Paper is an immersive sketching and collage app for iOS, designed for visual thinkers and designers.
Product velocity
Maintenance
Daily rank 🇺🇸
—
Productivity
Sentiment
4.6
72k reviews
Nemesis
Flow by Moleskine Studio
The App DNA
What makes this app unique?
It removes the cognitive friction of traditional menu-heavy interfaces, allowing users to maintain creative flow during mood boarding and storyboarding.
For Creatives, designers, and visual thinkers who require a low-friction environment for sketching, mood boarding, and storyboarding.
What does it look like?
Key features
Interface relies on natural gestures to replace traditional menus for sketching and tool selection.
Pages are grouped into digital journals for project-based categorization.
Unlocks additional tools, features, and journals for power users.
How much does it cost?
The freemium model gates advanced creative tools and additional journals behind a recurring subscription.
Velocity
Maintenance developmentperformanceopaqueShow more...
With only one release in the last 232 days, the development cadence is firmly in maintenance mode. The latest version provided no new features, focusing exclusively on generic stability and performance improvements. There is no evidence of active development or a regular update schedule, suggesting the app is currently in a long-term support phase.
Who built it?
Evernote
7 apps tracked · Productivity
Evernote - Notes Organizer
Paper
Evernote Scannable
Evernote
Evernote Web Clipper
AI Transcribe by EvernoteUser Sentiment
What do users think recently?
How are ratings & reviews evolving?
Weekly average review rating
Not enough recent reviews to extract reliable themes yet.
Read the full review analysisCompetition
Competitive landscape for Paper: Sketch, Draw & Create
How's the Productivity market?
Paper maintains a stable position in the productivity category with a 4.57-star rating across 71,007 reviews. The lack of major updates in the last 232 days signals a shift toward maintenance rather than growth.
Read the market outlookThe rivals identified
By Moleskine Srl
Directly competes for the 'creative flow' niche with a high-end, gesture-based interface and a premium subscription model.
Procreate PocketContender
SketchbookContender
Adobe Fresco: Draw & Paint AppContenderZZen Brush 3ContenderUnlock the deeper market read.
Access the full report for freeThe Analyst's Read
Key takeaways for Paper: Sketch, Draw & Create
Where is it heading?
The creative productivity market is consolidating around apps with frequent live-ops and feature updates. Paper's current maintenance posture leaves it exposed to rivals that can iterate faster, necessitating a pivot to active development to protect its user base.
- The seven-month release gap indicates a shift to maintenance mode, which reduces the app's ability to compete with more active creative rivals.
- The existing gesture-based workflow remains a strong differentiator that continues to support a high user rating despite the lack of new features.
The SWOT
- Gesture-based navigation reduces cognitive load, creating a defensible workflow advantage.
- Journal-based organization increases user investment and switching costs.
- Localized pricing could capture users in markets where the subscription price exceeds the category median.
Next best moves
Ship a high-impact feature update because the seven-month maintenance gap risks long-term retention → stabilize user base.
+ 1 more prioritized moveThe counter-intuitive read
The app's maintenance-mode status is a strategic choice to preserve a high-margin…
Read the full takeSince the last report: The app has entered a maintenance phase, marked by a seven-month period without major feature updates and a corresponding shift in SWOT analysis to reflect stagnation risks.
Bottom line
Prioritizing a feature update would address the stagnation risk identified by the seven-month release gap, which currently threatens the app's retention-based revenue model.
Unlock 2 critical frictions, 1 market threat, 1 more prioritized move and the analyst’s take.
Access the full report for freeFAQ
Is Paper: Sketch, Draw & Create free to use?
Does Paper have a subscription model?
Is Paper suitable for professional designers?
Sources
Report last updated