Comparison

Simplenote vs Zero Scanner

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

Zero Scanner

Features
Read full description

Scan your documents and keep them entirely on your device. Zero Scanner is a document scanner built around one priority: your files never leave your phone. Receipts, tax paperwork, medical statements, contracts—the documents you'd never want anyone else to see are the ones that stay safest here. PRIVACY FIRST - Scanning, OCR, search, and PDF export all happen on-device - Zero network transmission. No analytics SDKs. No account required - No ads. No watermark FREE, WITH NO LIMITS - Scan documents (automatic edge detection, multi-page capture) - Import from the camera, your photos, or PDFs in Files - Export and share as PDF, JPEG, or PNG (image) - Organize with folders; reorder, add, and delete pages - Try OCR & full-text search free on your first 20 pages OCR & FULL-TEXT SEARCH PACK (one-time purchase, not a subscription) - OCR (text recognition) for Japanese and English - Full-text search across all your documents (no page limit) - Export searchable PDFs (with an invisible text layer) - Select and copy recognized text - Turn a folder of receipts into a yearly CSV—date, store, and amount extracted on device Doing your taxes or a medical-expense deduction? Pull the date, store, and amount from a folder of receipts and export a full year as one CSV (Pro). Unreadable fields are left blank so you can check them yourself—use it as a first draft for the tallying you'd otherwise type by hand. Receipts, tax documents, medical bills, insurance policies, contracts—snap them, keep them, and find them later by words instead of scrolling. "That receipt from last year," "the contract with the cancellation clause"—search finds them on-device in seconds. Because nothing goes to the cloud, you can safely store the money, health, and legal papers you'd never upload. You can also lock the app itself with Face ID, and back everything up to a single file when you switch phones. Export to PDF or image is always available. The pack is a single one-time purchase. No recurring fees, no hidden charges. And even on the free tier, scanning and image export stay unlimited and watermark-free.

Screenshots

Simplenote4 screens
Zero Scanner4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is device support: Simplenote at 3 against Zero Scanner's 1. Simplenote also leads on iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.2). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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 and Zero Scanner sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Simplenote ships an update fortnightly, Zero Scanner every 8 days. The most recent releases landed on September 26, 2026 and September 20, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Simplenote versus Zero Scanner: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSimplenoteZero Scanner
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (4.3K ratings) — better—
Positive reviews86.2% of reviews—
Number of ratings4.3K — better—
Update frequencyFortnightlyEvery 8 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.0 — better17.2
Further details — not scored
Size11 MB3 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAutomatticYohei Kawazura

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

Zero Scanner

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Simplenote

Subscriptions2
  • Simplenote Sustainer Monthly$19.991 Month
  • Simplenote Sustainer Yearly$199.991 Year
1 purchases

Zero Scanner

One-time1
  • OCR & Full-Text Search Pack$3.99

Questions

Is Simplenote free?
Simplenote is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Zero Scanner free?
Zero Scanner is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Simplenote or Zero Scanner have ads?
Neither Simplenote nor Zero Scanner shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Simplenote or Zero Scanner?
Simplenote ships an update fortnightly, and Zero Scanner every 8 days. Most recently, Simplenote was updated on September 26, 2026 and Zero Scanner on September 20, 2026.

Other comparisons