Comparison

Better Keep Notes vs Beaver Notes

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

Head to head
About

Better Keep Notes

Features
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Better Keep (https://betterkeep.app/welcome) is a powerful and open source (https://github.com/foxbiz/better-keep) note-taking app designed for privacy, organization, and productivity. With rich text editing, end-to-end encryption, and full offline support, your notes stay secure and accessible on all your devices. RICH TEXT EDITOR Write notes with headings, bullet lists, numbered lists, checklists, text formatting (bold, italic, underline), text color, and background highlights. Create beautiful, organized notes that go beyond plain text. PRIVACY AND SECURITY - Lock individual notes with a PIN โ€” content is encrypted before saving - End-to-end encryption (E2EE) for cloud sync โ€” your data is encrypted on your device before leaving - Zero-knowledge architecture โ€” the server never sees your plaintext notes or attachments CHECKLISTS AND TASKS Create interactive checklists and to-do lists inside your notes. Track your progress with visual completion indicators. Perfect for shopping lists, project tasks, and daily routines. SKETCHES AND DRAWINGS Draw freehand sketches, annotate images, and add hand-drawn illustrations to your notes. Use different pen sizes, colors, and eraser tools. Import photos to draw over them. VOICE NOTES AND TRANSCRIPTION Record audio notes with automatic speech-to-text transcription. Your spoken words are converted to text and added directly to your notes for easy searching. IMAGE ATTACHMENTS Attach photos from your camera or gallery. View images in full-screen with zoom and pan. All image attachments are encrypted before syncing. REMINDERS AND ALARMS Set one-time or repeating reminders for any note. Get notified at the right time with customizable alarms. Supports daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly repeats. LABELS AND ORGANIZATION Organize notes with labels for quick filtering. Pin important notes to the top. Archive completed notes to keep your workspace clean. Search instantly across all notes. CROSS-DEVICE SYNC Sync notes, images, audio recordings, and sketches across all your devices in real-time. Changes appear within seconds. Works on iOS and macOS. OFFLINE FIRST Full functionality without internet. Create, edit, and organize notes offline. Changes sync automatically when you're back online. Your notes are stored locally using SQLite. BEAUTIFUL DESIGN Card-based masonry layout keeps your notes visually organized. Color-code notes for quick identification. Dark theme for comfortable viewing at night. WHAT'S INCLUDED - Rich text notes with formatting - PIN-locked encrypted notes - End-to-end encrypted sync - Checklists and to-do lists - Freehand sketches with image annotation - Voice recordings with transcription - Photo and file attachments - Reminders with repeating alarms - Labels and quick filtering - Instant search - Archive and trash management - Real-time multi-device sync - Full offline support - Dark theme Better Keep is the note-taking app that respects your privacy while delivering powerful features. Whether you're journaling, planning projects, making lists, or capturing ideas โ€” Better Keep has you covered. Download now and experience note-taking the way it should be: private, powerful, and always available.

About

Beaver Notes

Features
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Beaver Notes is a fast, native client for the open-source Beaver Notes server โ€” a self-hosted note wall you run on your own infrastructure. Write markdown notes. Drop in photos, videos and files. Everything lands on your server, nowhere else. No accounts to sign up for, no third-party services, no analytics, no telemetry. FEATURES โ€ข Multi-server โ€” connect to as many self-hosted Beaver Notes servers as you need and switch between them from the sidebar. โ€ข Local-first sync โ€” an outbox queue keeps everything working offline and catches up the moment the server comes back. โ€ข Markdown editor โ€” bold, italic, code, lists, links, headings, with live preview. โ€ข Attachments โ€” photos, videos, and arbitrary files. Images appear in an adaptive grid with a fullscreen viewer. Inline video playback. โ€ข Upload progress โ€” per-file and per-message progress overlays, including retry on failure. โ€ข Image editor โ€” crop, draw, filters, and optional optimization before upload. โ€ข Video trim & optimize โ€” HEIC and H.265 encoding to keep uploads small. โ€ข Quick input โ€” a compact composer at the bottom of the wall for fast capture. โ€ข Search โ€” local full-text search with type, tag, pinned and date filters. โ€ข Spotlight โ€” your notes are findable from the system search. โ€ข Privacy โ€” biometric lock with Face ID / Touch ID, auto-lock timeout, and the option to hide previews in the App Switcher. โ€ข Storage controls โ€” per-server cache size limit and one-tap erase. โ€ข Multi-platform โ€” adapted layouts for iPhone, iPad, and Mac, with native sidebar, context menus, swipe actions, and keyboard shortcuts. PRIVACY The app talks only to the self-hosted server you configure. No analytics SDKs. No third-party services. No developer-side backend. Read the full privacy policy at https://eduard256.github.io/beaver-notes-apple/PRIVACY.md REQUIREMENTS You need a running Beaver Notes server. The server is open source โ€” see https://github.com/eduard256/beaver-notes

Screenshots

Better Keep Notes4 screens
Beaver Notes4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Beaver Notes at none against Better Keep Notes's 2. Better Keep Notes's advantage is iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). On price, ads 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. Better Keep Notes sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Beaver Notes asks for nothing beyond the download.

Scorecard2 real differences ยท 4 level
Better Keep Notes versus Beaver Notes: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBetter Keep NotesBeaver Notes
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 4 daysโ€”
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo โ€” better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac โ€” betteriPhone, iPad, Mac
Requires iOS15.0 โ€” better17.0
Further details โ€” not scored
Size54 MB2 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperFoxbiz Software Private LimitedArtur Jeremicz

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Better Keep Notes

Subscriptions2
  • Better Keep Pro Monthly$2.991 Month
  • Better Keep Pro Yearly$20.991 Year
None

Beaver Notes

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Better Keep Notes free?
Better Keep Notes is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Beaver Notes free?
Beaver Notes is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Better Keep Notes or Beaver Notes have ads?
Neither Better Keep Notes nor Beaver Notes shows ads.

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