Comparison

Side Notes vs Excerpt

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

Head to head
About

Side Notes

This app helps you organize thoughts by viewing multiple notes simultaneously. It offers layouts for comparing options, conducting analyses, or structuring complex ideas. Focus on your thinking with a clean, intuitive interface and privacy-focused design.

Highlights
  • Side-by-side note viewing
  • Multiple layout options (Dual, Four, Single)
  • Visual comparison of ideas
  • SWOT analysis and Eisenhower Matrix support
  • Rich text editing
  • Offline functionality
  • Export notes as PDF or text
Features
Read full description

See both sides of every decision at once. Side Notes shows several notes on one screen, so your pros and cons, two options or a SWOT analysis sit side by side instead of hiding in separate lists. Pick a template, start typing, and compare at a glance. Free, with no ads and no account. START FAST WITH TEMPLATES • Pros & Cons: two columns, one clearer answer • Option A vs Option B: compare two choices side by side • SWOT analysis: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in one grid • Eisenhower matrix: sort tasks by urgent and important • Retrospective: went well, to improve, ideas, actions • Blank board: any layout, your own structure THREE LAYOUTS FOR THE WAY YOU THINK • Dual: two notes side by side • Four: a 2x2 grid for matrices and frameworks • Single: one full note when you need room to write Tap any note to edit it full screen, then swipe to move to the next one. MADE FOR REAL DECISIONS Should you take the job offer? Which apartment, which laptop, which city? Put every argument where you can see it. Run a SWOT on a business idea or a career move, plan your week with the Eisenhower matrix, and close a project or a sprint with a retrospective. ON ALL YOUR DEVICES, NO SIGN UP Your boards sync with iCloud across iPhone, iPad and Mac. There is no account to create and nothing to log in to. WRITE, THEN FIND IT AGAIN • Rich text formatting such as bold and italic (iOS 26 and later) • Word count on every note • Search board titles and note content, filter by Today or This week • Swipe to duplicate or delete a board, or long press for more options SHARE YOUR THINKING Export any board as a PDF or share it as text, ready for a meeting, a teammate or your future self. MAKE IT YOURS Light or dark mode and the Ink accent color, with Brick, Forest and Ocean in Side Notes Plus. A calm, paper-like design with serif titles. GREAT ON IPAD AND MAC More room to see every note at once, plus keyboard shortcuts on iPad and Mac (Apple silicon). Fully translated into 34 languages and redesigned for the latest iOS with Liquid Glass. GO FURTHER WITH SIDE NOTES PLUS Everything above stays free. Side Notes Plus is an optional upgrade for when you want more: • Advanced templates: weighted decision matrix, OKR, weekly review, 5 whys • Your own templates: save any board as a template • Lock a board with Face ID or Touch ID • All accent colors: Brick, Forest and Ocean • Markdown export to Notion, Obsidian or any editor Choose a yearly plan with a 1-week free trial, a monthly plan, or a one-time lifetime purchase. Side Notes is free, with no ads and no account. Just a clear space to think things through. Side Notes Plus is an optional auto-renewable subscription. Payment is charged to your Apple Account; it renews unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the period. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://side-notes.app/en/privacy

About

Excerpt

This audiobook player allows you to highlight spoken passages as text, automatically linking them to the original ebook text. It offers hands-free highlighting via various devices and integrates with note-taking apps. Enhance audio quality and sync your library across Apple devices.

Highlights
  • Highlight spoken audio as text
  • Link highlights to original ebook text
  • Hands-free highlighting (Lock Screen, headphones, Siri)
  • Sync ebooks with narration
  • Export highlights to Markdown, CSV, JSON
  • Search all highlights
  • Audio enhancement
Features
Read full description

Excerpt is an audiobook player that lets you highlight what you hear, the way you would highlight an ebook. Tap the highlighter and the last 30 seconds are saved as text, while the book keeps playing. THE AUTHOR’S EXACT WORDS A transcript mishears names and drops punctuation. Link the book’s epub and Excerpt finds the passage you heard, so each highlight uses the sentence as the author wrote it. HIGHLIGHT WITHOUT TOUCHING YOUR PHONE Take a highlight from the Lock Screen, your headphones, the Action button, your Apple Watch or Siri. Useful when you are driving, running or washing up. READ ALONG AS YOU LISTEN With an epub linked, the ebook follows the narration sentence by sentence. On iPad the page opens beside the player. SEND HIGHLIGHTS TO YOUR NOTES Export a book’s highlights as Markdown for Obsidian, send them to Readwise, or share them as HTML, CSV or JSON. SEARCH EVERY HIGHLIGHT The Vault searches the highlights from all your books at once, on your device. SHORTCUTS AND SIRI More than 30 actions for the Shortcuts app, and links that open any highlight. YOUR OWN FILES, OR FREE LIBRIVOX BOOKS Import m4b and mp3 files, download books from your Audiobookshelf server and keep your position in sync with it, or search LibriVox for free public-domain audiobooks, many with a matching ebook. CLEAN UP LOW-QUALITY AUDIOBOOKS The Enhance model restores muffled, compressed narration on your device. Compare it with the original before you apply it. The original is always kept. ON EVERY DEVICE Books and highlights sync through your own iCloud to iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch. There is no account to create. EXCERPT PREMIUM Excerpt is free to use. Premium is an optional subscription that adds Whisper transcription models, an ebook match for every book, and AI clean-up of transcripts. Privacy Policy: https://octetmediteranee.eu/excerpt/privacy Terms & Conditions: https://octetmediteranee.eu/excerpt/terms

Screenshots

Side Notes4 screens
Excerpt4 screens

Verdict

The call

Side Notes and Excerpt both sit at 3.9 stars, but that hides the real split: 100% of Excerpt's written reviews are positive against 57% of Side Notes's. Side Notes's advantage is monetization model (free vs freemium) and ratings volume (22 vs 1). On price, rating, update cadence and ads 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

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 3.9 for Side Notes against 4.0 for Excerpt. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Side Notes has 22 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 57% of Side Notes's written reviews are positive against 100% of Excerpt's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 19, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Side Notes versus Excerpt: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSide NotesExcerpt
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.9 (22 ratings)4.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews57.1% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings22 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree — betterFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPad, MaciPhone, iPad, Apple Watch
Requires iOS17.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size12 MB167 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperStraw TechnologiesSean Laidlaw

Customer experience

Side Notes

All ratings22 ratings
Positive68.2%
Neutral9.1%
Negative22.7%
Written reviews7 reviews
Positive57.1%
Neutral28.6%
Negative14.3%

Excerpt

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Side Notes

No in-app purchases

None

Excerpt

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Side Notes free?
Side Notes is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Excerpt free?
Excerpt is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Side Notes or Excerpt?
Excerpt is rated higher. Side Notes averages 3.9 out of 5 from 22 ratings, while Excerpt averages 4.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Side Notes or Excerpt have ads?
Neither Side Notes nor Excerpt shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Side Notes or Excerpt?
Side Notes ships an update every 2 months, and Excerpt every 2 months. Most recently, Side Notes was updated on October 24, 2026 and Excerpt on October 19, 2026.

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