Surfingkeys vs Metanote
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Surfingkeys
Enhance your browsing experience with a Safari extension that adds powerful search engine helpers to selected text. It offers additional shortcuts when an external keyboard is connected.
- Versatile search engine helpers
- Search selected text
- External keyboard shortcuts
- Safari extension
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A Safari extension to add versatile search engine helpers to search selected text. * More shortcuts are available when external keyboard is attached.*
Metanote
A privacy-focused offline editor that supports Org mode for writing, task management, and knowledge wikis. It offers real-time editing of rich content and seamless synchronization across devices.
- Privacy-first offline editor
- Full Org mode support
- Real-time rich content editing
- Seamless synchronization
- Integrated task management
- Full-text search
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Metanote is a privacy-first offline editor that supports org mode. In Metanote, everything is text, everything is editable. Supports real-time editing and rendering of images, hyperlinks, tables, Latex mathematical formulas, source code blocks, attachments and other rich content with the text markup language 'org mode'. Literary creation, academic papers, literary programming, task management, knowledge wiki and other usage scenarios can be easily handled. *** Freedom & Private 100% work offline, no account required, no network required, no private document formats, no data collection, your data and privacy are completely under your control. *** Writing every where Whether on the go or in your bedroom, you can create, view and edit your documents anytime, anywhere, and with built-in synchronization, everything will be there when you return to your desk. *** A silky-smooth editing experience Pure native development, lightweight and smooth, rejecting any lag, even for large files! *** Thinking better Through the structured editing function, ideas come to life on screen. It is not only a beautiful outline, but also efficient thinking. *** Never miss a thing There is no more free task management system than this. Notes are to-dos, and to-dos are notes. Everything is plain-text and everything can be edited. Capture inspiration on the go with 'capture' and keep everything in sight with 'agenda view's. *** Org mode Metanote fully supports org mode 9.3.6 syntax, including features like Capture and Agenda View, allowing for a perfect and even enhanced org mode experience on smartphones. - An incredibly smooth editing experience. - Sync using WebDAV(Apache WebDAV Server, ownCloud, Yandex.disk, etc.), Dropbox, OneDrive, Git, iCloud. - Support for adding Obsidian and Logseq working directories, integrating and managing them in a unified manner - Supports full-text search. - Support images, tables and LaTeX. - Support hyperlinks and attachments. 1. Supports internal links and external links. 2. Click on the attachment link to preview and edit, the following types are supported: 1. iWork and Microsoft Office documents 2. Images 3. Live Photos 4. Text files 5. PDFs 6. Audio and video files - Supports multi-window editing. - Customizable startup page - Supports mini buffer. - Compatible with org mode version 9.3.6 - Todo notifications support - View agenda views by year, month, and day - Customizable workflows - Support for custom capture, custom agenda view, refile, log note, and other features. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Metanote at Free against Surfingkeys's $9.99. Metanote also leads on update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 3 months). Surfingkeys's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 4.5) and in-app purchases (none vs 3). On ratings volume, ads, 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
Metanote is free to download; Surfingkeys costs $9.99 up front. Metanote sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Surfingkeys asks for nothing beyond the download.
Surfingkeys holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.5. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 7 and 11 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 100% of Surfingkeys's written reviews are positive against 73% of Metanote's.
Surfingkeys ships an update every 3 months, Metanote every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 13, 2026 and October 3, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Surfingkeys | Metanote |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $9.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 5.0 (7 ratings) — better | 4.5 (11 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better | 72.7% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 7 | 11 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Every 2 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Paid | Freemium — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 14.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 3 MB | 16 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | 钊岗 洪 | 雪双 陈 |
Customer experience
Surfingkeys
Metanote
In-app purchases
Surfingkeys
No in-app purchases
Metanote
- Metanote Premium$1.991 Month
- Metanote Premium$12.991 Year
- One-time purchase$19.99









