Comparison

Standard Notes vs ForgetAboutIt

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

ForgetAboutIt

Features
Read full description

Catch a thought before it goes. Forget About It keeps your exact words in a private journal on your iPhone and Apple Watch. CAPTURE IN THE MOMENT Type a thought and tap Save, or dictate it. Return adds a new line, and an unfinished typed draft stays available between launches when device storage is available. On Apple Watch, speak, scribble or type; captures wait on your Watch until your iPhone confirms delivery. KEEP YOUR ORIGINAL WORDS Browse Today and History, search your exact text in Memory, and open any entry to read its complete original words. Reflections and context are generated by rules on your device and are visibly separate from what you wrote. FREE EVERYDAY CAPTURE Unlimited capture, all original history, text search, basic capture statistics, today's reflection, and plain-text export remain free. Existing users keep previously available earlier reflections. OPTIONAL FORGET ABOUT IT PLUS Plus adds date and source filters, capture patterns based on your entries, and earlier daily reflections for new users. Choose a monthly or annual auto-renewing subscription. Prices appear in the app for your App Store region. Restore purchases and manage your subscription from Settings. Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation. Subscriptions renew automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the current period ends. Your account is charged for renewal within 24 hours before the period ends. Manage or cancel your subscription in your Apple Account settings. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No account, advertising, analytics or remote AI service. Your journal stays on your devices. Apple handles Plus purchases and subscription verification through the App Store; your captured words are not sent with those requests. Your archive is excluded from device backups, so use Settings to save a plain-text copy. Losing or erasing a device can lose its local archive. Capture and reading work offline. Purchases, restoring purchases and current subscription information require communication with Apple. Dictation availability depends on your device and system settings. Privacy: https://koinophobialabs.com/forget-about-it/privacy Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Standard Notes4 screens
ForgetAboutIt4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: ForgetAboutIt at fortnightly against Standard Notes's every 5 weeks. Standard Notes's advantage is iOS requirement (15.1 vs 17.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases 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 and ForgetAboutIt sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Standard Notes ships an update every 5 weeks, ForgetAboutIt fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 12, 2026 and September 28, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Standard Notes versus ForgetAboutIt: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterStandard NotesForgetAboutIt
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (3.8K ratings) — better—
Positive reviews64.1% of reviews—
Number of ratings3.8K — better—
Update frequencyEvery 5 weeksFortnightly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, Apple Watch
Requires iOS15.1 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size92 MB11 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperStandard Notes Ltd.BLAKE JIHAD TAYLOR

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

ForgetAboutIt

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

ForgetAboutIt

Subscriptions2
  • Plus Monthly$2.991 Month
  • Plus Annual$24.991 Year

Questions

Is Standard Notes free?
Standard Notes is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is ForgetAboutIt free?
ForgetAboutIt is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Standard Notes or ForgetAboutIt have ads?
Neither Standard Notes nor ForgetAboutIt shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Standard Notes or ForgetAboutIt?
Standard Notes ships an update every 5 weeks, and ForgetAboutIt fortnightly. Most recently, Standard Notes was updated on October 12, 2026 and ForgetAboutIt on September 28, 2026.

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