Comparison

Standard Notes vs act/on

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

act/on

A minimalist application designed to help you organize all your lists in one place. Track your goals, manage your tasks, and celebrate your achievements with a clean interface.

Highlights
  • Minimalist design
  • Organize all lists
  • Track progress
  • Celebrate achievements
  • Cross-device sync
Features
Read full description

A minimal list app for everything you want to track. Organize your life and celebrate progress.

Screenshots

Standard Notes4 screens
act/on4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: act/on at 100% against Standard Notes's 64%. act/on also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.7) and update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 5 weeks). Standard Notes's advantage is ratings volume (3.8K vs 3) and iOS requirement (15.1 vs 17.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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 and act/on sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

act/on holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Standard Notes has 3.8K ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 64% of Standard Notes's written reviews are positive against 100% of act/on's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Standard Notes ships an update every 5 weeks, act/on every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Standard Notes versus act/on: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterStandard Notesact/on
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (3.8K ratings)5.0 (3 ratings) — better
Positive reviews63.9% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings3.8K — better3
Update frequencyEvery 5 weeksEvery 2 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, Mac
Requires iOS15.1 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size92 MB47 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperStandard Notes Ltd.Saint Oracle

Customer experience

Standard Notes

All ratings3,751 ratings
Positive92.5%
Neutral2.2%
Negative5.3%
Written reviews598 reviews
Positive63.9%
Neutral10.4%
Negative25.8%

act/on

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

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

act/on

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Standard Notes

Subscriptions1
  • Professional Plan7 Days trial$119.991 Year
2 purchases

act/on

Subscriptions2
  • Sync Monthly14 Days trial$0.991 Month
  • Sync Yearly14 Days trial$8.991 Year

Questions

Is Standard Notes free?
Standard Notes is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is act/on free?
act/on is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Standard Notes or act/on?
act/on is rated higher. Standard Notes averages 4.7 out of 5 from 3.8K ratings, while act/on averages 5.0 from 3 ratings.
Do Standard Notes or act/on have ads?
Neither Standard Notes nor act/on shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Standard Notes or act/on?
Standard Notes ships an update every 5 weeks, and act/on every 2 weeks. Most recently, Standard Notes was updated on November 3, 2026 and act/on on October 24, 2026.

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