# Birch - Organized Photo Notes — user reviews > 61 indexed App Store user reviews of Birch by Daniel McCarthy, rated 4.70/5 from 124 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/birch-organized-photo-notes/id1435221449/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/birch-organized-photo-notes/id1435221449.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 106 · 4★ 4 · 3★ 7 · 2★ 3 · 1★ 4 ## Newest reviews (16 of 61) ### 5/5 — Love this app *2020-12-22, version 1.29* I had a mild scare when I lost a lot of photos after upgrading my phone, but the Birch team walked me through some troubleshooting, and now I have them back. ### 5/5 — Loving this app so far! *2020-12-17, version 1.29* I am a very visual adhd person and my photos app has definitely been used as a notes app! This app is great and exactly what I’ve been looking for for ages, thank you! Only a couple of ideas/suggestions/requests: -a sort of “zoom out” or grid feature, some sort of way to toggle a view that shows more posts at once. -a widget with a shortcut button to take a photo, and/or a way to link to photo mode with url schemes or the Shortcuts app. I would love to have a button on my homepage that immediately opens to the camera in this app. That being said, I’m thrilled with the app in general. I’ve already started using it for my work notes and home organisation ideas, though I’ve no doubt I’ll use it for much more! ### 5/5 — This is the app I’ve been looking for *2020-12-13, version 1.29* I saw this app mentioned on Reddit, I use it all the time. Pay for the premium version. Very inexpensive and well worth the cost. ### 5/5 — BIRCH PHOTO APP *2020-12-10, version 1.29* This is a great app on the market and I love it this app keeps your pictures and notes i this app scores And AAAAAA-+ ### 5/5 — Cool app *2020-10-22, version 1.29* birch is very handy for marking or tagging your photos in your phone! You are able to take a pic or send it to Birch where you then can add hashtags. Later when you need a photo you can look on Birch and your saved, hash tagged photos will be in the feed or you can search by hash tag for a photo! Very very cool .... especially if you save pictures of everything to help you remember but can then, never find them in photos or iCloud! ### 5/5 — Perfect for creators who curate photos *2020-09-22, version 1.29* This is eliminating one of my biggest headaches. Allowing me to use an app that easily allows me to store my ideas from photos is huge! Especially for someone I was diagnosed ADHD. Only one thing missing… The ability to add images from the browser under the share option. Add this is flawless. ### 4/5 — Love the potential *2020-09-21, version 1.29* This is a great concept that could very well replace the Apple Notes app on my phone. Suggestions, in order of what I feel would help achieve that: -Document scanner(!!!) -Locked/encrypted notes -A nice touch for us Apple Pencil users: sketch on the photo! Thanks & keep it up 👍 ### 5/5 — Helpful for house to do and home renovation *2020-09-20, version 1.29* Super helpful in home to snap pictures of things to do and helpful with parts and pieces and ideas in home renovation projects. ### 5/5 — Love the Widget *2020-09-19, version 1.29* Love the Widget. Please add the abilty to move a screen shot directly to the app. Also please let the app pull not only from photos but also from Files app. Thanks! ### 5/5 — Great organizer *2020-09-19, version 1.29* Great app to organize all of your photos. Takes me forever to sift through my photos to find a snapshot of something I wanted to buy or a recipe I wanted to share with a friend. I’m only using this app for a few days but I already see how it’s going to make my life easier. I did have some problems with the app at the beginning but my emails where answered and my problems were resolved. Very impressed by the speed at which they answered me. ### 5/5 — Wonderful app, wonderful devs *2020-09-18, version 1.29* A simple but beautiful app with one of the best ios 14 widgets ever. You know that stock ios photos app widget? It can't compare to how good Birch's widget is. That's reason enough to get it. iOS photos widget is something can't even control or customize. Also the devs are extremely kind and generous. This app deserves the support. I hope continues to be loved by all! ### 5/5 — Awesome *2020-08-10, version 1.26* Amazing App ### 5/5 — Well thought out and easy to use *2020-08-05, version 1.26* Just love how I can transfer post it notes and get rid of the clutter. ### 5/5 — Only one issue... *2020-05-18, version 1.22* This is a great app. I use it to create image folios to free up space in my camera roll for actual photos. My only issue is that this app is screaming out for an iPad version that syncs across devices but so far it doesn’t exist! ### 5/5 — Convenient! *2020-05-14, version 1.22* Love the concept the app is smooth and easy to use ### 5/5 — Love this app! *2020-05-08, version 1.21* This app is a fantastic idea. I hate having my camera roll filled up with stuff I need to keep as a reference. This app is the perfect place to store and organize your pictures that you use as notes. And it cleans up the photo roll on your phone. Love it! ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Just Sell Me The App *2023-09-28, version 1.32* This continuous yearly monetization scheme is nonsense. You make an app and I want to buy your app- Sell it. The App itself is useful but I'm not going to pay to rent a stagnant piece of software. ### 1/5 — Ugh *2021-09-22, version 1.32* well designed but you need to pay to add more than one photo ☹️ ### 1/5 — Problem NOT SATİSFİED AT ALL! *2020-05-20, version 1.22* Have a problem! There is a banner, it keep coming always! Do not know what to do? Like to send you the screenshot of the banner, but dont know how? ### 1/5 — Didn’t see the value it, even as a free app. *2020-04-05, version 1.20* What’s the point? I take pictures of things to remind myself later on. I put the pictures in a folder(album) and find it quickly when I need to. I delete the picture once I’ve bought or done the thing I needed reminding. Done and done. App is senseless, especially if one is paying for it. Sorry, it’s a hard pass for me. I uninstalled it the minute I realized I didn’t need it. Keep trying. ### 2/5 — Great concept and would be useful but ... *2020-04-24, version 1.21* The app is simple enough but doesn’t warrant a subscription in my view. I would have happily paid a one off amount. The demo version only allows 5 hashtags which means it can’t be used in any meaningful way. ### 2/5 — Monthly fee far too high *2020-04-09, version 1.21* App is well designed, looks great. I like the idea behind the app. However, $30 per year or $3 per month is far too much. As this is not a service (think iCloud) it should be a one time fee. I would pay $15-$30 if it was a one time cost. Also the free version lacks basic functionality: the ability to add photos to a note, in my opinion the whole point of the app, more than 5 or 6 tags (Why?) and the ability to sync notes to iCloud (again Why?). Overall while OneNote is different, it’s free, and does what this app does, even better in some cases. ### 2/5 — Forces hashtag *2020-04-05, version 1.20* Forces hashtag, does not provide prompt for it. Also no way to clearly move to next line. I like to put 1-2 words and move to next subject, this app is not conducive to that. ### 3/5 — good *2020-09-19, version 1.29* everything is simple and easy to navigate but pls take off the logo on the widget it’s really annoying ### 3/5 — Data mining tool *2020-04-06, version 1.20* Tag and data mine yourself. ### 3/5 — As Premium, Yes. Subscription, NO. *2020-02-23, version 1.11* I like the creativity and thought put into this photo notes app a lot. The design and aesthetics of the app looks great to me. If, Birch Notes, was sold for a one-time price as a premium application, I'd probably buy the app in a heartbeat. But, to have to pay monthly, yearly to rent this photo notes app and pay for forever is just something that I'm not willing to do at all. I don't believe anyone with good financial sense or good sense period, would consider renting and paying for a notes application forever. Birch, is an application and not a service. To price it like it's a service is just ludicrous. I actually feel bad for anyone who would pay monthly or yearly for a simple photo note taking application. It's unfortunate that developers like this one who demand a subscription for their apps. That they don't realize in the long run that they are actually hurting their overall apps sales and profits by doing this. Customers don't have an unlimited amount of money that they can rent and pay forever on every single app or game that they want to download. Thus, most customers won't even download an app like this and will just stick to paying for the apps that only ask you pay once for them. If every App Store developer jumps on this asinine and greedy subscription plan bandwagon. Well, in the end customers are going to download so many less apps and games overall. That's crazy easy to surmise. No one can afford to pay monthly or yearly for every single app on their device. Which means that devs like this one are hurting the ecosystem of the App Store overall. Sure, they will all give you excuses why you should rent and pay forever on something as simple as a photo notes app. They will all say they - "have no outside funding, no venture capital funding, that they need to keep the lights on, that