HotJot Notes vs Beaver Notes

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.

Beaver Notes is a fast, native client for the open-source Beaver Notes server — a self-hosted note wall you run on your own infrastructure. Write markdown notes. Drop in photos, videos and files. Everything lands on your server, nowhere else. No accounts to sign up for, no third-party services, no analytics, no telemetry. FEATURES • Multi-server — connect to as many self-hosted Beaver Notes servers as you need and switch between them from the sidebar. • Local-first sync — an outbox queue keeps everything working offline and catches up the moment the server comes back. • Markdown editor — bold, italic, code, lists, links, headings, with live preview. • Attachments — photos, videos, and arbitrary files. Images appear in an adaptive grid with a fullscreen viewer. Inline video playback. • Upload progress — per-file and per-message progress overlays, including retry on failure. • Image editor — crop, draw, filters, and optional optimization before upload. • Video trim & optimize — HEIC and H.265 encoding to keep uploads small. • Quick input — a compact composer at the bottom of the wall for fast capture. • Search — local full-text search with type, tag, pinned and date filters. • Spotlight — your notes are findable from the system search. • Privacy — biometric lock with Face ID / Touch ID, auto-lock timeout, and the option to hide previews in the App Switcher. • Storage controls — per-server cache size limit and one-tap erase. • Multi-platform — adapted layouts for iPhone, iPad, and Mac, with native sidebar, context menus, swipe actions, and keyboard shortcuts. PRIVACY The app talks only to the self-hosted server you configure. No analytics SDKs. No third-party services. No developer-side backend. Read the full privacy policy at https://eduard256.github.io/beaver-notes-apple/PRIVACY.md REQUIREMENTS You need a running Beaver Notes server. The server is open source — see https://github.com/eduard256/beaver-notes