Comparison

Patron vs FoldNotes

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

Head to head
About

Patron

Features
Read full description

Patron is a calm, minimal writing app for poets, thinkers, and note-takers. Write poems, journals, essays, or ideas - without clutter, distraction, or noise. Every note you write is saved securely with iCloud, available across your devices and visible only to you. There are no accounts, ads, notifications or AI — just a quiet space for your words. Why Patron? • Flexible Writing Write poems, notes, journals, or drafts. Format text with bold, italics, underline, and colour. • iCloud Sync Your writing is backed up automatically, safely stored in your private iCloud account. • Distraction-Free Design A clean, minimal interface that lets you focus purely on writing. • Private by Design Patron doesn’t use AI, analytics, or tracking. Your words stay yours. • Thoughtful Tools Draft, edit and publish your writing when ready - all from one simple view. • Beautifully Simple Light and dark modes designed to feel calm, timeless and native to iOS. Patron is built for writers who value simplicity and privacy. It’s not about productivity or prompts - it’s about giving your words the space they deserve. Whether you’re journaling a thought, crafting a verse, or outlining a story, Patron keeps you focused on what matters most - writing. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://bitegroup.com.au/privacy

About

FoldNotes

Organize long notes by collapsing completed sections, keeping your workspace focused. This app uses plain Markdown files stored in iCloud or locally, ensuring your data is accessible across devices and applications. It offers advanced text styling, task management, and powerful search capabilities.

Highlights
  • Collapsible sections and list items
  • Plain Markdown file storage
  • Live Markdown styling with syntax highlighting
  • Task management with four states
  • Wiki-links with automatic backlinks
  • Powerful search with regular expressions
  • Customizable themes and fonts
Read full description

Some notes are short. Others grow into chapters, plans and running logs you scroll past a hundred times. FoldNotes lets you fold the finished parts away, so a long note stays as small as the part you are actually working on. Every note is a plain Markdown file. No database, no proprietary format, no export step. Your notes sit in iCloud Drive or on your device, and any other app can open them, today or in ten years. It is also a real iOS app, written in Swift. Not a web page in a wrapper. It opens instantly, works offline, handles a hardware keyboard properly, and does not sit in the background eating your battery. FOLD ANYTHING • Collapse any heading or list item and everything beneath it folds away • Hoist a section to work on it alone, with everything else out of sight • Task counts stay on the folded heading, so you can see what is left without unfolding WRITTEN FOR MARKDOWN • Live styling as you type — headings, lists, quotes, code, links • Six heading levels, and GFM tables with a real table editor • Code blocks with syntax highlighting • Wiki-links [[like this]], with previews and automatic backlinks • Nested tags TASKS WHERE YOU WROTE THEM • Four states: to do, in progress, done and cancelled • Due dates and priorities written inline, in plain text • Assign them to a project and add context and comments • Counts roll up to the section above them BUILT FOR IPAD • Library, notes and editor side by side • Hardware keyboard shortcuts throughout • An inspector with outline, tasks, references, properties and a note graph • Scan printed text straight into a note with the camera FIND ANYTHING • Search every note, including regular expressions • Saved queries and database views across your whole collection • Daily notes with a calendar COMING FROM ANOTHER APP • Import from Bear or Obsidian in a tap • Or simply point FoldNotes at the Markdown files you already have MAKE IT YOURS • Light and dark themes, including Nord, Dracula and Catppuccin • Choose your body, heading and code fonts • Paragraph focus, sentence focus and typewriter scrolling Folding is not a formatting trick. A long document asks you to hold every section in your head at once; folding lets you put the finished ones down. That is the whole idea, and everything else here is built around it. Your notes will outlive this app, and every app like it. That is rather the point.

Screenshots

Patron4 screens
FoldNotes4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: FoldNotes at none against Patron's 2. FoldNotes also leads on update cadence (every 2 days vs monthly) and iOS requirement (18.0 vs 26.0). On price, ads and device support 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. Patron sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $0.49 per month. FoldNotes asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Patron ships an update monthly, FoldNotes every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 2, 2026 and October 12, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 6 level
Patron versus FoldNotes: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPatronFoldNotes
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Number of ratings—1 — better
Update frequencyMonthlyEvery 2 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
Monetization—Free
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS26.018.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size1 MB22 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperLuke Antony MartinFoldsoft Pty Ltd

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Patron

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly Subscription$0.491 Month
  • Annual Subscription$4.991 Year
None

FoldNotes

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Patron free?
Patron is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is FoldNotes free?
FoldNotes is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Patron or FoldNotes have ads?
Neither Patron nor FoldNotes shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Patron or FoldNotes?
Patron ships an update monthly, and FoldNotes every 2 days. Most recently, Patron was updated on October 2, 2026 and FoldNotes on October 12, 2026.

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