# Card Buddy - Index Cards — Organize with index cards

> Digital index card organizer for writers and creators to brainstorm and plan narratives. (iPhone/iPad app by Allen Ussher.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/card-buddy-index-cards/id6447646532 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Allen Ussher](https://appshunter.io/developer/1044100564)
- Category: Productivity, Photo & Video
- Price: Free with in-app purchases
- Rating: 4.37/5 from 38 App Store ratings · 53 written reviews indexed
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 15.6 · 8 MB
- Languages: English
- Released: 2023-04-24
- Data updated: 2026-08-31
- Monetization: free with in-app purchases
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/card-buddy-index-cards/id6447646532/reviews.md

## What is Card Buddy?

Card Buddy turns your screen into an infinite corkboard for index cards. Drag cards anywhere on the canvas and watch neighboring cards glide out of the way — outlining your story should feel as natural as moving notecards on a desk. 

Perfect for screenwriters, novelists, and anyone who thinks in cards. Lay out your beat sheet, rearrange plot points, and build your story one card at a time.

Features:
- Drag-and-drop index cards on a free-form canvas, with neighbors that move out of the way automatically
- Two-sided cards — type a summary on the front, details on the back
- Add images to any card for storyboards and moodboards
- Three text styles: Plain, Auto-style (instant headers and subtitles), and Markdown
- Kanban layout to organize cards into columns
- Built for Mac and iPhone — your boards go where you do

Whether you're breaking a screenplay, plotting a novel, or organizing research, Card Buddy keeps your ideas movable.

Terms of use:
https://www.ussherpress.com/cardbuddy/terms/

Privacy policy:
https://www.ussherpress.com/cardbuddy/privacy/

## Key features

- Digital index cards
- Spatial organization on canvas
- Image integration
- Markdown text formatting
- Auto-styling for text
- Storyboarding and planning

## Pricing and in-app purchases

Base price: Free.

**One-time purchases**

| Purchase | Price | Type |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Non-expiring License | $19.99 | one-time |


## What do users think of Card Buddy?

Overall sentiment: positive

**Pros**

- 👍 Simple and intuitive interface
- 💡 Perfect for writing and plotting
- ✨ Localized files, not cloud-based
- 🖼️ Ability to add images to cards
- 🚀 Efficient and well-thought-out design
- 🎨 Flexible layout and adjustments
- ✅ Great for screenwriting structure
- 🔒 Privacy-focused, no EULA issues
- 💰 Fair pricing, worth the cost
- 🔄 Works across Apple platforms
- 💡 Exporting to Markdown or printing is simple
- 🎯 Exactly what users were looking for
- 🌟 Innovative and unique app
- ✅ No complicated bells and whistles
- 🎯 Perfect for fantasy football draft boards
- 📄 Exports easily to attractive PDFs
- 💯 Most useful and user-friendly
- 💡 Simple approach clarifies thought processes
- 🖼️ Visually works well
- ✨ Clean and intuitive
- 💡 Replicates sticking cards on the wall
- 👍 Well worth the one-time payment
- 📝 Great for organizing ideas
- 💡 Good for character sheets, plotting, mood boards
- 🔗 Inserting links and images is easy
- ✅ Responsive developer
- 💡 Great keyboard shortcut support
- 🚀 Fresh and sleek design
- 💡 Useful for managing storyboards
- ✨ Easy UI, intuitive, quick to learn
- 💡 Great organization, streamlined look
- 💡 Good for academic papers and fiction
- 🚀 Well-thought-out workflow
- 💡 No subscriptions
- 🚀 Fast and easy to use
- 💡 Great for quick notes/ideas
- 👍 Simple and elegant
- 💡 No silly gimmicks
- 👍 Developer stays on task
- 💡 Good for outlining screenplays
- 🎨 Color coding for turning points
- 💡 Responsive to ideas and suggestions

**Cons**

- 🐛 Needs Apple Pencil support
- 🐛 Trial mode doesn't allow saving
- 🐛 Limited text formatting options
- 🐛 Images don't display adequately
- 🐛 Cards are too small
- 🐛 Mood board doesn't allow free placement
- 🐛 Fixed layouts, not free form placement
- 🐛 Primitive text editing
- 🐛 Box to edit cards isn't resizable
- 🐛 Double-tap zoom out feature interrupts workflow
- 🐛 Cannot duplicate boards or cards

