Comparison

iXnote vs openote

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

Head to head
About

iXnote

This app acts as a context assistant, organizing information into interconnected cards for people, projects, and meetings. It helps you prepare for discussions by automatically linking relevant details and capturing new information as you go, all while keeping your thinking private.

Highlights
  • Interconnected card system
  • Automatic context building during conversations
  • On-device processing and iCloud sync
  • Calendar meeting import
  • Export to JSON and CSV
  • Custom categories and advanced search (Pro)
Features
Read full description

Context is all you need. Walk into every meeting with the right context already in front of you. iXnote is your Context Assistant. It gives you the right context, so you walk in ready and stay present in the room. CARDS, AND CONNECTED CARDS iXnote is built from one simple thing: the card. A card holds one thing. A person. A project. A meeting. A decision. Connect a card to the cards it relates to, and those connections become its context. Tap any card to see it in its context, the whole situation around it. FOLLOWALONG With FollowAlong, the context comes together as you talk. You never break stride to make it happen. It surfaces the cards that matter and captures the new ones, so you stay in the conversation and make the call. ON DEVICE FollowAlong runs entirely on your device, powered by the latest open-source AI models. Nothing you say is ever uploaded, and your cards stay in your own iCloud. It works on any iPhone, iPad, or Mac that supports Apple Intelligence. THE THINKING STAYS YOURS iXnote gives you the context. The thinking stays yours: the conclusions, the insight, the call in the room. SIMPLE BY DESIGN Just cards, and the connections between them. Simple enough to use in the middle of a meeting, ready to hold thousands of connected cards. ONE TAP FROM YOUR CALENDAR Import your meetings with one tap. iXnote makes connected cards for the people, the companies and the meeting itself, so the room is mapped before you arrive. AUTOMATE THE BORING PART Twelve Shortcuts actions put your cards within reach of everything else on your device. Make cards, connect them, find them, open one, or read back a day's transcript. Every card also has an appendix, text that stays out of the way but stays searchable, so your automations have somewhere to write. FREE - Unlimited cards and connections - Full-text search - iCloud sync across iPhone, iPad and Mac - Meeting import from your calendar - Export to JSON and CSV - Shortcuts and the Share Extension iXnote PRO - Custom categories with your own colors - Advanced search filters - Import from Obsidian, mind maps, and OPML outlines - Transcript export iXnote: the right context for the moment you're in. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeveula/

About

openote

Features
Read full description

openote — Markdown notes with free sync. No account. No subscription. Other note apps charge a yearly fee just to sync your own devices. openote syncs iPhone, iPad and Mac through your iCloud Drive — free, with no account to create. Your notes stay plain .md files. Open them in the Files app or any Markdown editor, and take them anywhere. No proprietary format, no lock-in. --- WHY OPENOTE Free iCloud sync Notes sync through iCloud Drive on your own Apple account. No sign-up, no subscription. Plain Markdown files Every note is a standard .md file. Front matter, checklists and [[wiki links]] are kept exactly as you wrote them. Safe across devices If a note changes on another device while you're editing, openote keeps both versions instead of silently overwriting one. Your last words are saved even if you switch apps or quit right away. Mermaid diagrams Flowcharts, sequence diagrams and more render live from Markdown. Start from a template, pinch to zoom, tap to edit the code. Rendering works offline. On-device AI On devices with Apple Intelligence, summarize a note, get tag suggestions, or turn a sentence into a diagram. It runs entirely on your device — nothing is sent to a server. --- FEATURES Editor - Rich Markdown editing, with a source mode when you want the raw text - Checklists, tables and code blocks - Auto-save - Word and character count Organize - Folders and #tags with autocomplete - [[Wiki links]] between notes - Full-text search in English, Korean and Japanese Sync & files - iPhone, iPad and Mac via iCloud Drive - Browse your notes in the Files app - Export a note as PDF Shortcuts & Siri - Create, open and search notes from Shortcuts and Siri - Notes appear in Spotlight search --- PRIVACY - No account, no email - No tracking - Your notes stay in your iCloud and on your devices - AI runs on your device Everything is free. openote has no in-app purchases. openote — Your notes, your files.

Screenshots

iXnote3 screens
openote4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: openote at none against iXnote's 2. openote also leads on iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.0). iXnote's advantage is update cadence (every 10 days vs every 5 weeks). On price, ads 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

Both are free to download. iXnote sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. openote asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

iXnote ships an update every 10 days, openote every 5 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 19, 2026 and September 30, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 6 level
iXnote versus openote: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameteriXnoteopenote
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better—
Number of ratings1 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 10 days — betterEvery 5 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemium—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS26.017.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size83 MB8 MB
Age rating4+4+
Developerixnote, LLCWooyoung Kim

In-app purchases

2 purchases

iXnote

Subscriptions2
  • Pro Monthly$3.991 Month
  • Pro Yearly$39.991 Year
None

openote

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is iXnote free?
iXnote is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is openote free?
openote is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do iXnote or openote have ads?
Neither iXnote nor openote shows ads.
Which is updated more often, iXnote or openote?
iXnote ships an update every 10 days, and openote every 5 weeks. Most recently, iXnote was updated on September 19, 2026 and openote on September 30, 2026.

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