Desk vs Ember
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Desk
A secure and straightforward application designed to be a central hub for your personal data. It focuses on simplicity and safety, with more features planned for future updates.
- Simple data management
- Secure data storage
- Future feature development
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Welcome to Desk! Our goal is to build a simple and secure home for your data. Stay tuned for many more new features coming soon.
Ember
A fast and organized workspace for writing Markdown notes, storing PDFs, diagrams, and voice memos. It offers a vault for reusable prompts and syncs across Apple devices. Start for free with full editor access.
- Rich Markdown editor
- Inline PDF and image support
- Reusable prompt vault
- Daily notes, folders, and tags
- Instant search functionality
- Private iCloud sync
- Share Extension
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Your notes should feel like home. Ember is a warm, fast place to think — Markdown notes, PDFs, diagrams, voice memos, and a vault of reusable prompts, all in one calm workspace that syncs across iPhone, iPad, and Mac. WRITE IN RICH MARKDOWN A live editor with real formatting: headings, tables, task lists, links, highlights, footnotes, and code — rendered as you type, never in your way. Bullets, numbers, and checkboxes feel native and effortless. MORE THAN TEXT Drop PDFs, images, diagrams, and voice notes right inline. Your references live beside your writing, so everything about a thought stays in one place. A VAULT FOR YOUR PROMPTS Keep the prompts you reuse for writing, research, and planning in a dedicated Prompt Vault — organized, searchable, and a tap away when you need them. STAY ORGANIZED, STAY FAST Daily notes, folders, tags, smart filters, and pinned notes keep things tidy, and instant search finds anything the moment you look for it. YOURS EVERYWHERE Ember runs natively on iPhone, iPad, and Mac, with optional private iCloud sync, widgets, and a Share Extension for capturing from anywhere. FREE TO START Capture notes, PDFs, prompts, and attachments with the full editor — free, no account required. EMBER PRO Unlock advanced themes and alternate icons, premium writing and organization workflows, and deeper Prompt Vault tools, as a subscription or a one-time lifetime purchase. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No accounts. No ads. No selling your words. Your notes stay on your device and your own iCloud. Make a home for your thinking. Download Ember Notes. TERMS & PRIVACY Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://embernotes.app/privacy
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Desk at none against Ember's 3. Desk also leads on iOS requirement (14.0 vs 26.0). Ember's advantage is update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 28 months) and ratings volume (6 vs 1). On price, rating, 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
Both are free to download. Ember sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. Desk asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Desk against 5.0 for Ember. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Ember has 6 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Desk ships an update every 28 months, Ember every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Desk | Ember |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) | 5.0 (6 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | — | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 6 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 28 months | Every 2 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 14.0 — better | 26.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 40 MB | 76 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Chris Parcel | Rene DeAnda |
Customer experience
Desk
Ember
In-app purchases
Desk
No in-app purchases
Ember
- Ember Pro Monthly$3.991 Month
- Ember Pro Annual$34.991 Year
- Ember Pro Lifetime$99.99









