Comparison

読書管理アプリ『ホンメモ』 vs MetaNote

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

Head to head
About

読書管理アプリ『ホンメモ』

This app helps you manage the knowledge gained from books, not just the books themselves. You can collect your books, take notes on specific pages or add images, and quickly register books using barcode scanning.

Highlights
  • Manage knowledge from books
  • Collect books
  • Page-specific notes
  • Image notes
  • Barcode book registration
Features
Read full description

■知識を管理するアプリ 読んだ本を管理するのではなく、本で読んで得た知識を管理するアプリです。 得た知識を一生のものにしませんか? - あなたの本をコレクションできます。 - ページごとにメモ、自由にメモできます。 - 画像もメモすることができます。本の中の図解やグラフ、イラストなどを写真撮ってメモできます。 - バーコード読み込みでさっと本を登録できます。

About

MetaNote

Features
Read full description

MetaNote is a reading notebook for reducing, not collecting. Write down a sentence that struck you, come back to it after some time, and move on only what still feels right. Words that remain after three reviews are the ones that truly matter to you. The method follows the "meta-notebook" from Shikō no Seirigaku by Shigehiko Toyama, applied to reading. ■ How it works 1. While reading, copy a sentence that stayed with you and add a word of your own (yellow) 2. When you finish the book, write three lines: what the book asks, the author's answer, and what you didn't accept 3. A month later, MetaNote tells you it's time to review. Go through each note and decide: keep, discard or hold (kept notes move to orange) 4. A month later, do it again (blue). The third review is the final selection (kept) ■ Time is not for memory Right after finishing, you are still the reader you were. Only what still looks good to a changed self deserves to stay. A review cannot start before its date. ■ Recall mode Reviewing starts with the excerpts hidden. Remembering what was there before you open it turns "checking" into "recalling". ■ Nothing is lost Discarded words stay as records, and the total you have discarded is shown. Reducing is the result this app measures. ■ Kept shelf and statistics - A shelf of the words that remained after three reviews - Share kept per book, monthly movement, distribution of tags (question, objection, connection) and days spent in each layer - A list of "what I didn't accept" across all books, so you can see what you tend to object to ■ Bookshelf - Import a CSV from a library-management app and line up every book you own - Photograph a page and drag over a passage to turn it into an excerpt (text recognition runs on your device) - Per book: the questions you set before reading, the three lines after finishing, and the review schedule - Sort by share kept, next review date and more ■ Keep it - Export to Markdown (per book / everything / kept words only). The Markdown of kept words is the final product of this app - Full backup and restore as JSON, plus daily automatic backups - Full-text search No reading counts, streaks, goals, social sharing or AI summaries. This app looks only at the number and quality of the words that remain. Your records stay on your device. Available in Japanese, English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional) and Korean, following your device language. Privacy policy: https://momokusafarm-pixel.github.io/metanote-privacy/

Screenshots

読書管理アプリ『ホンメモ』4 screens
MetaNote4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: 読書管理アプリ『ホンメモ』 at none against MetaNote's shown. MetaNote's advantage is iOS requirement (16.0 vs 18.0). On price, update cadence, in-app purchases 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. 読書管理アプリ『ホンメモ』 sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month and MetaNote sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

読書管理アプリ『ホンメモ』 ships an update every 2 days, MetaNote every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on November 7, 2026 and November 6, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 6 level
読書管理アプリ『ホンメモ』 versus MetaNote: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
Parameter読書管理アプリ『ホンメモ』MetaNote
PriceFreeFree
Positive reviews82.4% of reviews—
Update frequencyEvery 2 days — betterEvery 3 days
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemium—
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad — better
Requires iOS18.016.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size144 MB30 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperRikuto SatoSyunya Saruwatari

In-app purchases

2 purchases

読書管理アプリ『ホンメモ』

Subscriptions2
  • ホンメモ PRO [月額]$2.991 Month
  • ホンメモ PRO [年額]$29.991 Year
1 purchases

MetaNote

One-time1
  • Remove Ads$5.99

Questions

Is 読書管理アプリ『ホンメモ』 free?
読書管理アプリ『ホンメモ』 is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is MetaNote free?
MetaNote is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do 読書管理アプリ『ホンメモ』 or MetaNote have ads?
MetaNote shows ads; 読書管理アプリ『ホンメモ』 does not.
Which is updated more often, 読書管理アプリ『ホンメモ』 or MetaNote?
読書管理アプリ『ホンメモ』 ships an update every 2 days, and MetaNote every 3 days. Most recently, 読書管理アプリ『ホンメモ』 was updated on November 7, 2026 and MetaNote on November 6, 2026.

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