**Commonly reported bugs**

- Trial mode does not allow saving
- Images not displaying adequately
- Double-tap zoom out feature interrupts text selection

**Most requested features**

- Tagging individual cards
- Apple Pencil support
- More keyboard shortcuts
- Support for multiple canvases within a single document
- More customized options for text formatting, fonts, and colors
- Auto update to cloud option
- Form of auto version number on save
- Dropping small video clips
- Templates
- Fit to window view
- Grab function for moving the board
- Linking notes
- Basic formatting (Bold, Italics, underline, highlight, color)
- Share outline with others for editing
- iPhone version
- Duplicating boards
- Duplicating cards
- Disabling double-tap zoom out feature or making it customizable
- Adding back previous document type options (Storyboard, Kanban, etc.)

## Recent user reviews (10 of 53)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/card-buddy-index-cards/id6447646532/reviews.md

### 5/5 — Exactly What I Needed for a Digital Holiday Index Card Writing Reference System!

*2026-05-28, version 1.4.12*

I have been trying to create a digital reference system based on the Holiday index card system and there really are not a lot of apps out there designed for that purpose. This works perfectly and the files are localized on my own workstation instead of a cloud based web app I would love to be able to tag individual cards but other than that this is exactly what I needed.

### 5/5 — For Writing - My Go-to

*2026-03-16, version 1.4.10*

For fiction writing, this has become my go-to, and I’ve tried a bunch of others (Scapple, Scrivener, Final Draft 12, etc).

### 3/5 — Needs Apple Pencil support.

*2026-02-19, version 1.4.11*

It’s not as useful to me for storyboarding without it. I don’t understand why this is so difficult to add. Going back to Cardflow+ for now until Apple Pencil is supported.

### 5/5 — Kudos to the creators of this fantastic App!

*2026-02-13, version 1.4.10*

I've been looking for a simple card app like this for a long time. It's great for plotting a novel and way easier to use then Plottr. Exporting the cards to Mardown or printing them is simple. I highly recommend it to writers.

### 5/5 — Great App!

*2026-02-04, version 1.4.10*

Card Buddy holds all of the stories that I am currently writing for later publication. I have come to heavily rely on Card Buddy for this purpose and honestly, I can’t see myself using any other MacBook app for this particular purpose. Needless to say, it’s a rather simple app. However, it’s also completely perfect for my specific needs.

### 5/5 — Good buddy

*2026-01-13, version 1.4.10*

I especially like that I can add images to the cards. It’s simple and easy to use - exactly what I need. Perfect for plot and structure.

### 5/5 — Simple & Robust

*2026-01-09, version 1.4.10*

A unique and well-thought-out app.  

The beauty in its design leads you to create without any added friction - there is enough control as well as flexibility, so that you are not spending your time with administrative busy-work.  You can simply layout your storylines or information as you see fit, and efficiently adjust those items as required.

As soon as I discovered how well this app was put together, I searched Allen's other apps in hopes of finding something that I could use.

Brilliant software Allen!  
Thanks

### 5/5 — Love it!

*2025-08-11, version 1.4.8*

This is exactly what I have been looking for. So simple to use for structuring my screenwriting. I have also started using it for mood boards and social content releases and such. Highly recommend for the price!

### 4/5 — Nice

*2025-07-06, version 1.4.8*

Very nice, very simple.  But there is still room for further development without losing it’s valued simplicity!

### 5/5 — Simplicity RULES!

*2025-04-17, version 1.4.8*

I am writing a story and have looked at numerous apps that claim to help with the organization of character development, story outline, plot development, notes, etc. As a privacy advocate I am appalled at how many apps require you to provide the developer with royalty-free rights to not only YOUR content within their app but beyond it so they can sell it and repurpose it as you wish. (I am one of “those” people who read EULAs.).  Doesn’t take a genius to figure out that they’re feeding YOUR ideas into AI to generate stories that somehow are remarkably similar to your own. No thanks.

