library thumbnail, and exported PDF. STUDY WITH FSRS Turn any deck board into spaced-repetition flashcards. Mena uses FSRS — the most accurate scheduling algorithm available — to surface cards exactly when you need them. Again / Hard / Good / Easy grading with interval preview. Cloze deletion with one tap. Auto-generate flashcards from your notes on-device, no network needed. STUDY DASHBOARD Track your streak, retention rate, and 14-day due forecast. See today's review count at a glance. ANKI COMPATIBLE Import any .apkg file directly. Mena imports your cards, scheduling data, embedded images, and cloze deletions. Export any deck back as .apkg and study it in Anki on any device. SLIDES & PRESENTATION Draw a frame around anything and it becomes a slide. Open the filmstrip panel, jump to any slide, present full-screen, or export the whole deck as a crisp PDF. 6 BOARD TYPES Board — infinite whiteboard. Note — vertical scroll page. Journal — one auto-created page per day. Atlas — a spatial map of all your boards. Collection — a live saved query across all boards. Deck — FSRS study deck with review session. HOME SCREEN WIDGETS 4 widget types for home screen and lock screen: New Board (one-tap creation), Board Preview (live thumbnail of any board), Today's Study (due count, streak, retention), and Deck (per-deck stats). All fully configurable. SHARE FROM ANYWHERE A share extension catches text, links, images, PDFs, and videos from any other app — tap Share → Mena, pick a board, done. PRIVATE iCLOUD SYNC Every board, element, and attachment syncs across your Apple devices through your private iCloud CloudKit database. No Mena account. No third-party cloud server stores your Mena content. Flashcard generation runs on-device. Optional web embeds and Unsplash search connect only when you choose to use them. Mena fits how your brain actually works — capture, connect, and remember. FREE & PRO Free covers 3 boards, 3 notes, 3 documents and 5 decks; journals and system boards are never limited. Mena Pro lifts every limit — Pro Monthly and Pro Yearly renew automatically, Pro Lifetime is a one-time purchase. Prices appear in the app before you buy, and you can restore purchases at any time. Privacy Policy: https://apps.cihat.dev/mena/privacy-policy/ Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Mena at every 3 days against Notelit's every 9 days. On price, 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
Both are free to download. Notelit sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month and Mena sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Notelit ships an update every 9 days, Mena every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 6, 2026 and October 14, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Notelit | Mena |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 1 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 9 days | Every 3 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 18 — better | 18.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 14 MB | 48 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Ali Alraeesi | Cihat Salik |
In-app purchases
Notelit
- Notelit Lite Monthly$2.991 Month
- Notelit Pro Monthly$4.991 Month
- Notelit Lite Yearly$9.991 Year
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- Notelit Pro Yearly$14.991 Year
Mena
- Mena Pro - Monthly$3.991 Month
- Mena Pro - Yearly$29.991 Year
- Mena Pro - Lifetime$79.99









