Comparison

BindNotes vs Pattio

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

Head to head
About

BindNotes

Features
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Your notes. Linked. Notes shouldn't be limited by the size of a page. But linear pages and infinite canvas aren't the answer β€” you just get lost. BindNotes takes a different approach: go infinitely deep, not infinitely long. Lasso any handwriting with Apple Pencil, link it to another page, and tap to jump. Pages give you focus. Links give you depth. Your notes become a connected network of ideas β€” not a stack of dead-end pages. BindNotes is a notebook app built for Apple Pencil. Write, sketch, and draw like any notebook β€” then connect your pages. Headers & Outline Assign header levels (H1–H5) to any page. Headers build a navigable outline for your notebook β€” tap to see the full structure, drill into sections, jump to any page. Color-coded by level so you can see hierarchy at a glance. Links let you follow a thought. Headers let you see the shape of your notebook. Together, they turn a stack of pages into a system. Page Overview See every page connection in your notebook as a visual graph. Arrows show which pages link where. Spot structure, find orphaned pages, navigate by tapping. PDF Annotation (Pro) Import any PDF into a notebook. Annotate with pen, highlighter, and lasso. The highlighter lifts actual pixels from the PDF β€” highlighted content becomes a visual element you can work with. Add headers to organize the PDF. Create links between pages. Turn a static document into something navigable. PDF Export (Pro) Export your notebook as a PDF. Links become clickable cross-references. An outline page is auto-generated. Your handwritten notebook exports like a professional document. Sync with iCloud Drive Notebooks sync across iPhone, iPad, and Mac via iCloud Drive. No account. No server. You control where your data lives. Free β€” No Limits on Note-Taking Everything you need to write, draw, and link is free: β€’ Unlimited notebooks and pages β€’ All drawing tools β€” pen, highlighter, eraser, lasso β€’ Page-to-page linking β€’ Headers and outline navigation β€’ Page overview (link graph) β€’ iCloud Drive sync β€’ 5 page templates (blank, ruled, graph, dots) BindNotes Pro β€” One-Time Purchase Unlock tools for serious workflows. No subscription. Buy once, own forever. β€’ PDF import and annotation β€’ PDF export with clickable links and bookmarks β€’ Tags for notebook organization β€’ Dark page templates β€’ Full link and header color palettes Your notes stay on your device. We collect no data. No analytics. No tracking. No server. Your notebooks are stored locally or in your iCloud Drive β€” nowhere else. See our privacy policy at bindnotes.com/privacy.

About

Pattio

Features
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Your digital shoebox. An endless cork board where you toss notes, photos, links and lists, move them with your finger like real paper, and group them however you like. No structure forced on you: save it first, sort it later β€” if you ever feel like it. EVERYTHING GOES IN, AND IT GOES IN EASILY Stickies, notes, images, links, checklists, folders, polls, countdowns, expenses, habits, albums, files, videos, places, songs, document scans, notebooks, documents, voice notes, drawings, events, calendars, reminders, doors into other boards and today's weather. Twenty-five kinds of card, every one of them pinned down. Share into it from any app, drag things in from Finder or your photo library, or just paste: Pattio works out on its own whether what you brought is a photo, a link or text. IT MOVES LIKE PAPER The canvas pans and zooms with your fingers. Cards drag, rotate with two fingers and snap straight when they get close. Tap a note and it opens for writing, big and centred, with the colour palette beside it; close it and it goes back to its spot on the board. Photos and folders open big from exactly where they sit, the way iOS apps open, and close again by following your finger. ZONES, NOT FOLDERS Paint a coloured area, give it a name, and drop things into it: whatever lands inside is filed automatically, and whatever leaves is unfiled. AND WHEN YOU WANT ORDER A masonry grid of two, four or six columns, filtered by kind, by folder or by zone. Search everywhere. Export the whole board as a PDF. ON IPHONE, IPAD AND MAC A real native menu bar and proper keyboard shortcuts on Mac. Drawing with Apple Pencil on iPad. Home screen widgets. Eight app icons to choose from. Dark mode with a warm night palette, not a grey one. IN YOUR LANGUAGE Thirteen languages: Catalan, Spanish, English, French, German, Italian, Dutch, European and Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, and Simplified and Traditional Chinese. IT WORKS WITH NO ACCOUNT Pattio is complete on your device without signing up for anything. An account is optional and only does one thing: sync. Private boards travel end-to-end encrypted, with a key that is yours alone and that we do not hold. No ads and no trackers. The only analytics are pseudonymous β€” a random per-install identifier, no account and no content β€” never read what you write, and switch off in Privacy. AND IF YOU WANT, IT’S SHARED Invite people to a board or hand out a link: whoever opens it can look, vote and add notes right in the browser, with nothing to install and nothing to pay. (A shared board has to be readable in your guest’s browser, so that one stops being encrypted. We would rather say so.) THE PLANS The free plan is enough to use Pattio for real: one board, seventeen kinds of card, sync, sharing and 50 MB in the cloud. The paid plans open up the rest: as many boards as you like, all twenty-five kinds of card, and more space. Β· Free β€” 1 board Β· 17 kinds of card Β· 50 MB Β· Plus β€” unlimited boards Β· every kind Β· 5 GB Β· Pro β€” unlimited boards Β· every kind Β· 15 GB Optional monthly auto-renewable subscription. Payment is charged to your Apple Account when you confirm the purchase, and it renews only if you do not cancel it at least 24 h before the end of the period. You can manage or cancel it in your Apple Account settings. And if you ever leave, you take it all with you: one button downloads a ZIP with every board as JSON and every original file, byte for byte. Free, always, on the free plan too, and even after a subscription lapses. β€” Terms of use: https://pattio.app/en/terms Privacy: https://pattio.app/en/privacy

Screenshots

BindNotes4 screens
Pattio4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is iOS requirement: Pattio at 16.4 against BindNotes's 26.0. On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price Β· Rating Β· Positive reviews Β· Number of ratings Β· Update frequency Β· Ads Β· In-app purchases Β· Monetization Β· Best chart rank Β· Devices Β· Requires iOS

CostPrice Β· In-app purchases Β· Ads Β· Monetization

Both are free to download. BindNotes sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Pattio 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

BindNotes ships an update every 3 weeks, Pattio every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 30, 2026 and October 6, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference Β· 5 level
BindNotes versus Pattio: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBindNotesPattio
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksEvery 2 weeks β€” better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS26.016.4 β€” better
Further details β€” not scored
Size9 MB74 MB
Age rating4+17+
DeveloperEvgenii EremeevJoan Cama Ribot

In-app purchases

1 purchases

BindNotes

One-time1
  • BindNotes Pro$2.99
2 purchases

Pattio

Subscriptions2
  • Plus3 Days trial$2.991 Month
  • Pro$4.991 Month

Questions

Is BindNotes free?
BindNotes is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Pattio free?
Pattio is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do BindNotes or Pattio have ads?
Neither BindNotes nor Pattio shows ads.
Which is updated more often, BindNotes or Pattio?
BindNotes ships an update every 3 weeks, and Pattio every 2 weeks. Most recently, BindNotes was updated on September 30, 2026 and Pattio on October 6, 2026.

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