Comparison

Forward vs Mem

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Forward

Capture ideas and tasks to be delivered to you at a future date, up to a week in advance. This app acts as a rapid note-taking tool and a time-independent reminder system.

Highlights
  • Quickly capture ideas
  • Schedule notes for future dates
  • Set reminders up to a week ahead
  • Time-independent reminders
  • Rapid note taking
Features
Read full description

Have a thought you don't need right now? Email it to your future self. forward is part rapid note-taker, part time-shifted reminder. Type what's on your mind, pick the day it matters - now, tomorrow, or any day this week - and it lands in your inbox that morning. All of a day's notes arrive gathered into a single email: one tidy list, not ten pings. Your inbox is the one list you already check - forward simply puts things there on time. WHY IT WORKS • Capture instantly - open the app and type; your note is one tap from sent. • Share from anywhere - push links, text, and ideas into forward from any app. • Schedule by day - notes for the same day travel together, in one email. • Forget on purpose - write it tonight, see it Thursday morning, think about it never in between. NEW IN 1.7 • Dark Mode - follows your system theme, or stays dark for good. • Sign in with your email - no usernames to remember. • More dependable scheduled delivery. A SMALL APP WITH A LONG STORY forward began as a weekend project by Dan Hopwood of drivn.co - an app called Jot, born in 2014. We used it every single day, so when it shut down in January 2017, we bought it and brought it back, renamed for what it does: pushing notes forward to the day you need them. We've been emailing our future selves ever since.

About

Mem

This app acts as an AI-powered thought partner, capturing and organizing your ideas, meetings, and research. It allows you to use voice to create and edit notes, and an AI assistant can recall, summarize, and reorganize your information. It also surfaces relevant notes automatically and offers powerful search capabilities.

Highlights
  • Voice-to-text note creation and editing
  • AI-powered summarization and recall
  • Automatic organization and structuring of notes
  • Intelligent surfacing of related information
  • Deep search for any note
  • Cross-device synchronization
  • Offline access
Features
Read full description

Mem is your personal AI agent—a chief of staff that builds a living picture of your tasks, projects, and goals, then helps you follow through. Capture notes, meetings, ideas, research, and links without stopping to organize. Mem Agent uses that context to answer questions, recall details, plan, draft, summarize, and move work forward. YOUR WORKSPACE, KEPT FOR YOU Write it down, say it out loud, record a meeting, or save it from another app. Mem keeps everything connected, searchable, and ready when you need it. ASK ANYTIME. SKIP THE BRIEFING. Mem Agent knows the context you have saved, so you can ask what matters now instead of rebuilding the backstory. Recall a detail, summarize a week of meetings, connect related ideas, draft a message, or plan the next step. PROACTIVE WORK THAT SCALES Mem automatically detects and tracks tasks and projects from the notes you create or edit. With Mem Pro, add custom routines that prepare briefings, do research, organize notes, and send scheduled reminders. Connect tools like Gmail, Slack, and Todoist so Mem can use more of your work as context. VOICE NOTES THAT STAY USEFUL Record a thought, meeting, or reminder. Mem keeps the audio and transcript together and helps turn rough input into clear, structured notes. FIND ANYTHING YOU’VE SAVED Search by topic, person, project, or a vague memory. Mem helps retrieve information even when you do not remember the exact wording. CAPTURE FROM ANYWHERE Use Share to Mem to save text, links, webpages, files, and more from other apps. Capture quickly, then return to the work in front of you. AVAILABLE ACROSS YOUR DEVICES Use Mem on iPhone, Mac, Windows, and the web. Work offline on iPhone, then sync when you are connected again. PRIVATE BY DEFAULT Your notes start private. Share them only when you choose. Every plan includes Mem Agent; usage limits vary by plan. Custom routines and connections require Mem Pro or higher. Trial eligibility and pricing are shown in the app. Privacy Policy: https://get.mem.ai/pages/privacy Terms of Service: https://get.mem.ai/pages/terms-of-service

