Notely vs Notely
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Notely
Capture and organize your thoughts instantly with this fast, private notepad. Create, edit, and manage notes with ample space for titles and descriptions. Organize entries into custom categories with visual flair and enjoy a distraction-free, offline experience.
- Lightning fast note capture and editing
- Customizable categories with pastel colors
- Offline functionality with no account needed
- Secure local data storage
- Distraction-free, native dark mode UI
- List and grid view options
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Stop losing your brilliant ideas in cluttered, complicated applications. Notely is the straightforward, high-speed solution designed to help you capture and structure your thoughts the exact moment they happen. MAIN FEATURES Lightning Fast Capture Write down your ideas without friction. Create, edit, and manage your notes instantly. Each entry supports a clear title of up to 100 characters and a spacious description area holding up to 5000 characters, giving you plenty of room for everything from quick lists to deep reflections. See your last modified dates at a glance to stay on top of your recent work. COLORFUL CATEGORY ORGANIZATION Bring visual harmony to your productivity. Group your entries into custom categories, each clearly identifiable. Personalize your workflow by choosing from 14 beautiful, carefully selected pastel background colors including soft green, blue, pink, and more. A convenient counter displays exactly how many items are in each category, and you can navigate to a specific group with a single tap. ABSOLUTE SIMPLICITY AND PRIVACY Your privacy is non-negotiable. Notely requires zero account creation and zero internet connection. Built on robust local SQLite storage, 100% of your data remains safely on your device. We do not track you, we do not send data to external servers, and we never interrupt your focus with advertisements. PREMIUM USER INTERFACE Enjoy a distraction-free environment crafted with the elegant Inter font. The interface automatically adapts to your system settings with native dark mode support. Choose between a standard list view or a compact two-column grid layout. Experience smooth, native spring animations as you navigate, and enjoy a perfectly scaled experience whether you are typing on a phone or a tablet. Take control of your daily productivity today. Start building a personal, secure archive of your most important thoughts with Notely. Whether you need a daily personal journal, a secure offline diary, a fast text entry tool for meeting minutes, or a minimalist productivity tracker, this secure writing app provides the exact foundation you need to stay organized every single day.
Notely
This app offers a private and flexible digital notebook for handwriting, typed notes, and PDF annotation. Convert handwriting to editable text, draw with precision tools, and organize your work with folders and backups. Keep ideas accessible without an account or internet connection.
- Handwriting to editable text conversion
- Precision drawing tools
- PDF annotation and markup
- Organized library with folders
- On-device search
- Portable backups
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Notely is a private, flexible notebook for handwriting, typed notes, PDFs, and visual thinking on iPad and iPhone. Write naturally, clean up a page when you choose, and keep your work available without an account or internet connection. TURN HANDWRITING INTO EDITABLE TEXT Tap the handwriting button to convert canvas writing fully on device. Matched pen and pencil strokes become fitted, editable text immediately in one undoable step. Unmatched ink stays on the page, and unreadable handwriting is never removed. You can also scan physical pages or import photos as typed text. DRAW WITH PRECISION Use pen, pencil, highlighter, eraser, lasso, shape recognition, and a resizable ruler. Zoom from a full-page overview into extreme detail while curves and typed text stay crisp. Pan with one finger when finger drawing is off. Apple Pencil pressure, hover, double tap, and squeeze are supported on compatible hardware, and smart Pencil gestures are customizable. REAL PAGES OR AN INFINITE CANVAS Add, duplicate, reorder, name, section, bookmark, and delete pages while ink, text, images, and sticky notes move together. Intentional blank pages stay in exports. Prefer open space? Switch to a seamless whiteboard instead. Imported PDF pages remain protected and navigation-only. FIND WHAT YOU WROTE Search titles, typed text, sticky notes, handwriting, images, and PDF text with a private on-device index. Results include highlighted context and page or source details. Unlocked note titles and typed text can also appear in system Spotlight; locked and trashed notes stay excluded. TEXT THAT STAYS TIDY Place and move text boxes with a finger or Apple Pencil. Text boxes fit their contents automatically instead of stretching across the page. Use headings, bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, lists, checklists, fonts, sizes, and colors. Resize a block manually whenever you want a fixed layout. ANNOTATE PDFS AND SCANS Import PDFs from Files and mark them up with the same drawing and text tools. Add images, scan physical pages, or recognize text from Photos. Export paged notes as PDF or as individual PNG pages. ORGANIZE A LARGE LIBRARY Use color-coded folders and subfolders, favorites, templates, trash recovery, modified/created/title sorting, grid or list layouts, and multi-select actions. Move, favorite, export, trash, restore, or permanently delete several notes together. New notes open as soon as they are created while the library updates in the background. MOVE BETWEEN IDEAS Keep several notes open, switch between them, close individual notes, or open another existing note without returning to the library. Copy, cut, and paste mixed lasso selections across open notes. Focus Mode hides the interface when you want only the page. PORTABLE, VALIDATED BACKUPS Back up one note, a selection, a folder, or the full library to a portable Notely archive, then restore it additively without overwriting existing notes. Attachments and archive contents are validated before restore. Locked notes are never placed into a portable backup unless you remove their lock first. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Notely works offline and stores notes locally on your device. There is no required account, cloud sync, analytics, or personal-data collection. Lock individual notes with Face ID or a password when you want another layer of privacy. MORE TO EXPLORE - Quick Note and Recent Notes actions in Shortcuts - A configurable Study Buddy widget with quick capture and recent unlocked notes - Drawing replay with speed and timeline controls - Per-orientation toolbar placement with a visible drag handle - A consistent light interface designed around paper and ink - Letter, A4, portrait, landscape, and paper-style defaults Apple Pencil, hover, squeeze, Face ID, camera scanning, Spotlight, and Shortcuts features require compatible hardware and system support.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Notely at 5.0 against Notely's 4.0. Notely also leads on update cadence (every 2 days vs every 2 months). Notely's advantage is iOS requirement (15.1 vs 17.0). On price, ratings volume, ads and in-app purchases 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Notely holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3 and 2 respectively.
Notely ships an update every 2 months, Notely every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on September 22, 2026 and September 27, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Notely | Notely |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.0 (3 ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better |
| Number of ratings | 3 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 2 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 31 MB | 9 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Kamel Djaber | JUSTIN WEI SUN |
Customer experience
Notely
Notely
In-app purchases
Notely
No in-app purchases
Notely
No in-app purchases





