Comparison

Plato Lock vs Garden

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

Head to head
About

Plato Lock

Securely store and easily retrieve all your account information in one encrypted location. Your data is protected by Apple's encryption and synced via iCloud for safe and convenient access.

Highlights
  • Store account information
  • Easy retrieval
  • Apple encryption
  • iCloud sync
  • Secure data storage
Read full description

Plato Lock allows you to store info for all of your accounts in one place, and you can easily retrieve them later when needed! Since the data is safely encrypted by Apple and stored in iCloud, rest assured that your data is always secure and accessible.

About

Garden

This app offers a minimalist approach to note-taking and mindfulness. It features quick note capture, a single daily task reminder, and a calming visual experience to encourage presence and reduce digital distraction.

Highlights
  • Quick-capture notes with custom categories
  • Single daily task checkbox with confetti reward
  • Calming wheat field visualization
  • No notifications or streaks
  • Offline note storage
  • iCloud sync across Apple devices
  • Markdown export
Features
Read full description

Garden is a quiet iPhone app for presence and clarity. It does three things, and only three things: — Quick-capture notes, organized by the categories you create. A grocery list, a half-formed thought, a thing your kid said, an idea for a side project. Pick a category, type, hit add. — A single daily checkbox: "I did the one thing today." When you check it, you get a small burst of confetti, a soft haptic, and permission to put your phone down. — A wheat field on the Calm tab. Eighty blades, gently swaying. Watch it for ten seconds and remember why any of this matters. That is the whole app. What Garden won't do • No notifications. Garden never asks for your attention. • No streaks. No "you're on a 7-day roll." Streaks are anxiety machines dressed as motivation. • No badges, red dots, or "come back" prompts. • No social features. Garden is yours. Nothing leaves your phone unless you choose to share it. • No accounts, no tracking, no telemetry. Sign in to iCloud and that's it. Where your notes live • On your iPhone, in a real local database — works offline, persists through restarts. • In your iCloud, synced automatically across your signed-in Apple devices. • Available as a markdown file you can export anytime, to anywhere — Files, iCloud Drive, email, AirDrop. A portable copy you own outright. Three layers, each protecting against a different way you might lose them. None of them ours. Designed for fewer minutes, not more Garden is built on the belief that the best phone app is the one you can put down. The aesthetic is calm: cream paper, sage ink, an Instrument Serif word here and there. Spring animations that feel hand-tuned. Haptics on the moments that matter. No dopamine loops. If you check the one thing and close the app, Garden has done its job. Privacy Garden does not collect, transmit, or sell any data. Your notes sync only through your own iCloud account. Garden has no servers, no analytics, and no third-party SDKs. The privacy nutrition label says "Data Not Collected" because nothing is collected. Read more in the Settings tab and at the privacy URL below. For who Garden is a personal tool. It was built for one person and is shared with friends. Made with care, on iPhone, with SwiftUI and SwiftData.

Screenshots

Plato Lock1 screens
Garden1 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Garden at weekly against Plato Lock's every 3 weeks. Plato Lock's advantage is device support (3 vs 1). 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Plato Lock against 5.0 for Garden. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2 and 1 respectively.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Plato Lock ships an update every 3 weeks, Garden weekly. The most recent releases landed on November 4, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Plato Lock versus Garden: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPlato LockGarden
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (2 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings)
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings2 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac — betteriPhone
Requires iOS17.617.6
Further details — not scored
Size5 MB1 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAn LuuChad Stewart

In-app purchases

None

Plato Lock

No in-app purchases

None

Garden

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Plato Lock free?
Plato Lock is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Garden free?
Garden is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Plato Lock or Garden?
Plato Lock and Garden are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 2 and 1 ratings respectively.
Do Plato Lock or Garden have ads?
Neither Plato Lock nor Garden shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Plato Lock or Garden?
Plato Lock ships an update every 3 weeks, and Garden weekly. Most recently, Plato Lock was updated on November 4, 2026 and Garden on October 31, 2026.

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