Comparison

Standard Notes vs Knot in Time

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

Knot in Time

This app helps you privately track habits, routines, and life moments. It offers flexible tracking options and contextual journaling with photo and mood additions. Understand your progress with calm analytics and secure, encrypted backups.

Highlights
  • Flexible habit tracking (counts, rhythms, streaks, countdowns)
  • Contextual journaling with photos and moods
  • On-device intelligence for organizing entries
  • Calm analytics for weekly patterns and progress
  • Private by design, data stays on device
  • Offline core functionality
  • Encrypted backups with Face ID support
Features
Read full description

Knot in Time is a private journal and flexible tracker for the parts of life you want to remember, understand, or change. Track office days, medicines, routines, habits, streaks, personal commitments, countdowns, and special moments. Create a tracker that fits your real schedule, then check in without turning your life into a scorecard. TRACK IN YOUR OWN WAY • Set exact counts, weekly rhythms, averages, percentages, streaks, and countdowns. • See logged days, suggested days, future plans, and progress in one calendar. • Use optional reminders and location-based check-ins for routines that benefit from them. JOURNAL WITH CONTEXT Write naturally, add photos, moods, and tags, and connect entries to the things you are tracking. On supported iPhones, Apple’s on-device intelligence can help organize entries, surface themes, and bring meaningful moments back into view. UNDERSTAND WHAT IS WORKING Calm analytics show weekly patterns, projected progress, personal bests, and the trackers that may need attention—without reducing every day to a score. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Your journal and tracker data stay on your device. There is no account, no advertising, no developer-operated analytics, and no cloud database. Core tracking and journaling work offline. PORTABLE, ENCRYPTED BACKUPS Create AES-256-GCM encrypted backups for moving your history to another device. Protect restores with a recovery password, optionally save it to Apple Passwords, and use Face ID for convenience on your current device. Knot in Time is free, with no subscriptions or premium tier. Knot in Time is a personal organization tool and does not provide medical advice.

Screenshots

Standard Notes4 screens
Knot in Time4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Knot in Time at none against Standard Notes's 1. Knot in Time also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.7) and update cadence (every 11 days vs every 5 weeks). Standard Notes's advantage is ratings volume (3.8K vs 1) and iOS requirement (15.1 vs 26.0). On price, 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

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

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Knot in Time 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 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Standard Notes ships an update every 5 weeks, Knot in Time every 11 days. The most recent releases landed on October 17, 2026 and October 13, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Standard Notes versus Knot in Time: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterStandard NotesKnot in Time
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (3.8K ratings)5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews64.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings3.8K — better1
Update frequencyEvery 5 weeksEvery 11 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.1 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size92 MB92 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperStandard Notes Ltd.NIKHIL KISHORE

Customer experience

Standard Notes

All ratings3,751 ratings
Positive92.5%
Neutral2.2%
Negative5.3%
Written reviews595 reviews
Positive64.0%
Neutral10.4%
Negative25.5%

Knot in Time

All ratings1 ratings
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

Knot in Time

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

Knot in Time

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Standard Notes free?
Standard Notes is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Knot in Time free?
Knot in Time is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Standard Notes or Knot in Time?
Knot in Time is rated higher. Standard Notes averages 4.7 out of 5 from 3.8K ratings, while Knot in Time averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Standard Notes or Knot in Time have ads?
Neither Standard Notes nor Knot in Time shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Standard Notes or Knot in Time?
Standard Notes ships an update every 5 weeks, and Knot in Time every 11 days. Most recently, Standard Notes was updated on October 17, 2026 and Knot in Time on October 13, 2026.

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