Comparison

BookStax vs Hjarni Notes

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

Head to head
About

BookStax

Access and manage your self-hosted BookStack knowledge base natively on iPhone. Edit pages with a Markdown editor, search your content, and access it offline. Prioritizes privacy with secure API token storage.

Highlights
  • BookStack hierarchy navigation
  • Full-text search with filters
  • Markdown editor with live preview
  • Offline read access
  • Secure API token connection
  • Light/Dark/System mode
  • Multi-language support
Features
Read full description

BookStax brings your self-hosted BookStack wiki to iPhone and iPad as a native app. Read, write and search – directly on your own server. Read • Shelves, books, chapters and pages – the same structure as in BookStack • Images, callouts, tables and collapsible blocks look like they do on the web • Favorites and recently opened pages on the home screen Write • Markdown editor with preview, or the visual editor • Upload images, add tags, insert callouts • Quick Note: capture an idea – without a connection it is uploaded later Search • Full-text search with filters for content type and tag • Find downloaded pages in Spotlight, too Notifications (Pro) • Push notifications from your wiki: new and updated pages, comments, new chapters and books • For admins: keep an eye on new users, registrations, API tokens and changed settings • Choose the events per server – BookStax sets up the webhook in BookStack Offline and widgets • Download books and shelves and browse them without a connection, images included • Widgets for your favorites and an overview of your wiki AI helpers for your pages • Summarize, translate or proofread your own pages • With Apple Intelligence right on your device, or with an AI service you connect yourself Privacy • Your API token is stored in the iOS Keychain. If you like, Face ID or Touch ID locks the app. • BookStax connects to your BookStack server. AI requests go only to the service you set up yourself. • For notifications, BookStack sends events to the BookStax push service. It only forwards the ones you choose to Apple and stores no content. • Anonymous usage statistics (e.g. first launch, server connected) help improve the app – no server addresses, content or personal data. You can turn them off in Settings under "Security". Free and Pro Reading, writing, search, offline reading, widgets and AI are free. BookStax Pro, a one-time purchase, adds: • Notifications from BookStack: pages, comments, books and administration • Shortcuts & Siri: search, open and create pages, fetch content for your own automations • Sharing & export: share page links, export as PDF, Markdown, HTML or text, save text, links and photos from other apps to BookStack • Offline editing with automatic sync • Multiple server profiles • Three premium reader themes, a custom accent colour, one colour per server Requirements • Your own BookStack instance and an API token from your BookStack profile • No server yet? You can try BookStax with the BookStack demo server right in the app. Good to know — BookStax is an independent client and not an official product of the BookStack project. It requires your own self-hosted BookStack server and does not include a server of its own. About the project: https://www.bookstackapp.com / BookStax Pro is a one-time purchase – no subscription, no automatic renewal. Purchases can be restored in the app. / Terms of use (Apple's standard EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Hjarni Notes

This app acts as a persistent memory for AI assistants, allowing you to write notes once and have them accessible across different AI models. It organizes information in plain Markdown, supports team collaboration, and lets you control AI instructions.

Highlights
  • Persistent AI memory
  • Markdown knowledge base
  • Team collaboration
  • Customizable AI instructions
  • Plain text notes
  • Versioned note history
Features
Read full description

Your AI starts from zero every conversation. Hjarni fixes that. Write a note on your phone. Ask Claude or ChatGPT about it on your laptop, and it already knows. Hjarni is a Markdown knowledge base with an official MCP server. Notes, folders, tags. That is the whole product. MCP is not a plugin bolted on afterwards. The app was built around it. HOW IT WORKS Save a note once. Connect Claude, ChatGPT, or any MCP client. Your AI reads your notes, follows your instructions, and writes new notes that fit your system. Stop re-explaining your stack, your customers, or your style guide at the start of every conversation. Write once. You both remember. ON YOUR IPHONE Capture a note in seconds from the New tab. Triage it later from the Inbox. Search everything you have written. Read anywhere. This is the capture and read-anywhere companion. The long editing sessions happen on the web. That is on purpose. ONE BRAIN, EVERY ASSISTANT Claude and ChatGPT each keep their own memory, and neither one shares. Hjarni sits outside both. Switch assistants, keep your context. Works with Claude, ChatGPT, Claude Code, Cursor, and anything else that speaks MCP. MEMORY YOU CAN ACTUALLY READ Assistant memory is a black box. Hjarni is not. Every note is plain Markdown you can open, search, and edit. Every change is versioned, so you can see what your AI wrote, diff it, and revert it. Export everything, any time, in a format that opens anywhere. SHARE A BRAIN WITH YOUR TEAM Team folders give everyone the same context. Your conventions, your decisions, your onboarding docs. Every teammate's AI reads the same thing, so nobody has to be the person who remembers. YOU OWN THE INSTRUCTIONS Set instructions per folder and per team. Tell your AI how to format notes, which tags to use, what tone to write in. Your AI works the way you work. SIMPLE ON PURPOSE We left features out on purpose. No databases. No kanban boards. No page builders. Hjarni is a place to write and organize. The constraint is the feature. WHO IT IS FOR Developers, teams, founders, researchers, writers, travelers. Anyone who has typed the same context into a chat window twice. HJARNI PRO Hjarni is free to use, with a limit on how many notes you can keep. Pro removes the limit and adds file attachments, imports, email capture, and folder collaborators. Pro is an auto renewing subscription, monthly or annual. Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase. It renews unless you turn off auto renew at least 24 hours before the end of the current period, and your account is charged for the renewal within 24 hours before that. Manage the subscription and turn off auto renew in your Apple Account settings. Terms of Use (EULA): https://hjarni.com/terms Privacy Policy: https://hjarni.com/privacy

Screenshots

BookStax4 screens
Hjarni Notes4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is monetization model: BookStax at free against Hjarni Notes's freemium. Hjarni Notes's advantage is update cadence (every 4 days vs every 9 days) and iOS requirement (16.0 vs 18.6). On price, rating, ratings volume and ads 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. BookStax sells 4 one-off in-app purchases and Hjarni Notes sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $11.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for BookStax against 5.0 for Hjarni Notes. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 1 respectively.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

BookStax ships an update every 9 days, Hjarni Notes every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 6 level
BookStax versus Hjarni Notes: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBookStaxHjarni Notes
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings)
Number of ratings11
Update frequencyEvery 9 daysEvery 4 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree — betterFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS18.616.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size16 MB5 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSven Uwe Hanoldevert van den bruel

Customer experience

BookStax

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Hjarni Notes

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

4 purchases

BookStax

One-time4
  • Page$2.99
  • Themes & more Servers$5.99
  • Book$5.99
Show 1 more
  • Encyclopaedia$12.99
2 purchases

Hjarni Notes

Subscriptions2
  • Hjarni Pro Monthly$11.991 Month
  • Hjarni Pro Yearly$119.991 Year

Questions

Is BookStax free?
BookStax is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Hjarni Notes free?
Hjarni Notes is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, BookStax or Hjarni Notes?
BookStax and Hjarni Notes are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 1 and 1 ratings respectively.
Do BookStax or Hjarni Notes have ads?
Neither BookStax nor Hjarni Notes shows ads.
Which is updated more often, BookStax or Hjarni Notes?
BookStax ships an update every 9 days, and Hjarni Notes every 4 days. Most recently, BookStax was updated on October 24, 2026 and Hjarni Notes on October 25, 2026.

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