Comparison

Penzu vs Standard Notes

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

Head to head
About

Penzu

This app provides a secure and private space for journaling, note-taking, and storing personal thoughts. It offers robust security features like password and PIN locks, encryption, and cloud syncing across devices. Users can also add photos and tags to their entries, making it a comprehensive digital diary.

Highlights
  • Unlimited journaling
  • Cloud sync for free
  • Password and PIN locks
  • Journal encryption
  • Add photos to entries
  • Search and tag entries
  • Offline writing
Read full description

*Used by over 1 million people around the world *Best free journal in any app store *Syncs to the web and other mobile platforms for free Penzu is the most popular free diary, journal and notepad. It’s the best place to keep your most private thoughts safe and secure. Sync your journals to Penzu where your notes are accessible from almost any device in the world. So simple and fun that you’ll leave your paper diary behind! FEATURES *Unlimited journaling *Sync journals with Penzu cloud for free *Customize your journal covers *Lock journals with a password *Encrypt your journals *Add photos *Lock app with a PIN *Search journals *Add tags *Write offline and more... WHY PENZU? Penzu is a diary and personal journal that is focused on privacy. With a unique and compelling user experience, it makes writing online as easy and intuitive as writing on a pad of paper. PRIVACY Your journal and your thoughts aren’t always meant to be shared — some things are supposed to be private! Use Penzu to jot down whatever you want. Then lock your journal with a password (or even encryption) so no one can read it but you! Furthermore, you can lock the entire app with a PIN in the event that someone gets access to your mobile device. PENZU Unlike other journal apps, Penzu has a web-based counterpart. So you can access your journals and diary from any web browser and other devices. Penzu is constantly being updated and improved so that the writing experience is effortless and reliable. SUBSCRIPTION INFO This app is free to download but requires a free Penzu account in order to start writing. Upgrading to Penzu Pro is available for a small monthly or yearly subscription. Your subscription will auto-renew unless you cancel manually. Monthly subscriptions are $4.99 USD and renew every month. Yearly subscriptions are $19.99 USD and renew every year. You can see our privacy policy here: http://penzu.com/m/privacy You can read our terms of use here: http://penzu.com/m/terms

About

Standard Notes

Securely capture and sync your thoughts across all devices with end-to-end encryption. This app offers a simple, lasting place for all your notes, from personal thoughts to sensitive information, with robust privacy features.

Highlights
  • End-to-end encryption
  • Cross-device syncing
  • Offline access
  • Passcode and biometric lock
  • Tagging system
  • Open-source code
  • Optional productivity editors and themes
Features
Read full description

Standard Notes is a private and secure end-to-end encrypted notes app. It allows you to write and sync your notes across all your devices, including your iPhone, iPad, Mac, and web browser. Private means your notes are end-to-end encrypted, so only you can read your notes. Even we can't read the contents of your notes. Simple means it does one job and does it well. Standard Notes is a safe and lasting place for your life's work. Our focus is making it easy to write notes wherever you are and syncing them with encryption to all your devices. Our users love us for: • Personal Notes • Tasks & Todos • Passwords & Keys • Code & Technical Procedures • Private Journal • Meeting Notes • Cross-platform Scratchpad • Books, Recipes, & Movies • Health & Fitness Log Standard Notes comes free with: • Seamless sync across all your devices, with easy to use applications on iPhone, iPad, Mac, web browsers, and other platforms. • Offline access, so you can access your downloaded notes even without a connection. • No limit on number of devices. • No limit on number of notes. • Passcode lock protection, along with Touch ID and Face ID protection. • A tagging system to organize your notes (like #work, #ideas, #passwords, #crypto). • The ability to pin, lock, protect, and move notes to trash, which allows you to recover deleted notes until the trash is emptied. Standard Notes is completely open-source, which means when we say your notes are encrypted with industry-leading XChaCha-20 encryption, and that only you can read your notes, you don't have to take our word for it. Our code is open to the world to audit. We made Standard Notes simple because longevity is important to us. We want to make sure we're here, protecting your notes, for the next hundred years. You shouldn't have to find a new notes app every year. To sustain our development, we offer optional paid subscriptions which give you access to powerful tools like: • Productivity editors (like Markdown, Code, Spreadsheets) • Beautiful themes (like Midnight, Focus, Solarized Dark) • Powerful cloud tools including daily backups of your encrypted data delivered to your email inbox every day, or backed up to your cloud provider (like Dropbox and Google Drive). We're always happy to talk, whether it be a question, thought, or issue. Please feel free to email us any time at help@standardnotes.com. When you take the time to send us a message, we'll be sure to do the same. EULA: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Penzu4 screens
Standard Notes4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Standard Notes at 4.7 against Penzu's 4.2. Standard Notes also leads on review sentiment (64% vs 52%) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 16.0). Penzu's advantage is update cadence (weekly vs every 2 weeks). On price, ratings volume, 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. Penzu sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and Standard Notes sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $119.99 per year. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Standard Notes holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.2. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2.5K and 3.7K respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 52% of Penzu's written reviews are positive against 64% of Standard Notes's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Penzu ships an update weekly, Standard Notes every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 21, 2026 and September 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Penzu versus Standard Notes: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPenzuStandard Notes
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.2 (2.5K ratings)4.7 (3.7K ratings) — better
Positive reviews51.5% of reviews63.5% of reviews — better
Number of ratings2.5K3.7K — better
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 2 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS16.013.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size62 MB92 MB
Age rating9+4+
DeveloperPenzu Inc.Standard Notes Ltd.