Card Buddy is a breath of fresh air, for many reasons. 1. It is not the privacy nightmare that others are. 2. Its simplicity is phenomenal. While it has a few bells and whistles, the simplicity keeps me on track. In very little time I was able to create and organize cards for all my story elements, bringing my project to life. 3. Card Buddy can be used for SO MANY different tasks/projects!! I’m a retired IT business analyst, and I can see this working very eloquently as a fantastic way to keep track of epics, features, and user stories. In the non-work realm Card Buddy could be used to manage so many personal projects - building a family photo archive, renovating a room in the house, keeping track of contractor quotes, house maintenance, financial planning, managing a home business, etc. 

It took me only 30 minutes of use after I downloaded the free version to upgrade to the paid version. SO worth it!

## Frequently asked questions about Card Buddy

### What does Card Buddy do?

Card Buddy is a writing companion app that helps users research, collect, and organize ideas on a digital canvas using index cards. It's designed to facilitate narrative development, brainstorming, and planning.

### What are the key features of Card Buddy?

Key features include jotting down ideas on index cards, organizing them spatially on a canvas, adding images to spur creativity, and formatting text with markdown or auto-style. It's useful for script-writing, storyboarding, and task workflows.

### Is Card Buddy free to use?

The application is free to download and use, with the option for in-app purchases. Specific details about what is included in the in-app purchases are not provided in the description.

### What can I use Card Buddy for?

Card Buddy is versatile and can be used for script-writing, storyboarding, brainstorming, planning projects, managing task workflows, and even creating digital flashcards for studying.

## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 1.4.13 — 2026-06-03

- Fixed layout issues with text sometimes getting cut off in the card
- Improved text readability when zooming out of canvas
- Improved quality of images rendered in cards
- Improved speed of loading Kanban documents with many images. Previously the app would stall on these files but it should now load immediately.

### 1.4.12 — 2026-03-24

- Fixed an issue where saving the document could conflict with the document autosave, leading to file save conflict dialogs appearing.

- File save on larger documents with many images should be faster with this update.

### 1.4.11 — 2025-10-13

- Minor iOS 26 bug fixes and improved error reporting in purchase flow

### 1.4.10 — 2025-08-20

- Minor bug fixes

### 1.4.9 — 2025-03-20

This update improves keyboard support on iOS:

- Fixed keyboard support on iPadOS, which stopped working with a previous iOS update.
- Improved keyboard support on iOS while editing a card: similar to the Mac version, if you move to the start of the text editor, and press left or up, you can navigate to the neighboring cell. Likewise, if you move to the end of the text editor and press right or down, you can move to the neighboring cell.
- Added shortcuts to cut, copy, and paste on iOS (cmd-C, cmd-X, cmd-V).
- Hitting Esc while editing within the canvas view will now save your changes
- In focus mode, you can now press Spacebar to flip a card, Return to start editing, Left and Right arrow keys to navigate.

## Apps similar to Card Buddy

| App | Rating | Price | Category |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [NoteDex Index Cards & Projects](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/notedex-index-cards-and-projects/id1513493654) | 2.3 (21) | Free | Productivity |
| [Story Plotter - idea to plot -](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/story-plotter-idea-to-plot/id1491980862) | 4.4 (193) | Free | Productivity |
| [Scriptation: PDF for Film & TV](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/scriptation-pdf-for-film-and-tv/id1094587086) | 4.8 (3,495) | Free | Productivity |
| [Sublime Internet](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/sublime-internet/id6449081538) | 4.1 (31) | Free | Productivity |
| [Story Planner for Writers](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/story-planner-for-writers/id860024390) | 4.7 (1,175) | $8.99 | Productivity |
| [Bebop: Quick Notes](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/bebop-quick-notes/id6477824795) | 4.9 (43) | Free | Productivity |

## More apps by Allen Ussher

- [Fresh Cards - Flashcards](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/fresh-cards-flashcards/id1523398835)
- [Learn German Numbers](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/learn-german-numbers/id1638974955)
- [Learn English Numbers](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/learn-english-numbers/id6443685397)
- [Foreign Number Bingo](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/foreign-number-bingo/id6443729491)
- [Minders - Journaling and More](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/minders-journaling-and-more/id6470041642)

All apps by Allen Ussher: https://appshunter.io/developer/1044100564

## Related topics

[cork board](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/cork-board) · [index card](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/index-card) · [turtlewiz picture cards](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/turtlewiz-picture-cards) · [index cards](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/index-cards) · [author plot](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/author-plot)

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*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 2026-08-31.*