Comparison

Hyphen vs Ember

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

Head to head
About

Hyphen

This minimalist app allows for quick capture of daily thoughts, tasks, and moments. It organizes entries by day and provides a visual timeline of your year, highlighting days with more activity. Notes are automatically timestamped and can be entered via typing or voice.

Highlights
  • Quick entry via typing or voice
  • Automatic timestamping
  • Visual year-in-a-glance timeline
  • Smart grouping of related notes
  • Secure cross-device syncing
  • Private and inaccessible by developer
Features
Read full description

Hyphen is a quiet place for the details you would otherwise lose. Write a sentence, list, quotation, decision, observation, or full page. Every note belongs to its day, so you can move naturally through time and return by date, month, year, Chronicle, or search. WRITE WITHOUT FRICTION Capture a quick thought in place. Expand into the full editor when the thought becomes something larger. MARKDOWN MADE FOR IPHONE Use headings, emphasis, lists, checklists, quotations, links, and code without hunting through the iOS keyboard for punctuation. SEE YOUR DAYS TAKE SHAPE Move naturally between Day, Month, and Year, and view time as a quiet record of activity. Hyphen shows continuity without turning your writing into a streak game. FIND WHAT YOU WROTE Search your writing, browse Chronicle, and move directly back to the day where a thought belongs.

About

Ember

A fast and organized workspace for writing Markdown notes, storing PDFs, diagrams, and voice memos. It offers a vault for reusable prompts and syncs across Apple devices. Start for free with full editor access.

Highlights
  • Rich Markdown editor
  • Inline PDF and image support
  • Reusable prompt vault
  • Daily notes, folders, and tags
  • Instant search functionality
  • Private iCloud sync
  • Share Extension
Features
Read full description

Your notes should feel like home. Ember is a warm, fast place to think — Markdown notes, PDFs, diagrams, voice memos, and a vault of reusable prompts, all in one calm workspace that syncs across iPhone, iPad, and Mac. WRITE IN RICH MARKDOWN A live editor with real formatting: headings, tables, task lists, links, highlights, footnotes, and code — rendered as you type, never in your way. Bullets, numbers, and checkboxes feel native and effortless. MORE THAN TEXT Drop PDFs, images, diagrams, and voice notes right inline. Your references live beside your writing, so everything about a thought stays in one place. A VAULT FOR YOUR PROMPTS Keep the prompts you reuse for writing, research, and planning in a dedicated Prompt Vault — organized, searchable, and a tap away when you need them. STAY ORGANIZED, STAY FAST Daily notes, folders, tags, smart filters, and pinned notes keep things tidy, and instant search finds anything the moment you look for it. YOURS EVERYWHERE Ember runs natively on iPhone, iPad, and Mac, with optional private iCloud sync, widgets, and a Share Extension for capturing from anywhere. FREE TO START Capture notes, PDFs, prompts, and attachments with the full editor — free, no account required. EMBER PRO Unlock advanced themes and alternate icons, premium writing and organization workflows, and deeper Prompt Vault tools, as a subscription or a one-time lifetime purchase. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No accounts. No ads. No selling your words. Your notes stay on your device and your own iCloud. Make a home for your thinking. Download Ember Notes. TERMS & PRIVACY Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://embernotes.app/privacy

Screenshots

Hyphen4 screens
Ember4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Hyphen at none against Ember's 3. Hyphen also leads on update cadence (every 2 days vs every 2 weeks) and iOS requirement (18.0 vs 26.0). On price, rating, review sentiment and ratings volume 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. Ember sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. Hyphen asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Hyphen against 5.0 for Ember. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 7 and 6 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Hyphen ships an update every 2 days, Ember every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 31, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Hyphen versus Ember: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHyphenEmber
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (7 ratings)5.0 (6 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings7 — better6
Update frequencyEvery 2 days — betterEvery 2 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS18.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size4 MB76 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperCHRISTOPH J WHITELAMRene DeAnda

Customer experience

Hyphen

All ratings7 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Ember

All ratings6 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Hyphen

No in-app purchases

3 purchases

Ember

Subscriptions2
  • Ember Pro Monthly$3.991 Month
  • Ember Pro Annual$34.991 Year
One-time1
  • Ember Pro Lifetime$99.99

Questions

Is Hyphen free?
Hyphen is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Ember free?
Ember is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Hyphen or Ember?
Hyphen and Ember are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 7 and 6 ratings respectively.
Do Hyphen or Ember have ads?
Neither Hyphen nor Ember shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Hyphen or Ember?
Hyphen ships an update every 2 days, and Ember every 2 weeks. Most recently, Hyphen was updated on October 31, 2026 and Ember on October 24, 2026.

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