Comparison

Mental Note ๛ vs KTrunk

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

Head to head
About

Mental Note ๛

This app offers a versatile digital notepad experience, allowing users to combine text, photos, voice recordings, and drawings on a single page. Capture ideas in any format, organize them with tags, and share them easily.

Highlights
  • Combine text, photos, audio, and drawings
  • Finger drawing with multiple colors
  • Add photos from album or camera
  • Record audio while editing notes
  • Organize notes with tags
  • Password protect private notes
  • Export notes in various formats (PDF, text)
Read full description

"...a true notepad experience that may help you make a clean break from the pencil-and-paper era." -New York Times. Users describe Mental Note as "the only notepad app... that's actually better than, and as simple as, a pen and paper." It's "the future of note taking", and "a big sketchpad... [to] free associate and put stuff down in any format". Turn your iPhone into a digital notepad. Combine photographs, voice recordings, drawings and text - all on the same page, in any order you choose. An idea... a flash - a moment of genius. When a thought hits, and you have to remember it, why limit how you record it? The more context and sensory details you can capture, the clearer the idea can be put down. Use photographs, audio, sketching and text together on the same page... a digital page that can be shared with anyone. Mental Note allows you to capture ideas as they happen: use photographs, dictate, add text, sketch on anything. Ideas clarified. Creativity captured. FEATURES - Draw with your finger using multiple colours and widths on top of photographs, text, or anywhere else on the page. Zoom in to sketch fine details. - Take a photo or choose one from your album and add it to the page. - Add audio to the page by recording with your microphone. Continue to edit your note while recording. - Organize your notes using tags. - Password protect your private notes and flag your important ones. - Attach Calendar events to your notes. - Undo, redo anything in the note by shaking the device. - Delete note sections using the toolbar button or by swiping any note section. - Move a note section by swiping and then dragging it to its new location. - Length of a note is limited only by device memory. - Export in a variety of formats including PDF, text, Mental Note format, and more. Send using email, iCloud, Dropbox, and more. * Send a note in Mental Note format so the note may be imported into another person's Mental Note app. * Using email, export a complete note directly from Mental Note as either a PDF document or a picture (each audio recording is attached to the email as a separate file). You can also email just the text from your note. - Export your notes and backups to your iCloud and/or Dropbox account. - Share a note with your friends using most installed apps. - Map the location a note was created at (if location services are enabled). - Change the size and font of the text in your notes. - Change the color and background of your notes. - Numerous other configuration options. THIS VERSION IS OPTIMIZED FOR iPhone. FOR iPad, PLEASE SEE Mental Note for iPad. Read more: www.zymbiotic.com X @zymbiotic facebook.com/zymbiotic

About

KTrunk

This note-taking app allows you to save ideas with attached files and photos. You can create links between notes and files, and synchronize your data across devices. An optional in-app purchase enables note encryption for enhanced privacy.

Highlights
  • Save ideas with files and photos
  • Link notes to other notes and files
  • Synchronize across devices via iCloud
  • Notes saved in HTML format
  • Optional note encryption
Features
Read full description

Knowledge Trunk - or short KTrunk - is a note taking App. Use KTrunk to save all your ideas augmented with related files and photos. You can establish links from one note to any other note or file in KTrunk. The notes are saved in html-format and can be synchronized across your devices using iCloud. In-App-Purchases: * Privacy Allows to encrypt/decrypt your notes.

Screenshots

Mental Note ๛4 screens
KTrunk1 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: KTrunk at Free against Mental Note ๛'s $4.99. KTrunk also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.0) and update cadence (monthly vs every 5 months). Mental Note ๛'s advantage is review sentiment (63% vs 50%) and ratings volume (15 vs 2). On ads, in-app purchases, monetization model 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

KTrunk is free to download; Mental Note ๛ costs $4.99 up front. Mental Note ๛ sells 3 one-off in-app purchases and KTrunk sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

KTrunk holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Mental Note ๛ has 15 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 63% of Mental Note ๛'s written reviews are positive against 50% of KTrunk's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Mental Note ๛ ships an update every 5 months, KTrunk monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 3, 2026 and September 29, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Mental Note ๛ versus KTrunk: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMental Note ๛KTrunk
Price$4.99Free — better
Rating4.0 (15 ratings)5.0 (2 ratings) — better
Positive reviews63.2% of reviews — better50.0% of reviews
Number of ratings15 — better2
Update frequencyEvery 5 monthsMonthly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS13.0 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size10 MB10 MB
Age rating4+17+
DeveloperZymbiotic TechnologiesClemens Schuetzdeller

Customer experience

Mental Note ๛

All ratings15 ratings
Positive73.3%
Neutral6.7%
Negative20.0%
Written reviews201 reviews
Positive63.2%
Neutral17.9%
Negative18.9%

KTrunk

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive50.0%
Neutral50.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

Mental Note ๛

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Notes sometimes disappear or get deleted unexpectedly
  • Audio recording feature not working properly
  • Keyboard issues causing loss of typed text
  • Location services not accurately detecting user's location

Requested features

6 requests
  • Add iCloud or Dropbox sync
  • Implement copy/paste and text formatting options
  • Improve drawing tools with more customization
  • Introduce a task/to-do list feature
  • Add video recording capability
Show 1 more
  • Provide more font and color options

KTrunk

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Mental Note ๛

One-time3
  • Paper Customization feature$2.99
  • Straight Line Drawing feature$3.99
  • Dark Mode Override feature$3.99
3 purchases

KTrunk

One-time3
  • Operating Convenience$0.99
  • Privacy$1.99
  • #Tag-Proposals$1.99

Questions

Is Mental Note ๛ free?
Mental Note ๛ costs $4.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is KTrunk free?
KTrunk is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Mental Note ๛ or KTrunk?
KTrunk is rated higher. Mental Note ๛ averages 4.0 out of 5 from 15 ratings, while KTrunk averages 5.0 from 2 ratings.
Do Mental Note ๛ or KTrunk have ads?
Neither Mental Note ๛ nor KTrunk shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Mental Note ๛ or KTrunk?
Mental Note ๛ ships an update every 5 months, and KTrunk monthly. Most recently, Mental Note ๛ was updated on October 3, 2026 and KTrunk on September 29, 2026.

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