Outliner vs Brainwave
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
Brainwave
Capture and organize your thoughts with this note-taking application. Create calendar events, reminders, and export notes in various formats. Protect sensitive information with password protection and manage your data with backup and restore options.
- Organize notes with tags
- Password protect sensitive notes
- Create calendar events and reminders
- Export notes to PDF or text
- Supports various links (web, phone, maps)
- Backup and restore notes
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Transfer your ideas from brain wave to Brainwave. • Organize on the fly by tagging notes with any number of tags • Flag important notes; password protect sensitive notes • Create calendar events and reminders based on your notes • Change the size and font of the text • Export notes directly from Brainwave to a variety of destinations, in formats including: ◦ Email as PDF ◦ Send to Dropbox or almost any app as PDF ◦ Email as text • Create restore points, backing up all notes to a single file • Supports links (web, phone numbers, map addresses - that can even be opened in Google Maps, calendar dates) • Numerous configuration options • Length of a note is limited only by device memory • Supports all device orientations Sometimes an idea can circle around and around in your mind - like a whirlpool swirling, or a tidal wave growing, it confuses, it overwhelms, and it isn't until you write it down that it becomes clear. Write it down. Get it out. Record it before it’s washed away. Free your mind to work on other thoughts. Store your brain waves in Brainwave.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Outliner at 87% against Brainwave's 20%. Outliner also leads on rating (4.8 vs 2.0) and ratings volume (89 vs 1). Brainwave's advantage is price ($0.99 vs $4.99) and iOS requirement (11.0 vs 16.0). On update cadence, ads, 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
Outliner costs $4.99 and Brainwave $0.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Outliner holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 2.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Outliner has 89 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 87% of Outliner's written reviews are positive against 20% of Brainwave's.
Outliner ships an update every 4 months, Brainwave every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and October 17, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Outliner | Brainwave |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $4.99 | $0.99 — better |
| Rating | 4.8 (89 ratings) — better | 2.0 (1 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 86.5% of reviews — better | 20.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 89 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Every 3 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free — better | Paid |
| Best chart rank | #148 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 | 11.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 17 MB | 9 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | CarbonFin | Zymbiotic Technologies |
Customer experience
Outliner
Brainwave
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
Brainwave
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Outliner
No in-app purchases
Brainwave
No in-app purchases









