Comparison

LiquidText vs Notes Writer

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

Head to head
About

LiquidText

This app provides a powerful way to review, organize, and connect information from documents and webpages. It allows users to pull out key facts, compare sections, and build upon ideas for reports, research, or study. Advanced features enable linking concepts across multiple sources and creating visual mind maps.

Highlights
  • Import documents and webpages
  • Create workspaces for organization
  • Pull and annotate excerpts
  • Connect ideas with ink links
  • Compare document sections
  • Search across all documents
  • Create mind maps
Features
Read full description

*** Named “Most Innovative iPad App of the Year” by Apple App Store *** LiquidText offers a fast, natural way to review, gather, and organize information across all your documents and webpages—then apply the results to writing reports, meeting prep, or simply studying. Pull out key facts and connect them together, squeeze a document to compare sections, draw a line to connect ideas in different documents, comment on multiple pages at once, build upon your thoughts, and much more. ► WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING: * "If you want to experience the power of going beyond paper, you can download LiquidText" – Cult of Mac * One of Macworld’s Top 24 Apps for iPad Pro * One of Time Magazine's Ten Best apps for iPad Pro * * "There's a better way to organize your research, and the app is it." – iMore, Serenity Caldwell * “All you need for deep research projects.” – Macworld, Jackie Dove * "The world changed with...LiquidText" – Law360, Paul Kiesel * "LiquidText may just be *the* app for reviewing and annotating PDFs using Apple's tablet and stylus." – CIO Magazine, James Martin * “One of the most powerful, original iPad apps I've tried in years” – Federico Viticci, MacStories.net ► LIQUIDTEXT’S COMPLETE FEATURE SET INCLUDES: (Features with * require a paid upgrade.) Import • Create a workspace and import all the documents and web pages you need • Compatible with PDF, Word, and PowerPoint document types • Import from Dropbox, iCloud Drive, Box, email, and more • Import content from webpage or send to LiquidText directly from Safari • Instant OCR to select text in scanned documents; do a full document-OCR to search as well!* • Import documents & metadata directly from reference managers (supports Zotero and Mendeley)* Interact • Pull excerpts from all the documents in your project into the Workspace area • Add your own notes (typed or written) to the Workspace area • Freely draw on your notes, or on the workspace itself* • Organize excerpts and notes into groups • Connect anything - draw live “ink links” that span pages, documents, notes, and more* • Create mind-maps by drawing “ink links” connecting your excerpts/notes to one another * • Get context - tap notes and excerpts to find original source Compare • Pinch a document to compare different distant pages side by side • Collapse text to see annotated parts side-by-side • Collapse text to view search results(s) side-by-side • Import unlimited number of documents into a project, view up to 3 at once* Annotate • Freely draw* or highlight on your document, notes, or the workspace itself • Add margin notes/comments to text, images, notes, and excerpts • Comment on two or more selections simultaneously • Replace document with a newer version (and annotations are brought to new doc)* Search • Search for keywords across all your LiquidText documents • Find keywords in title or text of your documents* • Bulk highlight, tag, or link to your search results* Realtime Collaboration • Invite colleagues into your shared projects and work together in near realtime* • Leave comments and notifications for your collaborators* • Privacy controls: set whether each workspace & document in your project is shared or private* Easy Export • Export your project as a PDF (includes your Workspace and documents) • Export your project as a Word file (converts your notes/excerpts into a linear document) • Send a full LiquidText file for those with the app. • Send files by email or to Dropbox, iCloud Drive, Zotero, and more* Sync & Backup* • Real-time, cross-platform sync • Continuous cloud backup • Multi-device display: • Use your desktop or tablet as additional display for your other device • Use your tablet for freehand inking while viewing and keyboarding on your desktop See our terms of use at https://www.liquidtext.net/terms-of-use Learn more at LiquidText.net | Better Than Paper

About

Notes Writer

This app combines handwriting, PDFs, voice recordings, and AI for note-taking, document annotation, and idea organization. It offers a paper-like writing experience with various tools and supports students, professionals, and writers with specialized features.

