Comparison

Cross vs Harbor Notes

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

Head to head
About

Cross

Features
Read full description

Cross — Tasks, Done Your Way €4.99. Once. Forever. No subscriptions. No free tier. No compromises. Cross is built for people who take their workflow seriously — and who know that the best tools don't come with monthly invoices. Your notes already live in Notion. Your tasks should too. Cross connects directly to your Notion databases and keeps your to-dos exactly where your thinking happens. Add, complete, and organize tasks without opening a browser tab. No copy-pasting. No drift. WHAT YOU GET — Native Notion sync, always in real time — Minimalist Mode — Smart folders to cut across projects — Focus Timer to lock in and finish what you start — Home screen widgets for at-a-glance priorities — Clean, minimal design with nothing in the way BUILT FOR PEOPLE WHO DON'T SETTLE Cross isn't for everyone. It's for the people who have already tried every productivity app and realized the problem isn't their system — it's that their tools don't talk to each other. Cross fixes that, quietly, without asking for anything more. ONE PRICE. YOURS FOREVER. Pay once. Get everything. Every future update, included. No upsells, no locked features, no subscription guilt. Just a tool that works — every single day.

About

Harbor Notes

Capture, organize, and secure all your thoughts, tasks, and files in one private space. This app offers rich note-taking features, robust organization, and instant search, even within images and scanned documents. Your data is yours, with optional end-to-end encryption and no ads or data selling.

Highlights
  • Rich notes with checklists, tables, and highlights
  • Notebooks, stacks, and tags for organization
  • Task management with due dates
  • Document scanning and sketching
  • Voice memos and file attachments
  • Instant search with OCR
  • Offline-first native apps
Features
Read full description

Harbor is your private second brain — a fast, native notes app for people who want to remember everything and own it for life. Capture notes, organize them into notebooks, tag anything, attach photos and files, scan paper documents, sketch ideas, and record voice memos. Then find any of it in seconds — Harbor's search even reads the text inside your images and scans. REMEMBER EVERYTHING • Rich notes with checklists, tables, images, links, and highlights • Notebooks and stacks that keep every part of your life organized • Tags that cut across notebooks • Tasks with due dates, right beside your notes • Scan documents with your camera; sketch with your finger or Apple Pencil • Voice memos and file attachments of every kind • Instant search across everything — including the text inside images and scans (OCR) YOURS, EVERYWHERE • Truly native apps for iPhone, iPad, and Mac — no web wrapper • Offline-first: your notes live on your device and sync automatically • The full web app at app.harbor.my from any browser • A web clipper that saves articles and pages straight into your notebooks PRIVATE BY DESIGN • No ads. No selling your data. No training AI on your notes. Ever. • Optional end-to-end encryption locks down your most sensitive notes so that no one — not even us — can read them • Export everything anytime in open formats. You are never locked in. SWITCHING FROM ANOTHER NOTES APP? Import your Evernote notebooks (.enex files) with the Mac or web app — your notebooks, tags, and attachments sync straight to your iPhone and iPad. SIMPLE, HONEST PRICING Harbor is free for up to 50 notes, 3 notebooks, and 20 tags — no credit card required. When you outgrow the free plan, Harbor Unlimited removes every limit: • $9.99/month or $99/year • Unlimited notes, notebooks, tags, tasks, and files • A written price-lock promise in our terms: your price won't go up for at least 3 years Subscriptions are billed to your Apple ID and renew automatically until cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel anytime in your App Store account settings. And even if you stop paying, you can always read and export your notes — Harbor never holds your data hostage. Privacy Policy: https://harbor.my/privacy/ Terms of Use: https://harbor.my/terms/ Questions? A real person answers: help@harbor.my

Screenshots

Cross4 screens
Harbor Notes4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Harbor Notes at Free against Cross's $4.99. Harbor Notes also leads on update cadence (every 3 days vs every 3 weeks) and iOS requirement (18.0 vs 26.2). Cross's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 2). On ads 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

Harbor Notes is free to download; Cross costs $4.99 up front. Harbor Notes sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month. Cross asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Cross ships an update every 3 weeks, Harbor Notes every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on September 18, 2026 and September 9, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 5 level
Cross versus Harbor Notes: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCrossHarbor Notes
Price$4.99Free — better
Rating—5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Number of ratings—1 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksEvery 3 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
Monetization—Freemium
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, Mac — better
Requires iOS26.218.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size20 MB32 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAntje SchroderCloudmanic Labs, LLC

In-app purchases

None

Cross

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

Harbor Notes

Subscriptions2
  • Unlimited — Monthly$9.991 Month
  • Unlimited — Yearly$99.001 Year

Questions

Is Cross free?
Cross costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Harbor Notes free?
Harbor Notes is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Cross or Harbor Notes have ads?
Neither Cross nor Harbor Notes shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Cross or Harbor Notes?
Cross ships an update every 3 weeks, and Harbor Notes every 3 days. Most recently, Cross was updated on September 18, 2026 and Harbor Notes on September 9, 2026.

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