Comparison

Jotable vs Beaver Notes

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

Head to head
About

Jotable

Features
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Organize by Categories Keep your ideas tidy with easy-to-manage categories. Smart Note Formatting Add automatic dashes, numbering, checkboxes, and links as you type โ€” no extra steps required. Customizable Text Adjust font size, color, bold, underline, and strikethrough to make your notes your own. iCloud Sync Your notes stay up-to-date and available on all your Apple devices. Just Notes โ€” Nothing Else No AI. No ads. No in-app purchases. Just a clean, focused space for your thoughts.

About

Beaver Notes

Features
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Beaver Notes is a fast, native client for the open-source Beaver Notes server โ€” 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 โ€ข Multi-server โ€” connect to as many self-hosted Beaver Notes servers as you need and switch between them from the sidebar. โ€ข Local-first sync โ€” an outbox queue keeps everything working offline and catches up the moment the server comes back. โ€ข Markdown editor โ€” bold, italic, code, lists, links, headings, with live preview. โ€ข Attachments โ€” photos, videos, and arbitrary files. Images appear in an adaptive grid with a fullscreen viewer. Inline video playback. โ€ข Upload progress โ€” per-file and per-message progress overlays, including retry on failure. โ€ข Image editor โ€” crop, draw, filters, and optional optimization before upload. โ€ข Video trim & optimize โ€” HEIC and H.265 encoding to keep uploads small. โ€ข Quick input โ€” a compact composer at the bottom of the wall for fast capture. โ€ข Search โ€” local full-text search with type, tag, pinned and date filters. โ€ข Spotlight โ€” your notes are findable from the system search. โ€ข Privacy โ€” biometric lock with Face ID / Touch ID, auto-lock timeout, and the option to hide previews in the App Switcher. โ€ข Storage controls โ€” per-server cache size limit and one-tap erase. โ€ข Multi-platform โ€” 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 โ€” see https://github.com/eduard256/beaver-notes

Screenshots

Jotable3 screens
Beaver Notes4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is iOS requirement: Beaver Notes at 17.0 against Jotable's 26.0. On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price ยท Rating ยท Positive reviews ยท Number of ratings ยท Update frequency ยท Ads ยท In-app purchases ยท Monetization ยท Best chart rank ยท Devices ยท Requires iOS

CostPrice ยท In-app purchases ยท Ads ยท Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

Scorecard1 real difference ยท 5 level
Jotable versus Beaver Notes: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterJotableBeaver Notes
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksโ€”
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhone, iPad, MaciPhone, iPad, Mac
Requires iOS26.017.0 โ€” better
Further details โ€” not scored
Size8 MB2 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperGeorge BabichevArtur Jeremicz

In-app purchases

None

Jotable

No in-app purchases

None

Beaver Notes

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Jotable free?
Jotable is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Beaver Notes free?
Beaver Notes is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Jotable or Beaver Notes have ads?
Neither Jotable nor Beaver Notes shows ads.

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