Widgetsmith vs Freenotes®
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Widgetsmith
Personalize your device with highly customizable widgets for your home and lock screens. Showcase photos, track events, display weather, and launch apps directly from your widgets. Includes a wallpaper library and tools for theming.
- Customizable widgets
- Home and lock screen personalization
- Photo display
- Event countdowns
- Weather forecasts
- App launching widgets
- Theming tools
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Widgetsmith lets you personalize your device like never before with a wide range of highly customizable widgets. It allows you to design your home screen to remind you of the people, places, and words that mean the most to you. Widgetsmith showcases your photos, counts down to upcoming events, provides quick access to your favorite music, allows you to check the weather at a glance, and more. You can build widgets with Actions to launch apps, run Shortcuts, send a text, and more, from your home screen or Control Center. Widgetsmith includes a library of iPhone wallpapers and a tool to theme your widgets to perfectly complement these wallpapers or any of your own. Each widget can be adjusted precisely to fit your desired appearance and function, using various colors, fonts, borders, and themes. With Widgetsmith, you can create your perfect home screen aesthetic and easily change it over time. WIDGETS: You can create almost anything with Widgetsmith, using the wide range of widget types offered in the app! Here are some favorites: Photos: Highlight your favorite images across your home screens with a range of filters and borders Photo Galleries: View photos in an album or customized collection Customizable Date & Time Clocks Activity Tracking & Step Counting Countdown Timers Solar & Lunar Trackers Weather Conditions & Forecasts Time Zone Tracker Widgetsmith lets you customize not only your home screen but also your lock screen! You can view inspirational song lyrics, a photo of a loved one, weather information, and more without unlocking your device. WALLPAPERS: Widgetsmith includes a collection of phone wallpapers from various artists. These can be downloaded directly from the app and used to create custom widget themes to quickly and easily theme your entire home screen in a pleasing color palette. FLEXIBILITY: If you want different widgets at different times of day, Widgetsmith has you covered! For example, a widget could show the weather in the morning, your calendar during your work day, and then switch to your Activity ring progress as you wrap up your day. This lets you take full advantage of each slot on your home screen. IN-APP TOOLS: Wisgetsmith is also home to a wide range of valuable tools, including: A weather app with air quality, pollen, and tide information A full-featured time zone converter Charts to review activity and workout data NOTES: Widgetsmith is designed to optionally integrate with Apple Health to display your steps and activity. Permission for Widgetsmith to access this data is controlled through the Apple Health app. Widgetsmith can also integrate with your photos, Apple Music library, calendars, reminders, and more. Access to this information is handled using the standard iOS/iPadOS/watchOS privacy prompts, which are shown only in Widgetsmith. Widgetsmith includes an optional premium subscription. This is offered on a monthly or annual basis. If you choose to purchase a subscription, your payment will be charged to your iTunes account. Subscriptions will automatically renew unless canceled within 24 hours before the end of the current period. After purchase, you can turn off auto-renewal at any time by going to your Account Settings in the App Store. Access to tide and weather data is only available to Widgetsmith Premium subscribers. LEARN MORE: Privacy Policy: https://widgetsmith.app/privacy Terms of Use: https://widgetsmith.app/terms
Freenotes®
This AI-powered digital notepad transforms your device into an intelligent workspace. It offers handwriting recognition, PDF annotation, and AI assistance for summarizing documents, answering questions, and aiding in study. Organize notes, sketch ideas, and sync across devices for a seamless paperless experience.
- AI Summaries and Chat with PDFs
- AI Homework and Study Helper
- Handwritten Note Organization
- OCR Search and PDF Annotation
- Infinite Canvas and Shape Recognition
- Active Recall Tape and Flashcards
- Picture-in-Picture Video Note-Taking
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Freenotes: Freedom to write, organize, and shine Transform your iPad into a powerful AI-driven digital notepad. Freenotes is an all-in-one workspace designed for students and professionals who want the natural feel of handwriting with the power of artificial intelligence. Whether you are annotating a complex PDF, planning your week, or recording a lecture, Freenotes helps you stay organized with seamless, free-form experience. AI Summary Quickly find key points and action items from long recordings or documents. AI Chat with PDF Ask questions directly to your imported files to get instant answers. AI Homework Helper Take a screenshot or upload a document (PDF or photo) to instantly get answers. AI Study Companion Clarify concepts, define terms, and check your handwritten notes for accuracy, turning passive review into active recall. Organize Notes Categorize and organize your notes by projects, courses, or topics, automating the organization of your note library. Quick Search via OCR Search through your handwritten scripts easily using accurate text recognition. PDF Annotation Highlight, underline, and add comments to documents with custom pen styles. Infinite Canvas Sketch ideas or mind map on a whiteboard that expands as you work. Apple Pencil Pro Support Experience low-latency writing that feels like real paper. Shape Recognition Turn rough drawings into clean, perfect geometric shapes for diagrams. Hyperlink Support Navigate through digital planners using clickable internal and external links. Active Recall Tape Hide specific parts of your notes to test your memory and study better. Paper Templates Access various backgrounds including grid, Cornell, and dotted paper. Flashcards Build study sets directly from your pages to help with exam prep. Seamless Video Learning Use Picture-in-Picture (PiP) to take notes while watching online videos (YouTube, lecture recordings), and instantly capture relevant screenshots directly into your notes. iCloud & Google Drive Sync Securely back up your digital notebook to access your data anywhere. Who is Freenotes For? Students: Create study guides, annotate lecture slides, and use the "Active Recall" tape tool for exam prep. Professionals: Record meetings, organize projects into folders, and sign PDF documents on the go. Creatives: Sketch ideas on an infinite whiteboard and export high-quality files to share with your team. Join over 1 million happy users transitioning to a smarter, paperless future. Try Freenotes today and experience the next era of AI note-taking. Privacy Policy: https://www.freenotetech.com/policy/ Terms of Service: https://www.freenotetech.com/terms/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Freenotes® at none against Widgetsmith's shown. Widgetsmith's advantage is ratings volume (778K vs 64K) and review sentiment (73% vs 59%). On price, rating, update cadence and in-app purchases 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
Both are free to download. Widgetsmith sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month and Freenotes® sells 17 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per 7 days. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.6 for Widgetsmith against 4.7 for Freenotes®. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Widgetsmith has 778K ratings behind it against 64K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 73% of Widgetsmith's written reviews are positive against 59% of Freenotes®'s.
