Minimal | Notes vs Keep Writing
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Minimal | Notes
This app offers a distraction-free writing environment inspired by meditation. It features collaborative writing, note expiration, and the ability to publish notes as websites. Organize tasks with integrated to-do lists and sync across all your Apple devices.
- Note Lifetime reminders
- Collaborative writing
- Publish notes as websites
- Todo lists sync with Calendar
- Beautiful formatting
- Sync across Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch
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Write with focus. Open your mind with Minimal, a meditation-inspired notes and writing app. Minimal combines thoughtful, modern design with powerful features to deliver a spacious, beautiful writing environment. • Note Lifetime • Collaborative writing • Publish notes as websites • Add Todos to the Calendar app • Beautiful formatting • Sync everywhere: Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch Minimal is a simple yet powerful notes app. Inspired by meditation, nature, and architectural design, Minimal provides a beautiful space to think, write, and organize projects. NOTE LIFETIME The Note Lifetime keeps your notebook fresh and reflective of the present moment. When a note goes unedited for a duration you choose in settings, you’ll be gently notified. This is an opportunity to review the note, act on it, or let it go. COLLABORATIVE WRITING Share notes with friends, family, and teammates. With a gentle design, writing remains focused and tranquil, even as thoughts merge and ideas multiply. Everyone receives changes as notes evolve, and multiple people can make edits at the same time without conflict. FOCUSED + SPACIOUS DESIGN Minimal is designed so only one element is ever in focus. We love the beauty of a blank page – abundant empty space allows for an ease of creative expression. PUBLISH AS WEBSITE Transform notes into beautifully-formatted websites in microseconds. TODO LISTS Todo lists are an effective way to organize projects and complete tasks. Sync with the Calendar app, get things done, and check everything off. BEAUTIFUL FORMATTING Minimal combines Markdown-style formatting with elegant typography. The result is simple, expressive notes that make it easy to think and write. SYNC EVERYWHERE Bring focus to your favorite devices. Minimal is designed for Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. Cloud Sync is fast, reliable, and invisible. SHARE, EXPORT, IMPORT You’re in control of your notes. Share directly in iMessage, export as PDF or HTML, and use the system share mechanism to take notes anywhere. Importing links + prose into Minimal is just as easy. CUSTOMIZE EVERYTHING The best notebook is personal. We made everything in Minimal customizable, from fonts + themes to sorting notes + note actions. You can also build custom workflows using the Shortcuts app. A LITTLE GIFT Wow, thanks for reading. As a little gift for tuning in, these are our favorite musicians -> Somi, Snarky Puppy, and London Grammar. They’re jazzy and introspective, just how we like it. Enjoy. —— For help, write us at team@minimal.app or on Twitter at @minimalnotesapp. To learn about our terms + approach to privacy, visit https://minimal.app/terms. We offer a long free trial and make cancellation easy. After that, Minimal costs $4.99 per month or $49.99 per year. These prices are in USD and may vary by region. Cancel in your iTunes account settings at least 24 hours before renewal.
Keep Writing
This app helps you focus on writing first drafts by removing distractions. Set a word count and time limit, and it will guide you to keep writing until your goal is met. The interface turns red if your pace slows, encouraging continuous output.
- Word count goal setting
- Time limit setting
- Progress tracking
- Visual pace indicator
- Distraction-free interface
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When you’re writing the first draft of any piece of writing, you don’t want to muck about with edits. That’s for a future draft. On a first draft, you just need to get the words down. The Keep Writing! app encourages this. Limited bells. Precious few whistles. Set the number of words you want to write and how long in which you have to write them and press the Start Writing button. The app tracks your progress in words against the unstoppable march of time. If your words per minute begins to fall behind the required rate, the screen will start to glow red, urging you to keep writing. Don’t stop to edit. Don’t stop to fix an awkward turn of phrase. That’s all for a future draft. On this draft, you have one goal. Keep writing.
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Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Minimal | Notes at Free against Keep Writing's $2.99. Minimal | Notes also leads on review sentiment (81% vs 50%) and ratings volume (297 vs 1). Keep Writing's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 3) and rating (5.0 vs 4.7). On 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
Minimal | Notes is free to download; Keep Writing costs $2.99 up front. Minimal | Notes sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Keep Writing asks for nothing beyond the download.
Keep Writing holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Minimal | Notes has 297 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 81% of Minimal | Notes's written reviews are positive against 50% of Keep Writing's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Minimal | Notes ships an update monthly, Keep Writing weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 27, 2026 and October 12, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Minimal | Notes | Keep Writing |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $2.99 |
| Rating | 4.7 (297 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 81.4% of reviews — better | 50.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 297 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Monthly | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Subscription | Paid — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 14.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 59 MB | 1 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Timeless | Daniel Liebke |
Customer experience
Minimal | Notes
Keep Writing
Bugs and requests
Minimal | Notes
Reported bugs
3 issues- Crashes when using certain formatting or pasting content
- Syncing issues between iOS and macOS versions
- Incompatibility with older macOS versions
Requested features
4 requests- Add ability to insert images or attachments
- Improve iCloud sync reliability
- Implement a folder-based organization system
- Add a word/character count feature
Keep Writing
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Minimal | Notes
- Minimal Monthly14 Days trial$4.991 Month
- Minimal Annual14 Days trial$49.991 Year
- Minimal Family Plan14 Days trial$79.991 Year
Keep Writing
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Minimal | Notes free?
Is Keep Writing free?
Which has better reviews, Minimal | Notes or Keep Writing?
Do Minimal | Notes or Keep Writing have ads?
Which is updated more often, Minimal | Notes or Keep Writing?
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