Comparison

Notes vs Datum

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

Head to head
About

Notes

Features
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Capture ideas, organize daily information, and keep everything in one place with Notes. Whether you want to write quick thoughts, create study notes, save grocery lists, record reminders, or manage daily tasks, this app provides simple tools to help you stay organized. The clean layout makes it easy to create, edit, search, and manage your notes without unnecessary steps. Organize your content using categories, set reminders for important items, create voice memos, and keep track of everyday tasks from a single app. Write Notes Your Way Create notes whenever inspiration comes. Write short reminders, detailed documents, personal journals, meeting points, travel plans, recipes, shopping lists, or anything you want to remember. Edit your notes at any time and keep your information updated whenever your plans change. Organize with Categories Group your notes into categories to make them easier to find. Available categories include: • General • Important • Education • Personal • Groceries • Habit Tracker • Brainstorm Create notes under the category that fits your needs and browse related notes quickly. Search Notes Use the built-in search feature to find notes without scrolling through your entire collection. Search by keywords or note titles to locate information when you need it. Mark Important Notes Keep frequently used notes easy to access by marking them as favorites. This helps separate important information from your regular notes. Task Lists Create task lists for work, school, home, or personal activities. Use task lists for: • Daily goals • Shopping items • Project planning • Office work • Homework • Household tasks • Travel preparation Manage your checklist in one convenient place. Voice Memos Prefer speaking instead of typing? Record voice memos to capture ideas, reminders, meeting discussions, or personal thoughts quickly. Voice memos are useful when typing is not convenient or when you want to save spoken information. Reminders Never miss important activities by creating reminders for your notes and tasks. Use reminders for: • Meetings • Appointments • Birthdays • Bills • Medicine schedules • Study sessions • Daily routines Notifications help remind you at the scheduled time. Simple Home Screen The home screen displays your notes in an organized layout so you can quickly view your recent content, browse categories, and create new notes with a single tap. Easy Note Management Managing notes is simple. You can: • Create new notes • Edit existing notes • Delete notes • Search notes • Organize by category • Mark favorites • View saved notes Language Support Choose your preferred language from the settings to use the app more comfortably. Theme Options Select the appearance that suits your device. Available options include: • System Theme • Light Theme • Dark Theme (if supported) Notification Control Enable or disable reminders and notifications directly from the settings whenever you want. Designed for Everyday Use Use Notes for many different purposes, including: • Personal notes • Study notes • Class notes • Work notes • Office reminders • Daily planning • Meeting notes • Shopping lists • Grocery lists • Habit tracking • Brainstorming ideas • Project planning • Travel planning • Journal entries • To-do lists • Checklists • Event planning • Goal tracking • Quick reminders Settings Manage your experience with options such as: • Notifications • Language • App Theme • Reminders • About Us • How to Use • Privacy Policy • Terms of Use • Share • Rate Us Why Use Notes? The app focuses on providing a straightforward way to write, organize, search, and manage information. Whether you need a simple notebook for daily use or a place to keep personal records, study material, reminders, voice memos, and task lists, Notes helps keep everything together in one organized space. Continue adding notes whenever needed, organize them into categories, search for information quickly, create reminders for important events, and manage tasks

About

Datum

This app allows you to track virtually anything, from daily habits to specific metrics, with customizable input methods and data visualization. It prioritizes user privacy by keeping all data on your device and offers extensive personalization options.

