Comparison

Anecnote vs PaperTrail

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

Head to head
About

Anecnote

Capture and organize your thoughts, memories, and important information with a powerful note-taking app. Utilize custom categories, tags, and smart views to easily filter and retrieve your notes when you need them most. Offers flexible in-app purchase options to unlock full potential.

Highlights
  • Flexible note creation with custom metadata
  • Smart views for advanced note filtering
  • Distraction-free reading experience
  • Custom URL scheme for external note creation
  • Categorization, tagging, and starring options
  • Actionable notes for to-do lists
Features
Read full description

Anecnote: Your Personal Note-Taking Companion and Memory Manager Unlock the power of Anecnote, the ultimate note-taking and management app designed for anyone who wants to capture their memories, quotes, advice, reviews, anecdotes, and more. Whether you’re journaling your travels, documenting personal experiences, storing interesting trivia or simply keeping track of important notes, Anecnote provides the flexibility and features you need. Its real superpower is being able to 'surface' your notes when you need them via the use of our powerful filtering system (called Smart views). It is the ultimate aide-memoire! FLEXIBLE NOTE MANAGEMENT Create notes for any and every purpose — memories, reviews, travelogues, journal entries, facts and more. Customise each note with relevant metadata to suit your needs: • Categories: Classify your notes by type (e.g., review, memory, anecdote, fact, trivia, journal).
 • Area: Contextualise your notes by assigning it an area (e.g. home, work, family, personal).
 • People: Tag individuals related to your notes for easy reference.
 • Source: If the content of the note is from a particular person (or website) then you can add that info in too • Tags: Add unlimited tags to describe your notes' content and subject matter.
 • Starred: Mark any note with a star to quickly add to a favourites list • Action required: Mark any note as needing some kind of action and it will show up in a Todo list of notes You can use as many or as few of these as you want/need to describe your notes. And if these default labels don't suit you can even change them to words that better relate to your use cases / language. SMART VIEWS Effortlessly filter your notes using built-in smart views (All Notes, Starred Items, Todos) or create Custom views tailored exactly to your needs. All of your added metadata is available for filtering purposes so you can create advanced filters to show just what you need. For example, view all Reviews for Movies with a 5-star rating or list all memories that involve your daughter etc. The options are endless! STREAMLINED READING Enjoy a distraction-free reading experience in any Smart View with the ability to view all note content at once, hiding metadata all metadata for a clean look.
 CUSTOM URL SCHEME Add notes from anywhere using the custom url scheme. For example you could use Shortcuts app to build prompts that ask you about your day that will create the all of the required content for a daily journal entry that gets automatically added to Anecnote. There are urls to create and open notes. IN-APP PURCHASING OPTIONS Unlock the full potential of Anecnote with our flexible in-app purchasing options: • Free Tier: Create up to 10 notes and 1 custom smart view.
 • Monthly Subscription: Enjoy unlimited notes and smart views, plus the ability to duplicate notes and smart views.
 • Annual Subscription: Get all the benefits of the monthly plan at a discounted rate.
 • Lifetime One-Off Payment: Make a single payment to unlock unlimited notes, smart views, and duplication features forever. Any of the above payment options unlocks UNLIMITED notes and smart views! They also enable the ability to duplicate notes and saved views as well as allowing importing of notes via a CSV file. WHY CHOOSE ANECNOTE? With a beautiful interface and extensive customisation options, Anecnote takes note-taking and memory management to a whole new level. Organise your thoughts, preserve your memories, and access your notes with ease. Start your journey of capturing life’s moments today! TERMS OF USE: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ PRIVACY: https://anecnote.app/privacy/

About

PaperTrail

This app provides a full TaskPaper editing experience on iOS and iPadOS, allowing you to manage projects, tasks, and notes using simple, flexible plain text files. Sync your work with iCloud and edit across devices, with powerful search and filtering capabilities.

Highlights
  • Full TaskPaper format support
  • OPML import
  • Distraction-free editing
  • Full query language search
  • Tag system with progress tracking
  • iOS Reminders integration
  • Shortcuts and Siri integration
Read full description

PaperTrail brings full TaskPaper editing to iOS and iPadOS. TaskPaper is plain text productivity—simple, fast, flexible. Projects, tasks, notes, and tags. Filter, search, and archive. All in plain text files you can sync via iCloud and edit in TaskPaper on your Mac. FEATURES • Full TaskPaper format support (.taskpaper, .todo, .txt, .md) • Open Bike (.bike) and OPML (.opml) outlines, with clear warnings when an import can't carry everything across • OPML and Bike-style export, so tags and done state round-trip back into Bike • Fold and focus into any subtree for distraction-free editing • Full query language with text, tag, boolean, and semantic search • Tag system with dates, progress tracking, and cost aggregation • Tag autocomplete ranked by how often you use each tag • Smart filters with edge-swipe gestures and an iPad side-by-side sidebar • Colour lines by priority, depth, or due date proximity • Natural date parsing and two-way iOS Reminders integration—import a Reminders list as a project • Quick capture: append tasks, notes, clipboard text, or web links to your most recent document • Planning shortcuts: Open in Today, Random Next Task, and Morning Brief • Shortcuts, Siri, Action Button, and Spotlight integration via App Intents • Find & update documents from Shortcuts: run queries, mark done, set tags, append tasks • Command palette for projects, searches, tags, and every editor command • iPadOS menu bar with Item, Tag, Outline, View, and Palette menus • Export documents as interactive HTML slide presentations or as OPML outlines • Built-in and custom document templates • 50+ keyboard shortcuts for power workflow • Native Swift app—tiny install size, built for speed • Dynamic Type, VoiceOver, and dark mode support

Screenshots

Anecnote4 screens
PaperTrail4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Anecnote at Free against PaperTrail's $19.99. Anecnote also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.2) and review sentiment (100% vs 75%). PaperTrail's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 3) and update cadence (every 10 days vs monthly). On ads, device support and iOS requirement 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

Anecnote is free to download; PaperTrail costs $19.99 up front. Anecnote sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. PaperTrail asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Anecnote holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.2. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: PaperTrail has 15 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 100% of Anecnote's written reviews are positive against 75% of PaperTrail's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Anecnote ships an update monthly, PaperTrail every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on September 5, 2026 and September 10, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Anecnote versus PaperTrail: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterAnecnotePaperTrail
PriceFree — better$19.99
Rating5.0 (2 ratings) — better4.2 (15 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews — better75.0% of reviews
Number of ratings215 — better
Update frequencyMonthlyEvery 10 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases — betterPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details — not scored
Size6 MB3 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperStuart Marshallgingerbeardman

Customer experience

Anecnote

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews7 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

PaperTrail

All ratings15 ratings
Positive80.0%
Neutral6.7%
Negative13.3%
Written reviews12 reviews
Positive75.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative25.0%

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Anecnote

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly subscription$0.991 Month
  • Annual subscription$9.991 Year
One-time1
  • Lifetime purchase$24.99
None

PaperTrail

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Anecnote free?
Anecnote is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is PaperTrail free?
PaperTrail costs $19.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Anecnote or PaperTrail?
Anecnote is rated higher. Anecnote averages 5.0 out of 5 from 2 ratings, while PaperTrail averages 4.2 from 15 ratings.
Do Anecnote or PaperTrail have ads?
Neither Anecnote nor PaperTrail shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Anecnote or PaperTrail?
Anecnote ships an update monthly, and PaperTrail every 10 days. Most recently, Anecnote was updated on September 5, 2026 and PaperTrail on September 10, 2026.

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