Noteful vs Penbook
We give Noteful a 3.2 GPA and Penbook a 2.8, out of 4.0. Noteful grades higher on the free plan and ease of use. They get the same grade on value for money, features and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Noteful
Handwritten notes and PDF markup for iPad, with tags and layers
Penbook
Handwriting notebooks and live planners for iPad and iPhone
How we grade them
| 3.2GPANotefulVery good | 2.8GPAPenbookGood | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | ANoteful Pro is $6.99 once on the US App Store, for life. Paid plans in this category typically start at $5.99 a month, so that's about five weeks of somebody else's subscription. | APremium for life is $49.99 once on the US App Store, less than a year of the $5.99 a month this category typically charges. The yearly subscription is murkier: the store lists Premium at amounts from $4.99 to $39.99 without saying what period each covers. |
| Free plan and trial | AFree with no time limit: handwriting, PDF and Office import, tags, audio recording and PDF export. Only layers and sync between your iPhone and iPad are held back for Pro. On one iPad, most people could stay free. | BEvery paper type and writing feature is free in one notebook, with no time limit. That's a fair way to try it. But it is one notebook, and exports need Premium. The yearly plan starts with a 7-day trial. |
| Features | BVector ink built for Apple Pencil, markup on PDFs and Office documents, tags you write as #tag anywhere on a page, and audio that plays back in step with your notes. Pro adds layers you can hide and rearrange. Solid, but the listing shows no collaboration and no AI tools. | BIt does handwriting and planners fully: over 400 kinds of paper, planners that show the live date and your calendars, shape recognition, searchable handwriting and PDF import. It stops there, though, and the newest Live Paper engine needs iOS 27 or iPadOS 27 and a newly created book. |
| Ease of use | A4.8 from about 24,000 App Store ratings. There are no plans to puzzle over either: it's the free app or the one $6.99 upgrade. | B4.55 from about 45,000 App Store ratings, just under our line for an A. You pick a paper and write, with a Pencil, a stylus or a finger. |
| Platforms and integrations | DiPad and iPhone only, on iOS or iPadOS 16.4 or later, which we grade the same as an app that's Android only. The App Store marks it as not verified for macOS, and there's no Android, Windows or web version. | DiPhone and iPad only, which we grade the same as an app that's Android only. No Android, Windows or web version, and the App Store marks the Mac build as not verified for macOS. It does tie into iCloud, Reminders and Siri. |
| Best for | handwritten notes on an iPad for a one-time $6.99 | paper-style planners and notebooks on an iPad |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Noteful and Penbook. How we grade
Where they differ
- Noteful starts at $6.99 one-time purchase (Noteful Pro, Lifetime). Penbook starts at $4.99 - $39.99 per in-app item (basis not shown); $49.99 lifetime.
- Penbook also covers daily notes and templates.
At a glance
| Noteful | Penbook | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | $6.99 one-time purchase (Noteful Pro, Lifetime) | $4.99 - $39.99 per in-app item (basis not shown); $49.99 lifetime |
| Free plan | Free with no time limit: handwriting, PDF and Office import, tags, audio recording and PDF export. Layers and sync between iPhone and iPad need Noteful Pro. | All of Penbook's stationery and writing features in a single notebook, free for as long as you like. More notebooks and exports need Penbook Premium. |
| Free trial | None listed | 7-day free trial when upgrading with the yearly Penbook Premium subscription. |
| iOS | ||
| Made by | Noteful Technologies Limited | Pencil Research (User Camp Inc.) |
| Price read from | apps.apple.com | apps.apple.com |
| Checked | Oct 9, 2026 | Oct 9, 2026 |
Who each one suits
Noteful
- iPad users who write with Apple Pencil and prefer to pay once
- Annotating PDFs, slides and textbooks on separate layers
- Organizing handwritten notes by tag as well as by folder
Penbook
- People who keep planners, journals or bullet journals on an iPad
- Students who want subject paper such as Cornell, graph or chemistry
- Annotating PDF planners and worksheets with Apple Pencil
Worth knowing
Noteful
- Made for iPad and iPhone only. The App Store shows it as "Designed for iPad. Not verified for macOS", and no Android, Windows or web version is offered.
