Comparison

Outliner vs Simple Notes

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

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • 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
Features
Read full description

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

About

Simple Notes

A powerful yet simple note-taking application offering cross-device syncing, customizable themes, and robust security features. It allows users to set reminders, highlight text, and even save notes as images.

Highlights
  • Cross-device syncing (Dropbox/iCloud)
  • Zoomable font sizes
  • Searchable highlighted text
  • Note reminders
  • Password protection (AES 256-bit)
  • Shake to undo/redo
  • Customizable themes and fonts
Features
Read full description

Simple, Clean and Easy to Use, Yet Powerful and Loaded with Features. Key Features: --------------------- - One universal app for all your IOS Devices. - Sync your notes with Dropbox and/or iCloud. - Zoom in or out on any note to get the ideal font size suitable for your vision. - Highlight words and search terms inside your notes. - Set reminders to your notes to read them later. - Save text as an image to your camera roll. - Use Password Protection with Advanced Encryption Standard (AES 256-bit) to secure data and to protect your notes from prying eyes. - Shake your device to undo or redo: delete, creating, editing, restoring and more. - 9 font styles with five font colors. - Sort your notes chronologically or alphabetically. - Choose from six different color themes to modify your notes to suit your taste. - The ability to AirPrint your notes. - Auto Paste: when you run the app it will save text that you copied (Text in the Clipboard) automatically as a note. - Night Mode that makes reading in the dark easier on your eyes. - And much more..

Screenshots

Outliner4 screens
Simple Notes4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Outliner at 4.8 against Simple Notes's 4.0. Simple Notes's advantage is price ($2.99 vs $4.99) and device support (4 vs 2). On review sentiment, ratings volume, update cadence 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Outliner costs $4.99 and Simple Notes $2.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Outliner holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 89 and 39 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 87% of Outliner's written reviews are positive against 82% of Simple Notes's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Outliner ships an update every 4 months, Simple Notes every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 31, 2026 and November 1, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Outliner versus Simple Notes: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterOutlinerSimple Notes
Price$4.99$2.99 — better
Rating4.8 (89 ratings) — better4.0 (39 ratings)
Positive reviews86.5% of reviews — better82.0% of reviews
Number of ratings89 — better39
Update frequencyEvery 4 monthsEvery 2 months — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree — betterPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — better
Requires iOS16.013.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size17 MB25 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperCarbonFinSadah Software Solutions, LLC

Customer experience

Outliner

All ratings89 ratings
Positive93.3%
Neutral1.1%
Negative5.6%
Written reviews327 reviews
Positive86.5%
Neutral6.1%
Negative7.3%

Simple Notes

All ratings39 ratings
Positive74.4%
Neutral5.1%
Negative20.5%
Written reviews61 reviews
Positive82.0%
Neutral4.9%
Negative13.1%

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

Simple Notes

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Outliner

No in-app purchases

None

Simple Notes

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Outliner free?
Outliner costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Simple Notes free?
Simple Notes costs $2.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Outliner or Simple Notes?
Outliner is rated higher. Outliner averages 4.8 out of 5 from 89 ratings, while Simple Notes averages 4.0 from 39 ratings.
Do Outliner or Simple Notes have ads?
Neither Outliner nor Simple Notes shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Outliner or Simple Notes?
Outliner ships an update every 4 months, and Simple Notes every 2 months. Most recently, Outliner was updated on October 31, 2026 and Simple Notes on November 1, 2026.

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