Simplenote vs UpNote
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Simplenote
Capture ideas, create to-do lists, and jot down thoughts effortlessly. Organize your notes with tags and pins, and find them instantly with search. Your content syncs across all devices for free, ensuring it's always accessible.
- Simple note-taking experience
- Cross-device syncing
- Collaboration and sharing
- Organization with tags
- Instant search
- To-do list creation
- Passcode lock
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Simplenote is an easy way to take notes, create to-do lists, capture ideas, and more. Open it, jot down some thoughts, and you're done. As your collection grows, stay organized with tags and pins, and find what you need with instant search. Since Simplenote will sync across your devices for free, your notes are with you at all times. - A simple, note taking experience - Sync everything across all your devices - Collaborate and share - Stay organized with tags - Log in with your email or WordPress.com account SYNC WITH CONFIDENCE - Automatically sync seamlessly across any computer, phone or tablet. - Back up and sync everything as you take notes, so you never lose your content. COLLABORATE AND SHARE - Collaborate and work together -- share ideas with a colleague, or write a grocery list with your roommate. - Choose whether to publish your content to the web, and share a link with whoever you want. - Publish directly to a WordPress site by connecting your WordPress.com account. - Quickly and easily share with third-party apps. ORGANIZE AND SEARCH - Stay organized with tags, and use them for quick searching and sorting. - Instantly find what you’re looking for with keyword highlighting. - Use markdown to add formatting. - Create to-do lists. - Choose the sorting order of your notes and tags. - Pin the notes that you use the most. - Edit tags directly by renaming and reordering. - Protect your content with a passcode lock. -- Privacy Policy: https://automattic.com/privacy/ Terms of Service: https://simplenote.com/terms/ California Users Privacy Notice: https://wp.me/Pe4R-d/#california-consumer-privacy-act-ccpa -- Visit simplenote.com to download Simplenote for your other devices.
UpNote
This app provides a clean and beautiful interface for writing and organizing notes, journals, and to-do lists. It offers rich formatting options, an intuitive organization system, and instant syncing across devices, with offline capabilities. Premium features include enhanced security and export options.
- Rich text editor with formatting tools
- Intuitive organizing system (notebooks, pins, links)
- Secure note locking with Touch/Face ID
- Instant cross-device syncing and offline access
- Markdown support and export
- Task management and to-do lists
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UpNote is a clean and beautiful app for writing and organizing. It's easy to use with rich features and delightful experience. UpNote is designed to help you take notes easily and stay focused on what matters most. UpNote has beautiful fonts and elegant themes that you can adjust to make your writing experience most comfortable and pleasant. UpNote is an ideal place to keep your diary and journal. It has a powerful lock feature so that you can rest assured that your notes stay private and secure. You can also use Touch ID or Face ID to securely unlock your notes. UpNote’s intuitive organizing system will keep your note space neat and light. There are many ways to organize your notes: putting them into notebooks, pinning your notes to the top of the note list, bookmarking them for quick reference or linking to other notes. You can also close any notebooks to focus on only most important one. UpNote’s rich editor makes it perfect for planning and managing your tasks. Simply write down your to-do list and have them synced to all your devices. UpNote offers highlight, text colors, table, nested list, code and many other important formatting tools so that you could easily format your notes. UpNote syncs notes instantly on all devices. It also works reliably offline, so you could take note anytime, anywhere. If you are a markdown user, UpNote is great for you too. It has intuitive shortcuts based on markdown, which makes it more fun to write notes. You can also export your notes to Markdown or PDF. Try UpNote now and you will fall in love with it! ---- Upgrade to Premium to get full power of UpNote: - Lock your notes and notebooks - Insert table and attachments - Write unlimited number of notes - Elegant themes and notebook covers - Export to text PDF, HTML and Markdown ---- Price may vary by location. Subscriptions will be charged to your credit card through your iTunes account. Your subscription will automatically renew unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. You will not be able to cancel the subscription once activated. Manage your subscriptions in Account Settings after purchase. Any unused portion of a free trial period will be forfeited when the user purchases a subscription. ---- If you have any question or feedback, we would love to hear it. Send an email to support@getupnote.com, and we would love to get in touch with you! ---- Privacy policy: https://getupnote.com/privacy.html Terms of use: https://getupnote.com/terms.html
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is monetization model: Simplenote at free against UpNote's freemium. Simplenote also leads on ratings volume (4.3K vs 1.1K). On price, rating, review sentiment and update cadence 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. Simplenote sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $19.99 per month and UpNote sells 8 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for Simplenote against 4.7 for UpNote. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 4.3K and 1.1K respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 86% and 86% positive.
Simplenote ships an update fortnightly, UpNote weekly. The most recent releases landed on September 23, 2026 and September 22, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Simplenote | UpNote |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (4.3K ratings) | 4.7 (1.1K ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 86.2% of reviews — better | 85.9% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 4.3K — better | 1.1K |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 15.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 11 MB | 82 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Automattic | UpNote Company Limited |
Customer experience
Simplenote
UpNote
User reviews
Simplenote
From 4.3K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 💻 Cross-platform availability
- 🔍 Reliable search functionality
- 🌐 Seamless syncing across devices
- 📝 Simple, distraction-free interface
- 🔒 Secure with password/fingerprint protection
Room to improve
- 🔖 Limited formatting options (no bold, italic, etc.)
- 🗂️ Lack of folder organization
- 🔄 Occasional syncing issues
- 🖼️ Unable to add images or attachments
- 🔍 Search could be improved for long notes
UpNote
From 1.1K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Seamless syncing across devices
- 🚀 Fast and responsive
- 💡 Nested notebooks and tags for organization
- 👍 Clean and intuitive interface
- 💡 Lifetime premium option
Room to improve
- 🐛 Occasional bugs and crashes
- 🐛 Issues with image/attachment handling
- 🐛 Formatting problems with pasted content
- 🐛 Syncing problems between devices
- 🔒 Lack of end-to-end encryption
Bugs and requests
Simplenote
Reported bugs
3 issues- Notes sometimes disappear or get duplicated
- App crashes or freezes on certain devices
- Syncing problems between mobile and desktop
Requested features
5 requests- Add bold, italic, and other formatting options
- Implement folder-based organization
- Improve syncing reliability across devices
- Allow adding images, files, and other attachments
- Enhance search capabilities for long notes
UpNote
Reported bugs
4 issues- Black screen issues
- Lost notes and data
- Incompatibility with newer iOS versions
- Google sign-in not working
Requested features
8 requests- Reminders and calendar integration
- More customization options (fonts, colors, etc.)
- Improved drawing/handwriting support
- PDF annotation and embedding
- Optical character recognition (OCR)
Show 3 moreShow fewer
- Ability to reorder bullets and lists
- Improved table editing and formatting
- Apple Watch app
In-app purchases
Simplenote
- Simplenote Sustainer Monthly$19.991 Month
- Simplenote Sustainer Yearly$199.991 Year
UpNote
- Premium monthly subscription$1.991 Month
- Life-time Upgrade$19.99
- Life-time Upgrade to Premium$19.99
- Life-time Upgrade$24.99
Show 4 moreShow fewer
- Life-time Upgrade to Premium$24.99
- Life-time Upgrade$29.99
- Life-time upgrade to Premium$34.99
- Life-time upgrade to Premium$39.99









