Comparison

Minimal | Notes vs DMS Notes

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
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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.

About

DMS Notes

Features
Read full description

Pay once - no in app purchases or subscriptions. Data Management Systems (DMS) Notes brings the clarity of a professional document register to everyday notes and reminders. Every note, folder and section is numbered automatically — 1, 1.1, 1.2.1 — so your ideas stay ordered, searchable and easy to reference. Capture a thought in seconds, then organise it into a clean hierarchy of folders, sections and subsections. Reorder anything and the numbering updates instantly. ORGANISE LIKE A PRO • Folders → Sections → Subsections → Notes • Automatic DMS-style numbering, generated from your structure • Drag to reorder — references re-number instantly • Two ways to browse: drill-down Folders or a fully expanded Outline NINE NUMBERING STYLES Pick the style that fits your work: • Numeric (1, 1.1, 1.2.1) — ISO 2145 decimal • Leading Zero (01, 01.01) — sortable filing codes • Letter Decimal (A, A.01) and Letter Only (A, A.B) • Roman (I, I.1) — parts & front matter • Legal Outline (I, A, 1, a, i) — contracts, policies & minutes • Bullets and Dashes • Custom Prefix (SOP-001, QMS-014.02) — ISO 9001 document control NOTES THAT DO MORE • Rich text — bold, italic, underline and bullets • Built-in checklists you can tick off • Custom tags with suggestions, fully searchable • Colour labels, priorities and pinning REMINDERS & DUE DATES • Add due dates and reminders to notes, sections and folders • Today, Upcoming and Overdue at a glance • Local notifications that include the DMS reference SHARE & EXPORT • Export any project, folder or section as a clean, nested PDF checklist • Share as an image or plain text too FIND ANYTHING • Search across titles, body text, tags, references and locations • Pinned, Completed, Archived and Trash views • An audit log of every change, with date and time PRIVATE BY DESIGN • Syncs across iPhone and iPad with iCloud (CloudKit) • Your notes live in your private iCloud — we never see them • No account, no ads, no tracking • Works fully offline Beautifully designed for iPhone and iPad, with an adaptive iPad sidebar, light and dark mode, haptics and a fast, uncluttered interface. Bring order to your notes. Try DMS Notes today.

Screenshots

Minimal | Notes4 screens
DMS Notes4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Minimal | Notes at Free against DMS Notes's $3.99. Minimal | Notes also leads on device support (4 vs 2). DMS Notes's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 3). 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; DMS Notes costs $3.99 up front. Minimal | Notes sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. DMS Notes asks for nothing beyond the download.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Minimal | Notes versus DMS Notes: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMinimal | NotesDMS Notes
PriceFree — better$3.99
Rating4.7 (298 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews81.4% of reviews—
Number of ratings298 — better—
Update frequencyMonthly—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationSubscription—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.0 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size59 MB3 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperTimelessSteven Wilkinson

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

DMS Notes

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

DMS Notes

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Minimal | Notes free?
Minimal | Notes is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is DMS Notes free?
DMS Notes costs $3.99, with no in-app purchases.
Do Minimal | Notes or DMS Notes have ads?
Neither Minimal | Notes nor DMS Notes shows ads.

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