Zealous Notes vs Meanwhile
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Zealous Notes
Organize your thoughts with a versatile note-taking application. Link related notes, embed various media files directly, and enhance your text with markup tools. Features include searchable PDFs, video playback, and audio transcription.
- Stackable and linked notes
- Inline PDF, video, and audio embedding
- Searchable and mark-upable PDFs
- Audio transcription
- Hashtag organization
- Marker mode with zoom
- Calendar event linking
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A lot like the Notes app you're used to, plus some added features: • Open several notes as a stack. - related notes can be linked together. • Subdivide your notes into Sections • PDFs, Video & Audio files attach inline, alongside your notes' other contents. - PDFs can be zoomed, scrolled, searched & marked-up. - Videos can play picture-in-picture or full-screen - Voice Notes audio files can be transcribed (with your permission) • Keep related notes together: - embed related notes as attachments - assign relatable #hashtags to your notes • Marker Mode - mark anywhere inside or outside of your notes - link markup with your highlighted or underlined text. - zoom-in for more precise drawings. • Link notes to your Calendar events (with your permission) • Case sensitive Find/Replace/Replace-All • Multiple Line-Spacing options See the included `Getting Started` guide for more, including several additional features available from within the app's Settings.
Meanwhile
This app helps you establish a consistent writing habit with a distraction-free environment, inspiring themes, and streak tracking. Visualize your progress with a calendar view and gain insights into your writing patterns. Your work is kept private and secure with local and iCloud storage.
- Distraction-free writing environment
- Inspiring themes
- Daily streak tracking
- Calendar view
- Writing insights and statistics
- iCloud sync
- Dark mode
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Meanwhile is your dedicated companion for building a consistent writing practice. Whether you're journaling, brainstorming, or working on your next masterpiece, Meanwhile helps you make writing a daily habit. KEY FEATURES: • Clean, distraction-free writing environment • Beautiful themes to inspire your creativity • Daily streak tracking to build consistency • Calendar view to visualize your writing journey • Writing insights and statistics • iCloud sync to keep your entries safe • Dark mode support PRIVACY & SECURITY: • Your writing stays private - all data is stored locally and in your personal iCloud • No third-party analytics or tracking • No ads, ever Make writing a part of your daily routine with Meanwhile. Start your journey today. Terms of Service: https://www.infinitytrigger.com/terms-of-service Privacy Policy: https://www.infinitytrigger.com/privacy-policy End User License Agreement: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Meanwhile at Free against Zealous Notes's $4.99. Meanwhile also leads on iOS requirement (18.0 vs 26.0). On rating, 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
Meanwhile is free to download; Zealous Notes costs $4.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Meanwhile holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 4.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3 and 4 respectively.
Zealous Notes ships an update every 8 days, Meanwhile every 9 days. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and October 30, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Zealous Notes | Meanwhile |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $4.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.3 (3 ratings) | 4.5 (4 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | — | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 3 | 4 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 8 days — better | Every 9 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 18.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 265 MB | 17 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 9+ |
| Developer | Jason Browning | Damien Anthony Lavizzo |
Customer experience
Zealous Notes
Meanwhile
In-app purchases
Zealous Notes
No in-app purchases
Meanwhile
No in-app purchases









