Minimalist Notes vs Riff Calendar
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Minimalist Notes
This app offers a streamlined writing experience, acting as a digital notebook for capturing ideas, journaling, or quick notes. It focuses on a minimalist interface and efficient capture methods, with advanced search and iCloud sync.
- Quick idea capture
- Continuous writing flow
- Advanced search with tags
- iCloud sync
- Offline functionality
- Voice dictation
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Bloom is a simple, elegant notes app built for one thing: writing. No folders, no menus to dig through, no learning curve. Open the app and write. Personal notebook, journal, or quick scratchpad — it all lives in one continuous flow. Just like a good old paper notebook. Inspired by the GTD method (Getting Things Done), Bloom helps you get everything out of your head, so you forget nothing and stay focused on what matters. ► CAPTURE IDEAS THE MOMENT THEY HIT The best ideas show up anywhere, anytime. Bloom is built to catch every one: - Write from the Lock Screen, Control Center, or the Action Button - Create a note in a single tap with Home Screen widgets - Save text from any app with the share extension - No time to type? Speak, and Bloom transcribes. Everything is processed locally, on your iPhone. ► EVERYTHING IN ONE NOTEBOOK Advanced search lets you combine tags and text. Find what you're looking for in seconds — no nested folders to manage. ► MADE FOR DAILY WRITING Minimalist interface, dark mode, automatic link detection — Bloom gets out of the way so writing stays front and center. Perfect for journaling, morning pages, or simply clearing your head. ► YOUR NOTES, EVERYWHERE iCloud sync between iPhone and iPad, works offline, no account required. Your data stays in your iCloud. ► BLOOM PRO Tags, private notes, iPad sync, voice dictation, and every future Pro feature. Download Bloom and start writing today. --- Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Riff Calendar
This calendar app allows you to zoom in and out of your schedule, viewing a half-year at a glance or a single day hour-by-hour. Events can be edited directly on the calendar, and it integrates with your existing device calendars without requiring an account.
- Zoomable calendar views
- Direct event editing
- Integrated weather forecasts
- Daylight shading
- Works with existing calendars
- Home and Lock Screen widgets
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Riff is a calendar that you zoom. Pinch your fingers together and half a year fits on screen. Spread them and a single day opens, hour by hour. There are no month, week and day views to switch between. EVERY STEP OF THE ZOOM IS A WORKING CALENDAR Zoom out to find a free weekend, zoom in to pick the hour. The day you were looking at stays on screen the whole way. EDIT ON THE CALENDAR ITSELF Hold a free slot and type a title. Slide an event to a new hour, or carry it to another week. The days around it stay in view while you edit. WEATHER AND DAYLIGHT Each day shows its forecast, and a faint shade covers the hours between sunset and sunrise where you are. Turn them on in Riff’s settings. YOUR CALENDARS, NO ACCOUNT Riff works on the calendars already on your iPhone: iCloud, Google, Exchange and the rest. There is nothing to import and no account, and no data is collected. Reminders stand beside your events. ALSO Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets, alerts, repeats, search, time zones, Siri and Shortcuts, 30 languages. GOOD TO KNOW Riff is for iPhone and needs iOS 26 or later. You can answer invitations but not send them. PRICE Free for three weeks with everything included. Then choose a monthly or yearly subscription, or a one-time purchase. Every option unlocks all of Riff and works with Family Sharing. The prices for your country are under In-App Purchases. Subscriptions renew automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the period. You manage them in your App Store account settings. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://riffcalendar.com/privacy/ Riff is made by one developer, Magnus Rex, in Sweden. Write to hello@riffcalendar.com.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Minimalist Notes at 5.0 against Riff Calendar's 4.0. Minimalist Notes also leads on iOS requirement (18.0 vs 26.0). On price, ratings volume, update cadence 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. Minimalist Notes sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $14.99 per year and Riff Calendar sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Minimalist Notes holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2 and 1 respectively.
Minimalist Notes ships an update every 4 days, Riff Calendar every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 27, 2026 and October 21, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Minimalist Notes | Riff Calendar |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better | 4.0 (1 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | — | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 2 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 days — better | Every 5 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 — better | 26.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 46 MB | 13 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Alexandre Bantz | KJELL MAGNUS REX |
Customer experience
Minimalist Notes
Riff Calendar
In-app purchases
Minimalist Notes
- Bloom Pro7 Days trial$14.991 Year
Riff Calendar
- Monthly$2.991 Month
- Yearly$24.991 Year
- Lifetime$49.99









