Notesnook vs Formulair
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Notesnook
This open-source app offers secure, encrypted note-taking and organization across all your devices. It features a robust editor, to-do lists, and a private journal with advanced security to protect your personal information.
- Military-grade encryption
- Cross-platform synchronization
- To-do lists and task management
- Private journal with media support
- Rich text and Markdown editor
- Notebook organization
- App lock with fingerprint support
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Your notes are yours. Notesnook encrypts every one of them on your device before it ever reaches the cloud — so no one can read them. Not advertisers, not us. UNLIMITED NOTES. EVERY DEVICE. FREE. Most note apps cap the free plan until it hurts. Others stop after a few dozen notes. Notesnook never limits how much you write or how many devices you sync. A REAL EDITOR Headings, tables, code blocks, maths, outlines, Markdown and full-quality images. Notes that hold up whether you are writing a shopping list or a thesis chapter. ORGANISED AT ANY SIZE Nested notebooks, tags, colours, pinned and favourite notes, and search that stays instant at 10,000 notes. Link notes to each other and build your own private wiki. PRIVACY YOU CAN CHECK YOURSELF • End-to-end encryption is always on — you cannot switch it off, so you cannot forget • Encrypted on your device, in transit and at rest, using XChaCha20-Poly1305 and Argon2 • Even your notebook and tag names are encrypted • 100% open source under AGPLv3 — read every line, or run your own sync server • Recommended by Privacy Guides IMPORT YOUR OLD NOTES Bring your notes, notebooks and tags with you. Import from your previous notes app, plus plain Markdown and HTML files. EVERYWHERE YOU WRITE iPhone, iPad, Mac and the web. Sync is instant, and encrypted the whole way. ALSO INSIDE • Web clipper — save any article, ad-free and offline • Reminders across all your devices • Note version history, so nothing is ever really lost • Publish a note to a shareable link • Dark mode and custom themes FREE FOREVER Unlimited notes, unlimited devices, 50 notebooks, 50 tags and full end-to-end encryption. No ads. No trial countdown. PAID PLANS Add task lists, callouts, recurring reminders, more storage, and — on Pro — app lock, an encrypted vault and full-quality images. From $19.99 a year. Questions or feedback: support@streetwriters.co Privacy policy: https://notesnook.com/privacy Terms: https://notesnook.com/terms
Formulair
This app helps perfumers organize raw materials and create fragrance formulas. It allows detailed tracking of ingredients, dilutions, and costs, with tools for scaling and visualizing scent profiles. Export your creations in various formats for sharing or further analysis.
- Raw material organization with detailed cards
- Formula creation and management
- Customizable scaling engine
- Fragrance pyramid and category visualization
- Dilution tracking and management
- Formula export to PDF, Markdown, TSV
- Color-coding for raw materials
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Designed for apprentice and self-taught perfumers. As easy as using a pen and paper but allows you to make connections between raw materials and formulas which a traditional notebook can't provide. Keep your raw materials organised with collection of cards to store information. Keep track of basic information such as supplier, IFRA limits and cost per gram. Add dates for purchasing your stock and making dilutions to act as a reminder to when raw materials may have gone off. A table summarising concentration in formulas serves to quickly remind you which usage levels you found the most success with. Organise your formulas into custom categories and sketch out new ones with ease. Simply search your raw materials library and set a weight in grams up to 3 decimal places. Mark formula entries as too strong or weak. Change the dilution of a formula entry or swap out a raw material as you please. Formulair makes all of this quick and easy. Features: - A custom scaling engine helps you scale formulas up and down using a scaling factor, target weight or target concentration. - View a fragrance pyramid split into 5 levels of substantivity and a visual raw material category breakdown for each formula. - Keep track of different raw materials' dilutions and change dilutions in formulas using the existing solvent. - Includes a setting to scramble your raw material usage table, hiding sensitive formula information. - Your data is secured by apple in a private iCloud container. - Featuring a carefully designed colour palette, allowing you to assign colours to fully capture the essence your raw materials. - A rich interface supports light and dark mode. Even the raw materials colour palette adapts dynamically. - Raw material cards include a listing of every formula it's used in from strongest to weakest, showing any flags you set for too strong or weak. - Export formulas to pdf allowing you to print and share, markdown to open in note taking software, or tsv (tab-separated value) files, to load into spreadsheet software. Pricing: Formulair allows you to add up to 25 raw materials and up to 25 formulas for free. Once you try to go above this limit, you will be offered a one-time in-app-purchase to buy the full version, which allows you to create unlimited raw materials and formulas.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Notesnook at every 8 days against Formulair's every 3 weeks. Notesnook also leads on ratings volume (672 vs 190). Formulair's advantage is review sentiment (87% vs 79%). On price, rating, ads 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. Notesnook sells 17 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month and Formulair sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for Notesnook against 4.8 for Formulair. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 672 and 190 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 79% of Notesnook's written reviews are positive against 87% of Formulair's.
