Outliner vs Notebooks
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Outliner
Organize your thoughts, tasks, and projects with a powerful outlining tool. Create structured lists, track project progress with visual indicators, and collaborate with others. Sync your work across devices and cloud storage for seamless access.
- Create structured outlines
- Track project progress with pie charts
- Sync with cloud storage (OneDrive, Dropbox)
- Collaborate with other users
- Drag and drop editing
- Search and filter outlines
- Archive old outlines
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CarbonFin Outliner allows you to organize your thoughts, tasks, and projects. Easily create a todo list for today, or track an entire project anywhere you are. Share your outlines, edit them online, and collaborate with other Outliner users. Highlights • Create outlines full of notes, structured lists, tasks, or detailed projects • Sync your outlines automatically to Outliner Online, OneDrive, or Dropbox for web or desktop editing • Get a quick view of project progress - tasks with subtasks show a pie-chart indicating percent completed Organize • Search through all your outlines or an individual outline • Tag your outlines, and filter based on tag • Archive old outlines to hide them from view without deleting Easy-to-use Editor • Drag and drop to move items within an outline • Copy, paste • Undo, redo • Expand all, collapse all • Optional outline numbering • Zoom in to focus on a single subtree Outliner Online • Securely synchronize your outlines with Outliner Online • View and edit your outlines in any web browser • Import and export outlines as plain text or OPML • Keep all your devices synchronized • Share an outline with other Outliner users to collaborate OneDrive and Dropbox • Sync your outlines with OneDrive or Dropbox to allow quick import/export • Seamlessly access and edit across your iOS devices and PCs -= Recent version history =- Version 3.21 • iPhone Duo support • Bug fixes Version 3.20 • iOS 27 support • Updated Dropbox and OneDrive integrations • Bug fixes Version 3.19 • iOS 26 support and adoption of liquid glass Version 3.18 • iOS 18 support • Dark and tinted app icons Version 3.17 • Minor bug fixes Version 3.16 • Minor bug fixes • iOS 17 support Version 3.15 • Fixed Dropbox integration • Show a warning when unlinking Dropbox/OneDrive if there are unsynced outlines • iOS 16 support Version 3.12 • Dark mode • Added confirmation to "Delete Completed" • Changing "Archived" won't update the outline's modification time • iOS 13 support Version 3.11 • OneDrive sync support Version 3.10 • Sync the order of outlines across devices (CarbonFin outlines only) • iOS 12 support Version 3.9 • iPhone X support • iOS 11 support Version 3.8 • Open In... support • Ability to hide the outline list on iPad • Minor UI tweaks
Notebooks
This app helps you write, organize, and manage documents, tasks, and files. It offers flexible writing modes, robust organization tools, and task management features, all while ensuring your data remains accessible and under your control.
- Formatted text, plain text, and Markdown writing
- Create documents with styles, tables, and attachments
- Organize with nested hierarchies and 'books'
- Task management with due dates and checklists
- Wiki-style linking and backlinks
- Full-text search
- Cross-device synchronization
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Own your notes — forever. Notebooks is a writing and organization app with no subscription, no lock-in, and no worries. Your documents are stored as standard files you can always access, export, or move freely. Pay once. Use for life. Use Notebooks as a personal wiki, Zettelkasten, document archive, task manager, or long-term writing space. Capture quick notes, turn them into actionable tasks, combine text fragments into chapters, organize research, or keep business documents separate from personal journals — without ever switching apps. Designed to help you stay focused and work at your own pace, Notebooks grows with your needs and is always ready to support you. WRITE AND CREATE Create beautifully formatted documents with styles, attachments, tables, checklists, and optional tables of contents. Choose from ready-made styles or design your own. Write in different ways: Formatted text (WYSIWYG) Plain text, with smart handling of lists, automatic character pairing, and a focused writing view Markdown, supporting MultiMarkdown and Discount, with syntax highlighting, dedicated keyboard keys, wiki-style links, and interactive checklists Sketch ideas or annotate images and PDFs using Apple Pencil. STORE AND ORGANIZE Notebooks stores all documents as regular files in standard formats. You always remain in control — no lock-in, no