Lumen vs ADHD Notes
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Lumen
This app acts as a browser that remembers what you read, building a personal knowledge base from engaged pages. It allows you to ask questions in plain English about your reading history, with answers generated by an on-device AI. All your data remains private and offline.
- On-device AI knowledge base
- Plain English questioning
- Automatic content organization
- Private and offline browsing
- Tracker blocking
- Source citation for answers
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Lumen is a browser with a memory. Most browsers forget the second you close a tab. Lumen does not. As you read, it quietly builds a personal knowledge base from the pages you actually engage with, and then lets you ask questions about any of it in plain English, answered by an AI model that runs entirely on your device. Nothing you read, nothing you ask, and nothing Lumen learns about you ever leaves your phone. WHAT IT DOES Lumen reads along with you. It distinguishes between pages you genuinely read and pages you opened and swiped away, and it extracts the meaningful content from the ones that stuck. That content gets summarized, embedded, and organized into a searchable knowledge base, all on-device. Later, when you want to find something, you do not have to dig through history or remember which tab it was in. You just ask: "What did I read about sourdough starters last week?" "Summarize that article about the new M-series chips." "What were the main arguments in that piece I read on Tuesday?" Every answer cites the pages it came from, so you can jump straight back to the source. AUTO-ORGANIZED Your reading sorts itself into a clean hierarchy: Topics, Websites, and Pages. Each level carries its own AI-generated summary, so you can scan what you have been learning at a glance. No tagging, no folders to maintain. Lumen handles it in the background. PRIVATE BY DEFAULT Lumen has no server. There is quite literally nothing to send. On-device LLM: a quantized Llama 3.2 model runs locally through Apple's MLX framework. Local SQLite storage: your reading history, summaries, and embeddings never leave the device. Built-in privacy: tracker blocking, third-party cookie blocking, and fingerprint resistance. Secure: HTTPS-only by default, with mixed-content blocking. No strings attached: no accounts, no sync, no telemetry, no ads. The AI weights download once on first launch (~700 MB). After that, everything works fully offline: browsing, reading, asking, answering. BUILT FOR iOS Lumen is written from scratch in Swift and SwiftUI, designed specifically for iPhone and iPad. It uses Apple's own frameworks wherever it can: NLEmbedding for semantic search, WKWebView for browsing, SQLite with FTS5 for full-text queries, and MLX Swift for on-device inference. Zero third-party trackers. Zero external services. WHO IT'S FOR While most browsers treat the web as a feed to scroll past, Lumen treats it as a library worth keeping. If you read a lot online and constantly think "I know I saw something about this recently but I cannot find it again," Lumen is for you. Researchers, students, writers, developers, and lifelong learners. You do not need to change how you browse. Browse normally, and Lumen takes care of the rest. REQUIREMENTS iOS 18 or later. iPhone with Apple Silicon recommended for the fastest on-device AI performance.
ADHD Notes
Capture thoughts, tasks, notes, and plans in a calm, organized space. This tool helps you see your day clearly, manage meetings, and keep your projects moving forward across multiple devices.
- Capture thoughts via text, voice, Siri, share extension, or widget
- