Comparison

Widget Notes Home Lock Screen vs Simple Sketchbook

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

Head to head
About

Widget Notes Home Lock Screen

Create and customize widgets for your home screen to display notes and photos. Personalize backgrounds, fonts, and set reminders with repeated notifications. Enjoy unlimited widgets and dark mode support.

Highlights
  • Unlimited home screen widgets
  • Photo and background color options
  • Customizable fonts
  • Notes sharing and sorting
  • Repeated notification reminders
  • Dark mode support
Features
Read full description

It's a notes & photos app compatible with iOS14 home screen widgets. All features are completely free to use. - Unlimited widgets on the home screen (all sizes supported) - Background settings: photo / background color (gradation) - Font settings: color / size / weight / position - Share / copy / sort notes - Reminders (with repeated notifications) - Dark mode - Free & no additional charge URL scheme: widgetnotes://

About

Simple Sketchbook

A digital sketchbook for iPad and iPhone that offers a clean, fast drawing experience without distractions. Create multiple sketchbooks with various paper styles, utilize layers, and import reference images. Export your work as high-resolution PNGs, PDFs, or timelapse videos.

Highlights
  • Distraction-free drawing interface
  • Multiple sketchbooks with custom paper styles
  • Multi-layer support with opacity and blend modes
  • Import reference images
  • Export pages as PNG or PDF
  • Generate timelapse videos of drawings
  • Face ID/Touch ID sketchbook lock
Features
Read full description

App Description Simple Sketchbook is a distraction-free sketchbook for iPad, designed around the Apple Pencil but will also work with your finger. No subscription. No social features. Just a clean, fast place to draw. Create as many sketchbooks as you like, each with its own paper style — blank, lined, grid, dotted, or a range of specialty templates. Every sketchbook fills your screen edge to edge, and the canvas stays fixed in space when you rotate your iPad, so your drawing never moves out from under your hand. There is no zoom by design on iPad (iPhone users can double-tap to zoom), just a regular sketchbook page in digital space. Layers, done simply Each page supports multiple layers with individual opacity, blend mode, and visibility controls. Bring in photos from your library or drag and drop images directly onto the canvas to use as reference or compose with your work. Reposition, scale, and rotate images freely before committing them to the page. Export your work Export any page as a high-resolution PNG — with or without the background — or export an entire sketchbook as a PDF. Generate a timelapse video of your drawing process, perfect for sharing how a piece came together. Your sketchbooks, backed up Back up any sketchbook to a single file and restore it on any of your iPads. Backups scale automatically to fit the screen, so moving from an iPad mini to an iPad Pro keeps everything looking right. Lock individual sketchbooks with Face ID or Touch ID. Simple Sketchbook is a distraction-free drawing notebook for iPad and iPhone, built for the feel of putting pencil to paper, with just enough digital magic to make every page more useful than a physical one. Draw naturally A slim, always-out-of-the-way tool strip puts your pen, sizes, opacity and colours one tap away, no picker popovers, no hunting through menus. Double-tap or squeeze your Apple Pencil to switch tools instantly, or rest two fingers on the page to pull up the full tool grid without ever putting your pencil down. Layer it up Sketch, ink, and shade on separate layers. Drop in a photo and arrange it (move, scale, rotate) right on the canvas. Add a storyboard frame template for comic panels and animatics. Blend, reorder, and merge layers exactly like a design tool, but built for a sketchbook workflow. Paper that feels right Choose plain, lined, grid, dotted, or textured paper for every notebook, whatever the page is for, to structured notes. Watch your drawing come to life Every stroke is quietly recorded as you draw. Export a timelapse video of any page, or a whole run of pages, and watch a sketch build itself from first line to finished piece. Say what you're thinking Record a voice reflection on any page, your process, your intent, what you'd change next time, and Simple Sketchbook transcribes it on-device, completely privately. Reflections play back alongside your timelapse, or export as Markdown for a portfolio or journal. Yours, and only yours Lock any notebook with Face ID or Touch ID. Back up and restore your entire sketchbook library whenever you like. Nothing leaves your device unless you choose to share it. Whether you're a student building a visual journal, an artist studying your own process, or just someone who likes to draw — Simple Sketchbook gets out of your way and lets the page do the work.

Screenshots

Widget Notes Home Lock Screen4 screens
Simple Sketchbook2 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Widget Notes Home Lock Screen at Free against Simple Sketchbook's $1.99. Widget Notes Home Lock Screen also leads on rating (4.7 vs 4.3) and ratings volume (115 vs 3). Simple Sketchbook's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and review sentiment (100% vs 71%). On in-app purchases, device support 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

Widget Notes Home Lock Screen is free to download; Simple Sketchbook costs $1.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Widget Notes Home Lock Screen holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Widget Notes Home Lock Screen has 115 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 71% of Widget Notes Home Lock Screen's written reviews are positive against 100% of Simple Sketchbook's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Widget Notes Home Lock Screen ships an update every 2 months, Simple Sketchbook every 9 days. Both last shipped on October 23, 2026.

Scorecard8 real differences · 3 level
Widget Notes Home Lock Screen versus Simple Sketchbook: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterWidget Notes Home Lock ScreenSimple Sketchbook
PriceFree — better$1.99
Rating4.7 (115 ratings) — better4.3 (3 ratings)
Positive reviews71.4% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings115 — better3
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 9 days — better
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationAd-supportedFree — better
Best chart rank—#50 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS26.026.0
Further details — not scored
Size10 MB53 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperFugaPiyo Inc.Duncan Pollock

Customer experience

Widget Notes Home Lock Screen

All ratings113 ratings
Positive93.8%
Neutral2.7%
Negative3.5%
Written reviews28 reviews
Positive71.4%
Neutral10.7%
Negative17.9%

Simple Sketchbook

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Widget Notes Home Lock Screen

No in-app purchases

None

Simple Sketchbook

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Widget Notes Home Lock Screen free?
Widget Notes Home Lock Screen is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Simple Sketchbook free?
Simple Sketchbook costs $1.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Widget Notes Home Lock Screen or Simple Sketchbook?
Widget Notes Home Lock Screen is rated higher. Widget Notes Home Lock Screen averages 4.7 out of 5 from 115 ratings, while Simple Sketchbook averages 4.3 from 3 ratings.
Do Widget Notes Home Lock Screen or Simple Sketchbook have ads?
Widget Notes Home Lock Screen shows ads; Simple Sketchbook does not.
Which is updated more often, Widget Notes Home Lock Screen or Simple Sketchbook?
Widget Notes Home Lock Screen ships an update every 2 months, and Simple Sketchbook every 9 days. Most recently, Widget Notes Home Lock Screen was updated on October 23, 2026 and Simple Sketchbook on October 23, 2026.

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