Nature Notes vs iNaturalist
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Nature Notes
Record and share notes, photos, and audio from your outdoor adventures. Advanced tools allow for photo merging from other cameras and interactive map integration. Organize trips into multiple hikes and share them via email, web pages, or custom files.
- Record notes, photos, and audio
- Merge photos from other cameras
- Interactive Apple Maps integration
- Organize trips into multiple hikes
- Share via email, web pages, or files
- GPS tracking and export (KML/GPX)
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NatureNotes allows you to record and share notes, photos, and audio recordings on any walk, tour, hike, or just a stroll around your neighborhood. If you are a serious photographer, advanced tools allow you to load pictures from another camera into the walk record. There are several options for sharing walks with friends or other NatureNotes users, including email, Web page creation, or sending a NatureNotes file to another user. Easy sharing: Take photos, save notes, and record audio on your Apple iPhone or iPad. The app offers powerful editing features to create a slideshow or Web folder that you can email to your friends or upload to a server. Interactive maps: Apple maps embedded in NatureNotes shows where you are at all times, as well as where you've been on your hike. Satellite view can show you the terrain with a data connection. If you repeat a hike you've taken before, you can use the interactive map to see where you are relative to your last hike. Organization: Divide your trip into multiple hikes, then put them under a single header. Combine the subsumed hikes into a single slideshow, email, or web folder for sharing. Creating multiple databases offers a system for organizing larger groups of walk records. Records can be copied directly to other databases for easy sorting and reorganization. Photo merging: Take photos with another camera and merge them directly into your NatureNotes recordings. A smart system using dates and timestamps places photos into their correct positions within previously-recorded records. Even without a recorded hike, create a new record from a set of location-encoded photographs, and see exactly where you took the photos, using the embedded Apple Maps features. If the photos contain captions from another photo-editing program, the captions will be copied into NatureNotes titles for immediate labelling within NatureNotes. All slideshow features and email or Web sharing features can then be used with the new records. Create a kml file for viewing the track in another tracking application, or a gpx file for loading a track with GPS data into photo editing applications. GPS tracking: NatureNotes provides detailed tracking data for your walks, regardless of whether you are in cellular range or not. Tracks can be exported as KML or GPX files for use in other applications. Duplication and backups: Take a complete set of records and copy them to another device, with a cable and computer, regardless of record sizes. In this way complete records can be shared or backed-up without loss of information or photographic resolution.
iNaturalist
Identify plants, animals, and fungi using your camera or imported photos. Get AI-powered species suggestions and connect with a global community of nature enthusiasts to learn more about the natural world and contribute to scientific conservation efforts.
- AI species identification
- Record species observations
- Contribute to scientific data
- Explore biodiversity
- Connect with nature enthusiasts
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Your photos of plants, animals, fungi, and more can help protect nature all around the world. iNaturalist is free, nonprofit, and community-powered. iNaturalist helps millions of people learn about and document the nature around them. Point your camera at plants, animals, and fungi to get instant identification suggestions, then share your photos or sound recordings as an "observation." Then, see your observation get reviewed by a global community of knowledgeable nature-lovers to turn it into a useful data point for science and conservation efforts. Your everyday moments of curiosity can directly contribute to protecting nature, and you don't need any previous experience or knowledge to get started. iNaturalist is a mission-driven nonprofit dedicated to connecting people to nature and advancing biodiversity science and conservation, and is freely available thanks to the generous support of our community. KEY FEATURES • Identify species from anywhere in the world • Contribute to science by sharing your observations • Keep a record of species you see • Explore and protect biodiversity • Connect with and learn from other nature enthusiasts
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: iNaturalist at 4.1 against Nature Notes's 1.0. iNaturalist also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 1) and ratings volume (684 vs 1). On price, update cadence, 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
Both are free to download. Nature Notes sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. iNaturalist asks for nothing beyond the download.
iNaturalist holds the better App Store score, 4.1 against 1.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: iNaturalist has 684 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and October 1, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Nature Notes | iNaturalist |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 1.0 (1 ratings) | 4.1 (684 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | — | 48.6% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 684 — better |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | Fortnightly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Best chart rank | — | #51 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.5 | 15.1 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 172 MB | 220 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Kenneth Wahl | iNaturalist |
Customer experience
Nature Notes
iNaturalist
Bugs and requests
Nature Notes
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
iNaturalist
Reported bugs
5 issues- App freezes when suggesting IDs on audio clips
- Inconsistent tap responsiveness in search menu
- Observation time not accurately filling based on upload time
- Map showing incorrect observation locations
- Crashes and performance issues on some devices
Requested features
5 requests- Ability to type in address/coordinates for location
- Option to add observations to projects during upload
- Batch editing/uploading of observations
- More precise search filters (e.g. aquatic, parasitic, migratory)
- Bring back colored observation markers on map
In-app purchases
Nature Notes
- English$4.99
iNaturalist
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Nature Notes free?
Is iNaturalist free?
Which has better reviews, Nature Notes or iNaturalist?
Do Nature Notes or iNaturalist have ads?
Which is updated more often, Nature Notes or iNaturalist?
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