they need to pay for your updates, that they need to feed themselves, blah, blah, blah." It's all BS and just excuses for the greed. And for them looking for a steady source of income without ever offering anything in return in 99% of these cases. That could ever hope to warrant or justify a monthly or yearly price and that customers should pay forever for a simple photo note taking app. Again, this an app and not a service. To treat it like one in pricing is unethical and reprehensible in my opinion. Hopefully devs like this will wake up one day and see the error of their avarice. And if this dev ever does smarten up and offer this potentially great app for one single price. Well, I'll be happy to pay for the app and revise my review accordingly. But, subscription plans are not the future of applications and the App Store and they never will be. Again, you're only hurting your app sales and the App Store overall by behaving this way. It's basic deduction and economics 101. Even, Forbes, recognizes this fact in an article that they penned about this subject recently. And they are one of the leading business publications in the world and have been for forever. If you change tactics and sell this app for a single price I'll be happy to give you my money. Until that happens, this app is a hard pass for me. I do think that, Birch Notes, is built really well though and I believe you did a great job on this app. It's a just a shame that you failed on pricing this app like so many developers have done today unfortunately. You're only hurting your bottom line and the App Store by doing this. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Worth the price for me *2025-08-16, version 1.32* Once I upgraded to pro, this was exactly what I needed and had been looking for. The free version was just too constricting. ### 5/5 — Stop telling me to upgrade to Pro when I already paid for Pro *2023-07-17, version 1.32* Love the app except that even though I am in my second year of paying for Pro it keeps limiting me and saying I have to have Pro to do what I want to do. I’m looking at my Apple subscription info and it clearly says I have Pro through July 6, 2024. Fix your records and stop limiting my actions. ### 5/5 — Outstanding *2023-06-13, version 1.32* I’ve used a lot of note apps and tried to use photos to keep track of things for years. This app makes it all work seamlessly across my iCloud for all my devices. Excellent execution and a beautiful design! ### 5/5 — Best kept secret! *2023-01-01, version 1.32* Amazing! I have organized all my pictures and able to edit and add notes. It has cut my searching for the right notes or references down 80% while working. ### 5/5 — This might work! *2022-05-25, version 1.32* My photo library is full of reminders - that I can never find again! I am thrilled to be able to pull those into Birch and delete them from Photos. Will take all new memory snaps with Birch and immediately hashtag. I am ADD and visually inclined. ### 5/5 — Great photo catalog app *2021-12-29, version 1.32* I use this to organize my pottery glazes, it works better than the current pottery glaze apps that are available. Not a fan of subscription apps but it’s clean, attractive and does what I need it to do. ### 5/5 — Finally a visual productivity app *2021-05-02, version 1.30* Love it. Using already. Few questions: for someone in a health workplace, how is your data secured? If I have a patient info in a pic am I/are you/we covered? Part two: any family sharing/calendar reminder functionality planned? Any integrating with smart devices? Excellent app, saw the stormtrooper reddit post, great use of your time. Also, the design symphony is beautifully simple. Pps: any thoughts on pic stitching? I’ve immediately went to sort my recipes and it works as a multi image note but might be smoother as one long image. I can see how that would cause other problems tho. ### 5/5 — Simple solution for organizing visual notes and commentary *2021-02-11, version 1.29* My Apple Photos app is cluttered with screen shots, snap shots, visual reminders, receipts, art study, and family photos. Really gets in the way of managing my fine art photos. Apple’s keyword tagging is feeble, and can only be done on Mac—not iOS. Now I can just index all the documentary stuff with keywords in birch, add explanatory text as needed, and delete the copy in the Photos. Finally a way to preserve ideas & records, while keeping my artwork and family photos at my fingertips on all my devices. ### 5/5 — Great app! *2021-01-28, version 1.29* Very helpful. Would love to see a more robust system for adding hash tags to photos in the camera roll ### 5/5 — Nice *2020-12-24, version 1.29* Nice --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-14.*