LiquidText vs Folia
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
LiquidText
This app provides a dynamic workspace for reviewing and organizing information from documents and webpages. It allows users to extract key facts, connect ideas across different sources, and annotate content for research, writing, or study.
- Import documents and webpages
- Extract and organize excerpts
- Connect ideas with ink links
- Compare document sections
- Annotate PDFs, Word, and PowerPoint
- Search across all documents
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*** 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
Folia
This app allows users to annotate any document type from any device, organize work into projects, and capture ideas with intuitive tools. It facilitates real-time sharing with collaborators and recording ideas on the go.
- Annotate any document type
- Organize work into projects
- Capture ideas with intuitive tools
- Real-time collaboration
- Integrates with cloud storage
- Cross-device support
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Folia is the all-in-one way to annotate any document, from any device. Open a single file and start marking it up, or organize your work into projects and share with collaborators in real time. Folia lets you record your ideas wherever you are, whether at your desk or on the go. Use Folia to: - Open recent and favorited documents right from Home. - Work with individual documents on their own, or group them into projects. - Pull in files from any storage connection like Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox and Box. - Annotate files of any type — PDFs, MS Office documents, images, and more. - Scan and OCR paper documents with your camera. - Record audio annotations from your microphone. - Share securely between colleagues. - Record ideas from desktop, phone or tablet. Learn more at www.folia.com Privacy Policy: https://www.folia.com/legal/privacy Support: help@folia.com
Screenshots
Verdict
LiquidText and Folia both sit at 4.6 stars, but that hides the real split: 50% of LiquidText's written reviews are positive against 0% of Folia's. LiquidText also leads on ratings volume (6.4K vs 2). Folia's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 13) and iOS requirement (15.1 vs 17.6). On price, rating, update cadence and ads 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. LiquidText sells 13 in-app purchases, starting at $5.49 per month. Folia asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.6 for LiquidText against 4.5 for Folia. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: LiquidText has 6.4K ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 50% of LiquidText's written reviews are positive against 0% of Folia's.
LiquidText ships an update every 2 weeks, Folia every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 25, 2026 and August 29, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | LiquidText | Folia |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (6.4K ratings) — better | 4.5 (2 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 49.6% of reviews — better | 0.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 6.4K — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks — better | Every 3 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 17.6 | 15.1 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 317 MB | 64 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | LiquidText, Inc. | Branchfire, Inc. |
Customer experience
LiquidText
Folia
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
Folia
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
LiquidText
- LiquidText Live, Monthly, Stu7 Days trial$5.491 Month
- LiquidText Live, Monthly, StPr7 Days trial$5.491 Month
- LiquidText Unlimited, Mo, Stu7 Days trial$10.901 Month
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- LiquidText Live, Monthly7 Days trial$10.901 Month
- 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
- LT Pro - For Students$19.99
- LiquidText Pro$29.99
- LiquidText Pro II$89.99
Folia
No in-app purchases









