TinyBlackboard vs BoardNotes
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
TinyBlackboard
Capture inspiration with a simple, elegant drawing app. Recreate childhood blackboard memories with chalk effects, generate painting replays, and explore colorful creations. Ideal for fun, educational art or creative signage.
- Simulates blackboard effect with chalk fonts
- Multiple blackboard styles
- Finger-based eraser function
- Free brush color selection
- Drawing playback and video generation
- Neon flickering animations
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A Simple, Elegant Drawing App, Capture Inspiration Anytime, Anywhere. Do you remember secretly writing the name of someone you liked on the blackboard as a child, writing beautiful poems, and counting down to exams? The beautiful sunset illuminated the words on the blackboard, while chalk dust swayed in the sunlight. All those wonderful memories are left in that time. This app has many useful features, such as generating painting replay videos, neon flickering animations, multi-board support, and more. Come and freely realize your childhood drawing dreams! Children love the chalk drawing feature, where you can draw blue skies, white clouds, and flowers with your kids, learn painting skills, and explore the world of colors in a fun and relaxing educational experience. Try it now! Of course, if you're a super fan, you can create drawings of your favorite stars or idols. You can even use it as a neon board for concerts or a welcome sign at airports. It's practical and creative, helping you stand out in a crowd. Features: 1.Simulates the blackboard effect with chalk fonts. 2.Supports multiple blackboard styles, easily switchable. 3.Eraser function, and you can erase with your finger. 4.Choose your brush color freely and create your unique colors. 5.Powerful playback function, which allows you to replay the entire drawing process. 6.Generate a video of your entire drawing process and share it with friends.
BoardNotes
This app combines whiteboard, notebook, PDF management, mind mapping, and flashcard creation into a single, versatile handwriting note-taking tool. It offers a wide array of pen types, organizational features, and study aids to enhance productivity and learning.
- Handwriting note-taking
- Integrated whiteboard
- PDF import and editing
- Mind mapping functionality
- Spaced repetition flashcards
- Multiple pen and brush types
- Layer management
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Feature Introduction: BoardNotes is a versatile handwriting note-taking app that integrates five major functions—whiteboard, notebook, PDF, mind map, and flashcards—covering most note-taking scenarios. It serves as your All-In-One App. Handwriting Pen: 1. BoardNotes utilizes Apple's native pen technology and has developed additional pens tailored for Chinese writing, including a fountain pen, a laser pointer for presentations, and a tape pen for masking notes. 2. Choose from a variety of brushes (laser pen, tape pen, ballpoint pen, straight-line pen, wavy-line pen, custom fountain pen, quill pen, pencil, marker, watercolor pen, fill pen, single-line pen, crayon, freehand pen) to unleash your creativity. 3. Lasso tool (extremely powerful). 4. Eraser (pixel eraser and object eraser). Whiteboard: 1. The whiteboard is ideal for organizing fragmented knowledge, brainstorming, and boosting creativity. 2. Write and draw freely without worrying about boundaries. 3. Customize background colors and grid templates. 4. Add various card types (text, image, video, audio, webpage, file, handwriting). 5. Multiple auxiliary tools: background board, pins, link navigation (supports bidirectional links), connectors, timer (countdown supported), calculator. 6. Quickly locate notes using the search function. Notebook & PDF: 1. Create notebooks and PDFs with multiple paper templates and cover options. Import images from Photos or PDFs from the Files app as pages or covers. 2. Add text, images, stickers, videos, webpage snapshots, audio recordings, links (bidirectional links supported), timers, calculators, and floating PDF windows. 3. Layer functionality—show or hide layers as needed. 4. Insert new pages via blank sheets, images, scanned documents, or files. 5. Cut, copy, and paste pages into other notebooks or PDFs. 6. Duplicate, rotate, or delete pages. 7. Reorder pages via long-press and drag in thumbnail view. 8. Create outlines and add bookmarks. 9. Search (text, handwritten notes, etc.). 10. Import e-books (epub, mobi, azw, etc.). Mind Map: 1. Mind mapping is a key feature within the whiteboard. 2. Nodes support multiple formats (text, image, handwriting, video, audio, webpage snapshot, file). 3. Offers 3 structures and 18 color schemes. 4. Add summaries (brackets). 5. Handwritten mind maps (using handwritten cards). 6. Long-press and drag selected cards into the mind map. 7. Reorder nodes or adjust hierarchy via long-press and drag. Flashcard: 1. Flashcards use the SuperMemo algorithm to automatically schedule optimal review intervals, reminding you before forgetting to maximize memory efficiency. 2. Flashcards support text, images, and handwriting. 3. Quickly create cards from notes in whiteboards, notebooks, or PDFs using the rectangular lasso tool. Download BoardNotes for free on iPad, iPhone, and Mac. For suggestions, please contact us via the in-app feedback feature.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: BoardNotes at every 10 days against TinyBlackboard's every 6 weeks. BoardNotes also leads on ratings volume (115 vs 3). TinyBlackboard's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 4.7) and review sentiment (100% vs 80%). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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. TinyBlackboard sells 2 one-off in-app purchases and BoardNotes sells 23 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
TinyBlackboard holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: BoardNotes has 115 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 100% of TinyBlackboard's written reviews are positive against 80% of BoardNotes's.
