Comparison

Prism Notes vs Reflect Open

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

Head to head
About

Prism Notes

Capture thoughts and links quickly with a familiar texting interface. Organize ideas with AI-suggested tags and develop them across linked threads. Review notes to keep what matters and easily search by keyword or meaning.

Highlights
  • Texting-like note capture
  • AI-suggested tags
  • Threaded idea development
  • Review mode for notes
  • Sync across devices
  • Natural language reminders
  • Lock screen capture
Features
Read full description

Prism is the private place for quick thoughts and links. It feels like texting, rather than writing in a document. Capture easily, organize with tags, develop ideas across threads, review to keep only what matters. Free to try! Features: - Private and on-device - Opt in to iCloud sync between iPhone and Mac - Voice transcription and voice memos - Lock screen widgets for text and voice capture - AI-suggested tags to make organizing easy or automatic AI tagging (requires apple intelligence) - Review mode to keep notes alive or let them go - Threads to evolve a thought and link them together - Search by keyword - Natural language reminders - just say "remind me tomorrow at 2pm" (requires apple intelligence)

About

Reflect Open

Features
Read full description

Reflect Open is a local-first note-taking app for daily notes, linked thinking, and private AI over your own files. Start each day in a daily note, capture meetings, ideas, tasks, and journal entries, then connect people and projects with wiki-style links. Reflect builds a personal graph from ordinary Markdown files, with fast search, backlinks, and optional semantic search that runs on-device. Your notes stay yours. Reflect has no account, no telemetry, and no Reflect-hosted cloud service. Notes are stored as plain Markdown in a folder you choose, with a rebuildable local SQLite index beside them. Optional AI chat, transcription, and sync features only run when you connect your own provider or storage, and private notes are blocked from external AI calls. Highlights: - Daily notes first, with quick capture into today. - Wiki links and backlinks instead of folders. - Full-text search and optional on-device semantic search. - Optional bring-your-own-key AI chat over your notes. - Audio memos with optional BYOK transcription. - iCloud Drive or Git-based sync using files you own. - Markdown source of truth for long-term portability. - Keyboard-native, minimal interface built for focus. Terms of Use: https://reflect.app/terms Privacy Policy: https://reflect.app/privacy

Screenshots

Prism Notes4 screens
Reflect Open3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Prism Notes at every 3 days against Reflect Open's every 9 days. Prism Notes also leads on device support (4 vs 2). Reflect Open's advantage is iOS requirement (16.0 vs 18.6). On price, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Prism Notes sells 2 one-off in-app purchases and Reflect Open sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Prism Notes ships an update every 3 days, Reflect Open every 9 days. Both last shipped on October 25, 2026.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Prism Notes versus Reflect Open: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPrism NotesReflect Open
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.9 (38 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings38 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 3 days — betterEvery 9 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS18.616.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size24 MB38 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperTommy JosephReflect App, LLC

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Prism Notes

One-time2
  • Lifetime Unlock$6.99
  • Lifetime Unlock$12.99
2 purchases

Reflect Open

Subscriptions2
  • Reflect Pro Monthly7 Days trial$9.991 Month
  • Reflect Pro Yearly7 Days trial$99.001 Year

Questions

Is Prism Notes free?
Prism Notes is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Reflect Open free?
Reflect Open is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Prism Notes or Reflect Open have ads?
Neither Prism Notes nor Reflect Open shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Prism Notes or Reflect Open?
Prism Notes ships an update every 3 days, and Reflect Open every 9 days. Most recently, Prism Notes was updated on October 25, 2026 and Reflect Open on October 25, 2026.

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