Strayfiles vs Inkstone Notes
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side โ with what reviewers say about each.
Strayfiles
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Strayfiles brings all your Markdown files together in one place without moving them. Point to any folder on your device and Strayfiles indexes your notes, docs, and files instantly. ORGANIZE WITHOUT MIGRATING Your files stay exactly where they are. No vault, no restructuring. Strayfiles reads from any folder you choose and builds a unified note tree across all your directories. WRITE IN MARKDOWN Full Markdown editor with syntax highlighting and keyboard shortcuts. Switch to a rendered preview to see your formatting, tables, code blocks, and more come to life. SEARCH EVERYTHING Full-text search across all your Markdown files by title, content, or tags. Find any note instantly no matter where it lives on your filesystem. SMART WORKSPACES Create virtual folders that group notes by project or topic without touching your filesystem. Filter by workspace to focus on what matters. TAG AND FILTER Add color-coded tags to organize notes your way. Filter by tag to find exactly what you need in seconds. SYNC ACROSS DEVICES Keep your notes in sync across iPhone, iPad, and Mac with Stray Cloud. End-to-end encrypted so your data stays private. BUILT FOR DEVELOPERS Mirror files like CLAUDE.md across multiple projects. Get pinged when AI coding agents finish tasks. Give AI assistants direct access to your notes via MCP. TEAMS (PRO) Collaborate on shared workspaces with your team in real time. Everyone sees the same notes, always up to date. KEY FEATURES - Aggregate notes from any folder - Raw Markdown and WYSIWYG editing - Full-text search across all files - Smart workspaces and color-coded tags - Cross-device sync with end-to-end encryption - File mirrors for developer workflows - AI agent notifications (Pings) - Team collaboration (Pro) Terms of Use: https://strayfiles.com/terms
Inkstone Notes
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Inkstone keeps your notes as what they already are: plain Markdown files, in a folder you choose, on your own device. There is no database, no import step and no proprietary format. A vault another Markdown app created opens here, and a vault created here opens there. If Inkstone disappeared tomorrow, you would still have a folder of Markdown. WRITING Headings, bold, quotes, callouts, checkboxes, tables and code all render in place as you type, with the syntax revealed only on the line the cursor is on. Reading mode is a separate, read-only view for when you want the page without the scaffolding. Body font, code font and their sizes are set independently. LINKING [[Note]], [[Note#Heading]], [[Note^block]], ![[Embeds]] and aliases declared in frontmatter all resolve into one index. Every note shows what points at it, what it points at, and which of its links have no target yet. Rename a note and every link that pointed at it is rewritten across the whole vault, in the same action. SEEING THE SHAPE The graph view draws your notes as nodes joined by their links, and the simulation is deterministic โ the same vault draws the same picture every time, so you can learn its layout instead of re-reading it on every open. SPATIAL NOTES The canvas puts cards, files and connections on an infinite sheet, saved as JSON Canvas 1.0 โ the same open format other implementations read and write. FINDING THINGS A fuzzy switcher opens over every note with one gesture. Full-text search understands tag: and path:, and tags work inline or in frontmatter, nested, in any script. TYPOGRAPHY THAT HANDLES CJK Chinese sets solid โ no word spaces โ so a Latin word dropped into a Han sentence collides with it. Inkstone sets the gap between scripts properly, and lets you choose fonts and sizes that suit both. TWO DEVICES Sync a vault through iCloud, or push it to a GitHub repository with conflicts settled once rather than left as two copies. Per-file-type filters decide whether attachments and media travel with it. PRIVATE BY CONSTRUCTION No account. No telemetry. No network call you did not ask for. Your files are on your device and go only where you send them. Interface in English, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is device support: Inkstone Notes at 2 against Strayfiles's โ. On price, in-app purchases and iOS requirement 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
| Parameter | Strayfiles | Inkstone Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Ads | โ | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Devices | โ | iPhone, iPad โ better |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 26.0 |
| Further details โ not scored | ||
| Size | 13 MB | 15 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Roberto Febus | Orris |
In-app purchases
Strayfiles
No in-app purchases
Inkstone Notes
No in-app purchases









