Comparison

Minimal | Notes vs winnow

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

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • Note Lifetime reminders
  • Collaborative writing
  • Publish notes as websites
  • Todo lists sync with Calendar
  • Beautiful formatting
  • Sync across Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch
Features
Read full description

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.

About

winnow

This task management app encourages focused productivity by limiting tasks per day, week, month, and year. It helps users connect daily actions to long-term ambitions with a structured approach to avoid overcommitment.

Highlights
  • Limited tasks per time period
  • Yearly, monthly, weekly, and daily views
  • Task notes and attachments
  • Link tasks to long-term goals
  • Focus zone for daily tasks
  • Automatic rollover of unfinished tasks
Read full description

Winnow is a task app that argues against the way task apps work. Most hand you infinite lists, no direction and no limits. Winnow gives you four main pages (year, month, week, day) with adjustable limits on each to restrain overcommitment. You set the year's ambitions, shape the month around them, build the week, and arrive at today with a clear picture of what to do. Forward motion, by design. The day itself has two parts: a pool of tasks built from your weekly intentions plus anything that needs doing, and a focus zone you pull them into deliberately. The rest waits. Anything unfinished rolls forward. Tomorrow is always a fresh start. Each task or intention can carry its own note, a private scratchpad that stays attached until you detach it. Loose notes dissolve after seven days. Bookmark the ones worth keeping, the rest clear quietly, taking any clutter with them. Link any task upward to the week, month or year, so perspective never gets lost. You're not just writing 500 words, you're finishing the book. Winnow is built around an opinion: that most productivity apps mistake feature volume for usefulness, and that what people actually need is a structure that resists overcommitment and reconnects daily work to longer-term ambition. One purchase. No subscription.

Screenshots

Minimal | Notes4 screens
winnow4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Minimal | Notes at Free against winnow's $7.99. Minimal | Notes also leads on device support (4 vs 2). winnow's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 3) and review sentiment (100% vs 81%). On ads 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

Minimal | Notes is free to download; winnow costs $7.99 up front. Minimal | Notes sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. winnow asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Minimal | Notes ships an update every 3 weeks, winnow weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 12, 2026 and October 6, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Minimal | Notes versus winnow: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMinimal | Noteswinnow
PriceFree — better$7.99
Rating4.7 (290 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews81.3% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings290 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationSubscriptionPaid — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.0 — better17.6
Further details — not scored
Size59 MB4 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperTimeless6064

Customer experience

Minimal | Notes

All ratings290 ratings
Positive91.7%
Neutral3.1%
Negative5.2%
Written reviews375 reviews
Positive81.3%
Neutral6.4%
Negative12.3%

winnow

Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

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

winnow

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Minimal | Notes

Subscriptions3
  • Minimal Monthly14 Days trial$4.991 Month
  • Minimal Annual14 Days trial$49.991 Year
  • Minimal Family Plan14 Days trial$79.991 Year
None

winnow

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Minimal | Notes free?
Minimal | Notes is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is winnow free?
winnow costs $7.99, with no in-app purchases.
Do Minimal | Notes or winnow have ads?
Neither Minimal | Notes nor winnow shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Minimal | Notes or winnow?
Minimal | Notes ships an update every 3 weeks, and winnow weekly. Most recently, Minimal | Notes was updated on October 12, 2026 and winnow on October 6, 2026.

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