Comparison

Gnista vs Marginalias

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

Head to head
About

Gnista

Features
Read full description

Capture problems before they slip away. Gnista is a simple tool for writing down and organizing problems or ideas you want to work on later. β€’ Add problems or ideas quickly β€’ Group them to keep things organized β€’ Refine your thinking as you revisit them That’s it. No clutter, no distractions β€” just a focused space to think better over time.

About

Marginalias

Features
Read full description

Keep the quote with its source Evidence Board collects exact passages across your documents, with topics and notes. Verify each clip against the local source and share a focused Markdown evidence sheet. β€’ Open a document β†’ Clip evidence. Enter an exact passage of at least three characters and choose its occurrence. β€’ Save a topic and note with the clip. Open Evidence Board from the library to find and review clips. β€’ Open a clip to verify its quote and source hash, edit notes, or share the visible board. Exact case-sensitive matching shows up to 32 occurrences. A source hash identifies the local text version; it is not proof of authorship or truth. Up to 256 clips and 1 MiB are retained. Unavailable or changed sources are reported. Marginalias is a private reading companion for your own documents. Import text-based PDFs, plain text, or Markdown notes, then use on-device intelligence to summarize, ask questions, and pull out useful structure without sending your content to a developer server. Build a local library of documents, open the source text whenever you need it, and keep AI output close to the material it came from. Marginalias is designed for focused review, research, note cleanup, study, and document triage. Features: - Import text-based PDFs, plain text, and Markdown - Keep a searchable local document library - Generate concise document summaries - Ask questions grounded in document excerpts - Inspect exact evidence excerpts, character ranges, and PDF pages behind generated claims - See the retrieved context used for each answer - Extract key points, action items, outlines, and glossary terms - Copy and share generated output - Use light, dark, or system appearance - Review a bundled sample document before importing your own files Privacy: Marginalias does not require an account, does not include analytics or advertising SDKs, and does not collect your documents or AI output. Documents and generated output stay on your device. Device note: AI features use Apple on-device intelligence. If Apple Intelligence is unavailable or not enabled, importing and reading documents still work and the app explains the requirement.

Screenshots

Gnista4 screens
Marginalias3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Gnista at Free against Marginalias's $3.99. Gnista also leads on iOS requirement (17.6 vs 26.0). On ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price Β· Rating Β· Positive reviews Β· Number of ratings Β· Update frequency Β· Ads Β· In-app purchases Β· Monetization Β· Best chart rank Β· Devices Β· Requires iOS

CostPrice Β· In-app purchases Β· Ads Β· Monetization

Gnista is free to download; Marginalias costs $3.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

Scorecard2 real differences Β· 4 level
Gnista versus Marginalias: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterGnistaMarginalias
PriceFree β€” better$3.99
Update frequencyβ€”Every 5 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad β€” better
Requires iOS17.6 β€” better26.0
Further details β€” not scored
Size4 MB1 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperVictor GustafssonRobert Corbin

In-app purchases

None

Gnista

No in-app purchases

None

Marginalias

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Gnista free?
Gnista is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Marginalias free?
Marginalias costs $3.99, with no in-app purchases.
Do Gnista or Marginalias have ads?
Neither Gnista nor Marginalias shows ads.

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