Comparison

LitNote vs Beaver Notes

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

Head to head
About

LitNote

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Mobile specialty: Annoying note that always show on your lock screen & you can customize it. Never forget anything again You have a thought. You need to write it down. Right now. LitNote is for the ideas that pop into your head at the worst timesβ€”in line at the grocery store, right before bed, during a meeting you probably should be paying attention to. CAPTURE IT BEFORE IT'S GONE Open the app. Start typing. That's it. No folders to pick, no settings to configure. Your thought is saved the moment you write it. FIND IT ON ANY DEVICE Started a note on your iPhone? It's already waiting on your iPad and Mac. iCloud keeps everything in sync automatically. Your notes follow you. WRITE THE WAY YOU THINK [] for checklist, ** for bold, * for italic, == for highlight, simple OR stupidly Cmd+B Cmd+I Cmd+Shift+S . Add a little emoji to help you spot important notes at a glance. Nothing complicatedβ€”if you can send a text message, you can use LitNote. WHAT YOU WON'T FIND HERE No subscriptions. No accounts to create. No tutorials to sit through. No clutter. Just a clean place to put your thoughts. Perfect for a movie name, a song name that your friend mentioned Perfect for meeting notes, quick reminders, journal entries, or that brilliant idea you'll definitely forget by morning. Your notes. Your devices. Nothing in the way.

About

Beaver Notes

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

Screenshots

LitNote4 screens
Beaver Notes4 screens

Verdict

The call

LitNote and Beaver Notes are too close to call on the numbers: across 5 compared parameters β€” price, ads, in-app purchases and device support among them β€” neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.

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

CostPrice Β· In-app purchases Β· Ads Β· Monetization

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

ScorecardNo meaningful differences
LitNote versus Beaver Notes: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterLitNoteBeaver Notes
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksβ€”
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhone, iPad, MaciPhone, iPad, Mac
Requires iOS17.617.0 β€” better
Further details β€” not scored
Size6 MB2 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperPhong VuArtur Jeremicz

In-app purchases

None

LitNote

No in-app purchases

None

Beaver Notes

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is LitNote free?
LitNote 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 LitNote or Beaver Notes have ads?
Neither LitNote nor Beaver Notes shows ads.

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