Highlights
  • Handwriting with Apple Pencil
  • PDF annotation and form filling
  • Voice recording and transcription
  • AI-powered writing assistance
  • Flashcard creation and spaced repetition
  • Quiz generation from notes
  • Document import and export
Features
Read full description

Notes Writer brings handwriting, PDFs, voice, documents and AI together on iPad and iPhone. Take notes in class, mark up a contract, record a meeting or plan a thesis, and keep it all in one place that is easy to search and share. HANDWRITING THAT FEELS LIKE PAPER • Write with Apple Pencil using pens, pencils, markers, fountain pens and watercolor brushes, and refine with the lasso, ruler and shapes. • Mix handwriting, typed text, images, stickers and audio on one page. • Choose blank, ruled, Cornell, planner, music or graph paper. • Search your handwriting, check its spelling, or convert it to text, math or LaTeX. • Tap your ink to hear what was said as you wrote it. FOR STUDENTS • Record lectures while you write, then search the transcript. • Hide key facts under Tape, reveal them one by one and turn them into flashcards. • Study flashcards with spaced repetition, reminders and a Home Screen widget. • Make a quiz from your notes, a topic or pasted text, and score yourself. • Circle a problem with Magic Lasso and ask AI to explain, solve or check it. • Find free open textbooks and keep each subject together in a Study Project. FOR PROFESSIONALS • Meeting Notes records and transcribes the meeting, enhances your notes and writes a summary with action items. • Mark up PDFs, fill forms, sign, measure plans and redact text. • Scan paper documents and recognize their text. • Present on an external display or with AirPlay, using a laser pointer. • Brainstorm on whiteboards with sticky notes, images and recordings. • Open Word, RTF, Markdown and plain text, and export to PDF, DOCX, RTF, HTML or EPUB. FOR WRITERS AND RESEARCHERS • Draft in rich text and keep your sources open in tabs. • Organize long projects in the Binder, plan on the Corkboard, save snapshots and compile a manuscript or ebook. • Write LaTeX papers with a live PDF preview. • Combine explanations, graphs, charts and Python cells in Math Notebooks. • Structure ideas as outlines and exchange them in OPML. AI THAT WORKS WITH YOUR NOTES • Rewrite, simplify, translate, or fix spelling and grammar. • Ask questions and get answers from your own notes, PDFs and transcripts. • Summarize a reading, a recording or a meeting. You decide what goes into your notes. YOUR NOTES, YOUR WAY • Import notes from other note-taking apps. • Sketch with graphite and charcoal, or paint with watercolor, oils and acrylics. • Share an iPad with separate profiles, each with its own notes and an optional passcode. • Keep folders with covers, and work with files in iCloud Drive, Dropbox, Google Drive and the Files app. • Autosave, recovery, backups and passcodes protect your work. Privacy Policy http://www.noteswriter.com/Kairoos_Privacy_Policy.html Terms of Use https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

LiquidText4 screens
Notes Writer4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Notes Writer at every 4 days against LiquidText's fortnightly. LiquidText's advantage is iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.0). On price, rating, review sentiment and ratings volume 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. LiquidText sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $5.49 per month and Notes Writer sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per 7 days. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.6 for LiquidText against 4.5 for Notes Writer. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 6.4K and 7.3K respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 50% of LiquidText's written reviews are positive against 45% of Notes Writer's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

LiquidText ships an update fortnightly, Notes Writer every 4 days. Both last shipped on November 11, 2026.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
LiquidText versus Notes Writer: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterLiquidTextNotes Writer
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (6.4K ratings) — better4.5 (7.3K ratings)
Positive reviews49.7% of reviews — better44.8% of reviews
Number of ratings6.4K7.3K — better
Update frequencyFortnightlyEvery 4 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size318 MB688 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperLiquidText, Inc.Kairoos Solutions SL

