Comparison

NanNanCat Notes vs 揪筆記 Join Note

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

Head to head
About

NanNanCat Notes

Features
Read full description

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 — just a plain tool. HANDWRITING AND DRAWING Fountain pen, ballpoint, brush and highlighter with freely adjustable width and colour — 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 — 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 — 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 — 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.

About

揪筆記 Join Note

Features
Read full description

Join Note is a handwritten notebook built for studying. Open it and write — no title, no template. Your handwriting is searchable, your notes arrange themselves into a constellation, and your study group can write on the same page with you. WRITE IN ONE TAP • Tap Quick Ink on the Desk for an endless canvas — name it later • Or pick a notebook: blank, grid, lined, dotted or Cornell paper • Import PDF handouts and write right on them, or scan paper with the camera • Add photos, record audio while you write, then tap any stroke to hear that moment again JUST THE INK ORB • No toolbar in the way — just an Ink Orb you can drag anywhere • Tap it for pen, highlighter, eraser, lasso and colors; double-tap for the eraser • Pause at the end of a stroke and wobbly circles, boxes and arrows snap into clean shapes • Pressure-sensitive stylus support SEARCH YOUR HANDWRITING • Handwriting is recognized on your device; search shows the exact line you wrote • Works offline, and matches Traditional and Simplified Chinese alike A CONSTELLATION OF NOTES • Every note is a star; Join AI gathers related notes into galaxies • Hold a star to carry it to another galaxy — recent notes shine bigger • Join AI paints a little icon for each star from what the note is about RECALL CARDS • Lasso part of a note and Join AI writes the questions • Review a few each day in Recall — two minutes is enough WRITE TOGETHER • Share a note with your Read or Not study group and write on the same page at once • See each other's strokes as they're drawn, and who else is in the note CONNECTED TO READ OR NOT • One account for both apps — notes sync between them • Start a study timer in Read or Not and Join Note shows what you're studying • Notes you write during a session are linked to that study record ORGANIZED, EVEN OFFLINE • The Stream lays out every note by day, with folders, tags, favorites, pins and bookmarks • Deleted notes wait in Recently Deleted • Keep writing without a connection — everything syncs when you're back online Join AI features include a free daily allowance. Privacy policy: https://read-or-not.com/joinnote/privacy.html Questions or ideas? info@read-or-not.com

Screenshots

NanNanCat Notes2 screens
揪筆記 Join Note4 screens

Verdict

The call

NanNanCat Notes and 揪筆記 Join Note are too close to call on the numbers: across 6 compared parameters — price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.

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

NanNanCat Notes ships an update daily, 揪筆記 Join Note every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 13, 2026 and October 10, 2026 respectively.

ScorecardNo meaningful differences
NanNanCat Notes versus 揪筆記 Join Note: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterNanNanCat Notes揪筆記 Join Note
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyDaily — betterEvery 2 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS18.017.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size8 MB9 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJunda ChuTIM TING-FENG HU

In-app purchases

None

NanNanCat Notes

No in-app purchases

None

揪筆記 Join Note

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is NanNanCat Notes free?
NanNanCat Notes is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is 揪筆記 Join Note free?
揪筆記 Join Note is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do NanNanCat Notes or 揪筆記 Join Note have ads?
Neither NanNanCat Notes nor 揪筆記 Join Note shows ads.
Which is updated more often, NanNanCat Notes or 揪筆記 Join Note?
NanNanCat Notes ships an update daily, and 揪筆記 Join Note every 2 days. Most recently, NanNanCat Notes was updated on October 13, 2026 and 揪筆記 Join Note on October 10, 2026.

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