abcNotes vs Notebook
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- 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
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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!
Notebook
Capture your thoughts, ideas, and tasks with a versatile digital notebook. Create rich notes with text, files, audio, and video. Organize content visually, collaborate in real-time, and access everything across your devices.
- Rich note creation with text, files, audio, and video
- Checklist creation for task management
- Bookmark collection and offline reading
- Kanban-style note organization
- Real-time collaboration and sharing
- AI-powered journaling suggestions
- Cross-device and cloud synchronization
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Zoho Notebook is a free, ad-free note-taking app for students, teams and researchers: capture, find and reuse what you write down — typed notes, Apple Pencil handwriting, voice recordings with AI transcription, checklists, files and document scans in one note. Syncs across iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and other devices. WHAT PEOPLE USE NOTEBOOK FOR 1. MEETING AND LECTURE NOTES Record with audio or video cards; Notebook AI turns it into searchable text with timestamps, so you jump straight to the decision instead of replaying it. Structured minutes with title, participants, decisions and action points sit in the note beside your highlights. Record screen and self at once; longer videos get chapters. 2. STUDY AND RESEARCH Record lectures and search the transcript weeks later. Scan textbooks and business cards, handwrite and sketch with Apple Pencil, use OCR to find text inside photos and handwritten notes, so nothing you captured becomes unfindable. A long note becomes an AI mind map before an exam. 3. DAILY TO-DOS AND JOURNALING Dedicated checklist cards keep tasks beside your notes, and recurring reminders keep them on schedule. Journaling prompts come from your own activity, easier to keep than a blank page. 4. FILES, SCANS, AND SAVED READING Add PDFs, Word docs and spreadsheets with file cards. Articles, videos, recipes and how-tos become Smart Cards, formatted automatically, readable offline and ad-free. Group it all into nested collections. QUESTIONS PEOPLE ASK Is it free? Yes, with 2GB of free storage and no ads. Notebook Pro adds more storage, longer notes, larger attachments, Email-In to save emails as notes, premium covers, and custom recurring reminders. Can I move my notes from Evernote, Google Keep, or OneNote? Yes, with dedicated migration tools; it arrives organized. Is my data private? Notes are encrypted in transit and at rest. We never sell your data and never show ads. Lock notes or notebooks with a password, Touch ID or Face ID; previews stay hidden until unlocked. Does it work offline? Yes. Create, edit and read offline, then pick up on another device once it syncs to the cloud. What can Notebook AI do? Transcribe audio and video, build mind maps, summarize and simplify, fix grammar, set tone (casual, professional, friendly, direct, or confident), translate into any language, draft notes, checklists, tables, code or a template from a prompt, and suggest tags. Notebook AI is a separate add-on. Does it use on-device AI and Siri? Yes. An on-device Knowledge Graph links ideas across notebooks and answers questions from your own notes. Siri creates and updates notes by voice with the app closed, and On-Screen Awareness summarizes what's on screen without switching apps. Can I share with non-users? Yes. @mention people to collaborate in real time, or publish a public note or video by link. MORE INSIDE - Search by title, content, tag, collaborator, or notebook; filter by any card type, contact, or link; search within one note; sort by date or relevance, with auto-suggestions and recent searches, offline and across languages - iPhone: text-search audio notes, share via iMessage, dictate with Siri, recent notes from the Notification Bar, SharePlay in calls - iPad: drag and drop, split view, slide over, multiple windows, Stage Manager - Apple Watch: record audio, scribble notes, check off lists, add photo notes, record in one tap from a watch face complication - VoiceOver and a dark interface - Roll back to any of a note's last 10 versions Subscriptions auto-renew unless cancelled and are charged to your Apple Account. Prices vary by location. Manage in your account settings. Privacy - https://www.zoho.com/privacy.html Terms - https://www.zoho.com/terms.html
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Notebook at none against abcNotes's shown. Notebook also leads on ratings volume (24K vs 2.9K). abcNotes's advantage is review sentiment (77% vs 65%) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 16.0). On price, rating, update cadence 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
Both are free to download. abcNotes sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Notebook sells 7 in-app purchases, starting at $2.49 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.6 for abcNotes against 4.7 for Notebook. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Notebook has 24K ratings behind it against 2.9K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 77% of abcNotes's written reviews are positive against 65% of Notebook's.
abcNotes ships an update every 2 weeks, Notebook every 6 days. The most recent releases landed on September 22, 2026 and September 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | abcNotes | Notebook |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (2.9K ratings) | 4.7 (24K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 77.0% of reviews — better | 64.7% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 2.9K | 24K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks | Every 6 days — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 16.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 41 MB | 220 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | ALSEDI Group | Zoho Corporation |
Customer experience
abcNotes
Notebook
User reviews
abcNotes
From 2.9K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Easy to use
- 👍 Visually appealing
- 💡 Customizable notes
- 🚀 Convenient for quick notes
- 👍 Helpful for organization
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent crashes
- 💸 Expensive for full version
- 🔍 Difficult to search/find notes
- 🔍 Limited note editing options
- 📢 Intrusive ads in free version
Notebook
From 24K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Highly organized and customizable
- 👍 Visually appealing and intuitive
- 🔒 Secure with password protection
- 🤳 Seamless cross-device sync
- 📝 Versatile note-taking features
Room to improve
- 🐛 Occasional sync and stability issues
- 🔀 Inconsistent note order after editing
- 🔍 Limited search functionality
- 📤 Lack of export/backup options
- 🔗 Difficulty inserting links in notes
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
Notebook
Reported bugs
4 issues- Notes disappearing or getting corrupted
- Freezing and crashing issues
- Inconsistent behavior when editing notes
- Syncing problems across devices
Requested features
5 requests- Improved sorting and reordering options for notes
- Enhanced search capabilities
- Ability to export notes in various formats
- More customization options for notebook covers
- Integration with other productivity apps
In-app purchases
abcNotes
- Unlock all features$2.99
Notebook
- Notebook Pro$2.491 Month
- Notebook Pro Plus$3.991 Month
- Notebook AI$4.991 Month
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- Notebook Personal$14.991 Year
- Notebook Pro2 variants$24.991 Year
- Notebook Pro Plus$39.991 Year
- Notebook AI$49.991 Year









