Thinkblot vs Paper by WeTransfer
Pick Paper if you want a simple sketch journal on iPhone or iPad, with starter journals and photo collages of movable photos on a page. It's free, with a Paper Pro subscription that adds custom templates.
Pick Thinkblot if you want your journal to hold plans too: a tapped line becomes a reminder, a message or time on your calendar, and sums answer themselves. Its Sketchbook keeps drawing pages that are never read, and you can find a drawing by sketching its shape.
Last checked: 27 October 2026
Thinkblot and Paper by WeTransfer, row by row.
| Thinkblot | Paper app | |
|---|---|---|
| Platforms | iPhone (including iPhone Duo), iPad with Apple Pencil, Mac, and Apple Vision Pro (the iPad app). iOS and iPadOS 27.1 or later. | iPhone, iPad and Apple Vision Pro. |
| Handwriting recognition | Read on your device. Fixing a misread word changes the text, never your ink. | — |
| What happens to a line you write | It stays ink. When Thinkblot can help, a small blot appears at the end of the line. Tap it, and the line becomes a reminder, a drafted message, a payment or time on your calendar. | It stays on the page as you drew or wrote it. |
| Tasks and reminders | A box in front of a line makes it a task. Tick the box on paper and it's done in Reminders too. Unticked tasks carry forward. | — |
| Maths | Write a sum and an equals sign, and the answer is written for you. Write “total” under a column and it adds itself. | — |
| Privacy, account and where data lives | No account and no Thinkblot server. Notebooks live on your devices and in your own iCloud. Private Cloud Compute is optional and asks first. | Its App Store label says diagnostics are used to track, and identifiers are linked. |
| Sync | Your own iCloud, through Apple's private CloudKit database, on the same Apple Account. | Journals sync across devices. |
| Export | PDF or Markdown. | — |
| Pricing model | Not out yet. Join the waitlist. | Free. Paper Pro by subscription (in-app purchases $4.99 to $99.99). |
On a phone, scroll the table sideways.
Where each one is better.
- A simple sketch journal that's quick to start.
- Photo collages with several movable photos on a page.
- Starter journals, and custom templates on Pro.
- A free version.
- Search every notebook by drawing the shape you remember.
- Fountain, monoline and brush pens, pencil, watercolour and a highlighter.
- A tapped line becomes a reminder, a drafted message, a payment or calendar time.
- Mac, as well as iPhone, iPad and Apple Vision Pro.
Thinkblot vs Paper app, asked.
- Which Paper app is this?
- Paper, the sketching and journal app first made by FiftyThree, later by WeTransfer, and now from Evernote Corporation. For a comparison with a real paper notebook, see Thinkblot vs a paper notebook.
- Does Paper read handwriting?
- Paper's listing doesn't describe reading handwriting. Thinkblot reads it on your device, except in a Sketchbook or a notebook set to Paper.
- Can I sketch in Thinkblot?
- Yes. A Sketchbook is blank paper where nothing is read, with fountain, monoline and brush pens, pencil, watercolour and a highlighter.
- Can I find an old drawing in Thinkblot?
- Yes. Draw the shape you remember, and Thinkblot finds every drawing like it, across your notebooks.
How do
you think?
Thinkblot is coming soon to iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Vision Pro. One email the day it's out. That's all.
Join the waitlistClaims about Paper by WeTransfer come only from its own pages, as they read on 27 October 2026. Prices are in US dollars and may change.
Thinkblot facts come from the Thinkblot support page. Last checked: 27 October 2026.