Carnets vs BASIC
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Carnets
This app offers a standalone Jupyter notebook environment for creating and running code snippets, combining them with text and Markdown. It includes pre-installed scientific packages and allows for offline use, making it ideal for education and research.
- Standalone Jupyter notebook implementation
- Embedded Python interpreter
- Offline functionality
- Pre-installed scientific packages
- Supports Jupyterlab
- Package installation via %pip
- Notebook sharing and opening
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Jupyter notebooks are a powerful tool used in education and research. You can write small snippets of Python code and observe the result on screen, combine with paragraphs of text, using Markdown. Carnets provides a complete, stand-alone, implementation of Jupyter notebooks. Everything runs on your device, using the embedded Python interpreter; you do not need an internet connection. You can chose between Jupyter notebooks and the more advance Jupyterlab using Settings. Numpy, Sympy, Matplotlib, Pandas, lxml, bokeh, nbextensions (including ipywidgets) and many other packages are pre-installed. To see the full list of installed packages, type "%pip list" in a code window. You can add more packages using "%pip install packageName", but only if they are pure Python. If you need scipy, seaborn or scikit-learn, please use our other App, "Carnets - Jupyter (with scipy)". You can share your notebooks with other apps and also open notebooks or directories managed by other apps. Partial list of installed packages: astropy, babel, bokeh, cryptography, cvxopt, Fiona, geopandas, geopy, lxml, matplotlib, numpy, openCV, pandas, pillow, pyFFTW, pyproj, rasterio, regex, shapely, sympy, wordcloud.
BASIC
Create and publish your own applications directly on your iOS device using an extended BASIC programming language. Features include a rich interface, advanced graphics, sound capabilities, and hardware support.
- Create standalone apps for App Store
- Rich user interface elements
- Advanced graphics and animation
- Comprehensive sound and music support
- Hardware sensor integration
- Networking and file management
- Customizable IDE with documentation
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This is "smart BASIC" - an extended version of popular Minimal BASIC programming language. With "smart BASIC" you can create your own programs right on your iOS device. BASIC programs, written in "smart BASIC", can be published in the App Store as standalone applications using the "smart BASIC" SDK for Xcode. The "smart BASIC" programming language has many powerful features. INTERFACE: - buttons, text boxes, sliders, switches, browsers - pages for grouping your interface objects - support for additional TTF fonts - clipboard support - multitouch up to 11 simultaneous touches GRAPHIC: - advanced graphics functions - animated sprites, sprite sheet support MUSIC and SOUND: - play MP3, AIFF, WAV, MIDI, MOV and MP4 files - programmable MIDI synthesizer with 128 built-in instruments - support for additional sound fonts SF2 and DLS - speech synthesizer HARDWARE support: - GPS, compass - accelerometer - photo and video recording and more: - files - networking - integrated mathematics of complex numbers - customizable IDE - built-in documentation - ready-to-use examples of programs Visit the support forum to get assistance and to share your BASIC programs with other users.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Carnets at Free against BASIC's $11.99. Carnets also leads on rating (4.6 vs 4.2) and ratings volume (316 vs 17). BASIC's advantage is iOS requirement (12.0 vs 14.0). On ads, in-app purchases, chart position 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
Carnets is free to download; BASIC costs $11.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Carnets holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 4.2. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Carnets has 316 ratings behind it against 17, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 78% of Carnets's written reviews are positive against 68% of BASIC's.
Carnets ships an update monthly, BASIC every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 5, 2026 and October 2, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Carnets | BASIC |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $11.99 |
| Rating | 4.6 (316 ratings) — better | 4.2 (17 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 78.4% of reviews — better | 68.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 316 — better | 17 |
| Update frequency | Monthly — better | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free — better | Paid |
| Best chart rank | #105 | #103 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 14.0 | 12.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 1.4 GB | 135 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Nicolas Holzschuch | Nikolay Denislamov |
Customer experience
Carnets
BASIC
Bugs and requests
Carnets
Reported bugs
4 issues- Crashes and freezes
- Issues with saving and loading notebooks
- Problems with running scripts and notebooks
- Incompatibility with newer iOS versions
Requested features
5 requests- Add support for SciPy, Scikit-learn, and other scientific computing libraries
- Improve file management and integration with cloud storage services
- Implement split-screen or multi-window support
- Add more keyboard shortcuts and customization options
- Improve error handling and provide more detailed error messages
BASIC
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Carnets
No in-app purchases
BASIC
No in-app purchases
