Basic Journal vs BasicNotesApp
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Basic Journal
A fast and simple journal app designed for busy individuals to quickly jot down notes on daily activities. It offers an elegant, chronological display of entries with easy editing and export options.
- Quick note-taking
- Chronological note display
- Summary and detail views
- Edit and delete notes easily
- Recently edited notes highlighted
- iCloud syncing
- Text export option
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Waste less time fiddling with your phone, and spend more time learning, working, or training! If you are an active or busy person, you need to take notes quickly, easily, on whatever device you have with you. This app is a fast and simple journal/diary for your daily activities. This app is ideal for fitness enthusiasts, gym users, dancers who need to make notes on choreography, or anyone who needs fast and simple note-taking. Why this app? Other note-taking apps are complicated and difficult to navigate, and your notes are quickly buried. They are just not practical for quickly noting down or recalling corrections and notes during a class, lecture or workshop. This app keeps all your notes on display in a large, friendly format, in chronological order. • Elegant and simple layout of notes by date. • Summary view for a quick overview. • Detail view to browse all notes at once. • Edit or delete notes quickly from any screen. • Recently edited notes are highlighted. Data storage: • Your notes are synced across all your iOS devices. It doesn't matter if you delete the app or lose your device; your notes are stored with Apple's iCloud (subject to iCloud availability, and it being enabled on your device). • Text export option: you can get all your notes out of the software any time you want, to keep your own backups, share, or use elsewhere. NOTES Accidents happen, so it is recommended that you make regular backups with the export function. You are responsible for maintaining your own backups in case of data loss. It may take a while to sync your existing notes when you first install the app on an extra device: be patient! Make sure iCloud is enabled on your device to use the syncing feature.
BasicNotesApp
Organize your thoughts and ideas with a simple note-taking application. Create individual notes and group them into custom folders for easy retrieval. Streamline your workflow and keep your information tidy.
- Create notes
- Create folders
- Organize notes
- Simple interface
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Create notes and folders.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: BasicNotesApp at 100% against Basic Journal's 40%. BasicNotesApp also leads on rating (4.7 vs 3.3) and in-app purchases (none vs 1). Basic Journal's advantage is update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 35 months) and iOS requirement (11.0 vs 15.2). On price, ratings volume and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Basic Journal sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. BasicNotesApp asks for nothing beyond the download.
BasicNotesApp holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 3.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 4 and 3 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 40% of Basic Journal's written reviews are positive against 100% of BasicNotesApp's.
Basic Journal ships an update every 2 weeks, BasicNotesApp every 35 months. The most recent releases landed on October 7, 2026 and September 30, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Basic Journal | BasicNotesApp |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.3 (4 ratings) | 4.7 (3 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 40.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 4 — better | 3 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks — better | Every 35 months |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 11.0 — better | 15.2 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 14 MB | 0 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | James Hudson | Peter Roach |
Customer experience
Basic Journal
BasicNotesApp
In-app purchases
Basic Journal
- Remove Ads$0.99
BasicNotesApp
No in-app purchases







