Secure Notepad Pro vs Standard Notes
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Secure Notepad Pro
Securely store your personal notes with password or biometric protection. This ad-free app offers a fast, simple interface with extensive customization options and automatic cloud synchronization for access across all your devices.
- Password and Face ID protection
- Ad-free experience
- 20+ customizable color themes
- Automatic iCloud synchronization
- Automatic local backup and restore
- Note sorting by date or alphabetically
Read full descriptionHide full description
Secure Notepad Pro is the ultimate app for protecting your personal notes with a password, keeping them safe from prying eyes. Designed for speed and simplicity, it’s perfect for jotting down ideas, to-do lists, or anything else you need to remember. Choose from over 20 different color themes to customize your experience and make your notepad app unique. Even better, the free version of Secure Notepad Pro is completely ad-free, so you can focus on what matters without distractions. With automatic synchronization via iCloud, you can rest assured that your notes are always up-to-date and accessible on all your devices. Key features: • Fast and easy-to-use app with no ads. • Protect your notes with a password or Face ID. • Automatic lock (you have 30 seconds to return to the app without entering the password). • Choose from 20+ colorful themes to personalize your note-taking experience. • Automatic iCloud syncing. • Automatic local backup of notes with the ability to restore from a backup. • Sort your notes by date or alphabetically. Download Secure Notepad Pro today and experience the ultimate in note-taking security and convenience.
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
Read full descriptionHide 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
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Standard Notes at every 5 weeks against Secure Notepad Pro's every 5 months. Secure Notepad Pro's advantage is review sentiment (76% vs 64%). 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
Both are free to download. Secure Notepad Pro sells 1 one-off in-app purchase 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 — 4.8 for Secure Notepad Pro against 4.7 for Standard Notes. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2.7K and 3.7K respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 76% of Secure Notepad Pro's written reviews are positive against 64% of Standard Notes's.
Secure Notepad Pro ships an update every 5 months, Standard Notes every 5 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 4, 2026 and October 7, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Secure Notepad Pro | Standard Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (2.7K ratings) — better | 4.7 (3.7K ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 76.1% of reviews — better | 64.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 2.7K | 3.7K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 5 months | Every 5 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 14.0 — better | 15.1 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 6 MB | 92 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Dmytro Vynokurov | Standard Notes Ltd. |
Customer experience
Secure Notepad Pro
Standard Notes
User reviews
Secure Notepad Pro
From 2.7K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Simple and secure
- 🔒 Password protection
- 👍 Easy to use
- 👍 Alphabetical organization
- 🚀 Fast and lightweight
Room to improve
- 🐛 Notes disappearing after updates
- 🐛 Syncing and backup issues
- 💡 Lack of advanced features (formatting, folders, etc.)
- 🐛 Crashes and bugs
- 💰 Questionable pricing model
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
Secure Notepad Pro
Reported bugs
4 issues- Notes disappearing after updates
- Syncing and backup issues
- Crashes and freezes
- Incompatibility with newer iOS versions
Requested features
5 requests- Ability to add photos/images
- Sync across devices
- Backup and restore functionality
- More customization options (fonts, colors, etc.)
- Touch ID/Face ID support
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
Secure Notepad Pro
- Unlimited Storage$14.99
Standard Notes
- Professional Plan7 Days trial$119.991 Year
Questions
Is Secure Notepad Pro free?
Is Standard Notes free?
Which has better reviews, Secure Notepad Pro or Standard Notes?
Do Secure Notepad Pro or Standard Notes have ads?
Which is updated more often, Secure Notepad Pro or Standard Notes?
Other comparisons