Customer experience

Penzu

All ratings2,524 ratings
Positive81.3%
Neutral4.7%
Negative14.1%
Written reviews431 reviews
Positive51.5%
Neutral10.2%
Negative38.3%

Standard Notes

All ratings3,714 ratings
Positive92.5%
Neutral2.3%
Negative5.3%
Written reviews581 reviews
Positive63.5%
Neutral10.7%
Negative25.8%

User reviews

Penzu

From 2.5K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Easy to use
  • 🔒 Secure and private
  • 📝 Convenient journaling on the go
  • 🗓️ Helpful reminders and date tracking
  • 💻 Syncs across devices

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Frequent crashes and bugs
  • 🔑 Password issues and lockout problems
  • 📁 Syncing and data loss issues
  • 📱 Limited functionality on mobile app
  • 💰 Expensive premium subscription

Standard Notes

From 3.7K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Fast and reliable sync
  • 🔒 Excellent privacy and security
  • 👍 Simple and intuitive interface
  • 📚 Great for organizing notes
  • 💻 Cross-platform availability

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional bugs and crashes
  • 🔑 Frustrating login/authentication issues
  • 💰 Expensive premium subscription
  • 📱 Limited features in free version
  • 🖍️ Lack of formatting options

Bugs and requests

Penzu

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Keyboard disappearing during use
  • Entries not saving or syncing properly
  • Inability to access account after updates

Requested features

4 requests
  • More customization options for fonts, themes, and layouts
  • Ability to export/backup journal entries
  • Improved mobile app stability and features
  • Better customer support and communication

Standard Notes

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Notes disappearing or getting deleted unexpectedly
  • Sync issues between devices
  • Keyboard and UI bugs on mobile
  • Compatibility problems with older iOS versions

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add support for images and attachments
  • Implement a more robust search function
  • Introduce a dark mode option
  • Allow for better note organization (folders, nested tags)
  • Add undo/redo functionality

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Penzu

Subscriptions2
  • Penzu Pro Subscription$4.991 Month
  • Penzu Pro Subscription$19.991 Year
One-time1
  • Penzu Pro Upgrade$18.99
1 purchases

Standard Notes

Subscriptions1
  • Professional Plan7 Days trial$119.991 Year

Questions

Is Penzu free?
Penzu is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Standard Notes free?
Standard Notes is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Penzu or Standard Notes?
Standard Notes is rated higher. Penzu averages 4.2 out of 5 from 2.5K ratings, while Standard Notes averages 4.7 from 3.7K ratings.
Do Penzu or Standard Notes have ads?
Neither Penzu nor Standard Notes shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Penzu or Standard Notes?
Penzu ships an update weekly, and Standard Notes every 2 weeks. Most recently, Penzu was updated on September 21, 2026 and Standard Notes on September 25, 2026.

Other comparisons