Comparison

Pattio vs NanNanCat Notes

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

Head to head
About

Pattio

Features
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Your digital shoebox. An endless cork board where you toss notes, photos, links and lists, move them with your finger like real paper, and group them however you like. No structure forced on you: save it first, sort it later β€” if you ever feel like it. EVERYTHING GOES IN, AND IT GOES IN EASILY Stickies, notes, images, links, checklists, folders, polls, countdowns, expenses, habits, albums, files, videos, places, songs, document scans, notebooks, documents, voice notes, drawings, events, calendars, reminders, doors into other boards and today's weather. Twenty-five kinds of card, every one of them pinned down. Share into it from any app, drag things in from Finder or your photo library, or just paste: Pattio works out on its own whether what you brought is a photo, a link or text. IT MOVES LIKE PAPER The canvas pans and zooms with your fingers. Cards drag, rotate with two fingers and snap straight when they get close. Tap a note and it opens for writing, big and centred, with the colour palette beside it; close it and it goes back to its spot on the board. Photos and folders open big from exactly where they sit, the way iOS apps open, and close again by following your finger. ZONES, NOT FOLDERS Paint a coloured area, give it a name, and drop things into it: whatever lands inside is filed automatically, and whatever leaves is unfiled. AND WHEN YOU WANT ORDER A masonry grid of two, four or six columns, filtered by kind, by folder or by zone. Search everywhere. Export the whole board as a PDF. ON IPHONE, IPAD AND MAC A real native menu bar and proper keyboard shortcuts on Mac. Drawing with Apple Pencil on iPad. Home screen widgets. Eight app icons to choose from. Dark mode with a warm night palette, not a grey one. IN YOUR LANGUAGE Thirteen languages: Catalan, Spanish, English, French, German, Italian, Dutch, European and Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, and Simplified and Traditional Chinese. IT WORKS WITH NO ACCOUNT Pattio is complete on your device without signing up for anything. An account is optional and only does one thing: sync. Private boards travel end-to-end encrypted, with a key that is yours alone and that we do not hold. No ads and no trackers. The only analytics are pseudonymous β€” a random per-install identifier, no account and no content β€” never read what you write, and switch off in Privacy. AND IF YOU WANT, IT’S SHARED Invite people to a board or hand out a link: whoever opens it can look, vote and add notes right in the browser, with nothing to install and nothing to pay. (A shared board has to be readable in your guest’s browser, so that one stops being encrypted. We would rather say so.) THE PLANS The free plan is enough to use Pattio for real: one board, seventeen kinds of card, sync, sharing and 50 MB in the cloud. The paid plans open up the rest: as many boards as you like, all twenty-five kinds of card, and more space. Β· Free β€” 1 board Β· 17 kinds of card Β· 50 MB Β· Plus β€” unlimited boards Β· every kind Β· 5 GB Β· Pro β€” unlimited boards Β· every kind Β· 15 GB Optional auto-renewable subscription. Payment is charged to your Apple Account when you confirm the purchase, and it renews only if you do not cancel it at least 24 h before the end of the period. You can manage or cancel it in your Apple Account settings. And if you ever leave, you take it all with you: one button downloads a ZIP with every board as JSON and every original file, byte for byte. Free, always, on the free plan too, and even after a subscription lapses. β€” Terms of use: https://pattio.app/en/terms Privacy: https://pattio.app/en/privacy

About

NanNanCat Notes

Features
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NanNanCat Notes is a handwriting notes app, made by a university student in Taiwan and named after their cat, NanNan. No subscription, no in-app purchases, no locked features, no ads β€” just a plain tool. HANDWRITING AND DRAWING Fountain pen, ballpoint, brush and highlighter with freely adjustable width and colour β€” save your favourites. Shape recognition, a ruler, sticky notes, washi tape, stickers and text boxes are included. Inserted photos can be cropped, resized and rotated. RECORDING WITH INK REPLAY Record a lecture or meeting, and optionally capture the timing of your writing β€” during playback the ink reappears stroke by stroke in time with the audio. Choose the built-in mic or a connected headset. THREE KINDS OF DOCUMENT Besides paged notebooks, there's a whiteboard for thinking out loud and a text document that exports as Markdown. All three share the same folders and search. SYNCS ACROSS YOUR DEVICES Sign in to the same Apple Account and notes written on iPad appear on iPhone by themselves β€” no account to create, no sync button to press. Or keep everything local with iCloud turned off entirely. HANDWRITING SEARCH AND ON-DEVICE AI Search your own handwriting. Summarising, proofreading and translating all run on the device β€” your notes are never sent to any server. PRIVATE AND SECURE Set a passcode for the app and unlock it with Face ID or Touch ID. No ads, no tracking, no third-party analytics. TAKE IT ANYWHERE Export notebooks as PDF or as a re-editable file format, and text documents as Markdown. The Files app always has an up-to-date PDF of every notebook. Available in Traditional Chinese, English, Japanese and Korean. Questions or suggestions? Reach us on Discord or by email.

Screenshots

Pattio4 screens
NanNanCat Notes2 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: NanNanCat Notes at none against Pattio's 4. NanNanCat Notes also leads on update cadence (daily vs every 2 weeks). Pattio's advantage is iOS requirement (16.4 vs 18.0). On price, ads and device support there is nothing between them.

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

CostPrice Β· In-app purchases Β· Ads Β· Monetization

Both are free to download. Pattio sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. NanNanCat Notes asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Pattio ships an update every 2 weeks, NanNanCat Notes daily. The most recent releases landed on October 31, 2026 and November 6, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences Β· 3 level
Pattio versus NanNanCat Notes: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPattioNanNanCat Notes
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeksDaily β€” better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo β€” better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS16.4 β€” better18.0
Further details β€” not scored
Size81 MB8 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperJoan Cama RibotJunda Chu

In-app purchases

4 purchases

Pattio

Subscriptions4
  • Plus7 Days trial$2.991 Month
  • Pro7 Days trial$4.991 Month
  • Plus7 Days trial$22.991 Year
Show 1 more
  • Pro7 Days trial$44.991 Year
None

NanNanCat Notes

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Pattio free?
Pattio is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is NanNanCat Notes free?
NanNanCat Notes is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Pattio or NanNanCat Notes have ads?
Neither Pattio nor NanNanCat Notes shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Pattio or NanNanCat Notes?
Pattio ships an update every 2 weeks, and NanNanCat Notes daily. Most recently, Pattio was updated on October 31, 2026 and NanNanCat Notes on November 6, 2026.

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