Comparison

Standard Notes vs Private Notes.

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

Head to head
About

Standard Notes

Securely capture and sync your thoughts across all devices with end-to-end encryption. This app offers a simple, lasting place for all your notes, from personal thoughts to sensitive information, with robust privacy features.

Highlights
  • End-to-end encryption
  • Cross-device syncing
  • Offline access
  • Passcode and biometric lock
  • Tagging system
  • Open-source code
  • Optional productivity editors and themes
Features
Read full description

Standard Notes is a private and secure end-to-end encrypted notes app. It allows you to write and sync your notes across all your devices, including your iPhone, iPad, Mac, and web browser. Private means your notes are end-to-end encrypted, so only you can read your notes. Even we can't read the contents of your notes. Simple means it does one job and does it well. Standard Notes is a safe and lasting place for your life's work. Our focus is making it easy to write notes wherever you are and syncing them with encryption to all your devices. Our users love us for: • Personal Notes • Tasks & Todos • Passwords & Keys • Code & Technical Procedures • Private Journal • Meeting Notes • Cross-platform Scratchpad • Books, Recipes, & Movies • Health & Fitness Log Standard Notes comes free with: • Seamless sync across all your devices, with easy to use applications on iPhone, iPad, Mac, web browsers, and other platforms. • Offline access, so you can access your downloaded notes even without a connection. • No limit on number of devices. • No limit on number of notes. • Passcode lock protection, along with Touch ID and Face ID protection. • A tagging system to organize your notes (like #work, #ideas, #passwords, #crypto). • The ability to pin, lock, protect, and move notes to trash, which allows you to recover deleted notes until the trash is emptied. Standard Notes is completely open-source, which means when we say your notes are encrypted with industry-leading XChaCha-20 encryption, and that only you can read your notes, you don't have to take our word for it. Our code is open to the world to audit. We made Standard Notes simple because longevity is important to us. We want to make sure we're here, protecting your notes, for the next hundred years. You shouldn't have to find a new notes app every year. To sustain our development, we offer optional paid subscriptions which give you access to powerful tools like: • Productivity editors (like Markdown, Code, Spreadsheets) • Beautiful themes (like Midnight, Focus, Solarized Dark) • Powerful cloud tools including daily backups of your encrypted data delivered to your email inbox every day, or backed up to your cloud provider (like Dropbox and Google Drive). We're always happy to talk, whether it be a question, thought, or issue. Please feel free to email us any time at help@standardnotes.com. When you take the time to send us a message, we'll be sure to do the same. EULA: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Private Notes.

Securely store your personal thoughts, ideas, and text with a passcode or biometric authentication. This app offers intuitive text editing tools and a straightforward interface for organizing timestamped notes.

Highlights
  • Biometric and passcode security
  • Intuitive copy/paste/cut
  • Text formatting (underline, bold, italic)
  • Timestamped notes
  • Straightforward user interface
Features
Read full description

Have personal notes you would like to keep secret? Look no further. With this app you can safely secure personal thoughts, ideas or any text with with Apple’s touch/Face ID or a passcode. FEATURES: -Intuitive copy/paste/cut functions are at your disposal. -Underline, embolden or change any word in italic. -Straight forward user interface allows you to quickly organize your timestamped notes.

Screenshots

Standard Notes4 screens
Private Notes.3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Standard Notes at 64% against Private Notes.'s 14%. Standard Notes also leads on ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 2 months). Private Notes.'s advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1). On price, device support and iOS requirement 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

Both are free to download. Standard Notes sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $119.99 per year. Private Notes. asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Standard Notes ships an update every 2 weeks, Private Notes. every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on September 28, 2026 and August 22, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Standard Notes versus Private Notes.: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterStandard NotesPrivate Notes.
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (3.7K ratings) — better—
Positive reviews63.5% of reviews — better14.3% of reviews
Number of ratings3.7K — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeks — betterEvery 2 months
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesAd-supported — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS13.012.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size92 MB16 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperStandard Notes Ltd.WALABOK LLC

Customer experience

Standard Notes

All ratings3,714 ratings
Positive92.5%
Neutral2.3%
Negative5.3%
Written reviews581 reviews
Positive63.5%
Neutral10.7%
Negative25.8%

Private Notes.

Written reviews7 reviews
Positive14.3%
Neutral0.0%
Negative85.7%

Bugs and requests

Standard Notes

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Notes disappearing or getting deleted unexpectedly
  • Sync issues between devices
  • Keyboard and UI bugs on mobile
  • Compatibility problems with older iOS versions

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add support for images and attachments
  • Implement a more robust search function
  • Introduce a dark mode option
  • Allow for better note organization (folders, nested tags)
  • Add undo/redo functionality

Private Notes.

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Standard Notes

Subscriptions1
  • Professional Plan7 Days trial$119.991 Year
None

Private Notes.

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Standard Notes free?
Standard Notes is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Private Notes. free?
Private Notes. is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Standard Notes or Private Notes. have ads?
Private Notes. shows ads; Standard Notes does not.
Which is updated more often, Standard Notes or Private Notes.?
Standard Notes ships an update every 2 weeks, and Private Notes. every 2 months. Most recently, Standard Notes was updated on September 28, 2026 and Private Notes. on August 22, 2026.

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