Customer experience

LiquidText

All ratings6,385 ratings
Positive91.3%
Neutral3.0%
Negative5.8%
Written reviews1,468 reviews
Positive49.7%
Neutral13.6%
Negative36.7%

Notes Writer

All ratings7,339 ratings
Positive86.7%
Neutral5.1%
Negative8.2%
Written reviews966 reviews
Positive44.8%
Neutral15.1%
Negative40.1%

User reviews

LiquidText

From 6.4K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Powerful annotation and organization features
  • 📚 Excellent for academic and research work
  • 💡 Innovative concept and workflow
  • 🤖 Responsive and helpful customer support
  • 🖼️ Smooth integration with Apple Pencil

Room to improve

  • 💰 Expensive, especially for the subscription model
  • 🐛 Buggy and unstable at times
  • 🤯 Steep learning curve and unintuitive interface
  • 🔗 Lack of seamless cross-device sync and integration
  • 🔍 Navigation and file management issues

Notes Writer

From 7.3K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Smooth writing experience
  • 💡 Versatile note-taking features
  • 🔒 Good privacy
  • 👍 Useful for various purposes (notes, PDF annotations, etc.)

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Crashes and freezes
  • 🔒 Limiting free version with paywalls
  • 🐛 Bugs with erasing, page management, and file corruption
  • 🐛 Laggy performance and slow loading times

Bugs and requests

LiquidText

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Frequent crashes and data loss issues
  • Inconsistent behavior with Apple Pencil
  • Text selection and highlighting problems
  • Sync issues between iPad and Mac versions
  • Unexpected changes to existing annotations

Requested features

5 requests
  • Dark mode option
  • Improved palm rejection and writing experience
  • Better export and sharing options
  • Thumbnail/outline view for easier navigation
  • Ability to rotate and resize text/image annotations

Notes Writer

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Notes randomly disappearing or getting corrupted
  • Inability to recover deleted documents
  • Unexpected behavior when adding/deleting pages
  • Syncing issues and broken links between documents

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add more brushes and pen customization options
  • Improve the clipping/selection tool
  • Implement OCR and handwriting search
  • Provide a Mac version

In-app purchases

10 purchases

LiquidText

Subscriptions9
  • LiquidText Live, Monthly, Stu7 Days trial$5.491 Month
  • LiquidText Live, Monthly, StPr7 Days trial$5.491 Month
  • LiquidText Live, Monthly7 Days trial$10.901 Month
Show 6 more
  • LiquidText Live, Monthly, Upg7 Days trial$10.901 Month
  • LiquidText Unlimited, Yr, Stu7 Days trial$19.001 Month
  • LiquidText Live, Yearly, Stu7 Days trial$54.901 Year
  • LiquidText Live, Yearly7 Days trial$99.991 Year
  • LiquidText Live, Yearly, Upg7 Days trial$99.991 Year
  • LiquidText Unlimited, Yr7 Days trial$189.991 Year
One-time1
  • LiquidText Pro II$89.99
4 purchases

Notes Writer

Subscriptions3
  • Weekly$1.997 Days
  • Notes Writer Unlock All and AI3 Days trial$3.991 Month
  • Notes Writer Unlock All and AI3 Days trial$14.991 Year
One-time1
  • Lifetime Pro Full Unlock$14.99

Questions

Is LiquidText free?
LiquidText is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Notes Writer free?
Notes Writer is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, LiquidText or Notes Writer?
LiquidText is rated higher. LiquidText averages 4.6 out of 5 from 6.4K ratings, while Notes Writer averages 4.5 from 7.3K ratings.
Do LiquidText or Notes Writer have ads?
Neither LiquidText nor Notes Writer shows ads.
Which is updated more often, LiquidText or Notes Writer?
LiquidText ships an update fortnightly, and Notes Writer every 4 days. Most recently, LiquidText was updated on November 11, 2026 and Notes Writer on November 11, 2026.

Other comparisons