Screenshots

Forward4 screens
Mem4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Forward at 100% against Mem's 41%. Forward also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.4) and in-app purchases (none vs 10). Mem's advantage is price (Free vs $4.99) and update cadence (every 3 days vs every 2 weeks). On ads 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Mem is free to download; Forward costs $4.99 up front. Mem sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $9.00 per month. Forward asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Forward holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Mem has 129 ratings behind it against 5, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 100% of Forward's written reviews are positive against 41% of Mem's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Forward ships an update every 2 weeks, Mem every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 8, 2026 and October 20, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard8 real differences · 2 level
Forward versus Mem: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterForwardMem
Price$4.99Free — better
Rating5.0 (5 ratings) — better4.4 (129 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews — better41.1% of reviews
Number of ratings5129 — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeksEvery 3 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFree with in-app purchases — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS13.0 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size24 MB99 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperwestlinkMem Labs, Inc.

Customer experience

Forward

All ratings5 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Mem

All ratings126 ratings
Positive83.3%
Neutral5.6%
Negative11.1%
Written reviews129 reviews
Positive41.1%
Neutral9.3%
Negative49.6%

Bugs and requests

Forward

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

Mem

Reported bugs

20 issues
  • Notes disappearing without trace or recovery option
  • Bottom navigation bar covering key buttons
  • Settings popup incorrectly prompts to download app already installed
  • Black bar covering AI tool input field on web version
  • Photos not saving or disappearing after one day
Show 15 more
  • List formatting becomes corrupted and uneditable
  • Sync failures between web and mobile versions
  • Tags not linking to existing tags, only creating duplicates
  • Recent search results not clickable
  • Starred mems not displaying
  • AI chat getting stuck and unable to respond
  • Payment charged multiple times without proper plan activation
  • Unable to cancel subscription (confirm button non-functional)
  • Login issues across different platforms and devices
  • App freezing when switching between apps
  • Categories functionality inconsistent and buggy
  • Pull-to-refresh gesture removed with no alternative
  • Search function returning irrelevant results or no results
  • Slow performance and lag on mobile devices
  • AI unable to reference or update notes properly

Requested features

19 requests
  • True hands-free voice activation with Siri shortcuts
  • Widget support for voice notes and Apple Watch
  • Node/mind map graph visualization of note connections
  • PDF and document export functionality
  • Full markdown support
Show 14 more
  • Folder/collection organization system
  • Web scraping and webpage chat integration
  • Multi-language support (Russian, French, etc.)
  • Voice recognition in multiple languages
  • Templates on mobile app
  • Tagging and categorization on mobile
  • API access for third-party integrations
  • Import from Obsidian, Notion, Evernote, Apple Notes
  • Light mode option
  • PDF import and annotation
  • Audio recording and playback
  • Better iPad/Stage Manager support
  • Email-based login option
  • Automatic task carry-over to next day

In-app purchases

None

Forward

No in-app purchases

10 purchases

Mem

Subscriptions10
  • Mem Plus$9.001 Month
  • Pro$12.001 Month
  • Mem Pro7 Days trial$29.001 Month
Show 7 more
  • Proactive7 Days trial$29.001 Month
  • Mem Pro 2x$49.001 Month
  • Proactive7 Days trial$59.001 Month
  • Mem Pro 5x$99.001 Month
  • Proactive7 Days trial$99.001 Month
  • Mem Pro 10x$149.001 Month
  • Mem Pro 20x$199.001 Month

Questions

Is Forward free?
Forward costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Mem free?
Mem is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Forward or Mem?
Forward is rated higher. Forward averages 5.0 out of 5 from 5 ratings, while Mem averages 4.4 from 129 ratings.
Do Forward or Mem have ads?
Neither Forward nor Mem shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Forward or Mem?
Forward ships an update every 2 weeks, and Mem every 3 days. Most recently, Forward was updated on October 8, 2026 and Mem on October 20, 2026.

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