Comparison

MindNote vs Benchpad

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

Head to head
About

MindNote

Features
Read full description

Welcome to MindNote, the simplest multimodal AI note taking app, designed to keep your ideas, thoughts, and memories organized and accessible wherever you go. Whether you're jotting down personal reflections, work, brainstorming ideas, or collaborating with others, MindNote offers everything you need to stay productive and creative. The app is ideal for students, researchers, entrepreneurs, working teams. Tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TReffGavpro&t=43s Key Features: - Personalized Notes: Write and organize your notes just the way you like. Change colors, add media, and categorize them into custom groups for easy access. - Speech-to-Text: Dictate your ideas with the built-in speech-to-text feature. Speak freely, and MindNote will convert your words into written text instantly. - Text-to-Voice: Listen to your notes being read aloud with the text-to-voice feature. Perfect for multitasking or reviewing notes on the go. - Smart Editing with AI prompts: Use AI prompts, in any language to improve, organize, and refine your notes. Translate content into multiple languages, reorganize text alphabetically, transforms to tables, summarize ideas, correct grammar, complete notes with AI and more all with a simple tap. - Customizable Organization: Group your notes into folders, tag them, and set reminders to stay organized and never miss an important task or idea. - Collaboration: share your notes with others and work together in real-time. Edit, comment, and collaborate seamlessly on shared projects. - Embedded media (videos, images and sound). - Export as .pdf, .csv, .doc, .docx More Features Coming Soon: - Offline mode - Currently supporting ChatGPT and Gemini, more ML models to come. - And much more! Why MindNote? MindNote is designed for people who want more than just a simple note-taking app. With its easy-to-use interface, customizable features, and powerful AI-assisted tools, it's your perfect partner for work, study, travel and personal life. Stay productive, creative, and organized all in one place. Privacy policy: https://www.mindnote.online/privacy EULA: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Benchpad

Features
Read full description

Benchpad is a scratchpad, not a second brain. Three pads. You name them โ€” Work / Personal / Scratch, Today / This Week / Someday, whatever fits your head. No folders, no tags, no filing decisions. Open, type, close. WRITE WITHOUT DECIDING Every note app asks "where does this go?" before you've written a word. Benchpad doesn't. Three pads means the decision is already made. WORKS ON A PLANE Offline-first, not offline-tolerant. Every keystroke saves to your device before any network request. Sync happens in the background when you're online โ€” and merges conflict-free if you edited on two devices at once. CONSTRAINT IS THE PRODUCT Benchpad is for people who want to write things down โ€” not maintain a system. A note app that knows when to stop. When you can't create infinite folders, you write instead of organizing. Constraint isn't a compromise. It's the product. A REAL EDITOR Headings, checklists, tables, code blocks with syntax highlighting, images, file attachments all with slash commands and a block editor. NO AI. NO ADS. NO DATA MINING. Nothing reads, summarizes, or trains on your notes. Notes are encrypted at rest. Plain markdown โ€” copy everything out anytime, no lock-in. FREE FOREVER, REALLY One pad, the full editor, offline support, sync, and an archive of 100 notes โ€” free, no credit card, no time limit. Pro ($10/year flat) unlocks all three pads, all six themes, attachments, voice-note audio, and Markdown/PDF export. Benchpad is for people who want to write things down โ€” not maintain a system. A note app that knows when to stop.

Screenshots

MindNote4 screens
Benchpad4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Benchpad at none against MindNote's shown. MindNote's advantage is iOS requirement (13.0 vs 15.0). On price, update cadence, 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. MindNote sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month and Benchpad sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $9.99 per year. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

MindNote ships an update every 4 weeks, Benchpad fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 28, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences ยท 4 level
MindNote versus Benchpad: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMindNoteBenchpad
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 4 weeksFortnightly โ€” better
AdsYesNo โ€” better
In-app purchasesYesYes
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS13.0 โ€” better15.0
Further details โ€” not scored
Size53 MB113 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperTomya MateoGagandeep Singh

In-app purchases

2 purchases

MindNote

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly$9.991 Month
  • Yearly$99.991 Year
1 purchases

Benchpad

Subscriptions1
  • Benchpad Pro$9.991 Year

Questions

Is MindNote free?
MindNote is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Benchpad free?
Benchpad is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do MindNote or Benchpad have ads?
MindNote shows ads; Benchpad does not.
Which is updated more often, MindNote or Benchpad?
MindNote ships an update every 4 weeks, and Benchpad fortnightly. Most recently, MindNote was updated on October 28, 2026 and Benchpad on October 25, 2026.

Other comparisons