Comparison

Notebook vs Penbook

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

Head to head
About

Notebook

Capture your thoughts, ideas, and tasks with a versatile digital notebook. Create rich notes with text, files, audio, and video. Organize content visually, collaborate in real-time, and access everything across your devices.

Highlights
  • Rich note creation with text, files, audio, and video
  • Checklist creation for task management
  • Bookmark collection and offline reading
  • Kanban-style note organization
  • Real-time collaboration and sharing
  • AI-powered journaling suggestions
  • Cross-device and cloud synchronization
Features
Read full description

Zoho Notebook is a free, ad-free note-taking app for students, teams and researchers: capture, find and reuse what you write down — typed notes, Apple Pencil handwriting, voice recordings with AI transcription, checklists, files and document scans in one note. Syncs across iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and other devices. WHAT PEOPLE USE NOTEBOOK FOR 1. MEETING AND LECTURE NOTES Record with audio or video cards; Notebook AI turns it into searchable text with timestamps, so you jump straight to the decision instead of replaying it. Structured minutes with title, participants, decisions and action points sit in the note beside your highlights. Record screen and self at once; longer videos get chapters. 2. STUDY AND RESEARCH Record lectures and search the transcript weeks later. Scan textbooks and business cards, handwrite and sketch with Apple Pencil, use OCR to find text inside photos and handwritten notes, so nothing you captured becomes unfindable. A long note becomes an AI mind map before an exam. 3. DAILY TO-DOS AND JOURNALING Dedicated checklist cards keep tasks beside your notes, and recurring reminders keep them on schedule. Journaling prompts come from your own activity, easier to keep than a blank page. 4. FILES, SCANS, AND SAVED READING Add PDFs, Word docs and spreadsheets with file cards. Articles, videos, recipes and how-tos become Smart Cards, formatted automatically, readable offline and ad-free. Group it all into nested collections. QUESTIONS PEOPLE ASK Is it free? Yes, with 2GB of free storage and no ads. Notebook Pro adds more storage, longer notes, larger attachments, Email-In to save emails as notes, premium covers, and custom recurring reminders. Can I move my notes from Evernote, Google Keep, or OneNote? Yes, with dedicated migration tools; it arrives organized. Is my data private? Notes are encrypted in transit and at rest. We never sell your data and never show ads. Lock notes or notebooks with a password, Touch ID or Face ID; previews stay hidden until unlocked. Does it work offline? Yes. Create, edit and read offline, then pick up on another device once it syncs to the cloud. What can Notebook AI do? Transcribe audio and video, build mind maps, summarize and simplify, fix grammar, set tone (casual, professional, friendly, direct, or confident), translate into any language, draft notes, checklists, tables, code or a template from a prompt, and suggest tags. Notebook AI is a separate add-on. Does it use on-device AI and Siri? Yes. An on-device Knowledge Graph links ideas across notebooks and answers questions from your own notes. Siri creates and updates notes by voice with the app closed, and On-Screen Awareness summarizes what's on screen without switching apps. Can I share with non-users? Yes. @mention people to collaborate in real time, or publish a public note or video by link. MORE INSIDE - Search by title, content, tag, collaborator, or notebook; filter by any card type, contact, or link; search within one note; sort by date or relevance, with auto-suggestions and recent searches, offline and across languages - iPhone: text-search audio notes, share via iMessage, dictate with Siri, recent notes from the Notification Bar, SharePlay in calls - iPad: drag and drop, split view, slide over, multiple windows, Stage Manager - Apple Watch: record audio, scribble notes, check off lists, add photo notes, record in one tap from a watch face complication - VoiceOver and a dark interface - Roll back to any of a note's last 10 versions Subscriptions auto-renew unless cancelled and are charged to your Apple Account. Prices vary by location. Manage in your account settings. Privacy - https://www.zoho.com/privacy.html Terms - https://www.zoho.com/terms.html

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

Notebook4 screens
Penbook4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Notebook at 4.7 against Penbook's 4.5. Notebook also leads on iOS requirement (16.0 vs 18.1). On price, review sentiment, ratings volume and update cadence 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. Notebook sells 7 in-app purchases, starting at $2.49 per month and Penbook sells 11 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

Notebook holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.5. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 24K and 45K respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 65% of Notebook's written reviews are positive against 57% of Penbook's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 6 days. Both last shipped on September 24, 2026.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Notebook versus Penbook: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterNotebookPenbook
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (24K ratings) — better4.5 (45K ratings)
Positive reviews64.7% of reviews — better57.4% of reviews
Number of ratings24K45K — better
Update frequencyEvery 6 daysEvery 6 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple WatchiPhone, iPad, Vision Pro
Requires iOS16.0 — better18.1
Further details — not scored
Size220 MB136 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperZoho CorporationPencil Research

Customer experience

Notebook

All ratings23,853 ratings
Positive93.2%
Neutral3.1%
Negative3.7%
Written reviews603 reviews
Positive64.7%
Neutral10.4%
Negative24.9%

Penbook

All ratings45,245 ratings
Positive88.4%
Neutral4.7%
Negative6.9%
Written reviews486 reviews
Positive57.4%
Neutral13.0%
Negative29.6%

User reviews

Notebook

From 24K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Highly organized and customizable
  • 👍 Visually appealing and intuitive
  • 🔒 Secure with password protection
  • 🤳 Seamless cross-device sync
  • 📝 Versatile note-taking features

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional sync and stability issues
  • 🔀 Inconsistent note order after editing
  • 🔍 Limited search functionality
  • 📤 Lack of export/backup options
  • 🔗 Difficulty inserting links in notes

Penbook

From 45K 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

Notebook

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Notes disappearing or getting corrupted
  • Freezing and crashing issues
  • Inconsistent behavior when editing notes
  • Syncing problems across devices

Requested features

5 requests
  • Improved sorting and reordering options for notes
  • Enhanced search capabilities
  • Ability to export notes in various formats
  • More customization options for notebook covers
  • Integration with other productivity apps

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

7 purchases

Notebook

Subscriptions7
  • Notebook Pro$2.491 Month
  • Notebook Pro Plus$3.991 Month
  • Notebook AI$4.991 Month
Show 4 more
  • Notebook Personal$14.991 Year
  • Notebook Pro2 variants$24.991 Year
  • Notebook Pro Plus$39.991 Year
  • Notebook AI$49.991 Year
11 purchases

Penbook

Subscriptions7
  • Penbook Premium5 variants$4.991 Month
  • Penbook Premium$7.991 Month
  • Penbook Premium7 Days trial3 variants$14.991 Year
Show 4 more
  • Penbook Premium7 Days trial2 variants$19.991 Year
  • Penbook Premium7 Days trial2 variants$29.991 Year
  • Penbook Premium$29.991 Year
  • Penbook Premium7 Days trial3 variants$39.991 Year
One-time4
  • Premium Lifetime (Loyalty)$29.99
  • Penbook Premium Lifetime2 variants$49.99
  • Penbook Premium Lifetime$59.99
Show 1 more
  • Penbook Premium Lifetime$69.99

Questions

Is Notebook free?
Notebook 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, Notebook or Penbook?
Notebook is rated higher. Notebook averages 4.7 out of 5 from 24K ratings, while Penbook averages 4.5 from 45K ratings.
Do Notebook or Penbook have ads?
Neither Notebook nor Penbook shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Notebook or Penbook?
Notebook ships an update every 6 days, and Penbook every 6 days. Most recently, Notebook was updated on September 24, 2026 and Penbook on September 24, 2026.

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