Comparison

Hyphen vs Notedown

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

Notedown

Features
Read full description

Notedown is a featherweight markdown notes app for people who just want to write. No accounts, no sync, no clutter — every note is saved as a plain .md text file on your device and never leaves it. WRITE IN MARKDOWN Use familiar markdown to structure your thoughts: headings, bold and italic, bulleted lists, checkboxes, quotes, code, and links. A one-tap formatting toolbar inserts the syntax for you, so you never have to remember it. EDIT OR PREVIEW Flip between a distraction-free editor and a clean rendered preview with a single tap. See exactly how your note looks, then jump back to writing. FULLY OFFLINE, FULLY YOURS Your notes are stored as standard markdown files in the app's own folder on your device. There is no cloud, no login, and nothing to set up. What you write stays with you. FIND ANYTHING FAST Search across all of your notes instantly. The list keeps your most recently edited notes at the top. SHARE WHEN YOU WANT Export any note as markdown text through the standard share sheet. SIMPLE BY DESIGN - Light and dark themes - English and Japanese - Portrait, one-handed friendly layout - Free to use (contains ads) Notedown is the calm, lightweight alternative to heavy note apps — just markdown, and nothing in your way.

Screenshots

Hyphen4 screens
Notedown4 screens

Verdict

The call

Hyphen and Notedown are too close to call on the numbers: across 6 compared parameters — price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.

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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Hyphen ships an update every 2 days, Notedown every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 8, 2026 and October 9, 2026 respectively.

ScorecardNo meaningful differences
Hyphen versus Notedown: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHyphenNotedown
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (7 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings7 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 days — betterEvery 4 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPhone
Requires iOS18.017.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size4 MB24 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperCHRISTOPH J WHITELAMYuki Okawa

In-app purchases

None

Hyphen

No in-app purchases

None

Notedown

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Hyphen free?
Hyphen is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Notedown free?
Notedown is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Hyphen or Notedown have ads?
Neither Hyphen nor Notedown shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Hyphen or Notedown?
Hyphen ships an update every 2 days, and Notedown every 4 days. Most recently, Hyphen was updated on October 8, 2026 and Notedown on October 9, 2026.

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