Comparison

Zealous Notes vs Brickby

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • 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
Features
Read full description

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.

About

Brickby

Features
Read full description

Brickby is the simplest way to save and organize anything from your iPhone. Links, images, notes, files — capture it all in one tap from any app using the Share Sheet, then sort everything into beautiful collections. SAVE ANYTHING, INSTANTLY Share a link, photo, document, or note from any app and it lands in Brickby. The app auto-detects content types — web pages, videos, music, social posts, images, and files — and fetches rich previews with titles and thumbnails. ORGANIZE YOUR WAY • Create collections with custom icons and colors • Add items to multiple collections at once • Tag items with color-coded labels for finer organization • Pin important items to the top of any collection • Mark favorites for quick access • Group items by domain, date, type, or label • Sort collections by name, date, item count, or last updated • Archive collections you're done with but want to keep NEVER FORGET • Set reminders on any item — get notified in 1 hour, tonight, tomorrow, or pick a custom time • Tap the notification to jump straight to the item FIND IT FAST • Full-text search across titles, images, notes, and URLs • Filter by content type, label, date range, or favorites • Duplicate detection warns you before saving the same content twice HOME SCREEN WIDGETS • Recent Items widget — see your latest saves at a glance • Favorites widget — keep your best finds one tap away • Small, medium, and large sizes with thumbnails SYNC ACROSS DEVICES • iCloud sync keeps your collections up to date on all your devices • Your data stays private in your personal iCloud account Built with privacy in mind. No accounts, no tracking, no ads. Your content is yours.

Screenshots

Zealous Notes2 screens
Brickby4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Zealous Notes at every 8 days against Brickby's monthly. Brickby's advantage is price ($1.99 vs $4.99) and iOS requirement (17.6 vs 26.0). On ads, in-app purchases and device support 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

Zealous Notes costs $4.99 and Brickby $1.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Zealous Notes ships an update every 8 days, Brickby monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 10, 2026 and October 2, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 6 level
Zealous Notes versus Brickby: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterZealous NotesBrickby
Price$4.99$1.99 — better
Rating4.3 (3 ratings) — better—
Number of ratings3 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 8 days — betterMonthly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaid—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS26.017.6 — better
Further details — not scored
Size265 MB3 MB
Age rating4+17+
DeveloperJason BrowningJakov-Marin Vezic

In-app purchases

None

Zealous Notes

No in-app purchases

None

Brickby

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Zealous Notes free?
Zealous Notes costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Brickby free?
Brickby costs $1.99, with no in-app purchases.
Do Zealous Notes or Brickby have ads?
Neither Zealous Notes nor Brickby shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Zealous Notes or Brickby?
Zealous Notes ships an update every 8 days, and Brickby monthly. Most recently, Zealous Notes was updated on October 10, 2026 and Brickby on October 2, 2026.

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