Comparison

openote vs Life Tile

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

Head to head
About

openote

This app offers a free and private way to manage your notes using standard Markdown files. It syncs across your Apple devices via iCloud Drive without requiring an account or subscription. Features include live diagram rendering, on-device AI capabilities, and robust editing tools.

Highlights
  • Free iCloud sync
  • Plain Markdown files
  • Live Mermaid diagram rendering
  • On-device AI features
  • Rich Markdown editor
  • Folder and tag organization
  • Full-text search
Features
Read full description

openote β€” Markdown notes with free sync. No account. No subscription. Other note apps charge a yearly fee just to sync your own devices. openote syncs iPhone, iPad and Mac through your iCloud Drive β€” free, with no account to create. Your notes stay plain .md files. Open them in the Files app or any Markdown editor, and take them anywhere. No proprietary format, no lock-in. --- WHY OPENOTE Free iCloud sync Notes sync through iCloud Drive on your own Apple account. No sign-up, no subscription. Plain Markdown files Every note is a standard .md file. Front matter, checklists and [[wiki links]] are kept exactly as you wrote them. Safe across devices If a note changes on another device while you're editing, openote keeps both versions instead of silently overwriting one. Your last words are saved even if you switch apps or quit right away. Mermaid diagrams Flowcharts, sequence diagrams and more render live from Markdown. Start from a template, pinch to zoom, tap to edit the code. Rendering works offline. On-device AI On devices with Apple Intelligence, summarize a note, get tag suggestions, or turn a sentence into a diagram. It runs entirely on your device β€” nothing is sent to a server. --- FEATURES Editor - Rich Markdown editing, with a source mode when you want the raw text - Checklists, tables and code blocks - Auto-save - Word and character count Organize - Folders and #tags with autocomplete - [[Wiki links]] between notes - Full-text search in English, Korean and Japanese Sync & files - iPhone, iPad and Mac via iCloud Drive - Browse your notes in the Files app - Export a note as PDF Shortcuts & Siri - Create, open and search notes from Shortcuts and Siri - Notes appear in Spotlight search --- PRIVACY - No account, no email - No tracking - Your notes stay in your iCloud and on your devices - AI runs on your device Everything is free. openote has no in-app purchases. openote β€” Your notes, your files.

About

Life Tile

Read full description

Your day as a Mondrian-inspired grid. Passive. Private. On-device. Life Tile tracks where you spend your time and shows it as a colorful square grid. Your phone knows where you are. Life Tile uses that to build a picture of your day. Each colored block is a place or activity, sized by how long you were there. At a glance, you see exactly where your time went. HOW IT WORKS Life Tile detects the places you visit in the background. Set up a place once β€” name it, pick a category β€” and it's tracked automatically from then on. You can also correct or adjust entries when needed. PRIVACY Your location and activity data stays on your device. No accounts, no servers, no ads. Optional iCloud sync between your own devices only. Anonymous usage stats can be turned off in Settings. SQUARE TILE CHART Your day as a grid of colored blocks. It stays readable even with many categories. The bigger the block, the more time you spent there. TREEMAP, MAP & LIST Zoom out to your day, week, or month. The treemap shows proportionally where your time goes. Switch to map view to see every place you visited, or list view to browse your timeline. Patterns and habits become obvious. TWO-LEVEL CATEGORIES Organize your activities with main categories and subcategories. Exercise > Outdoor Run, Entertainment > Concert, Meals > Lunch β€” as detailed as you want. SLEEP & WORKOUTS Pulls sleep and workout data from Apple Health to complete the picture of your day. No extra setup needed. WIDGETS & SHORTCUTS Check your day from the home screen. Widgets show your current activity and today's breakdown. Shortcuts let you automate common actions. CSV IMPORT Coming from another time-tracking app? Import your CSV data and keep your history. ONE-TIME PURCHASE No subscription. Buy once, use forever.

Screenshots

openote4 screens
Life Tile4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: openote at none against Life Tile's 1. openote also leads on iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.0). Life Tile's advantage is update cadence (every 9 days vs every 5 weeks). On price, ads and device support 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. Life Tile sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. openote asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

openote ships an update every 5 weeks, Life Tile every 9 days. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 17, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences Β· 5 level
openote versus Life Tile: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameteropenoteLife Tile
PriceFreeFree
Positive reviews100.0% of reviewsβ€”
Update frequencyEvery 5 weeksEvery 9 days β€” better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo β€” betterYes
MonetizationFreeβ€”
DevicesiPhone, iPad β€” betteriPhone
Requires iOS17.0 β€” better26.0
Further details β€” not scored
Size8 MB9 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperWooyoung Kimdugodogu

In-app purchases

None

openote

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Life Tile

One-time1
  • Life Tile Full Access$9.99

Questions

Is openote free?
openote is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Life Tile free?
Life Tile is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do openote or Life Tile have ads?
Neither openote nor Life Tile shows ads.
Which is updated more often, openote or Life Tile?
openote ships an update every 5 weeks, and Life Tile every 9 days. Most recently, openote was updated on October 25, 2026 and Life Tile on October 17, 2026.

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