Highlights
  • Track anything with custom units
  • Multiple input styles (stepper, tally, dial)
  • Bundle trackers into check-ins
  • Pre-made check-in templates
  • Customizable dashboard and charts
  • Attach photos, voice notes, and text
  • Integrates with Siri and Shortcuts
Features
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The tracker that doesn't track you. You're probably already tracking things: gas mileage in a ratty old notebook in your glovebox, a Note called "plant watering," your memory for the headaches. Plus a folder of single-purpose apps that each demanded an account. Coffee. Mileage. Mood. Spending. Baby feedings. Practice hours. Pain levels. Sleep. Pull-ups. The sourdough starter. TRACK ANYTHING Create a tracker for anything in seconds. Pick its unit (miles, dollars, cups, °F, percent, or one you invent) and log with the capture style that fits: a stepper, a tally pad, a dial you spin. Yes/no habits, ratings, colors, and short notes work too. CHECK IN, DON'T FILL OUT Bundle trackers into check-ins (a morning check-in, a workout, a refuel) and log them all in one pass, with the note, photo, and weather attached to the moment. Calculated fields do the arithmetic: price per gallon, cost per mile, days since. START FROM THE LIBRARY Browse ready-made check-ins (Rise & Shine, Refuel, Baby Log, Plant Care) and make them yours. Everything in the Library is free. SEE WHAT IT ADDS UP TO Trends, streaks, comparisons, distributions, heatmaps, and a map of where you've logged. Honest charts that never exaggerate your data, on a dashboard you arrange yourself. Scrub any chart with a finger. Every chart speaks VoiceOver. Share any view as an image. EVERYWHERE YOU ARE Free Home Screen widgets, including one that logs without opening the app. An Apple Watch app that logs with the Digital Crown. CarPlay buttons that log with one tap. And Datum for Mac, in step through your own iCloud. MAKE IT YOURS Dye the whole app your color: any tint, any backdrop, light or dark, not just an accent on a button. Charts, heatmaps, every screen wears your theme. Even our logo will, if you let it. Save your looks as presets. Your Datum won't look like anyone else's. MORE THAN NUMBERS Attach photos, voice notes, and text. Let a tracker capture location, weather, or your calendar automatically, only where you say so. Mirror Apple Health, Photos, Calendar or Reminders into a read-only tracker that stays on your device, or pull numbers from a web source. LET IT RUN ITSELF Automations remind you to log, or log for you: on a schedule, when you arrive somewhere or leave, or when another tracker gets an entry. PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS Log by voice with Siri or wire Datum into your Shortcuts. Send a photo, a link, or text from any app straight into an entry with the share sheet. Import years of spreadsheet history from CSV. Share a check-in as a small file a friend can open in their own Datum, trackers included. YOURS. ACTUALLY YOURS. No account. No sign-up. No server of ours holding your life. Your data stays on your devices and in your private iCloud, syncing across your iPhone, iPad and Mac. We couldn't read it even if we wanted to. Export everything to CSV or JSON, or as a PDF report, whenever you like. It's your data; leaving is easy, so we make staying worth it. NO SUBSCRIPTIONS Datum is free for up to 10 trackers, and check-ins are always free and unlimited. So are the widgets. Unlimited trackers, attachments like weather and calendar events, calculated fields, connected trackers and automations are one-time purchases, each priced in Settings › Purchases, or all together in Datum Pro. Attachments, calculated fields, connected trackers and automations each come with one free try. Nothing renews. Nothing is rented. Track anything. Keep it yours.

Screenshots

Notes4 screens
Datum4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Datum at none against Notes's shown. Datum also leads on update cadence (every 3 days vs fortnightly). Notes's advantage is iOS requirement (15.6 vs 26.0). On price, in-app purchases 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

Both are free to download. Notes sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per 7 days and Datum sells 7 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Notes ships an update fortnightly, Datum every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on November 5, 2026 and November 13, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Notes versus Datum: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterNotesDatum
PriceFreeFree
Rating—4.8 (5 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings—5 — better
Update frequencyFortnightlyEvery 3 days — better
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesYes
Monetization—Free with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch — better
Requires iOS15.6 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size64 MB116 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperBinzish Solutions (SMC-Private)EKPQA, LLC

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Notes

Subscriptions3
  • Wöchentliches Abonnement$2.997 Days
  • Monatliches Abonnement$3.991 Month
  • Jahresabonnement$9.991 Year
7 purchases

Datum

One-time7
  • Calculated Fields$7.99
  • Attachments$7.99
  • Automations$7.99
Show 4 more
  • Unlimited Trackers$7.99
  • Connected Trackers$7.99
  • Datum Pro$19.99
  • Early Adopter$49.99

Questions

Is Notes free?
Notes is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Datum free?
Datum is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Notes or Datum have ads?
Notes shows ads; Datum does not.
Which is updated more often, Notes or Datum?
Notes ships an update fortnightly, and Datum every 3 days. Most recently, Notes was updated on November 5, 2026 and Datum on November 13, 2026.

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