Notepad vs Charles' Notes
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Notepad
A user-friendly notepad app for organizing notes with tabs and protecting your privacy with Face ID/Touch ID. It offers iCloud syncing, photo attachments, and easy sharing options.
- Face ID/Touch ID/Passcode app lock
- iCloud sync across devices
- Organize notes with customizable tabs
- Attach photos to notes
- Share notes to other apps
- Quick save and reorder functionality
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Simple yet powerful. A user-friendly notepad app that organizes your notes with tabs. ●Protect Your Privacy ・Lock the app with Face ID / Touch ID / Passcode ・Keep your important notes safe from prying eyes ●Sync Everywhere ・iCloud sync automatically syncs your iPhone & iPad data ・Peace of mind when switching devices ●Organize with Tabs ・Sort notes into tabs like "Work", "Shopping", "Ideas" ・Add and rearrange tabs freely (up to 8 in free version) ●Easy to Use ・Pull down to save - that's it! ・Long press & drag to reorder ・One-tap paste from clipboard ・Long press URLs & phone numbers to open instantly ●Photos Included ・Attach photos to notes for richer memories ●Share Anywhere ・Send to your favorite apps - Messages, Twitter, Email & more ●Perfect for ・Keeping private notes away from others ・Quickly jotting down ideas ・Syncing notes across multiple devices ・Organizing notes by category ・Saving notes with photos
Charles' Notes
A straightforward notebook app designed for quick note-taking and writing. It prioritizes a clean interface and essential features for a focused, clutter-free experience, storing all notes securely on your device.
- Clutter-free writing experience
- Clear typeface and fonts for readability
- Multitasking with split-screen support
- Focused writing with plain text input
- On-device note storage for privacy
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Take notes, write stories and brainstorm ideas – with Charles’ Notes. Sometimes we need a powerful tool at our fingertips while taking a business meeting at work or writing annotations at school. But most of the times, you just need to do simple tasks. As simple as write down a short note. Charles’ Notes is a notebook app – stripped down to the essentials of simple note-taking and writing. Students, authors, teachers and business professionals need a quick way to write notes, create simple to do lists or even write down complete manuscripts. With simplicity in mind, we designed the interface so simple and clean to make creating, writing and managing notes as effortless as possible. There are a lot of notebook and note-taking apps out there. And they are all packed with tons of amazing features like cloud-sync, audio recording, pdf export and even writing notes with a precious Apple Pencil. They are all doing a fantastic job. So if you are looking for a notes app with these features, then skip Charles’ Notes now. Why? Well, we believe in simplicity. To archive a clutter-free writing experience, we asked ourselves: “What does a notes app truly needs?” And the answer was pretty simple: Writing down ideas and keep them organized. Clear type and fonts Nothing is more frustrating than unreadable fonts in too small font-sizes. Let’s fix that. Charles’ Notes uses a big and clear typeface to ensure best readability experience. Multitasking Take notes while you are researching, reading a textbook or watching a lecture. You can use Charles in split-screen or fullscreen mode, depending on how the workflow. Stay focused Limitation empowers creation. With plain text as the only input, you will keep your hands on the keyboard and stay focused on the notes. Privacy & safety We don’t use iCloud Sync, Dropbox, OneNote or Google Drive. All notes are stored right on the device. Right where they are safe. Charles’ Notes is and will always be a free note-taking app. There are no In-App Purchases, no ads, and no hidden fees. Just enjoy writing down ideas and draft your next big thing. We hope you enjoy writing and typing with Charles’ Notes, and we look forward to hearing from you. Say hello @danielhannih on Twitter :)
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Notepad at 5.0 against Charles' Notes's 4.3. Notepad also leads on update cadence (every 4 days vs every 4 months). Charles' Notes's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and ads (none vs shown). 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. Notepad sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Charles' Notes asks for nothing beyond the download.
Notepad holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3 and 6 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 54% of Notepad's written reviews are positive against 73% of Charles' Notes's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Notepad ships an update every 4 days, Charles' Notes every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on October 1, 2026 and September 14, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Notepad | Charles' Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (3 ratings) — better | 4.3 (6 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 53.8% of reviews | 72.7% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 3 | 6 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 4 days — better | Every 4 months |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 | 10.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 30 MB | 17 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Seiji Hashizume | Vanilla b.v. |
Customer experience
Notepad
Charles' Notes
In-app purchases
Notepad
- Full Version$2.99
Charles' Notes
No in-app purchases









