AFFiNE vs Harbor Notes
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
AFFiNE
This app combines an infinite whiteboard with notes, documents, and tasks, enhanced by AI. Effortlessly convert visual ideas into text and manage all your projects in one unified workspace. It's designed for visual thinkers and teams to streamline workflows and organize information effectively.
- Infinite whiteboard for visual brainstorming
- Convert sketches to organized notes/documents
- All-in-one project, task, and document management
- AI assistance for writing, summarizing, and answering
- Real-time collaboration on docs and whiteboards
- Cross-device synchronization
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AFFiNE is an open-source, local-first workspace for notes, docs, whiteboards, tasks, knowledge bases, Markdown, and AI. Built in public and trusted by a global open-source community with around 70K GitHub stars and more than 7 million downloads, AFFiNE gives you one place to write, draw, plan, organize knowledge, and keep control of your work. Whether you're capturing personal ideas, organizing class notes, planning a project with a team, building a second brain, or mapping a complex workflow, AFFiNE helps you move from scattered thoughts to structured work without switching between separate note, whiteboard, and task apps. WHY AFFiNE? OPEN-SOURCE AND LOCAL-FIRST AFFiNE started as an open-source project and continues to focus on transparent, user-owned knowledge work. - Work with a product built around openness and data control - Use local-first workflows for personal knowledge and project planning - Choose AFFiNE Cloud or self-hosted workflows for your workspace - Keep Markdown and portability at the center of your writing system NOTES & DOCS Write everything from quick notes to long-form documents. - Capture ideas, journals, meeting notes, class notes, and project plans - Structure information with flexible blocks and connected pages - Use Markdown for clear, portable writing - Turn rough thoughts into organized documents with AI WHITEBOARDS & VISUAL THINKING Switch from structured documents to an infinite canvas whenever ideas need space. - Create mind maps, diagrams, visual notes, and brainstorming boards - Plan product ideas, research flows, study maps, or team workflows - Connect visual thinking with written notes instead of keeping them in separate tools TASKS & PROJECTS Bring planning and execution into the same workspace. - Track to-dos, project notes, decisions, and next steps - Keep tasks close to the documents and whiteboards that explain the work - Organize personal workflows, student projects, creator work, and team planning AI FOR KNOWLEDGE WORK Use AI to help you write, summarize, and structure ideas. - Draft notes and documents faster - Summarize messy information into clearer outlines - Turn brainstorming into structured next steps - Use AI inside the workspace where your context already lives FOR PERSONAL USE AFFiNE works for notes, journals, study planning, research, reading lists, personal knowledge management, and second-brain workflows. FOR TEAMS AND SELF-HOSTED WORKFLOWS Use AFFiNE for shared project knowledge, planning, docs, visual collaboration, and self-hosted workspace needs. SYNC ACROSS DEVICES Keep working across iPhone, iPad, desktop, and web. Start with a thought on mobile, expand it on a canvas, and turn it into organized knowledge when you're back at your desk. AFFiNE is for people who want the flexibility of documents, the freedom of a whiteboard, the structure of tasks, and the trust of open-source software in one workspace. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Harbor Notes
Capture, organize, and secure all your thoughts, tasks, and files in one private space. This app offers rich note-taking features, robust organization, and instant search, even within images and scanned documents. Your data is yours, with optional end-to-end encryption and no ads or data selling.
- Rich notes with checklists, tables, and highlights
- Notebooks, stacks, and tags for organization
- Task management with due dates
- Document scanning and sketching
- Voice memos and file attachments
- Instant search with OCR
- Offline-first native apps
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Harbor is your private second brain — a fast, native notes app for people who want to remember everything and own it for life. Capture notes, organize them into notebooks, tag anything, attach photos and files, scan paper documents, sketch ideas, and record voice memos. Then find any of it in seconds — Harbor's search even reads the text inside your images and scans. REMEMBER EVERYTHING • Rich notes with checklists, tables, images, links, and highlights • Notebooks and stacks that keep every part of your life organized • Tags that cut across notebooks • Tasks with due dates, right beside your notes • Scan documents with your camera; sketch with your finger or Apple Pencil • Voice memos and file attachments of every kind • Instant search across everything — including the text inside images and scans (OCR) YOURS, EVERYWHERE • Truly native apps for iPhone, iPad, and Mac — no web wrapper • Offline-first: your notes live on your device and sync automatically • The full web app at app.harbor.my from any browser • A web clipper that saves articles and pages straight into your notebooks PRIVATE BY DESIGN • No ads. No selling your data. No training AI on your notes. Ever. • Optional end-to-end encryption locks down your most sensitive notes so that no one — not even us — can read them • Export everything anytime in open formats. You are never locked in. SWITCHING FROM ANOTHER NOTES APP? Import your Evernote notebooks (.enex files) with the Mac or web app — your notebooks, tags, and attachments sync straight to your iPhone and iPad. SIMPLE, HONEST PRICING Harbor is free for up to 50 notes, 3 notebooks, and 20 tags — no credit card required. When you outgrow the free plan, Harbor Unlimited removes every limit: • $9.99/month or $99/year • Unlimited notes, notebooks, tags, tasks, and files • A written price-lock promise in our terms: your price won't go up for at least 3 years Subscriptions are billed to your Apple ID and renew automatically until cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel anytime in your App Store account settings. And even if you stop paying, you can always read and export your notes — Harbor never holds your data hostage. Privacy Policy: https://harbor.my/privacy/ Terms of Use: https://harbor.my/terms/ Questions? A real person answers: help@harbor.my
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Harbor Notes at 100% against AFFiNE's 42%. Harbor Notes also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.5) and ads (none vs shown). AFFiNE's advantage is ratings volume (32 vs 4) and iOS requirement (16.5 vs 18.0). On price, in-app purchases, monetization model 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
Both are free to download. AFFiNE sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $7.99 per month and Harbor Notes sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Harbor Notes holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: AFFiNE has 32 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 42% of AFFiNE's written reviews are positive against 100% of Harbor Notes's.
AFFiNE ships an update every 3 weeks, Harbor Notes every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 14, 2026 and October 11, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | AFFiNE | Harbor Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (32 ratings) | 5.0 (4 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 42.3% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 32 — better | 4 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | Every 4 days — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.5 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 239 MB | 37 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | ToEverything | Cloudmanic Labs, LLC |
Customer experience
AFFiNE
Harbor Notes
In-app purchases
AFFiNE
- AFFiNE Pro Monthly$7.991 Month
- AFFiNE Pro Yearly$81.001 Year
- AFFiNE AI Yearly$106.991 Year
Harbor Notes
- Unlimited — Monthly$9.991 Month
- Unlimited — Yearly$99.001 Year









