Comparison

Workflowy 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

Workflowy

Capture ideas, manage tasks, and organize your thoughts with an infinitely nestable system. This app offers AI assistance for summarization and brainstorming, along with collaborative features and robust search capabilities. It syncs across devices and works offline, making it a powerful tool for personal and team productivity.

Highlights
  • Infinitely nested lists
  • AI summarization and brainstorming
  • Kanban boards for task management
  • Real-time collaboration and sharing
  • Global search and filtering
  • Offline access and cross-device sync
  • Tagging and mentions
Features
Read full description

Workflowy is a simple, distraction-free app for capturing notes, managing tasks, and organizing your thinking. Infinitely nestable, surprisingly powerful - it helps you manage all the information in your life. With Workflowy you can: • Capture notes and ideas in an instant • Organize complex thinking with infinite nesting • Ask AI to summarize, rewrite, or brainstorm with your notes • Plan and manage tasks with kanban boards • #Tag and @assign items to stay on top of things • Link items across lists - edit once, update everywhere • Share and collaborate in real-time • Upload photos, files, and embed videos • Search and filter your entire Workflowy in seconds Workflowy syncs across all your devices and auto-saves everything. No more missing notes or lost files. Trusted by teams and thinkers at: Atlassian, Slack, The New York Times, and thousands of entrepreneurs, writers, engineers, scientists, and students worldwide. Feature highlights: • Infinitely nested lists • Workflowy AI (chat with notes, AI nodes, quick actions) • Calendar • Kanban boards • Mirrors (live synced copies) • #Tags and @mentions • Date organization with /date shortcuts • Global text search and filtering • Simple sharing and permissions • Works offline • Syncs with desktop and web • One-swipe task completion • File uploads and image attachments • Highlight text and color tags • Item starring • YouTube and X embeds • MFA (Multi-factor authentication) • Expand and collapse lists • Mobile keyboard shortcuts Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/appstore/dev/stdeula/

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

Workflowy4 screens
Standard Notes4 screens

Verdict

The call

Workflowy and Standard Notes both sit at 4.8 stars, but that hides the real split: 88% of Workflowy's written reviews are positive against 64% of Standard Notes's. Workflowy also leads on update cadence (weekly vs every 5 weeks). On price, rating, ratings volume and ads 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. Workflowy sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $8.99 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

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for Workflowy against 4.7 for Standard Notes. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 8.2K and 3.8K respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 88% of Workflowy's written reviews are positive against 64% of Standard Notes's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Workflowy ships an update weekly, Standard Notes every 5 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 15, 2026 and October 14, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Workflowy versus Standard Notes: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterWorkflowyStandard Notes
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (8.2K ratings) — better4.7 (3.8K ratings)
Positive reviews88.1% of reviews — better64.1% of reviews
Number of ratings8.2K — better3.8K
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 5 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.615.1 — better
Further details — not scored
Size147 MB92 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperFunRoutine INCStandard Notes Ltd.

Customer experience

Workflowy

All ratings8,235 ratings
Positive96.9%
Neutral1.3%
Negative1.8%
Written reviews1,073 reviews
Positive88.1%
Neutral4.8%
Negative7.2%

Standard Notes

All ratings3,751 ratings
Positive92.5%
Neutral2.2%
Negative5.3%
Written reviews594 reviews
Positive64.1%
Neutral10.4%
Negative25.4%

User reviews

Workflowy

From 8.2K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Best way to organize thoughts
  • 🔒 Secure and reliable
  • 👍 Simple and intuitive
  • 👍 Excellent for productivity and organization
  • 👍 Versatile for various use cases

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional data loss issues
  • 🐛 Offline mode not always reliable
  • 🔋 Can be slow on mobile devices
  • 👎 Limited customization options

Standard Notes

From 3.8K 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

Workflowy

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Cursor sometimes gets stuck
  • Syncing issues between web and mobile versions
  • Inability to delete items consistently

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add ability to attach files and documents
  • Improve mobile app experience
  • Implement better notification and reminder system
  • Add more formatting options (e.g., font styles, colors)

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

2 purchases

Workflowy

Subscriptions2
  • Workflowy Pro - Monthly$8.991 Month
  • Workflowy Pro - Yearly$79.991 Year
1 purchases

Standard Notes

Subscriptions1
  • Professional Plan7 Days trial$119.991 Year

Questions

Is Workflowy free?
Workflowy 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, Workflowy or Standard Notes?
Workflowy is rated higher. Workflowy averages 4.8 out of 5 from 8.2K ratings, while Standard Notes averages 4.7 from 3.8K ratings.
Do Workflowy or Standard Notes have ads?
Neither Workflowy nor Standard Notes shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Workflowy or Standard Notes?
Workflowy ships an update weekly, and Standard Notes every 5 weeks. Most recently, Workflowy was updated on October 15, 2026 and Standard Notes on October 14, 2026.

Other comparisons