DraftPad vs Color Notepad
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
DraftPad
A minimalist writing tool designed for quick drafting of messages, posts, or blog entries. It offers a clean interface without complex features, focusing on immediate text input and sharing. Easily export your text and track character counts.
- Plain text writing field
- Share/export text via iOS activity sheet
- Automatic history list for text restoration
- Adjustable font size and line spacing
- Character, word, and line counters
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DraftPad is a simple notepad which is like a single sheet of paper. You can use it to write a draft for messaging, posting, blogging, or any writing tasks. For the simplicity, DraftPad doesn't have features for filing multiple notes and decorating text elements. Instead, it is always ready to start jotting. DraftPad allows you to - Simply write and read on a plain field without any functional complexity or visual clutter. - Share or export your text via iOS standard activity sheet. - Restore previous text from the automatic History list. - Change font size and line spacing. - Helped by the counters for characters, words, and lines. Follow @draftpad on Twitter for staying in touch.
Color Notepad
A clean and simple note-taking app that lets you personalize your experience with over 20 colorful themes. It offers a minimalist design for distraction-free writing, iCloud sync, and robust backup options.
- Minimalist design
- 20+ colorful themes
- Light & Dark Mode
- iCloud sync
- Sort notes
- Export notes
- Automatic local backups
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Color Notepad is a clean and simple note-taking app designed to match your personal style. Whether you’re jotting down quick thoughts, daily tasks, or important ideas, Color Notepad keeps things fast, easy, and customizable. Choose from 20+ colorful themes to match your mood — or let the app surprise you with a random one each time you open it. Key Feature: • Minimalist design for quick and distraction-free note-taking. • 20+ colorful themes to suit your mood. • Light & Dark Mode support for every theme. • iCloud sync to keep your notes up to date across devices. • Sort your notes by date or alphabetically. • Export individual notes or your entire archive for backup or sharing. • Automatic local backups with the ability to restore notes. Color Notepad is perfect for anyone looking for a lightweight, private, and beautifully customizable notes app — with no ads, no accounts, and no clutter.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: DraftPad at none against Color Notepad's 1. DraftPad also leads on review sentiment (78% vs 47%) and update cadence (every 5 weeks vs every 5 months). Color Notepad's advantage is rating (4.5 vs 4.3) and ratings volume (603 vs 53). On price, ads 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
Both are free to download. Color Notepad sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. DraftPad asks for nothing beyond the download.
Color Notepad holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Color Notepad has 603 ratings behind it against 53, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 78% of DraftPad's written reviews are positive against 47% of Color Notepad's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
DraftPad ships an update every 5 weeks, Color Notepad every 5 months. The most recent releases landed on September 30, 2026 and October 14, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | DraftPad | Color Notepad |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.3 (53 ratings) | 4.5 (603 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 78.5% of reviews — better | 46.5% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 53 | 603 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 5 weeks — better | Every 5 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 11.0 — better | 14.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 1 MB | 4 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Manabu Ueno | Dmytro Vynokurov |
Customer experience
DraftPad
Color Notepad
User reviews
DraftPad
From 53 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Long-term user satisfaction
- 🚀 Reliable and consistent performance
- 💡 Simple and minimalist design
- 👍 Great for quick note-taking
- 👍 Helpful for writing and brainstorming
Room to improve
- 🐛 Crashes and stability issues
- 🐛 Keyboard disappearing
- 🐛 Unexpected file creation and behavior
- 💡 Lack of multiple document support
Color Notepad
From 603 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🎨 Colorful customization options
- 💾 One-time purchase pricing model
- 📝 Simple and easy-to-use interface
- 🔤 Adjustable font size options
- ✅ Cross-device synchronization
Room to improve
- 🐛 Notes frequently disappear or fail to save
- 🐛 App crashes and won't open
- 🐛 Text scrolls out of view when keyboard appears
- 💰 Expensive pricing for unlimited storage
- ❌ Limited to 3 notes in free version
Bugs and requests
DraftPad
Reported bugs
3 issues- Crashes when highlighting words
- Keyboard disappearing issue
- Unexpected file creation and growth
Requested features
5 requests- Add dark mode option
- Implement font and formatting options
- Allow creating and managing multiple documents
- Improve export and sharing capabilities
- Implement spell check and grammar assistance
Color Notepad
Reported bugs
7 issues- Notes deleted unexpectedly after saving
- App crashes and fails to reopen
- Text disappears or becomes invisible
- Keyboard covers note content during editing
- Inconsistent save functionality (8 out of 10 times fails)
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- App unresponsive to input commands
- Notes lost after app closure
Requested features
6 requests- Password protection for notes
- Different colors for individual notes
- Checklist functionality with reset capability
- Note sharing capabilities
- Multiple font options
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- Apple Pencil support
In-app purchases
DraftPad
No in-app purchases
Color Notepad
- Unlimited Storage$4.99