- Layers and sync between devices are locked until the Noteful Pro upgrade is bought.
- The App Store listing requires iOS or iPadOS 16.4 or later.
Penbook
- The free version is limited to a single notebook; unlimited notebooks and exports need Penbook Premium.
- The US App Store lists Penbook Premium at several amounts from $4.99 to $39.99 without stating the billing period for each.
- Penbook is built for iPhone and iPad. There is no Android, Windows or web version, and the App Store marks the Mac build as not verified for macOS.
- The Penbook 8 Live Paper engine appears only on iOS 27 or iPadOS 27, and only in newly created books.
Key features
Noteful
- Vector ink for Apple Pencil
- A custom ink engine turns strokes into high-resolution vector ink, with ballpoint pen, fountain pen and highlighter brushes and recognition of geometric shapes.
- PDF and document markup
- PDFs and Microsoft Office documents import into a notebook for annotation alongside images, shapes and typed text, and the annotated pages export as PDF.
- Tags and nested tags
- Writing #tag or #nested/tag anywhere in a notebook files it. Notebooks and pages can be browsed by tag, and tags can be renamed, deleted or reassigned.
- Layers
- Annotations can sit on separate layers that are hidden, shown and rearranged independently, leaving the original content unchanged. Layers are a Noteful Pro feature.
- Audio recording
- Audio can be recorded while taking notes, and the playback position is synced with the notes written at that moment.
- Sync across iPhone and iPad
- Noteful Pro syncs notebooks between a user's iPhone and iPad devices. The listing says notebooks synced with iCloud are encrypted via account-based keys.
Penbook
- Live Paper planners
- Stationery that updates itself: a day planner with a live timeline, a weekly planner that shows connected calendars, and monthly and yearly planners that track the current date.
- Over 400 stationery types
- Ruled, graph, dot, Cornell, music staff, chemistry, storyboard and engineering paper among others, with adjustable density, margins and layout. Each page of a notebook can differ.
- Apple Pencil inking
- Writing with Apple Pencil, a stylus or a finger, with shape recognition and a lasso that resizes, recolors, reflows and straightens ink or copies handwriting out as text.
- PDF import and export
- PDFs import as notebooks or as custom stationery, selected pages can be dropped into notes, and a notebook or the whole library exports as vector PDF.
- Handwriting search and Siri
- Handwritten notes can be searched for words or phrases. Siri can find something in a notebook or take a note that lands in the Inbox notebook.
- On-device AI and page history
- With Apple Intelligence, to-dos written on a page become Reminders without notes leaving the device, and each page keeps a local history that can be rewound.
Plans
Noteful
Noteful$0
Free to use without a time limit, minus the features the App Store listing marks as Pro: layers and sync across iPhone and iPad.
Noteful Pro, Lifetime$6.99
one-time in-app purchase on the US App Store
Unlocks the Pro features for good, including layers and sync to all of a user's iPhone and iPad devices.
Penbook
Free$0
Every stationery type and writing feature in one notebook, with no time limit.
Penbook Premium$4.99 - $39.99
per item on the US App Store; billing basis not shown
Unlimited notebooks and exports plus new stationery and covers. Described as a yearly subscription, but the listing shows several amounts without periods.
Penbook Premium Lifetime$49.99
one-time in-app purchase on the US App Store
The same Premium features as a single purchase with no renewal.
Ways to pay less
Noteful
- Lifetime license
Noteful Pro as a one-time purchase
The App Store listing says Noteful Pro is a one-time purchase that unlocks its features forever, listed in the US as Noteful Pro, Lifetime at $6.99.
Penbook
- Lifetime license
Penbook Premium as a lifetime purchase
Penbook Premium can be bought as a one-time in-app purchase in place of the yearly subscription. The US App Store lists Penbook Premium Lifetime at $49.99.
