Comparison

SquareNotes vs Pattio

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

Head to head
About

SquareNotes

This app brings the tactile experience of real sticky notes to your digital devices. It offers a minimalist space for quick reminders, thought organization, and visual placement of notes on your screen. Manage to-do lists, ideas, and important information with a simple, customizable interface.

Highlights
  • Digital sticky notes
  • Visual note placement
  • Customizable colors and sizes
  • Freeform arrangement
  • Trash and restore functionality
  • Minimalist interface
Read full description

Bring the familiar feel of real sticky notes to your phone. This app gives you a clean, minimalist space where you can write quick reminders, organize your thoughts, and place notes anywhere on your screen. Whether it’s a to-do list, a sudden idea, or something you don’t want to forget, your notes stay right where you put them. - A Simple, Visual Way to Stay Organized Create a new sticky note with one tap, type what you need, and drag it to your preferred spot. Arrange your notes freely, group related ideas together, or scatter them just the way you like. - Customize Your Workspace Choose from multiple note colors, adjust sizes, and personalize your board to match your style. - Write. Stick. Move. Delete. Managing your notes is effortless. Keep your board tidy, send old notes to the trash, and restore them anytime from the trash can. - Feels Real, Works Better The app captures the charm of real sticky notes while staying light, fast, and modern. No clutter, no complications, just your thoughts presented visually. Perfect For • Daily reminders • Shopping lists • Brainstorming ideas • Quick to-dos • Planning your day Turn your screen into your personal sticky-note wall and enjoy the freedom of visual note-taking. Stay organized in a fun, simple, and customizable way.

About

Pattio

Features
Read full description

Your digital shoebox. An endless cork board where you toss notes, photos, links and lists, move them with your finger like real paper, and group them however you like. No structure forced on you: save it first, sort it later — if you ever feel like it. EVERYTHING GOES IN, AND IT GOES IN EASILY Stickies, notes, images, links, checklists, folders, polls, countdowns, expenses, habits, albums, files, videos, places, songs, document scans, notebooks, documents, voice notes, drawings, events, calendars, reminders, doors into other boards and today's weather. Twenty-five kinds of card, every one of them pinned down. Share into it from any app, drag things in from Finder or your photo library, or just paste: Pattio works out on its own whether what you brought is a photo, a link or text. IT MOVES LIKE PAPER The canvas pans and zooms with your fingers. Cards drag, rotate with two fingers and snap straight when they get close. Tap a note and it opens for writing, big and centred, with the colour palette beside it; close it and it goes back to its spot on the board. Photos and folders open big from exactly where they sit, the way iOS apps open, and close again by following your finger. ZONES, NOT FOLDERS Paint a coloured area, give it a name, and drop things into it: whatever lands inside is filed automatically, and whatever leaves is unfiled. AND WHEN YOU WANT ORDER A masonry grid of two, four or six columns, filtered by kind, by folder or by zone. Search everywhere. Export the whole board as a PDF. ON IPHONE, IPAD AND MAC A real native menu bar and proper keyboard shortcuts on Mac. Drawing with Apple Pencil on iPad. Home screen widgets. Eight app icons to choose from. Dark mode with a warm night palette, not a grey one. IN YOUR LANGUAGE Thirteen languages: Catalan, Spanish, English, French, German, Italian, Dutch, European and Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, and Simplified and Traditional Chinese. IT WORKS WITH NO ACCOUNT Pattio is complete on your device without signing up for anything. An account is optional and only does one thing: sync. Private boards travel end-to-end encrypted, with a key that is yours alone and that we do not hold. No ads and no trackers. The only analytics are pseudonymous — a random per-install identifier, no account and no content — never read what you write, and switch off in Privacy. AND IF YOU WANT, IT’S SHARED Invite people to a board or hand out a link: whoever opens it can look, vote and add notes right in the browser, with nothing to install and nothing to pay. (A shared board has to be readable in your guest’s browser, so that one stops being encrypted. We would rather say so.) THE PLANS The free plan is enough to use Pattio for real: one board, seventeen kinds of card, sync, sharing and 50 MB in the cloud. The paid plans open up the rest: as many boards as you like, all twenty-five kinds of card, and more space. · Free — 1 board · 17 kinds of card · 50 MB · Plus — unlimited boards · every kind · 5 GB · Pro — unlimited boards · every kind · 15 GB Optional auto-renewable subscription. Payment is charged to your Apple Account when you confirm the purchase, and it renews only if you do not cancel it at least 24 h before the end of the period. You can manage or cancel it in your Apple Account settings. And if you ever leave, you take it all with you: one button downloads a ZIP with every board as JSON and every original file, byte for byte. Free, always, on the free plan too, and even after a subscription lapses. — Terms of use: https://pattio.app/en/terms Privacy: https://pattio.app/en/privacy

Screenshots

SquareNotes4 screens
Pattio4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: SquareNotes at none against Pattio's 4. Pattio's advantage is update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 2 months). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement 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. Pattio sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. SquareNotes asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

SquareNotes ships an update every 2 months, Pattio every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 28, 2026 and October 29, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 7 level
SquareNotes versus Pattio: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSquareNotesPattio
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.0 (1 ratings) — better—
Number of ratings1 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 2 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.616.4 — better
Further details — not scored
Size3 MB81 MB
Age rating4+17+
DeveloperBORA MERT SAHINJoan Cama Ribot

In-app purchases

None

SquareNotes

No in-app purchases

4 purchases

Pattio

Subscriptions4
  • Plus7 Days trial$2.991 Month
  • Pro7 Days trial$4.991 Month
  • Plus7 Days trial$22.991 Year
Show 1 more
  • Pro7 Days trial$44.991 Year

Questions

Is SquareNotes free?
SquareNotes is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Pattio free?
Pattio is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do SquareNotes or Pattio have ads?
Neither SquareNotes nor Pattio shows ads.
Which is updated more often, SquareNotes or Pattio?
SquareNotes ships an update every 2 months, and Pattio every 2 weeks. Most recently, SquareNotes was updated on October 28, 2026 and Pattio on October 29, 2026.

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