Comparison

Ember vs Hibi Calendar

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

Head to head
About

Ember

A fast and organized workspace for writing Markdown notes, storing PDFs, diagrams, and voice memos. It offers a vault for reusable prompts and syncs across Apple devices. Start for free with full editor access.

Highlights
  • Rich Markdown editor
  • Inline PDF and image support
  • Reusable prompt vault
  • Daily notes, folders, and tags
  • Instant search functionality
  • Private iCloud sync
  • Share Extension
Features
Read full description

Your notes should feel like home. Ember is a warm, fast place to think — Markdown notes, PDFs, diagrams, voice memos, and a vault of reusable prompts, all in one calm workspace that syncs across iPhone, iPad, and Mac. WRITE IN RICH MARKDOWN A live editor with real formatting: headings, tables, task lists, links, highlights, footnotes, and code — rendered as you type, never in your way. Bullets, numbers, and checkboxes feel native and effortless. MORE THAN TEXT Drop PDFs, images, diagrams, and voice notes right inline. Your references live beside your writing, so everything about a thought stays in one place. A VAULT FOR YOUR PROMPTS Keep the prompts you reuse for writing, research, and planning in a dedicated Prompt Vault — organized, searchable, and a tap away when you need them. STAY ORGANIZED, STAY FAST Daily notes, folders, tags, smart filters, and pinned notes keep things tidy, and instant search finds anything the moment you look for it. YOURS EVERYWHERE Ember runs natively on iPhone, iPad, and Mac, with optional private iCloud sync, widgets, and a Share Extension for capturing from anywhere. FREE TO START Capture notes, PDFs, prompts, and attachments with the full editor — free, no account required. EMBER PRO Unlock advanced themes and alternate icons, premium writing and organization workflows, and deeper Prompt Vault tools, as a subscription or a one-time lifetime purchase. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No accounts. No ads. No selling your words. Your notes stay on your device and your own iCloud. Make a home for your thinking. Download Ember Notes. TERMS & PRIVACY Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://embernotes.app/privacy

About

Hibi Calendar

Experience your schedule with the tactile feel of a paper planner. This app offers unique visual views like tear-away day cards and flowing week streams, all styled with elegant typography and pastel tints. It seamlessly integrates with your existing calendars without requiring accounts or cloud sync.

Highlights
  • Paper-like aesthetic with cream pages and serif typography
  • Tear-away day cards for intuitive navigation
  • Flowing week view for event visualization
  • Infinite scroll month grids
  • Integrates with existing Apple calendars
  • Customizable pastel tints for calendars
  • Integrated weather forecasts
Features
Read full description

Your calendar, as a stack of paper. Every day in Hibi is a soft, textured page you can doodle on, cover in stickers, and make entirely your own, wrapped around a real calendar that quietly keeps up with your life. Hibi shows your existing calendars and reminders through Apple's built-in system. No account, no sign-up, nothing to set up. Just three views: • Day: paper cards you tear away with a swipe • Week: your days in a gentle stream • Month: one endless, uncluttered grid Then it hands you the pens: • Draw and write by hand, with Apple Pencil support on iPad • Add stickers, or make your own by cutting them straight from your photos • Choose your paper, ruling, and colour, and arrange each page the way you like The details are cared for: hand-picked pastel tints for each of your calendars, live weather on every page from Apple Weather, elegant serif type, a proper dark mode, and home-screen widgets for today's page and what's coming next, unlocked with Hibi Plus. Private by design. No Hibi account or advertising tracking. Your decorated pages sync through your own iCloud. If you choose to share usage analytics, Hibi sends limited feature-use information to our self-hosted analytics service. Your calendar, reminders, and page content are never included in analytics. No subscription. The core app is free. An optional one-time Hibi Plus unlock adds those home-screen widgets, alternate app icons, a personal rubber stamp for your pages, and interactive reminders in your widgets, yours for life. Hibi is Japanese for "days." We made it so you'd want to open yours.

Screenshots

Ember4 screens
Hibi Calendar4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is monetization model: Hibi Calendar at free against Ember's freemium. Hibi Calendar also leads on update cadence (every 4 days vs every 10 days) and ratings volume (40 vs 3). On price, rating, ads and in-app purchases 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. Ember sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month and Hibi Calendar sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. 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 Ember against 4.9 for Hibi Calendar. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Hibi Calendar has 40 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Ember ships an update every 10 days, Hibi Calendar every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on September 23, 2026 and September 22, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Ember versus Hibi Calendar: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterEmberHibi Calendar
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (3 ratings) — better4.9 (40 ratings)
Positive reviews88.5% of reviews
Number of ratings340 — better
Update frequencyEvery 10 daysEvery 4 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemiumFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS26.026.0
Further details — not scored
Size70 MB204 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperRene DeAndaAlexander Moritz Weichart

Customer experience

Ember

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Hibi Calendar

All ratings40 ratings
Positive97.5%
Neutral2.5%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews26 reviews
Positive88.5%
Neutral3.8%
Negative7.7%

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Ember

Subscriptions2
  • Ember Pro Monthly$3.991 Month
  • Ember Pro Annual$34.991 Year
One-time1
  • Ember Pro Lifetime$99.99
1 purchases

Hibi Calendar

One-time1
  • Hibi Plus$7.99

Questions

Is Ember free?
Ember is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Hibi Calendar free?
Hibi Calendar is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Ember or Hibi Calendar?
Ember is rated higher. Ember averages 5.0 out of 5 from 3 ratings, while Hibi Calendar averages 4.9 from 40 ratings.
Do Ember or Hibi Calendar have ads?
Neither Ember nor Hibi Calendar shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Ember or Hibi Calendar?
Ember ships an update every 10 days, and Hibi Calendar every 4 days. Most recently, Ember was updated on September 23, 2026 and Hibi Calendar on September 22, 2026.

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