Comparison

Notepad vs Counsel Planner

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

Head to head
About

Notepad

Capture thoughts, pictures, voice notes, and checklists with this powerful yet simple notepad. Securely store logins and passwords, organize with categories, and easily find information with quick search. Includes reminders and backup options.

Highlights
  • Capture thoughts, pictures, and voice records
  • Create and manage checklists
  • Secure storage for logins and passwords
  • Organize notes with categories and colors
  • Quick search functionality
  • Backup and restore data
  • Password protection for app startup
Features
Read full description

Smart notepad makes it easy to capture your thought, pictures, voice records, checklist, birthdays, logins, and passwords. You can easily organize it and find it quickly later. The notepad helps you to keep all information with you. Smart notepad is very powerful but simple and easy to use. Main features: - Add notes - Add existing pictures to notes - Take photos and add to notes - Add voice records and listen to at any time - Add checklists - Add and remember birthdays - Secure storage for logins and passwords - Encoding with RSA and DES algorithms - Categories for notes - Colors for categories - A quick search for any data - Recent notes list - Restore removed notes from trash folder - Sorting notes by different fields - Birthdays reminder - Quick buttons to create notes - Quick copy data to memory - Password on application startup - Restore password to the email - Backup/restore data - Print notes - Share notes Supported languages: English, Russian, Spanish, Hindi, Portuguese, Indonesian, German, Bengali, French, Italian, Vietnamese, Chinese Simplified If you have any ideas for improvement just contact us by softser06@gmail.com Permissions Notice Camera: This is used to attach images to notes Microphone: This is used to attach voice records to notes Storage: This is used to backup/restore all notes (Ages 10+)

About

Counsel Planner

Manage legal matters, hearings, deadlines, and notes with this organized digital diary. Syncs data via iCloud and works offline, offering a traditional legal diary experience with modern digital archive advantages. Includes features for tracking cash entries and archiving closed matters.

Highlights
  • Matter and hearing management
  • Deadline tracking
  • Note-taking
  • Offline data access
  • iCloud synchronization
  • Archiving of closed matters
  • Cash entry tracking
Read full description

Counsel Planner helps you manage matters, hearings, meetings, deadlines, and notes in a simple and organized way, all in one app designed for a lawyer's daily work. Available for iPhone and iPad, it syncs your data through Apple iCloud and also works without an Internet connection: an up-to-date copy of your data always remains available on your device. Built on the experience of the first version released in 2012, Counsel Planner brings together the clarity of a traditional legal diary and the advantages of a modern digital archive: easy to use, fast, intuitive, and elegant. With Counsel Planner, you can easily manage: - matters; - hearings linked to each matter; - hearing adjournments; - meetings; - deadlines; - notes related to matters, hearings, meetings, and deadlines; - contacts linked to a matter, including contacts retrieved from your address book; - quick search across matters, hearings, deadlines, and notes; - printing of individual entries, daily commitments, and the full monthly diary; - email sending and sharing of individual entries, daily commitments, and the full monthly diary; - archiving of closed matters, keeping them separate from active ones while always available for consultation; - cash entries linked to each matter; - daily diary view; - monthly diary view; - optimized regional settings and holidays for Italy, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, the UK, Ireland, the US, Portugal, Brazil, Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, and Chile. Key strengths of the new version: - automatic synchronization of hearings and meetings with a calendar of your choice; - automatic synchronization of deadlines with a reminder list of your choice; - synchronization of your records across your devices through Apple iCloud (*); - Apple Intelligence to process texts directly on your device, also useful for notes and longer texts (**); - configurable themes and layouts; - a fully customizable header with your own details or those of your law firm; - available in Italian, English, German, Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, and Spanish. More languages are on the way. Data privacy is a central concern: your information remains in your personal iCloud space and on your device, so you can work continuously and with the utmost discretion even when you do not have Internet access. If you have particular requirements, you can also disable synchronization and keep your data only on your device. You can try the app for free with an included sample archive: six realistic matters with hearings, deadlines, and notes, useful for exploring the main features before entering your real data. To create new content, such as matters, hearings, and notes, an App Store subscription is required. The first month is free, with no upfront payment, and you can cancel whenever you want. The cost is about the price of a coffee per month. If you decide to cancel your subscription in the future, the app will remain available and you will still be able to view and edit the data already saved. For suggestions, questions, or reports, support is available. If you need help, please contact us: a review alone does not allow us to reply to you directly. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://www.counselplanner.app/en/privacy/ (*) Requires an active Apple iCloud account properly configured on the devices you want to keep synchronized. (**) Only on devices that support Apple Intelligence

Screenshots

Notepad4 screens
Counsel Planner4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Counsel Planner at Free against Notepad's $6.99. Counsel Planner also leads on update cadence (every 5 days vs every 6 weeks). Notepad's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 3) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 26.0). On rating, ratings volume, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Counsel Planner is free to download; Notepad costs $6.99 up front. Counsel Planner sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Notepad asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Notepad against 5.0 for Counsel Planner. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2 and 1 respectively.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Notepad ships an update every 6 weeks, Counsel Planner every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Notepad versus Counsel Planner: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterNotepadCounsel Planner
Price$6.99Free — better
Rating5.0 (2 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings)
Positive reviews91.7% of reviews—
Number of ratings2 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 6 weeksEvery 5 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFree with in-app purchases — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size79 MB17 MB
Age rating4+4+
Developersiarhei yatsukBrdp

Customer experience

Notepad

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews12 reviews
Positive91.7%
Neutral0.0%
Negative8.3%

Counsel Planner

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Notepad

No in-app purchases

3 purchases

Counsel Planner

Subscriptions3
  • Monthly1 Month trial$1.991 Month
  • Quarterly1 Month trial$3.993 Months
  • Yearly1 Month trial$12.991 Year

Questions

Is Notepad free?
Notepad costs $6.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Counsel Planner free?
Counsel Planner is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Notepad or Counsel Planner?
Notepad and Counsel Planner are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 2 and 1 ratings respectively.
Do Notepad or Counsel Planner have ads?
Neither Notepad nor Counsel Planner shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Notepad or Counsel Planner?
Notepad ships an update every 6 weeks, and Counsel Planner every 5 days. Most recently, Notepad was updated on November 3, 2026 and Counsel Planner on October 31, 2026.

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