Comparison

HotJot Notes vs Foqos

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

Head to head
About

HotJot Notes

Capture ideas, photos, and thoughts quickly using a familiar text thread interface. Organize your life into chronological "Stacks" for focused streams of consciousness. Export your data easily in universal Markdown format.

Highlights
  • Text-to-Save workflow
  • Organize into Stacks
  • Visual Timelines
  • Total Privacy
  • Export to Markdown
  • No ads
Features
Read full description

Stop overthinking your notes. HotJot is the fastest way to capture ideas, photos, and thoughts using an interface you already know: a text thread. Organize your life into Stacks. These are focused, chronological streams of consciousness that feel like texting yourself. Whether it’s a fleeting thought, a photo of a receipt, or a project log, HotJot keeps it organized by time and topic without the heavy feel of other note-taking apps. Why HotJot? • The "Text-to-Save" Workflow: No friction. Just pick a Stack and start typing. • Visual Timelines: Every entry is automatically timestamped. Scroll back to see exactly when an idea struck. • Total Privacy: Your data never leaves your device or your personal iCloud backup. It’s in your control. • Own Your Data: Don’t get locked in. Export any Stack (or your entire library) into a clean .zip file containing universal Markdown files and your original photos or videos. • No ads: We hate ads as much as you do. HotJot is completely free for an introductory period, and if you get it while it's free you'll get upgraded for free later. Perfect for: • Project Tracking: Document progress with photos and quick notes. • Quick Capture: Save links, quotes, book recommendations, and "to-dos" before they vanish. • Personal Journaling: A space for your daily thoughts. • Shopping & Lists: Text your family’s requests into a dedicated Stack.

About

Foqos

Features
Read full description

An on-device AI workspace for your ideas. Foqos brings powerful language models directly to your iPhone, iPad and Mac. Chat with your notes, understand images, improve your writing and connect ideas—with local AI processing on your device. Download your models once and use local AI offline. Web research and iCloud syncing require an internet connection. • Ask your notes Have a conversation with your notes and documents. Find answers, summarize information and discover connections across your library. • Give your AI vision Ask questions about images, describe what is visible and extract text from photos—all with on-device image understanding. • Write with your local language model Develop ideas, rewrite passages, suggest headings and turn rough notes into structured summaries. Your AI tools live alongside your writing. • Turn ideas into visual thinking Generate mind maps from your notes, explore your knowledge map and organize related ideas on Canvas. • Transcribe on device Turn recordings and imported audio into text with Talk Tiny or Talk Base. Choose automatic language detection or select the spoken language. Supported languages include English, Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish. • Listen and follow along Read your notes aloud, follow highlighted words during playback and export spoken audio. • A complete writing workspace Work with Markdown, tables, LaTeX equations and PlantUML diagrams. Import PDFs, paste images and documents, sketch across multiple pages and sync your library with iCloud. Choose white, dark or sepia and personalize your fonts. Start free with 20 AI actions, 3 speech generations and 5 minutes of audio-file transcription daily. Live transcription includes 60 seconds every 2 hours. Basic notes, drawing, model downloads and saved results remain free. Foqos Pro unlocks unlimited AI actions, transcription and speech generation, plus advanced exports, portable backups and unlimited folders and images per note. Pro subscriptions renew monthly or yearly. Manage or cancel your subscription in your App Store account settings. Privacy Policy: https://foqos.netlify.app/#privacy Terms of Service: https://foqos.netlify.app/#terms foqos isn't just a note-taking app. It’s a tool for better thinking.

Screenshots

HotJot Notes4 screens
Foqos4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: HotJot Notes at none against Foqos's 1. Foqos's advantage is device support (4 vs 2). On price, update cadence, ads 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

Both are free to download. Foqos sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. HotJot Notes asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

HotJot Notes ships an update every 2 months, Foqos every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 7 level
HotJot Notes versus Foqos: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHotJot NotesFoqos
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (2 ratings) — better—
Number of ratings2 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 months — betterEvery 3 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better
Requires iOS15.115.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size38 MB135 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSandstorm Innovations LLC (US)Jeffrey Asante

In-app purchases

None

HotJot Notes

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Foqos

One-time1
  • Foqos Pro (Lifetime)$14.99

Questions

Is HotJot Notes free?
HotJot Notes is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Foqos free?
Foqos is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do HotJot Notes or Foqos have ads?
Neither HotJot Notes nor Foqos shows ads.
Which is updated more often, HotJot Notes or Foqos?
HotJot Notes ships an update every 2 months, and Foqos every 3 months. Most recently, HotJot Notes was updated on October 24, 2026 and Foqos on October 25, 2026.

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