Outliner vs Ikes
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 3.20 • 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
Ikes
Capture and organize text or image ideas with a dynamic feed. Intelligent search and discovery help you find inspiration and make unexpected connections. Syncs seamlessly across devices and prioritizes your privacy.
- Quick capture for text and images
- Dynamic Idea Feed for discovery
- Tag, source, and color organization
- Intelligent search by meaning
- Automatic idea discovery
- Shuffle for serendipity
- iCloud sync across devices
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Ikes is not your ordinary note app. It's built for capturing ideas and finding them again — fast. Got an idea? Read a great quote? Snapped a page from a book? Just throw it all into Ikes. Text, images, and links drop into a single feed, and you add tags, sources, and sparkles to whatever matters. Later, filters and search bring anything back in seconds. Now with a new unified export: send your whole library — or just the ideas matching your current filter — out as TXT, CSV, TSV, JSON, or YAML. JSON and YAML are designed for AI and RAG workflows, ready to drop straight into your pipeline. - Save text, images, and links instantly, with tags, sources, and sparkles. - Works inside Safari, X/Twitter, book readers, and other apps via the share extension. - Filter bar, tag/source browsers, and full-text search surface what you need. - Shuffle and random idea views bring forgotten ideas back to the top. - iCloud sync across iPhone, iPad, and Mac — included for free. - Place your favorite quotes on your Home Screen with widgets. [ Premium features ] - Intelligent Search — semantic search across your entire idea feed. - Intelligent Discovery — surface related ideas you had forgotten. - Unified Export to TXT / CSV / TSV / JSON / YAML (Export All or Export Filtered). - Text recognition (OCR) on captured images — perfect for reading physical books. - Filter which ideas appear in widgets. - Custom color schemes and app icons. [ Ikes at a glance ] - Free iCloud sync - Text, images, and links with tags, sources, and sparkles - Share extension for 3rd-party apps - Filter bar + tag cloud - Shuffle / random view - Home Screen widgets - Dark mode - Universal: iPhone, iPad, and Mac
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Ikes at Free against Outliner's $4.99. Ikes also leads on update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 4 months). Outliner's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1). On rating, review sentiment, ratings volume 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
Ikes is free to download; Outliner costs $4.99 up front. Ikes sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. 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 Ikes. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 88 and 30 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 87% of Outliner's written reviews are positive against 93% of Ikes's.
Outliner ships an update every 4 months, Ikes every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 22, 2026 and September 8, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Outliner | Ikes |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $4.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.8 (88 ratings) — better | 4.7 (30 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 86.7% of reviews | 92.9% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 88 — better | 30 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Every 2 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 17 MB | 284 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | CarbonFin | INCREDIBLE FOX, Inc. |
Customer experience
Outliner
Ikes
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
Ikes
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Outliner
No in-app purchases
Ikes
- Ikes PREMIUM$9.99









