Comparison

Workflowy vs Notebook

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

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.

Highlights
  • 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
Features
Read full description

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

Workflowy4 screens
Notebook4 screens

Verdict

The call

Workflowy and Notebook both sit at 4.8 stars, but that hides the real split: 88% of Workflowy's written reviews are positive against 65% of Notebook's. On price, rating, ratings volume and update cadence 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 Notebook sells 7 in-app purchases, starting at $2.49 per month. 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 Notebook. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 8.2K and 24K respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 88% of Workflowy's written reviews are positive against 65% of Notebook's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Workflowy ships an update weekly, Notebook every 6 days. The most recent releases landed on September 23, 2026 and September 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
Workflowy versus Notebook: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterWorkflowyNotebook
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (8.2K ratings) — better4.7 (24K ratings)
Positive reviews88.0% of reviews — better64.7% of reviews
Number of ratings8.2K24K — better
Update frequencyWeeklyEvery 6 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch
Requires iOS15.6 — better16.0
Further details — not scored
Size147 MB220 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperFunRoutine INCZoho Corporation

Customer experience

Workflowy

All ratings8,216 ratings
Positive96.9%
Neutral1.3%
Negative1.8%
Written reviews1,066 reviews
Positive88.0%
Neutral4.8%
Negative7.2%

Notebook

All ratings23,853 ratings
Positive93.2%
Neutral3.1%
Negative3.7%
Written reviews603 reviews
Positive64.7%
Neutral10.4%
Negative24.9%

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

Notebook

From 24K App Store ratings

What 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

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)

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

2 purchases

Workflowy

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

Notebook

Subscriptions7
  • Notebook Pro$2.491 Month
  • Notebook Pro Plus$3.991 Month
  • Notebook AI$4.991 Month
Show 4 more
  • Notebook Personal$14.991 Year
  • Notebook Pro2 variants$24.991 Year
  • Notebook Pro Plus$39.991 Year
  • Notebook AI$49.991 Year

Questions

Is Workflowy free?
Workflowy is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Notebook free?
Notebook is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Workflowy or Notebook?
Workflowy is rated higher. Workflowy averages 4.8 out of 5 from 8.2K ratings, while Notebook averages 4.7 from 24K ratings.
Do Workflowy or Notebook have ads?
Neither Workflowy nor Notebook shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Workflowy or Notebook?
Workflowy ships an update weekly, and Notebook every 6 days. Most recently, Workflowy was updated on September 23, 2026 and Notebook on September 25, 2026.

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