Comparison

Brainee vs Sift

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

Head to head
About

Brainee

This app acts as a central hub for all your information, combining notes, tasks, and events. Organize your life with projects, areas, and custom tags, all accessible offline with a clean, intuitive interface. It's designed to help you capture everything and focus on what matters.

Highlights
  • Capture notes, tasks, events, files, and links
  • Organize with projects, areas, and custom tags
  • Plan with deadlines, priorities, and checklists
  • Fully offline functionality
  • Fast local search
  • Distraction-free interface
Features
Read full description

Brainee is a second brain that works offline, with no account. Brain dump tasks, notes, events, files and links into one life organizer, sorted into Areas and Projects. No sign-up, no ads, no tracking. Open the app and start capturing. You get the structure of a big workspace app without having to build a system first. Plan a trip or keep a private journal with ready-made project types. BRAIN DUMP NOW, SORT IT LATER — Toss anything into the Inbox and move it to a project when you're ready — Share links, photos and PDFs from any app straight to a project, folder or the Inbox — Long-press the app icon to take a photo, add a task, write a note or create an event — Saved links get a preview card with title and image ORGANIZE YOUR LIFE IN AREAS & PROJECTS — Areas for the big parts of life: Work, Personal, Health, Travel, Finance, Home — Projects inside each Area, with status, due date and a progress ring — Each project keeps its Tasks, Notes, Events, Files and Links together — Nested folders and tags keep every list tidy — Linked items connect a task to its note, file or event — Re-file in seconds with drag and drop, multi-select and Move to Project TASKS, NOTES & FILES IN ONE PLACE — Tasks with priorities, due dates, subtasks and multiple reminders — Recurring tasks that repeat by due date or by completion date — Rich notes with headings, lists, checklists, quotes and photos — Images and PDFs with thumbnails, a photo gallery and a PDF reader PLAN YOUR DAYS — Calendar with Day, 3-Day, Week and Month views, for all projects or just one — Upcoming: your tasks and events in one list, with search and filters by Project, Area, type and priority — Overdue and No date groups keep late and undated items in view — Home Screen widget shows what's next. Check off tasks without opening the app. — 12-hour or 24-hour time, in the app and the widget PLAN A TRIP — Trip projects come ready with an Itinerary by day, To Do, Packing list, Documents, Places, Links, Photos and Notes — Packing list with one-tap suggestions: documents & money, electronics, toiletries, clothing and more — Turn a shared map link into a Place — Pick a cover photo and watch the countdown to departure KEEP A PRIVATE JOURNAL — Journal projects hold dated entries, written with the same text styles as notes — Backdate an entry to any past day and time — Add a mood (Bright, Good, Steady, Tense or Low) and photos from your camera or library — Keep a day streak, and switch the chart between a 6-month heatmap, a month calendar and 2 weeks of mood bars — Scroll your entries as a timeline, with photos on each card, or search them all — Entries stay on your device, like the rest of your Brainee data — Switch a project between General, Trip and Journal at any time. Nothing is moved or deleted; each type just shows a different view. PRIVATE BY DESIGN — Works offline: your data lives on your device — No account, no ads, no tracking — A few extras, like link previews, trip cover photo search and purchases, need an internet connection — Dark and light mode, haptic feedback, iPhone and iPad — Available in English and Spanish FREE & PREMIUM Brainee is free to start: up to 3 Areas and 5 Projects, with limits on items per project. Premium unlocks unlimited Areas, Projects, tasks, notes, events, folders, links and Inbox items, plus files up to 100 MB and image compression. Subscribe monthly or yearly, or pay once with Lifetime. Subscriptions renew automatically unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel them in your App Store account settings. Your brain is for having ideas, not holding them. Let Brainee hold them for you. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://trybrainee.app/privacy

About

Sift

Read full description

Every screenshot, exactly where you'll look for it. Sift reads the screenshots on your iPhone, files each one into a collection — Trips, Receipts, Recipes, Codes, Shopping, Chats, Places, Reading and Events — and pulls out what matters: flight and gate, Wi-Fi passwords, totals, addresses, dates and booking references. SORTED AUTOMATICALLY Open Sift and your new screenshots are already filed. While Sift is open, a new screenshot is read and filed right away. FIND ANYTHING Search the words in the image, a date, or what it was for: "wifi at the airbnb", "receipt last week", "flight to tokyo". Search runs on your iPhone. SIFT MODE Swipe through new screenshots in about a minute: right to keep, left to delete, up to act. Deletions wait for one batch you review, then Apple asks you to confirm. Deleted screenshots stay in Recently Deleted for 30 days. ONE-TAP DETAILS Copy a Wi-Fi password, a verification code, a total or a booking reference. Open links and addresses in Maps. WIDGETS AND SHORTCUTS Your inbox and what's expiring on the Home Screen and Lock Screen, Sift mode in Control Center, and "Sift my screenshots" for Siri and Shortcuts. READ ON YOUR IPHONE. NEVER UPLOADED. Sift has no server and no account. Text recognition, sorting and search all happen on your iPhone. No analytics, no ads, no tracking. SIFT PRO Add flights and events to Calendar, get reminded, save addresses and numbers to Contacts, let boarding passes, codes and tickets clear themselves when they're done, and Deep clean duplicates and old screenshots. Sift Pro is available as a yearly subscription with a 7-day free trial, or monthly. Sorting, search and Sift mode stay free. Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase or when the free trial ends. Subscriptions renew automatically unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel in Settings > your name > Subscriptions. Terms of Use: https://sift-five-tan.vercel.app/terms Privacy Policy: https://sift-five-tan.vercel.app/privacy

Screenshots

Brainee4 screens
Sift4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Sift at every 2 days against Brainee's every 4 days. Brainee's advantage is iOS requirement (16.4 vs 18.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support 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. Brainee sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month and Sift sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Brainee ships an update every 4 days, Sift every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 21, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Brainee versus Sift: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBraineeSift
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (3 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings3 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 4 daysEvery 2 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS16.4 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size100 MB4 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSerhii HrynCharles Ley Baldemor

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Brainee

Subscriptions2
  • Brainee Premium Monthly3 Days trial$2.991 Month
  • Brainee Premium Yearly3 Days trial$24.991 Year
One-time1
  • Premium Lifetime$49.99
2 purchases

Sift

Subscriptions2
  • Sift Pro Monthly$2.991 Month
  • Sift Pro Yearly7 Days trial$19.991 Year

Questions

Is Brainee free?
Brainee is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Sift free?
Sift is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Brainee or Sift have ads?
Neither Brainee nor Sift shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Brainee or Sift?
Brainee ships an update every 4 days, and Sift every 2 days. Most recently, Brainee was updated on October 24, 2026 and Sift on October 21, 2026.

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