Comparison

basalt vs ThinkAloud Notes

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

Head to head
About

basalt

Features
Read full description

Write notes with AI suggestions as you type. basalt is a private notebook for drafts, ideas and journal entries, powered by Apple Intelligence on your device. GET HELP WHILE YOU WRITE Suggestions and questions appear alongside your note. Change the assistant’s prompt to ask for the kind of response you want. FIND YOUR NOTES Search your writing and browse short automatic summaries in the note list. Your recently edited notes appear first. KEEP YOUR WRITING LOCAL Notes are stored on your device. No account is required, and your writing is not sent to a developer-run AI service. AI features require a compatible device with Apple Intelligence enabled and its on-device model available. Availability depends on your device, language and region. AI suggestions may be inaccurate. Create two notes for free. basalt Pro unlocks unlimited notes with a weekly or yearly subscription. Prices and any eligible introductory offers are shown before purchase. Payment is charged to your Apple Account. Subscriptions renew automatically unless canceled at least 24 hours before the current period ends. Manage or cancel your subscription in App Store account settings. Introductory offers are available only to eligible subscribers. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://hekec.notion.site/terms-privacy-policy-290a809cee65801882d9d13fc40c24b7

About

ThinkAloud Notes

Record your thoughts and let on-device AI transform them into structured notes with titles, tags, and links. Your data stays private on your phone, with no accounts or subscriptions required. Access and manage your notes as standard Markdown files.

Highlights
  • Voice, photo, and text input
  • On-device AI note generation
  • Automatic tagging and linking
  • Ask questions about your notes
  • Knowledge graph creation
  • Markdown file export
  • Optional cloud sync
Features
Read full description

You think out loud. ThinkAloud writes it down. Hit record and just talk: a passing idea, a meeting, a whole lecture. When you stop, you can play the recording back and decide whether it's worth keeping before anything happens to it. Only then does the on-device AI turn it into a real note, with a title, some structure, tags, and links to the related notes you already have. Here's the part that matters. All of this happens on your phone. ThinkAloud runs Google's Gemma model locally, so your voice and your notes never get uploaded anywhere. There's no account to create, no server in the middle, and nothing to pay every month. You download the model once, and after that it works offline. Your notes are just Markdown files in an ordinary folder, the same format Obsidian uses. Point ThinkAloud at a vault you already have, or let it keep one for you. Either way you can open, edit, or back them up with any app you like. Nothing is trapped inside. What it's good at: - Voice, photos, or quick text go in; clean, tagged notes come out - Ask your notes a question in plain language and get an answer with its sources listed, so you can tap straight through to where each fact came from - A knowledge graph that builds itself as your notes start linking up - Full-text search, tags, folders, and checklists - Optional sync to your own Google Drive or iCloud. Your account, a private folder, no servers of mine in between. No ads, no analytics, no tracking, no accounts. I made ThinkAloud because I wanted a notebook that was actually mine. That's the whole idea. The on-device model needs around 3 GB of free space and a fairly recent device.

Screenshots

basalt4 screens
ThinkAloud Notes4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: ThinkAloud Notes at none against basalt's 2. ThinkAloud Notes also leads on iOS requirement (16.0 vs 26.0). On price, update cadence, 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. basalt sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per 7 days. ThinkAloud Notes asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

basalt ships an update every 10 days, ThinkAloud Notes every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 1, 2026 and October 7, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
basalt versus ThinkAloud Notes: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterbasaltThinkAloud Notes
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (2 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings—2 — better
Update frequencyEvery 10 days — betterEvery 2 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
Monetization—Free
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad — better
Requires iOS26.016.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size11 MB116 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperIgor DiachukGhanashyam Vinod Tatti

In-app purchases

2 purchases

basalt

Subscriptions2
  • Basalt Weekly3 Days trial$0.997 Days
  • Basalt Yearly$12.991 Year
None

ThinkAloud Notes

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is basalt free?
basalt is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is ThinkAloud Notes free?
ThinkAloud Notes is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do basalt or ThinkAloud Notes have ads?
Neither basalt nor ThinkAloud Notes shows ads.
Which is updated more often, basalt or ThinkAloud Notes?
basalt ships an update every 10 days, and ThinkAloud Notes every 2 weeks. Most recently, basalt was updated on October 1, 2026 and ThinkAloud Notes on October 7, 2026.

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