export worries, fully compatible across devices and over time. Organize your work in books and nested hierarchies without limits. Import PDFs, emails, web pages, MS Office and iWork documents, images, audio, video, and more. Use full-text search to find even the most deeply nested document. PLAN AND ACT Turn books into project lists and documents into tasks. Assign due dates and alerts, create nested projects, and track progress naturally — right where your work lives. Use simple checklists in formatted documents or Markdown for lightweight task tracking. STAY FOCUSED Link documents together to build knowledge over time. Use wiki-style links, backlinks, contexts, and smart books to keep everything connected and within reach. When you rename or move documents, links stay intact. A PLACE YOU CAN RELY ON Sync your documents between iPhone, iPad, Mac, and PC. Work on documents stored in other apps, compile selections into PDFs or eBooks, scan documents and extract text using OCR, and trust that your data stays accessible — now and in the future. With time, Notebooks often becomes the one place users rely on to keep everything that matters close at hand. WHAT USERS SAY “Notebooks is a wonderful app — sophisticated in an unassuming way. I feel more productive without spending time managing the app itself.” “You are GTD in every way that makes it efficient — and makes me efficient.”
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Outliner at $4.99 against Notebooks's $17.99. Outliner also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 4). Notebooks's advantage is update cadence (monthly vs every 4 months) and ratings volume (1.1K vs 89). On rating, review sentiment, 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
Outliner costs $4.99 and Notebooks $17.99 up front. Notebooks sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. Outliner asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for Outliner against 4.7 for Notebooks. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Notebooks has 1.1K ratings behind it against 89, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 87% of Outliner's written reviews are positive against 82% of Notebooks's.
Outliner ships an update every 4 months, Notebooks monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 31, 2026 and October 29, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Outliner | Notebooks |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $4.99 — better | $17.99 |
| Rating | 4.8 (89 ratings) — better | 4.7 (1.1K ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 86.5% of reviews — better | 82.3% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 89 | 1.1K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Monthly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Paid |
| Best chart rank | — | #68 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 17 MB | 48 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | CarbonFin | Alfons Schmid |
Customer experience
Outliner
Notebooks
User reviews
Outliner
From 89 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Fast, simple, and intuitive
- 🔒 Reliable and stable
- 👍 Excellent outlining functionality
- 👍 Seamless sync across devices
- 👍 Clean and uncluttered interface
Room to improve
- 🐛 Occasional crashes and data loss issues
- 🔒 Concerns about data security and privacy
- 👎 Limited customization options (e.g., no color coding)
- 👎 Clunky data entry and navigation in some cases
Notebooks
From 1.1K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Powerful and flexible organization
- 🔒 Respects user data and privacy
- 👍 Reliable and stable
- 👍 Responsive and helpful developer
- 👍 Elegant and intuitive interface
Room to improve
- 🐛 Occasional crashes and sync issues
- 🐛 Formatting and editing limitations
- 🐛 Steep learning curve for some users
Bugs and requests
Outliner
Reported bugs
3 issues- Unexpected error: 500 when saving data
- Pane that lists outlines won't go away or resize
- Keyboard takes up too much screen space
Requested features
5 requests- Add due dates and priority levels for tasks
- Improve export and sharing options (e.g., PDF, Word)
- Implement better organization and search capabilities
- Introduce a desktop companion app for easier editing
- Add support for voice notes and other multimedia
Notebooks
Reported bugs
2 issues- Data loss after iOS upgrades
- Compatibility issues with newer iOS versions
Requested features
4 requests- Improved Markdown support
- More font and color customization options
- Better Apple Watch integration
- Export to Word format
In-app purchases
Outliner
No in-app purchases
Notebooks
- Small Tip$0.99
- Custom Storage Locations$2.99
- Medium Tip$2.99
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- Generous Tip$4.99