Notesnook ships an update every 8 days, Formulair every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 15, 2026 and October 12, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Notesnook | Formulair |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (672 ratings) | 4.8 (190 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 78.7% of reviews | 86.8% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 672 — better | 190 |
| Update frequency | Every 8 days — better | Every 3 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 96 MB | 3 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Streetwriters LLC | Lux & Terra Ltd. |
Customer experience
Notesnook
Formulair
User reviews
Notesnook
From 672 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Fast and efficient
- 🔒 Secure and private
- 👍 Clean and intuitive UI
- 👍 Cross-platform compatibility
- 👍 Generous free tier
Room to improve
- 🐛 Sync and login issues
- 🐛 Buggy and crashes
- 💰 Expensive premium tier
- 🔒 Lack of free encryption features
Formulair
From 190 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Easy to use interface
- 💡 Powerful formula calculation
- 🚀 Efficient organization of materials
- 💰 Good value for money
- ✨ Intuitive design
Room to improve
- 💸 Expensive for some users
- 🐛 Crashing when deleting categories/materials
- 🤔 Lacks advanced features for some workflows
- 🔄 No batch editing of items
- 📂 Basic material import
Bugs and requests
Notesnook
Reported bugs
3 issues- Crashes on launch on older iOS devices
- Sync issues leading to data loss
- Unreliable login and verification process
Requested features
5 requests- Improved search functionality
- Reminders and calendar integration
- Handwriting and drawing support
- Multilingual support
- Improved table and spreadsheet features
Formulair
Reported bugs
5 issues- App does not open
- Forgets license after purchase
- Crashing when deleting material categories or materials
- Syncing issues between laptop and iPad
- Cannot remove imported materials all at once
Requested features
24 requests- Group formula raw materials by Top, Core, Base
- Group product printing by Top, Core, Base
- Allow sub-categories for formula grouping
- Formula batch log for tracking batches and inventory
- Copy images into notes fields
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- General notes section not tied to material/formula
- Incorporate/calculate accords in formulas
- More color variations for app/categories
- Image option to capture raw material appearance
- Spanish version of the app
- Additional fields like 'Manufacturer' or 'Country of Origin'
- Option to add custom fields
- Accord library option integrated into formulas
- Extensive CSV library of raw materials for full version
- Block information of raw materials
- Export/import Excel data
- Allow including created fragrances in new formulations
- Edit printed items
- Filter by FEMA
- Ability to use on Windows computer
- Pairing and correlation between raw materials
- Save formulas for accords into other formulas
- Add an ingredient that is treated as a base with its own formula
- Make adding infusions and tinctures more convenient
In-app purchases
Notesnook
- Notesnook Pro$0.991 Month
- Notesnook Essential Plan7 Days trial$1.991 Month
- Notesnook Pro$2.491 Month
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- Notesnook Pro Plan7 Days trial$2.991 Month
- Notesnook Pro3 variants$4.491 Month
- Notesnook Pro1 Month trial$4.491 Month
- Notesnook Pro Plan7 Days trial$6.991 Month
- Notesnook Believer Plan7 Days trial$8.991 Month
- Notesnook Pro$9.991 Year
- Notesnook Essential Plan14 Days trial$19.991 Year
- Notesnook Pro$24.991 Year
- Notesnook Pro Plan14 Days trial$29.901 Year
- Notesnook Pro Yearly$49.991 Year
- Notesnook Pro2 variants$49.991 Year
- Notesnook Pro1 Year trial$49.991 Year
- Notesnook Pro Plan14 Days trial$69.991 Year
- Notesnook Believer Plan14 Days trial$89.991 Year
Formulair
- Full Version$39.99









