Comparison

Trace vs CapsulePad

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

Head to head
About

Trace

Features
Read full description

Press capture. Get it written up. Trace turns your conversations into context you keep: what was said, what was decided, and who promised what. Then it puts that context to work for you and your team. CAPTURE ANY CONVERSATION Tap Capture and talk. Trace works out what kind of conversation it was, a standup, an interview, a 1:1, a sales call, and writes it up to match. Pause whenever you need to and pick up where you left off. NEVER LOSE TRACK OF WHAT YOU PROMISED Trace picks up what you said you'd do and files it under the conversation it came from. Tick things off in To-dos, and see what everyone on your team has on their list. ASK ANYTHING Ask Trace across everything you've captured, or ask about one context or a whole Space right from its page. Answers quote the exact line and open the transcript right there. YOUR AGENT, ON YOUR TEAM Chat with the people in your workspace in Conversations. When you're busy, your agent can reply from your context and shows where the answer came from. Type @ to bring a person or an agent into the chat. KEEP PEOPLE IN THE LOOP Share a topic once and every context on it reaches them from then on. You approve each one before it goes out. WORKSPACES Keep personal and work apart. Create a workspace, invite your team, bring your existing contexts with you, and switch between workspaces in a tap. A HOME FOR EVERY CONVERSATION Group related contexts into Spaces: a client, a recurring 1:1, a hiring loop. CAPTURE WITHOUT FRICTION โ€ข One tap to start, and it keeps going if you switch apps โ€ข Live Activity timer in the Dynamic Island โ€ข Start a capture from the Action Button, Siri, or a notification โ€ข Edit any title or point in place WHO IT'S FOR Founders, PMs, engineers, consultants, recruiters, sales, anyone whose work depends on what got said, decided, or promised.

About

CapsulePad

Features
Read full description

CapsulePad is a native Mac and iPhone/iPad app for quick notes that stay out of your way until you need them. On the Mac, CapsulePad docks a thin pill of colored notes to the edge of your screen. Move your pointer close and it fans out into labeled tabs โ€” click one to open it full-size, or drive the whole thing from the keyboard (โŒฅโŒ˜N for a new note, โŒฅโŒ˜A to see every note, โŒฅโŒ˜L to archive the one in front). Reorder notes by dragging, color-code them for quick scanning, and archive or permanently delete the ones you're done with. Your notes sync automatically across every Mac and iPhone/iPad signed into the same iCloud account, so a note you jot down at your desk is already there when you pick up your phone. For anything you'd rather keep private, lock individual notes with Face ID, Touch ID, or your device passcode. A locked note's title stays visible so you can still find it, but its contents stay encrypted until you unlock it โ€” and it asks again every time you open it. Back up everything at once as Markdown, plain text, or a full-fidelity CapsulePad archive you can import back in later, on this Mac or another. CapsulePad has no account system, no ads, and no analytics โ€” your notes stay on your own devices and sync only through your own iCloud, the same as any other Apple app.

Screenshots

Trace4 screens
CapsulePad2 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Trace at daily against CapsulePad's every 5 days. CapsulePad's advantage is device support (3 vs 1). On price, ads, in-app purchases and iOS requirement 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Trace ships an update daily, CapsulePad every 5 days. Both last shipped on November 13, 2026.

Scorecard2 real differences ยท 4 level
Trace versus CapsulePad: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterTraceCapsulePad
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyDaily โ€” betterEvery 5 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad, Mac โ€” better
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details โ€” not scored
Size17 MB3 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperTRACE INTELLIGENCE PRIVATE LIMITEDJonathan Wyatt

In-app purchases

None

Trace

No in-app purchases

None

CapsulePad

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Trace free?
Trace is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is CapsulePad free?
CapsulePad is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Trace or CapsulePad have ads?
Neither Trace nor CapsulePad shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Trace or CapsulePad?
Trace ships an update daily, and CapsulePad every 5 days. Most recently, Trace was updated on November 13, 2026 and CapsulePad on November 13, 2026.

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