Idea Vault vs Mindscope 2
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Idea Vault
A secure and intuitive application for capturing, organizing, and protecting your thoughts and ideas. Features rich text editing, powerful search, and cross-device synchronization. Keep your inspiration safe and accessible.
- Rich text editing
- Distraction-free interface
- Organize with tags, colors, moods, locations
- Powerful instant search
- On-device AES encryption
- iCloud sync across devices
- Light and Dark Mode
Read full descriptionHide full description
Idea Vault is a clean, distraction free space to capture ideas the moment they strike and organize them your way. WRITE FREELY A minimal editor with real formatting: bold, italic, underline, headings, and bullet lists — plus undo and redo, so you can write without worrying about a mistake. Start faster with built in templates for meeting notes, journal entries, and to do lists, or begin from a blank page. STAY ORGANIZED Tag notes, add a mood, drop a location, and color code anything that matters. Search finds what you need instantly — by title, body, tag, mood, or location — and quick filter chips jump you straight to favorites, encrypted notes, or any tag. Sort however you think: newest first, oldest first, alphabetical, or favorites first. YOUR NOTES, PROTECTED Lock individual notes with on device AES 256 encryption, or encrypt everything at once. Protect the whole vault with Face ID or your device passcode. Nothing leaves your device unless you choose to share it. SHARE ON YOUR TERMS Export any note as rich text or plain text and send it wherever you need it, or back up your entire vault at once from Settings. STAY ON TRACK Turn on a daily reminder so a good idea never slips away. Idea Vault is free to use, with optional ads you can remove forever with a single one time purchase. No subscriptions, no accounts, no clutter. Just a fast, private place for your best ideas.
Mindscope 2
Capture and organize your thoughts visually with a fluid mind-mapper and outliner. Create nested entries, link ideas, and export your work in various formats. Syncs across Apple devices and offers offline access.
- Free-form visual boards
- Instant outlining and nesting
- Multiple boards per project
- Rich entry types (text, links, todos, notes)
- Line and arrow connections
- Smart Undo/Redo
- Multiple export formats (OPML, PDF, PNG, HTML)
Read full descriptionHide full description
Mindscope 2 is the fastest way to capture your thoughts and keep them organized. A fluid, visual mind-mapper and outliner in one, built entirely with SwiftUI and running on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and even Apple Watch. Create entries to capture your thoughts anywhere on a simple and elegant free-form text canvas, drag them around, and tap to zoom into an entry to enter its own space to add sub-entries, for as many levels as you want. Use the "breadcrumb bar", or a quick pinch gesture to jump up a level. Some highlights: • Free-form visual boards with smooth, speefy navigation. • Instant outlining. Drag your entries to reorder, nest, and shape ideas. • Multiple boards for different projects. Entries saved where you want them. • Entry types: text, links (including deep links to other apps!), todos, and long-form notes. • Drag open a selection rectangle for moving and styling multiple entries at once. Long-press for context menus. • Draw lines and arrows between entries. Customize arrowheads. • Smart Undo/Redo of your changes. • Set bookmarks for quick access to key entries. • Lock entries you don’t want to move or enter into. • Rich styling: fonts, colors, backgrounds, rotations. Preserved in exports. • Reminders on any entry: one-time or repeating. Notifications will then pop up which take you straight to the item. • Multi-window support on iPad and Mac. Full keyboard shortcuts and native menus. • iCloud (CloudKit) sync. Work offline and catch up later. • Intelligent paste with local Apple Intelligence: automatically summarize pasted text into tidy, titled bullet hierarchies. • Instant global search across all your entries. • Gorgeous liquid glass UI. Exporting makes sure you retain complete control of your data: • Mindscope archive (.mindscope2) • OPML (supported by most mind-mapping apps) • Bullet-list text • PDF (multi-page optional) • PNG (per board) • Interactive single-file HTML export that mirrors the real app, complete with navigation, styling, lines, and todos, and works offline in any browser. Importing works too. Open .mindscope2 files into new top-level boards, or bring in OPML with formatting, positions, metadata, and line connections preserved. Mindscope 2 is completely free to use with all the way up to 200 entries and 2 boards. All features, all export options, all syncing included. When you get close to the limits, you’ll see gentle upgrade prompts to get the Pro version either as a subscription or a one-time purchase. Mindscope Pro unlocks unlimited boards and entries and there is a 14-day trial as well for the monthly/yearly plans. Early adopters get the low prices locked in. Apple Watch app included for a synced, streamlined list view on the wrist. I made Mindscope 2 for my own usage, with my primary focus being speed and focus, for getting thoughts out of my head, organized, and easily accessible later. Try it for free and see if your brain doesn't feel just a bit lighter after using it a bit. (EULA: http://www.apple.com/legal/itunes/appstore/dev/stdeula)
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Mindscope 2 at none against Idea Vault's shown. Mindscope 2 also leads on update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 6 weeks) and device support (4 vs 2). On price, rating, ratings volume and in-app purchases 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. Idea Vault sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Mindscope 2 sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Idea Vault against 5.0 for Mindscope 2. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 1 respectively.
Idea Vault ships an update every 6 weeks, Mindscope 2 every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 17, 2026 and August 22, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Idea Vault | Mindscope 2 |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | — | 50.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 6 weeks | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 10 MB | 13 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Kevin Struna | John Goering |
Customer experience
Idea Vault
Mindscope 2
In-app purchases
Idea Vault
- Remove Ads$0.99
Mindscope 2
- Mindscope Pro Monthly14 Days trial$1.991 Month
- Mindscope Pro Yearly14 Days trial$17.991 Year
- Mindscope Pro Lifetime$29.99





