Comparison

Feenote vs Penbook

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

Head to head
About

Feenote

Capture ideas, inspiration, and creativity with a simple yet powerful note-taking application. Supports handwriting with styluses or fingers, image insertion, and sharing options. Protect your notes with a passcode.

Highlights
  • Handwriting with Apple Pencil or stylus
  • Customizable pen color, thickness, and style
  • Add images to notes
  • App security passcode
  • Share notes to friends or social media
Features
Read full description

Welcome to Feenote, a powerful yet very simple note-taking software. Since its launch in 2014, it has more than 8 million users. Feenote can help you simplify your work, study and life; Notes is just the beginning, use Feenote to capture ideas, find inspiration and unleash your creativity. Key Features • Write with the Apple Pencil or with many capacitive styluses and even your finger. • Select and customize your pen color,thickness,and style. • Protect your work with an app security passcode. • You can add some images to your note. • Send it to your friends or publish in social networks. ------------ Pro Pack Subscription Conditions: • Your subscription lasts 3 month, or 1 year, depending on the subscription level chosen at the time of purchase. • You will be charged $3.99 for 3 month , $7.99 for 1 year , depending on the subscription level chosen at the time of purchase. • Payment will be charged to your iTunes Account at confirmation of purchase. • Your subscription automatically renews unless auto-renewal is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current subscription. • Your account will be charged for a renewed subscription within 24 hours prior to the end of current subscription. You will be charged $3.99 for 3 month or $7.99 for 1 year, depending on your subscription level. • You can manage your subscription and switch off the auto-renewal by accessing your account settings after purchase. • You cannot cancel the current subscription during the active subscription period. Privacy Policy: https://kkmop.com/privatePolicyFnEN Terms of use: https://kkmop.com/privateUserFnEN By using this app, you agree to Apple’s Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ [Contact us] We look forward to receiving your feedback. You can contact us via email :feenote@outlook.com

About

Penbook

Create custom digital notebooks with a vast library of stationery or import your own PDFs for annotation. Write naturally with a stylus and organize your notes with dynamic features like live planners and searchable handwriting.

Highlights
  • Live Paper dynamic stationery
  • Over 400 stationery types
  • Import and annotate PDFs
  • Natural handwriting with stylus
  • Searchable handwritten notes
  • Shape recognition
  • Customizable notebook covers
Features
Read full description

Write naturally with your Apple Pencil on Live Paper with Penbook. Build your perfect notebook from more than four hundred types of stationery. Then, use the best digital inking technology to pour your ideas, notes, plans, and dreams into it. Penbook's Live Paper is way smarter than ordinary stationery. Schedule your life on a monthly planner that shows a real calendar, organize your day with a day planner that shows you what time it is, and record your nutrition on a food diary that knows what day it is. Or, bring your own stationery! Import your PDFs into Penbook for quick annotation and editing. Give your notebooks colorful covers with fun art, and share them so your notes are always where you need them. FEATURES • Live Paper, the dynamic stationery that uses the smarts of your iPad and iPhone • Over 400 of academic, scientific, and planning stationeries • Import PDFs and use them as notebooks • Write naturally with your Apple Pencil, stylus, or finger • Unlimited unique cover combinations for your notes • Search your handwritten notes for words or phrases • Snap your strokes to perfect shapes with shape recognition INCLUDED STATIONERIES Penbook has a huge selection of customizable stationery. Each page of your notebook can be different, turning your iPad or iPhone into a magic notebook: • Blank stationery, with an optional date and configurable margin • Ruled paper with variable density • Graph paper with four options for square sizes • Dot stationery, either squared or isometric (offset) • Cross stationery with configurable margins and density • To Do pages with four layout options • Monthly habit paper for tracking streaks, habits, and goals • Day planner paper with a live updating timeline and calendar, and three layouts • Weekly planner paper that highlights the current time and date • Monthly planner paper that keeps track of the current day and shows you what's coming next • Yearly stationery for getting a complete overview of your next 365 days • Cornell paper for taking perfect study notes • French ruled (Séyès) paper • Penmanship practice paper • Table stationery for hand-written spreadsheets • Polar graph paper for plotting radial data • Semi-log and loglog paper for data with exponential growth or decay • Isometric stationery with equilateral (60-60-60) or isosceles (75-75-30) triangles • Perspective paper, configurable with one, two, or three vanishing points • Developer stationery with device stencils and configurable note-taking areas • Storyboard paper with 3 frame aspect ratios • Engineering paper with variable density • Chemistry paper for easily sketching molecules • Staff and tablature (music) paper with optional linked staves GET THE MOST OUT OF PENBOOK Use all of Penbook's stationery and writing features in a single notebook for free for as long as you like. Upgrade to Penbook Premium to create and export unlimited notebooks, receive access to new stationery and covers as they're designed, and get regular app updates. Penbook Premium is available by purchasing a yearly subscription or a one-time (lifetime) in-app purchase. When you choose to upgrade with the yearly subscription, you can start using Penbook Premium for free with a 7-day free trial. During the trial, cancel any time until 24 hours before the trial expires, and you will not be charged. If you do not cancel, you will be automatically billed for the yearly subscription when your free trial ends. Payment will be charged to your Apple ID account at the confirmation of purchase. Subscription automatically renews unless it is canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Your account will be charged for renewal within 24 hours prior to the end of the current period. You can manage and cancel your subscriptions by going to your account settings on the App Store after purchase. Our customer-first privacy policy: https://penbook.app/privacy-policy Penbook's terms of use: https://penbook.app/terms-of-use

