Papertone vs Gravity
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Papertone
This app offers a nostalgic note-taking experience with a retro iOS aesthetic. It features skeuomorphic textures and physical notebook elements for a charming interface. Easily create, search, and manage your notes with a focus on simplicity and elegance.
- Skeuomorphic textures
- Lined paper backgrounds
- Retro Apple-style interface
- Hidden settings shortcut
- Note import/export
- Time format options
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Papertone is a simple, elegant note-taking app inspired by the golden era of iOS — complete with skeuomorphic textures, lined paper backgrounds, and nostalgic charm. Everything is built to feel like a physical notebook — soft shadows, realistic textures, and a retro Apple-style interface. Here's what you need to know: • Tap the + button in the top-right corner to create a new note. • Need to find something? Pull down on your notes list to reveal the search bar. • Tap to edit button to make changes on the note. • Don't forget, first line of the note will be the title. • Want to access settings? Tap the "Notes" header 5 times — it's a hidden shortcut to keep the interface clean. From the settings menu, you can: • Switch between 12-hour and 24-hour time formats • Import or export your notes • Delete all notes (careful, this can't be undone) Just open and start writing — no distractions, no complexity. https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Gravity
This app offers a streamlined note-taking experience by eliminating folders and tags, focusing on a single, continuous stream of thoughts. Capture ideas instantly and use simple gestures to manage your notes, prioritizing what matters most.
- Instant note capture
- Single stream organization
- Swipe gestures for actions
- Attention-based prioritization
- Private iCloud sync
- Lightweight prefixes for filtering
- Fast search functionality
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Gravity keeps all your notes in one stream, with the newest at the top. As you add more, older notes sink down the list. When one of them still matters, swipe it right and it comes back to the top. The idea comes from Andrej Karpathy's append-and-review note: write everything in one place, read back through it now and then, and move up whatever you still care about. Gravity has no folders, so there's nothing to file. Writing The cursor is waiting at the top when you open the app. Type your note and press Return twice, or tap the add button. A half-written draft stays where you left it. Rescuing and tidying Swipe right on a note to rescue it. Swipe left to archive, delete, share or copy. Archived notes have a page of their own, and deleted notes stay in Deleted Notes until you restore them or clear them out. Markdown and checklists Headings, bold, italics, lists, links and quotes show formatted in the stream. Start a line with "- [ ]" to make a checklist, then tick items off without opening the note. In the editor the formatting appears as you type, and a small bar above the keyboard adds headings, bold, lists and checklists. Everything is saved as plain Markdown text. Tags Start a note with todo:, idea:, read: or any word followed by a colon, and it gets a colour of its own. Type todo: into search to see only those notes. There's no tag manager to look after. Search Search covers every note on your phone, archived ones too, and works offline. It matches parts of words and ignores accents. Getting notes in The Home Screen widget starts a new note or pastes in whatever you last copied. You can also share text or a link from another app, and it becomes a new note at the top of the stream. Privacy Your notes are stored on your iPhone. Gravity has no accounts and no analytics, and it doesn't collect any data. If you want your notes on your other Apple devices, turn on iCloud sync; it also works with Gravity for Mac, which is sold separately. You can export everything as JSON or Markdown at any time. Looks Choose light, dark or OLED black, or follow the system, and pick from three text sizes. There's a stats page too, worked out on your phone, of course. Price You pay once. There's no subscription, no in-app purchases and no ads. Privacy policy: https://www.gravitynotes.app/privacy-policy
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Papertone at $1.99 against Gravity's $9.99. Papertone also leads on chart position (#182 vs unranked) and iOS requirement (15.1 vs 17.0). Gravity's advantage is review sentiment (92% vs 75%) and ratings volume (9 vs 3). On rating, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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
Papertone costs $1.99 and Gravity $9.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Papertone against 5.0 for Gravity. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3 and 9 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 75% of Papertone's written reviews are positive against 92% of Gravity's.
| Parameter | Papertone | Gravity |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $1.99 — better | $9.99 |
| Rating | 5.0 (3 ratings) | 5.0 (9 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 75.0% of reviews | 91.7% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 3 | 9 — better |
| Update frequency | — | Fortnightly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Best chart rank | #182 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 29 MB | 36 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | YUSUF SAHAN TARHAN | Tristan Manchester |
Customer experience
Papertone
Gravity
In-app purchases
Papertone
No in-app purchases
Gravity
No in-app purchases









