Comparison

Daypen vs Nib

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

Head to head
About

Daypen

Features
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Take notes. Daypen gets you ready for the exam. Take notes with Apple Pencil or your finger on iPad and iPhone. Daypen Learn turns them into a summary, flashcards and a quiz, and your planner keeps lectures, deadlines and revision in one week. One purchase covers your iPhone, your iPad and your Mac. HANDWRITTEN NOTEBOOKS • Apple Pencil or finger, with fountain pen, ballpoint, pencil, highlighter and crayon • 380 templates: Cornell notes, lined and grid paper, 2026–2027 calendars and exam planners • 137 covers, stickers and labels • Handwriting to text, and search inside your handwriting • Your notebooks in sync on iPhone and iPad, and shared notebooks you write in together, live • Record audio while you write, then tap your writing to hear that moment • Bring in a PDF, or add one to any notebook, and write on it: slides, past papers, worksheets • Write a formula by hand and Daypen solves it step by step • Shapes that complete themselves, a laser pointer, and a lasso that turns writing into a task or a calendar entry Your first launch opens with a ready Anatomy notebook and a Daypen Guide, so you can try everything at once. DAYPEN LEARN Pick a page, a notebook or everything you wrote. Daypen Learn makes a summary, key terms, flashcards and a quiz from your own notes. Cards you miss come back sooner, the ones you know wait longer. Take a timed practice exam from your sets and see the three topics to study next. Set a daily goal, keep a streak, follow your scores, and share a quiz as an image with your study group. STUDY ROOMS Study with friends wherever they are: one shared timer, what everyone is working on, and who is focusing or on a break. A PLANNER FOR YOUR WEEK Block out lectures, study sessions and deadlines. Drag a block to move it, tap the circle to finish it, and let it repeat. Get a reminder on time or when you arrive somewhere. Any plan can have its own notebook page. SUMMARISE Record a lecture, open an audio file, a PDF or a Word document, or share a link. Daypen gives you the summary, the key points, the to-dos and the dates, and every line drops into your plan with one tap. HABITS Reading, revision, sleep, the gym. Tap a ring to complete it, watch the streak grow, and see the week, month and year in charts. AN ASSISTANT THAT KNOWS YOUR PLANS Ask what is due, how the week went, or what a plan still needs. It reads only your own plans, habits and notes. THE VAULT Expiry dates with reminders, passwords and IBANs, opened with Face ID or a code of its own. Passwords and IBANs stay in your device's keychain. TOGETHER One book with your flatmates, partner or family: a shared list, habits you keep as a group, and a spending log you can fill from a photo of the receipt. ALSO • Widgets for the home and lock screen, and Siri • A record button in Control Center • Your Apple Calendar events beside your own plans • 28 languages FREE AND PRO Free for good: three notebooks with the basic papers and every pen, the planner, the list, notes, five habits, one shared book, the widgets, and your first five questions to the assistant. After the tour you get a free sample quiz. Daypen Pro adds unlimited notebooks, the full template library and every cover, handwriting to text and handwriting search, Daypen Learn, PDF and audio in notebooks, Summarise, the vault, the unlimited assistant, unlimited habits, and backup across devices. One purchase covers every iPhone, iPad and Mac on the same Apple Account: • A monthly or yearly subscription • Or a one-time lifetime purchase, which also covers every feature added to Pro from here on Payment is charged to your Apple Account. A subscription renews automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the period ends; manage or cancel it in your Apple Account settings. Lifetime is a single payment and does not renew. Terms of Use: https://gepgo.com/daypen/en/terms/ Privacy Policy: https://gepgo.com/daypen/en/privacy/

About

Nib

A private writing app for notes and longer documents with rich formatting and linking capabilities. It offers secure, on-device storage and optional encrypted cloud sync for cross-device access. Customize themes, text styles, and set reminders for your writing.

Highlights
  • Card-based note and page library
  • Rich text formatting
  • Internal note linking
  • On-device storage
  • Optional encrypted sync
  • Customizable themes and text styles
  • Import from other note apps
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Nib is a writing app that stays out of your way. Nib opens on your library: your notes and pages as cards. Notes are for catching a thought: tap New note and start typing. Pages are for real writing, with headings, an outline you can jump through, images and tables. File notes and pages in folders by dragging them onto one, or give them a category in a colour. Three of each are free. Format as you would in Notes: checklists, bulleted and numbered lists, bold, italic, underline and highlight, from the bar above the keyboard. Link notes as you write: type [[ and pick one. Each note lists the ones that link to it. Catch a thought from anywhere. Send text or a link to Nib from the share sheet, add a note with Shortcuts, or start one from a widget on your Home Screen. Set a reminder on any note, and Nib tells you at the time you chose. Bring your notes with you: import from Simplenote, Bear, Evernote or Notesnook, or any Markdown. Everything stays on your device unless you share a draft or turn on sync. There are no accounts, no ads, no analytics and no tracking. Lock Nib with Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode. Version history goes back 30 days, so you can return to what you wrote before. Pin what matters, and restore what you trash. Share a draft by link, read-only, for a week. Set a daily word goal and keep a streak. Turn on the style check, and Nib counts what might read better: filler, passive voice, clichés and long sentences. Make it yours: light, dark or one of seven more themes, and in Settings → Customize, the size, width, spacing and typeface of your text. Your writing is never locked in. Export any page as Markdown, or save a full backup of your whole library, free forever. NIB PLUS • Your library on your iPhone, iPad and Mac, with encrypted sync and a sync code only you hold. The server stores copies it cannot read. • An encrypted backup off your device, restorable with your sync code. • Share drafts for up to 90 days, with a password if you like, and more than one at a time. Readers can leave notes that only you see. • A vault for chosen notes, with a passcode of its own. • Export to Word, PDF and HTML. • All your version history, not just the last 30 days. • A goal and deadline for any document, timed sprints, and a calendar of what you wrote. • The style check's suggestions, underlined in your text. • Three more themes: Purple Green, Alien Pink and drcl. • As many folders and categories as you like. One subscription covers Nib on your iPhone, iPad and Mac when you use the same Apple Account. Nib Plus is an auto-renewing subscription, monthly or yearly, with a free trial for new subscribers. Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase or at the end of the trial. The subscription renews automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel it in your App Store account settings. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://nibprivacy.com/privacy/

Screenshots

Daypen4 screens
Nib4 screens

Verdict

The call

Daypen and Nib 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. Daypen sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and Nib sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Daypen ships an update every 3 days, Nib every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 26, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

ScorecardNo meaningful differences
Daypen versus Nib: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDaypenNib
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Number of ratings—1 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 days — betterEvery 5 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
Monetization—Freemium
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple WatchiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac
Requires iOS15.115.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size70 MB7 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAli CanAndrew Neitsch

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Daypen

Subscriptions2
  • Daypen Pro$4.991 Month
  • Daypen Pro Year$29.991 Year
One-time1
  • Daypen Pro Lifetime$99.99
2 purchases

Nib

Subscriptions2
  • Nib Plus Monthly14 Days trial$3.991 Month
  • Nib Plus Yearly14 Days trial$29.991 Year

Questions

Is Daypen free?
Daypen is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Nib free?
Nib is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Daypen or Nib have ads?
Neither Daypen nor Nib shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Daypen or Nib?
Daypen ships an update every 3 days, and Nib every 5 days. Most recently, Daypen was updated on October 26, 2026 and Nib on October 31, 2026.

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