Saber vs Selv
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Saber
Capture and organize your thoughts with a digital handwriting app designed for intuitive use. Features include dark mode inversion for eye comfort, advanced highlighter capabilities, and robust folder organization. Secure your notes with a dual-password system and enjoy seamless syncing across all your devices.
- Intuitive handwriting interface
- Dark mode inversion for eye comfort
- Advanced multi-line equation highlighting
- Unlimited nested folders for organization
- Dual-password note protection
- Seamless cross-device syncing
- Open-source code for transparency
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Saber is the notes app built for handwriting. It's designed to be as simple and intuitive as possible, while still delivering unique features that you'll actually use. Additionally, Saber is available across all your devices, large and small, and syncs between them seamlessly. Notably, it can invert your notes when you're in dark mode. This allows you to write with white ink on a black background, which is much easier on the eyes in low-light environments like when the teacher turns off the lights in class. Images and PDFs are also inverted, so you can still use a digital printout or a textbook without the fuss. Saber uses a dual-password system to protect your notes from anyone but you, even if they have complete control over the server. You can safely store your notes on the official Saber server, another server, or even host your own! The app is completely open-source so that anyone can view the source code and see exactly what it's doing and how it handles your data. Many other note-taking apps are closed-source and proprietary, meaning that their inner workings are a mystery to the public. As someone who studies maths, highlighting multi-line equations was always a hassle with other apps, where the highlighter would change color when it overlapped with itself. Another problem I had was that in some apps, the highlighter would render on top of the text, fading it out and making it hard to read. Saber's highlighter has no such issues. It utilizes canvas compositing to render the highlighter in a way that is consistent with/better than traditional paper, where it handles overlaps and maintains color consistency. Saber has everything you need to keep your notes organized. Create folders inside folders inside folders to your heart's content with no limit on the number of nested folders. And even though a note may be buried deep within a nested folder, you can still access it easily with your most recent notes always available on the home screen. Discover a whole new way to capture and organize your thoughts with Saber. Whether you're a student, professional, or creative mind, Saber is your trusted companion for digital handwriting. Download now and let your ideas flow freely!
Selv
Organize your thoughts and files by creating dedicated conversations for each idea, project, or trip. Send text, photos, voice notes, and links within these chats. Search across all your captured content, including text in photos and voice notes, even offline.
- Chat-based organization
- Send text, photos, files, voice notes
- Search text, photos, and voice notes
- Offline functionality
- Share sheet integration
- Rich text formatting (Pro)
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Selv is a notebook shaped like a chat. Give every idea, project, or trip its own conversation, then send yourself text, photos, files, voice notes, and links. Search reads what you typed, the text in your photos, and your voice-note transcripts, all on your iPhone. Keep anything from the share sheet, widget, Control Center, or Siri. No account. No server. No networking code. Your archive stays on your device and works in airplane mode. The free plan includes three chats plus unlimited capture, reading, transcription, and search. Selv Pro adds unlimited chats and rich text: headings, lists, checklists, and quotes. Monthly and yearly plans renew until canceled; the one-time unlock does not renew. Spaces and tables are part of Selv Pro as well. One space is free. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://selv.nsralisa.com/privacy
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Selv at 5.0 against Saber's 4.0. Selv also leads on update cadence (daily vs fortnightly) and review sentiment (100% vs 76%). Saber's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 3) and ratings volume (21 vs 1). On price 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
Both are free to download. Selv sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Saber asks for nothing beyond the download.
Selv holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Saber has 21 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 76% of Saber's written reviews are positive against 100% of Selv's.
Saber ships an update fortnightly, Selv daily. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Saber | Selv |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.0 (21 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 76.5% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 21 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | Daily — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 26.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 49 MB | 9 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Adil Hanney | NSRALISA |
Customer experience
Saber
Selv
In-app purchases
Saber
No in-app purchases
Selv
- Selv Pro$1.991 Month
- Selv Pro$9.991 Year
- Selv Pro$19.99









