Comparison

abcNotes vs Deepen

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

Head to head
About

abcNotes

Create realistic, customizable sticky notes and to-do lists on your iOS device. Organize shopping lists, class notes, and projects with a variety of backgrounds and skins. Share and sync your notes across devices.

Highlights
  • Realistic sticky note appearance
  • Customizable skins and backgrounds
  • Virtual desktops for organization
  • Scale, rotate, and drag notes
  • Email and sync notes
  • Save notes as images
Read full description

abcNotes - Simply the most realistic & user friendly notes in the world! abcNotes - is a freeware, feature limited version. The limitations are: • Only one desktop (paid version supports up to 15 virtual desktops) • Only 10 note skins (45 in paid version) • Only 32 desktop backgrounds (88 in paid version) • Synchronization is NOT supported • A bit of advertisements. abc Notes Lite - Checklist & Sticky Note Application for iPhone and iPad (share, email and synch your lists, memos, projects and school notebooks) free version Bellow is the description of the abcNotes full version: ----------------------------------------- abcNotes was designed to become your stylish and highly customizable, functional and easy to use assistant in taking notes and managing To Do lists. abcNotes is an awesome note taking application! It takes advantage of unique iOS devices touchscreen preserving realistic look & feel of paper sticky notes. BEAUTIFUL APPEARANCE: • 88 backgrounds to choose from • 45 note skins • 27 badge designs & 115 icons EXTREMELY FUNCTIONAL: • 15 virtual desktops • Scale, rotate and drag notes • Easy to edit, duplicate, move between desktops • Supports any iPad orientation SHARE YOUR NOTES: • Email notes and desktops • Copy note image to any application • Synchronize notes between iOS devices • Save notes as image and place to lock or home screen No more boring note lists – abcNotes brings you the ability to make REAL notes on your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. Put everything you need to remember into abcNotes! View you notes the way you want! Rotate your abcNotes to any angle you wish! abcNotes is great for shopping lists, student class notebook, to record lecture and interview notes or to track projects, recordings and more tasks at home, school and university (class or homework). Please feel free to contact us at abcnotes@alsedi.com if you have suggestions, feature requests, or bug reports. Give it a try!

About

Deepen

Transform passive reading into active learning by speaking your thoughts aloud. This app creates a personal knowledge map from your spoken insights, connecting ideas across all the books you read. It helps you remember what you've learned and query your own reading history.

Highlights
  • Log pages read and track progress
  • Answer spoken questions about content
  • Generate concept maps from spoken answers
  • Connect ideas across multiple books
  • Query your personal reading library
  • Save lookup words and memorable passages
  • Import Goodreads shelves
Features
Read full description

You finish a chapter, feel like you understood it, and a month later almost nothing is left. That is the normal outcome of reading, not a personal failing. Reading is passive: the text goes in, feels clear, and leaves no trace you can retrieve. Deepen makes it active, and it takes about a minute. HOW IT WORKS 1. Log the pages you read. Your progress bar moves. 2. Deepen asks you one open question. "What was the author actually arguing there?" or "What did you disagree with?" 3. You answer out loud, in your own words, for about a minute. 4. Your answer comes back as concepts, connections, and the questions you still have. 5. Those concepts join a map of everything you have ever read. Speaking an idea back in your own words is retrieval practice, which is the best-evidenced way to turn reading into memory. Almost nobody does it, because writing notes is work. Talking for a minute is not. THE MAP IS THE POINT Every concept you articulate becomes a node. When the same idea shows up in a second book, Deepen links them without being asked. Over a few months you stop having a pile of separate books and start having one connected body of reading. Read something about legitimacy in a history book, meet it again in a book about organizations, and the map shows you the two are talking to each other. ASK YOUR OWN LIBRARY Ask a question in plain language and get an answer built only from what you have said about the books you have actually read. Not the internet. Your own words, with the notes they came from listed underneath. NOTHING IS EVER SCORED Deepen does not test you chapter by chapter. Nobody wants to be graded on their evening. The questions after each session are open and never scored, because the point is to make you think, not to make you correct. When you finish a book, it asks once more: what will you still be thinking about in a year? Your answer joins the map like any other. It is a lap of honour, not an exam. ALSO IN THE APP - Keep the words you had to look up, with the book you met them in - Keep the passages worth remembering, and share one as a sticker - Scan a barcode to add a book, or import your Goodreads shelves - A home screen widget showing the book you are on WORKS WITH PAPER Deepen never asks what you are reading on. Paper, library copy, hardback, secondhand, an ebook, a PDF. You talk, so it does not matter. Nothing to sync, no highlights to export, no cable. BUILT TO BE PRIVATE Your notes and your map live on your iPhone. The map is computed on the device, so it works with no signal at all. There is no account and no sign-up. FOR PEOPLE WHO READ ON PURPOSE Deepen is for nonfiction readers who want the reading to stick: students, researchers, people working through a field, anyone who has ever finished a good book and been unable to say what it argued. DEEPEN PRO Deepen is free to try. Pro unlocks unlimited recaps, the map across every book, and Ask. - Monthly: $5.99 - Annual: $49.99 with a 7-day free trial Subscriptions renew automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel in your Apple Account settings. Privacy Policy: https://chamallox.github.io/deepen-legal/privacy Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Support : https://chamallox.github.io/deepen-legal/support/

Screenshots

abcNotes4 screens
Deepen4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Deepen at none against abcNotes's shown. Deepen also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.6) and review sentiment (100% vs 77%). abcNotes's advantage is ratings volume (2.9K vs 1) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 17.0). On price, 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

Both are free to download. abcNotes sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Deepen sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $6.99 per 7 days. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Deepen holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: abcNotes has 2.9K ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 77% of abcNotes's written reviews are positive against 100% of Deepen's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

abcNotes ships an update every 2 weeks, Deepen every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 17, 2026 and October 5, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
abcNotes versus Deepen: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterabcNotesDeepen
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (2.9K ratings)5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews77.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings2.9K — better1
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeksEvery 4 days — better
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemiumFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS12.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size41 MB16 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperALSEDI GroupFrancois Sempe

Customer experience

abcNotes

All ratings2,914 ratings
Positive91.5%
Neutral4.0%
Negative4.5%
Written reviews422 reviews
Positive77.0%
Neutral7.6%
Negative15.4%

Deepen

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

abcNotes

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Notes randomly deleted
  • Checklist feature not working
  • Sync issues between iOS devices

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add date/time stamp to notes
  • Ability to write notes with Apple Pencil
  • Option to set reminders/alarms for notes
  • Improved search and organization tools
  • More customization options for note styles

Deepen

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

1 purchases

abcNotes

One-time1
  • Unlock all features$2.99
3 purchases

Deepen

Subscriptions3
  • Pro Weekly$6.997 Days
  • Pro Annual7 Days trial$49.991 Year
  • Pro Annual7 Days trial$79.991 Year

Questions

Is abcNotes free?
abcNotes is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Deepen free?
Deepen is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, abcNotes or Deepen?
Deepen is rated higher. abcNotes averages 4.6 out of 5 from 2.9K ratings, while Deepen averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.
Do abcNotes or Deepen have ads?
abcNotes shows ads; Deepen does not.
Which is updated more often, abcNotes or Deepen?
abcNotes ships an update every 2 weeks, and Deepen every 4 days. Most recently, abcNotes was updated on October 17, 2026 and Deepen on October 5, 2026.

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