Screenshots

Feenote4 screens
Penbook4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Feenote at 91% against Penbook's 58%. Feenote also leads on rating (4.8 vs 4.5) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 18.1). Penbook's advantage is ratings volume (46K vs 2.1K). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Feenote sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per 3 months and Penbook sells 7 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Feenote holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Penbook has 46K ratings behind it against 2.1K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 91% of Feenote's written reviews are positive against 58% of Penbook's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Feenote ships an update weekly, Penbook every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 4, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Feenote versus Penbook: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFeenotePenbook
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (2.1K ratings) — better4.5 (46K ratings)
Positive reviews91.0% of reviews — better57.8% of reviews
Number of ratings2.1K46K — better
Update frequencyWeeklyEvery 5 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemiumFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, Vision Pro
Requires iOS15.0 — better18.1
Further details — not scored
Size110 MB143 MB
Age rating4+4+
Developer惠明 劳Pencil Research

Customer experience

Feenote

All ratings2,057 ratings
Positive94.3%
Neutral1.8%
Negative3.9%
Written reviews752 reviews
Positive91.0%
Neutral2.7%
Negative6.4%

Penbook

All ratings45,717 ratings
Positive88.4%
Neutral4.7%
Negative6.9%
Written reviews631 reviews
Positive57.8%
Neutral13.0%
Negative29.2%

User reviews

Feenote

From 2.1K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Amazing app
  • 👍 Helpful for school/work
  • 🔒 Secure with password
  • 👍 Easy to use
  • 👍 Organized and efficient

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional bugs
  • 💰 Some features require payment
  • 🖋️ Limited handwriting capabilities

Penbook

From 46K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Intuitive and user-friendly interface
  • 🎨 Variety of customization options for notebooks
  • 📝 Smooth writing experience with Apple Pencil
  • 🗓️ Useful calendar integration
  • 💡 Innovative features like washi tape and stickers

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional crashes and data loss issues
  • 🔒 Lack of password protection or locking feature
  • 🔧 Glitchy zooming and ruler functionality
  • 🧭 Poor notebook and page management
  • 💰 Restrictive free version, expensive subscription

Bugs and requests

Feenote

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Handwriting recognition issues
  • Compatibility problems with certain devices
  • Unexpected crashes or freezes

Requested features

4 requests
  • More handwriting options
  • Ability to add images/drawings
  • Offline access
  • Backup/sync capabilities

Penbook

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Sticker resizing issues causing app freezes
  • Ruler placement and alignment problems
  • Inconsistent behavior when switching between pages
  • Calendar sync not working as expected
  • PDF import and annotation functionality not reliable

Requested features

5 requests
  • Allow custom notebook covers or images
  • Add text box and typing capabilities
  • Improve organization with folders or tags
  • Provide more customization options for templates
  • Implement a more intuitive undo/redo system

In-app purchases

6 purchases

Feenote

Subscriptions2
  • 3 Months Subscription$4.993 Months
  • Annual Subscription(1 Year)$9.991 Year
One-time4
  • Professional/3 months$4.99
  • Professional/one year$9.99
  • Professional$19.99
Show 1 more
  • Professional / permanent$19.99
7 purchases

Penbook

Subscriptions6
  • Penbook Premium2 variants$4.991 Month
  • Penbook Premium$7.991 Month
  • Penbook Premium7 Days trial3 variants$14.991 Year
Show 3 more
  • Penbook Premium7 Days trial$19.991 Year
  • Penbook Premium7 Days trial$29.991 Year
  • Penbook Premium7 Days trial$39.991 Year
One-time1
  • Penbook Premium Lifetime$49.99

Questions

Is Feenote free?
Feenote is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Penbook free?
Penbook is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Feenote or Penbook?
Feenote is rated higher. Feenote averages 4.8 out of 5 from 2.1K ratings, while Penbook averages 4.5 from 46K ratings.
Do Feenote or Penbook have ads?
Neither Feenote nor Penbook shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Feenote or Penbook?
Feenote ships an update weekly, and Penbook every 5 days. Most recently, Feenote was updated on November 1, 2026 and Penbook on November 4, 2026.

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