TinyBlackboard ships an update every 6 weeks, BoardNotes every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on September 22, 2026 and October 8, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | TinyBlackboard | BoardNotes |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (3 ratings) — better | 4.7 (115 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better | 80.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 3 | 115 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 6 weeks | Every 10 days — better |
| Ads | Yes | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 47 MB | 342 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | 利军 周 | Chongqing Ouluowa Technology Co., Ltd. |
Customer experience
TinyBlackboard
BoardNotes
Bugs and requests
TinyBlackboard
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
BoardNotes
Reported bugs
16 issues- Whiteboards erasing automatically
- No automatic backup leading to data loss
- Syncing issues between iPad and Mac
- Pencil tip not appearing on PDF annotations
- App crashes frequently
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- Recording data is lost
- Cannot create new notebooks
- Gear icon for settings missing in dark mode
- Issue with eraser and color selection logic
- Lasso tool missing cut button after cropping
- PDF embeds appear blurry
- Handwriting search not implemented
- Accidental touches/palm rejection issues
- Chinese font display issues in markdown
- App freezes when using search function
- Software flashes back (crashes)
Requested features
24 requests- Sync to Google Drive/other cloud services
- Faster 'add to cards' function
- View carded items in sidebar
- Color coding for pins
- Image opacity adjustment
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- Faster image copy from whiteboard
- Android app version
- WebDAV function
- Markdown editing/viewing function
- Handwriting recognition and search
- Improve palm rejection/anti-touch
- Add more brush types (with stroke variation)
- Search for handwritten text
- Dark Mode UI
- More calculator functions (square root, trig identities)
- In-app browser (ChatGPT, YouTube integration)
- Easier UI navigation of notebook pages
- Ability to change existing page formats
- More in-depth pen fine-tuning
- Optimize UI, move undo/redo to top right
- Adjust pressure sensitivity
- Customizable top toolbar icons
- Add college rule paper
- Translate function for papers
In-app purchases
TinyBlackboard
- Buy pen & background color$0.99
- Remove the ADs$1.99
BoardNotes
- 7 days membership$0.99
- 5 days membership$0.99
- Math Formula Recognition$1.99
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- 1 month membership$1.99
- Annual Membership$3.99
- Permanent Unlock All$3.99
- 6 months membership$3.99
- 6 months membership (discount)$3.99
- Permanent Unlock All$4.99
- Annual Membership$4.99
- 6 months membership2 variants$4.99
- Full version Unlock$5.99
- Annual Membership (discount)$5.99
- 6 months membership$6.99
- Permanent Unlock All$6.99
- Annual Membership2 variants$6.99
- Spring Festival Discount$6.99
- Annual Membership$7.99
- Permanent Unlock All$7.99
- Permanent Unlock All(discount)$7.99
- Permanent Unlock All$8.99
- Permanent Unlock All$9.99
- Permanent Unlock All$19.99









