Comparison

Mentarapp vs smalltype

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

Head to head
About

Mentarapp

Features
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Mentara is your personal second brain for capturing, connecting, and understanding your ideas. KEY FEATURES: - Private by Design Your notes are stored locally on your device. No accounts required, no cloud sync, no tracking. Your thoughts stay private. - AI-Powered Note Scanning Capture handwritten notes, documents, or whiteboards with your camera. AI extracts and formats the text instantly. - Deep Thinking AI Let AI analyze your notes in depth to uncover insights, connections, and new ideas you might have missed. - Connect Your Thoughts Link notes together with [[wiki-links]] to build a personal knowledge web that grows with you. - Smart Organization Use folders, #tags, and powerful search to keep everything organized and easy to find. - Swipe Actions Pin, archive, or delete notes with intuitive swipe gestures. - Beautiful Customization Choose from stunning gradient backgrounds for your notes and switch between light and dark themes. - Optional PIN Protection Add an extra layer of security with a customizable PIN lock. - Export Your Data Export all your notes to PDF or CSV anytime. Your data, your control. - Available in 3 Languages Full support for English, Spanish, and French. Note: AI features (Note Scanning and Deep Thinking) require an internet connection and an OpenAI API key, configurable in Settings. All core note-taking features work fully offline. Mentara is perfect for journaling, brainstorming, studying, or building your personal knowledge base.

About

smalltype

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Short notes, many times a day, saved as plain .md files in real folders. Open the same folder on your Mac in VS Code, Vim, or any editor. Calm, minimal, and ready for iPhone Duo. smalltype is for your notes. The small ones, the quick ones, the big ones, the unpolished ones. It's a fast, quiet place to type. ## Start No tutorial, no setup screen. Tap New Note and start typing. Leave one empty and it quietly disappears, so you never end up with a pile of blank untitled notes. That's the whole app. ## Yours Every note is a real .md file, sitting right there in the Files app. You can open it, copy it, or back it up yourself, anytime. Delete one and it still goes to Recently Deleted, same as any other file: nothing's gone for good. ## Sync or Don't Keep notes in iCloud Drive to have them on every device. Or keep them On My iPhone, fully local, never leaving your device. Either way, you can switch anytime. ## Visible Markdown Markdown markers stay gently visible as you type. What you see is exactly what's in the file. A bar above the keyboard types the markers for you, with undo and redo a tap away. ## Organize Folders, search, and quick note-making, all from one screen. Nothing to set up first. Put "daily" in a folder's name and new notes inside it get today's date as their name. ## No Catch No ads. No subscription. No tracking. No account, ever. Markdown notes. Yours to keep.

Screenshots

Mentarapp4 screens
smalltype4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: smalltype at every 5 days against Mentarapp's every 2 months. Mentarapp's advantage is iOS requirement (15.1 vs 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.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Mentarapp ships an update every 2 months, smalltype every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on November 9, 2026 and November 6, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences ยท 4 level
Mentarapp versus smalltype: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMentarappsmalltype
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 5 days โ€” better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhone, iPod โ€” betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.1 โ€” better26.0
Further details โ€” not scored
Size34 MB8 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAdrian Serrano MotaHerman Haidin

In-app purchases

None

Mentarapp

No in-app purchases

None

smalltype

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Mentarapp free?
Mentarapp is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is smalltype free?
smalltype is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Mentarapp or smalltype have ads?
Neither Mentarapp nor smalltype shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Mentarapp or smalltype?
Mentarapp ships an update every 2 months, and smalltype every 5 days. Most recently, Mentarapp was updated on November 9, 2026 and smalltype on November 6, 2026.

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