Widgetsmith ships an update every 2 weeks, Freenotes® weekly. Both last shipped on October 31, 2026.
| Parameter | Widgetsmith | Freenotes® |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (778K ratings) | 4.7 (64K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 72.6% of reviews — better | 59.3% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 778K — better | 64K |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks | Weekly — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Best chart rank | #40 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Vision Pro — better | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 15.5 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 183 MB | 660 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Cross Forward Consulting, LLC | Free Notes AI Note Taker LTD |
Customer experience
Widgetsmith
Freenotes®
User reviews
Widgetsmith
From 778K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Customizable widgets
- 💡 Allows for aesthetic home screen design
- 🤩 Great for organizing and personalizing
- 🥰 Helpful for improving phone appearance
Room to improve
- 🐛 Widgets turning grey or not working
- 🤔 Inability to remove 'Widgetsmith' label
- 🤨 Limited customization options for free users
- 😕 Inconsistent widget behavior
Freenotes®
From 64K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Completely free app with no ads or in-app purchases
- 👍 Intuitive and user-friendly interface
- 📚 Comprehensive note-taking features (layers, templates, stickers, etc.)
- 🎨 Highly customizable (colors, fonts, covers, etc.)
- 🗂️ Excellent organization tools (folders, notebooks, etc.)
Room to improve
- 🐛 Occasional issues with syncing and iCloud backup
- 🖌️ Limited customization options for pen/pencil settings
- 🔍 Lack of handwriting recognition and search
- 🔗 No support for external links or clickable content
- 🔀 Difficulty in rearranging or splitting notebooks
Bugs and requests
Widgetsmith
Reported bugs
4 issues- Widgets randomly turning grey or blank
- Calendar and time widgets not updating correctly
- App crashing or not opening
- Issues with photo widgets not displaying images
Requested features
5 requests- Ability to choose specific photos for widgets
- Option to adjust photo rotation interval
- Custom color selection tool
- Customizable widget labels
- Transparent widget backgrounds
Freenotes®
Reported bugs
3 issues- Occasional freezing or lagging when writing/drawing
- Issues with the shape recognition tool not working as expected
- Problems with the eraser tool not functioning properly
Requested features
5 requests- Add handwriting recognition and search functionality
- Improve iCloud sync and backup capabilities
- Expand pen/pencil customization options
- Implement support for external links and clickable content
- Introduce features for easier notebook organization and splitting
In-app purchases
Widgetsmith
- Widgetsmith Premium7 Days trial$1.991 Month
- Widgetsmith Premium7 Days trial$3.991 Month
- Widgetsmith Premium7 Days trial$19.991 Year
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- Widgetsmith Premium7 Days trial$29.991 Year
Freenotes®
- Freenotes Weekly Plus Member$1.997 Days
- Freenotes Weekly Pro Member$6.997 Days
- Premium Freenotes AI Weekly7 Days trial$6.997 Days
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- Freenotes Yearly Plus Member$9.991 Year
- Freenotes Yearly Plus Member1 Year trial2 variants$9.991 Year
- Monthly Pro Member Promotion1 Month trial$19.991 Month
- Freenotes Monthly Pro Member$19.991 Month
- Premium Freenotes AI Monthly1 Month trial$19.991 Month
- Freenotes Yearly Pro Member1 Year trial2 variants$39.991 Year
- Freenotes Yearly Pro Member$39.991 Year
- Marketplace Content$1.99
- Marketplace Content$2.99
- Marketplace Content$3.99
Show 4 moreShow fewer
- Marketplace Content$9.99
- Marketplace Content$10.99
- Freenotes Remove Ads$29.99
- Freenotes Plus Member Lifetime$29.99








