Comparison

UpNote vs Sift

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

Head to head
About

UpNote

This app provides a clean and beautiful interface for writing and organizing notes, journals, and to-do lists. It offers rich formatting options, an intuitive organization system, and instant syncing across devices, with offline capabilities. Premium features include enhanced security and export options.

Highlights
  • Rich text editor with formatting tools
  • Intuitive organizing system (notebooks, pins, links)
  • Secure note locking with Touch/Face ID
  • Instant cross-device syncing and offline access
  • Markdown support and export
  • Task management and to-do lists
Features
Read full description

UpNote is a clean and beautiful app for writing and organizing. It's easy to use with rich features and delightful experience. UpNote is designed to help you take notes easily and stay focused on what matters most. UpNote has beautiful fonts and elegant themes that you can adjust to make your writing experience most comfortable and pleasant. UpNote is an ideal place to keep your diary and journal. It has a powerful lock feature so that you can rest assured that your notes stay private and secure. You can also use Touch ID or Face ID to securely unlock your notes. UpNote’s intuitive organizing system will keep your note space neat and light. There are many ways to organize your notes: putting them into notebooks, pinning your notes to the top of the note list, bookmarking them for quick reference or linking to other notes. You can also close any notebooks to focus on only most important one. UpNote’s rich editor makes it perfect for planning and managing your tasks. Simply write down your to-do list and have them synced to all your devices. UpNote offers highlight, text colors, table, nested list, code and many other important formatting tools so that you could easily format your notes. UpNote syncs notes instantly on all devices. It also works reliably offline, so you could take note anytime, anywhere. If you are a markdown user, UpNote is great for you too. It has intuitive shortcuts based on markdown, which makes it more fun to write notes. You can also export your notes to Markdown or PDF. Try UpNote now and you will fall in love with it! ---- Upgrade to Premium to get full power of UpNote: - Lock your notes and notebooks - Insert table and attachments - Write unlimited number of notes - Elegant themes and notebook covers - Export to text PDF, HTML and Markdown ---- Price may vary by location. Subscriptions will be charged to your credit card through your iTunes account. Your subscription will automatically renew unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. You will not be able to cancel the subscription once activated. Manage your subscriptions in Account Settings after purchase. Any unused portion of a free trial peri​od will be forfeited when the user purchases a subscription. ---- If you have any question or feedback, we would love to hear it. Send an email to support@getupnote.com, and we would love to get in touch with you! ---- Privacy policy: https://getupnote.com/privacy.html Terms of use: https://getupnote.com/terms.html

About

Sift

Features
Read full description

Sift is your read-later app for links you want to come back to. Save anything from any app in one tap — no switching, no friction. HOW IT WORKS 1. Save — Hit the share button in any app and Sift captures the link instantly. A subtle toast confirms it's saved. No app switch required. 2. Browse — Your saved links appear as rich preview cards on the home screen. See the title, excerpt, and image at a glance. 3. Sift — Work through your backlog one card at a time. Archive the keepers, delete the rest, or leave it for later. 4. Archive — Everything you've archived, organized by tag. Filter by tag and open links in the built-in browser. KEY FEATURES • Instant save — Share Sheet integration with no app switching • Rich previews — Bento-style cards with title, excerpt, and image • Tags — Label links and filter your archive with one tap • Sift mode — Period filter (Today / This Week / All) to clear your backlog fast • In-app browser — Read without ever leaving the app • Fully offline — Local-only SQLite, no server, no account • X (Twitter) & Threads — Full post text and images extracted automatically Your data lives on your device. No account. No cloud. No tracking.

Screenshots

UpNote4 screens
Sift3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Sift at none against UpNote's 8. UpNote's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (weekly vs monthly). 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. UpNote sells 8 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Sift asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

UpNote ships an update weekly, Sift monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 16, 2026 and October 5, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
UpNote versus Sift: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterUpNoteSift
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (1.1K ratings) — better—
Positive reviews85.9% of reviews—
Number of ratings1.1K — better—
Update frequencyWeekly — betterMonthly
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemium—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPod
Requires iOS15.615.1 — better
Further details — not scored
Size81 MB33 MB
Age rating4+17+
DeveloperUpNote Company LimitedSunghwan Shin

Bugs and requests

UpNote

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Black screen issues
  • Lost notes and data
  • Incompatibility with newer iOS versions
  • Google sign-in not working

Requested features

8 requests
  • Reminders and calendar integration
  • More customization options (fonts, colors, etc.)
  • Improved drawing/handwriting support
  • PDF annotation and embedding
  • Optical character recognition (OCR)
Show 3 more
  • Ability to reorder bullets and lists
  • Improved table editing and formatting
  • Apple Watch app

Sift

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

8 purchases

UpNote

Subscriptions1
  • Premium monthly subscription$1.991 Month
One-time7
  • Life-time Upgrade$19.99
  • Life-time Upgrade to Premium$19.99
  • Life-time Upgrade$24.99
Show 4 more
  • Life-time Upgrade to Premium$24.99
  • Life-time Upgrade$29.99
  • Life-time upgrade to Premium$34.99
  • Life-time upgrade to Premium$39.99
None

Sift

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is UpNote free?
UpNote is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Sift free?
Sift is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do UpNote or Sift have ads?
Sift shows ads; UpNote does not.
Which is updated more often, UpNote or Sift?
UpNote ships an update weekly, and Sift monthly. Most recently, UpNote was updated on October 16, 2026 and Sift on October 5, 2026.

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