Comparison

Simplenote vs Quip

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

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • Simple note-taking experience
  • Cross-device syncing
  • Collaboration and sharing
  • Organization with tags
  • Instant search
  • To-do list creation
  • Passcode lock
Read full description

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.

About

Quip

This app combines chat, documents, slides, and spreadsheets into a single platform for seamless team collaboration. It streamlines workflows by reducing the need for emails and meetings, allowing teams to work faster and more efficiently across all their devices.

Highlights
  • Living documents
  • Integrated chat and messaging
  • Full-featured spreadsheets
  • Interactive slides
  • Cross-device access
  • Import/export from popular services
Features
Read full description

Quip is a place for teams to create living documents. It combines chat, docs, slides, and spreadsheets in one app — making collaboration fast and easy. Skip the endless emails, meetings, document versions by working simpler and faster with Quip—available for your Mac, iPad and iPhone. Watch your team and your work come alive. SHARE DOCUMENTS AND TASK LISTS Take notes, share grocery lists, organize task lists, edit docs with your office coworkers, collaborate with any group or team on projects. CHAT AND MESSAGING Real-time chat and messaging is integrated seamlessly for easy collaboration, so you never have to switch to email. SPREADSHEETS Embed beautiful, full featured spreadsheets with support for over 400 functions and a customized mobile keyboards that make editing a pleasure from any device. SLIDES Quip slides are designed to get everyone aligned with fewer, shorter meetings—or no meetings at all. Use interactive polls and prompts to ensure that real decisions get made. Create charts using live data from spreadsheets and Salesforce records. They’ll always stay up to date, and your team will too. ACCESS ON ANY DEVICE, ANY TIME All of your chats, docs, task lists, and spreadsheets are available on all of the devices you use — iPhone, iPad, and desktop. Easily review changes, comments, annotations to your docs and spreadsheets from your iPhone and iPad. IMPORT & EXPORT Import your documents from Dropbox, Evernote, Google Drive, Box, Google Docs, and more. Export documents to PDF and Microsoft Office. Export spreadsheets to Microsoft Excel. Import your address book from Gmail, Hotmail, Microsoft Outlook, Google, or iCloud.

Screenshots

Simplenote4 screens
Quip4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Quip at none against Simplenote's 2. Quip also leads on ratings volume (26K vs 4.3K) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 15.0). Simplenote's advantage is update cadence (fortnightly vs every 6 weeks) and review sentiment (86% vs 71%). On price, rating, ads and monetization model 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

Both are free to download. Simplenote sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $19.99 per month. Quip asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for Simplenote against 4.7 for Quip. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Quip has 26K ratings behind it against 4.3K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 86% of Simplenote's written reviews are positive against 71% of Quip's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Simplenote ships an update fortnightly, Quip every 6 weeks. Both last shipped on September 26, 2026.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Simplenote versus Quip: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSimplenoteQuip
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (4.3K ratings)4.7 (26K ratings)
Positive reviews86.2% of reviews — better71.3% of reviews
Number of ratings4.3K26K — better
Update frequencyFortnightly — betterEvery 6 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.013.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size11 MB65 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAutomatticQuip

Customer experience

Simplenote

All ratings4,313 ratings
Positive94.9%
Neutral1.5%
Negative3.6%
Written reviews1,717 reviews
Positive86.2%
Neutral4.5%
Negative9.3%

Quip

All ratings25,684 ratings
Positive93.2%
Neutral2.4%
Negative4.3%
Written reviews1,175 reviews
Positive71.3%
Neutral7.0%
Negative21.7%

User reviews

Simplenote

From 4.3K App Store ratings

What 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

Quip

From 26K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Easy to use
  • 🚀 Great for collaboration
  • 🚀 Seamless sync across devices
  • 💡 Helpful for organizing and managing tasks
  • 👍 Intuitive interface

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Frequent crashes and freezes
  • 🐛 Inconsistent performance on mobile devices
  • 🐛 Sync and connectivity issues
  • 🐛 Buggy text editing and formatting
  • 🐛 Unreliable search functionality

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

Quip

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Frequent app crashes
  • Sync issues leading to data loss
  • Formatting problems when editing documents
  • Unreliable connectivity on mobile devices
  • Inconsistent performance across platforms

Requested features

6 requests
  • Improved mobile app experience
  • Enhanced search and filtering capabilities
  • Custom keyboard support
  • Expanded formatting options
  • Offline mode for document access
Show 1 more
  • Better integration with other productivity tools

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Simplenote

Subscriptions2
  • Simplenote Sustainer Monthly$19.991 Month
  • Simplenote Sustainer Yearly$199.991 Year
None

Quip

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Simplenote free?
Simplenote is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Quip free?
Quip is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Simplenote or Quip?
Simplenote and Quip are both rated 4.7 out of 5 on the App Store, from 4.3K and 26K ratings respectively.
Do Simplenote or Quip have ads?
Neither Simplenote nor Quip shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Simplenote or Quip?
Simplenote ships an update fortnightly, and Quip every 6 weeks. Most recently, Simplenote was updated on September 26, 2026 and Quip on September 26, 2026.

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