Comparison

Qards vs Held

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

Head to head
About

Qards

Organize your thoughts and prepare for presentations with digital note cards. Create, edit, and arrange cards within decks, then swipe through them in full-screen. Your notes sync automatically across all your devices.

Highlights
  • Create and edit decks of note cards
  • Arrange note cards within decks
  • Full-screen card swiping
  • Automatic cross-device syncing
  • Organize everyday thoughts
  • Prepare for speeches and presentations
Features
Read full description

Create Note Cards for your everyday thoughts, or write down keywords and cues for your next speech. Structure your Note Cards in decks and swipe through them in full-screen. Qards is the perfect tool when you want to make notes for your next speech or presentation! With Qards you can: - Create and edit decks of Note Cards. - Edit and order a deck's Note Cards as you please. - Swipe through a deck of Note Cards in full-screen. And all your Note Cards are of course automatically synced and made available across your devices!

About

Held

This app helps you achieve your goals by making them public and accountable. Set deadlines, choose a witness, and receive regular check-ins and reminders to stay on track. Your progress is recorded in an honest ledger, ensuring permanent verdicts on your commitments.

Highlights
  • Set goals with deadlines and witnesses
  • Daily or weekly check-ins
  • Honest progress ledger
  • Customizable reminders
  • Private by design, no account needed
  • JSON data export
  • Stakes and renegotiation options
Features
Read full description

Goals fail quietly. Held makes them loud. A goal doesn't exist here until it has a deadline and a witness — someone you name, who gets your commitment in writing. Held walks you through it in three steps: the goal, the timeline, the person who will hold you to it. Give it a photograph too, if you want one. Then it sends your commitment through your own Messages or Mail, and the clock starts. THE DAY MARKER Open the app and one number faces you: the day you're on, out of the days you have. No dashboards, no confetti. Just the count. CHECK-INS ON A FIXED CADENCE Daily or weekly — you pick the rhythm when you commit. On check-in days Held asks for three honest things: on track, behind, or done; one line of progress; one next step. Add a photograph too, if you want one. Then it composes the message to your witness. You send it yourself. AN HONEST LEDGER Miss a check-in and it goes on the record. It stays on the record, and your next message to your witness owns up to it. Any photograph you added sits beside that day's line. On deadline day the ledger demands a verdict: kept or missed. Verdicts are permanent. REMINDERS THAT HOLD YOU TO IT A reminder on every check-in day, at the hour you choose. An evening nudge if the check-in is still open. A warning three days from the deadline, another the day before, and a final one when the ledger wants its verdict. Optional daily nudges for weekly goals. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No account. No backend. No analytics. Everything lives on your device, with JSON export whenever you want your data. Held never sends anything on your behalf — every message goes out through your own apps, in your own name. Also: a progress bar on every goal, renegotiation (changing a deal means telling your witness first), stakes ("if I miss, I owe Sandy a spa day"), multiple goals and witnesses, and an interface with nothing to fiddle with. Put something on the line.

Screenshots

Qards4 screens
Held4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Held at 5.0 against Qards's 4.6. Held also leads on update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 4 months) and device support (3 vs 1). Qards's advantage is ratings volume (14 vs 4). On price, review sentiment, 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

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

Held holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.6. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 14 and 4 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Qards ships an update every 4 months, Held every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 22, 2026 and September 30, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Qards versus Held: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterQardsHeld
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (14 ratings)5.0 (4 ratings) — better
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings14 — better4
Update frequencyEvery 4 monthsEvery 3 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS16.015.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size4 MB3 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperThomas Asheim SmedmannTheodor Younany

Customer experience

Qards

All ratings14 ratings
Positive92.9%
Neutral0.0%
Negative7.1%
Written reviews12 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Held

All ratings4 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Qards

No in-app purchases

None

Held

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Qards free?
Qards is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Held free?
Held is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Qards or Held?
Held is rated higher. Qards averages 4.6 out of 5 from 14 ratings, while Held averages 5.0 from 4 ratings.
Do Qards or Held have ads?
Neither Qards nor Held shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Qards or Held?
Qards ships an update every 4 months, and Held every 3 weeks. Most recently, Qards was updated on September 22, 2026 and Held on September 30, 2026.

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