n+otes vs Standard Notes
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
n+otes
Capture thoughts and ideas instantly with a simple interface. Secure your notes with a private lock feature. Optional subscription removes ads and supports development.
- Quick note-taking
- Private note lock
- Ad-free experience (subscription)
- Easy to use interface
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Great for those quick notes! Just tap the + button and start typing! Subscribe for the Ad-free Experience: To support further development and maintenance of the app, we have a small subscription so you can use the app without advertising: A monthly, 3-monthly or yearly purchase will be applied to your iTunes account on confirmation. Subscriptions will automatically renew unless canceled within 24-hours before the end of the current period. You can cancel anytime with your iTunes account settings. Any unused portion of a free trial period, if offered will be forfeited if you cancel a subscription. Terms: http://rieu.co.nz/terms.html Privacy Policy: http://rieu.co.nz/privacy.html
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.
- End-to-end encryption
- Cross-device syncing
- Offline access
- Passcode and biometric lock
- Tagging system
- Open-source code
- Optional productivity editors and themes
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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
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Standard Notes at none against n+otes's shown. n+otes's advantage is ratings volume (45K vs 3.7K) and update cadence (fortnightly vs every 5 weeks). On price, rating, review sentiment 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. n+otes sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $0.49 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.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for n+otes against 4.7 for Standard Notes. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: n+otes has 45K ratings behind it against 3.7K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 64% and 64% positive.
n+otes ships an update fortnightly, Standard Notes every 5 weeks. Both last shipped on October 1, 2026.
| Parameter | n+otes | Standard Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (45K ratings) | 4.7 (3.7K ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 64.3% of reviews — better | 63.5% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 45K — better | 3.7K |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly — better | Every 5 weeks |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — better | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 15.1 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 25 MB | 92 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | RIEU Limited | Standard Notes Ltd. |
Customer experience
n+otes
Standard Notes
User reviews
n+otes
From 45K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Simple and easy to use
- 🚀 Efficient note-taking experience
- 🔒 Secure with passcode protection
- 💡 Customizable themes and backgrounds
- 👍 Great for organizing thoughts and ideas
Room to improve
- 🐛 Occasional bugs and glitches
- 💰 Intrusive ads interrupting workflow
- 🔋 Concerns about battery drain
- 🔒 Lack of cross-device syncing
Standard Notes
From 3.7K App Store ratingsWhat 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
n+otes
Reported bugs
4 issues- Notes disappearing or getting lost
- Inability to delete notes on Apple Watch
- Scrolling issues and text freezing at the bottom
- Inconsistent behavior after updates
Requested features
5 requests- Ability to sync notes across devices
- More font and formatting options
- Folder or category organization
- Voice-to-text functionality
- Ability to insert images and attachments
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
n+otes
- Ad-free Experience (Monthly)$0.491 Month
- Ad-free Experience (3 Months)$0.993 Months
- Ad-free Experience (1 Year)$3.991 Year
- Remove Ads$19.99
Standard Notes
- Professional Plan7 Days trial$119.991 Year








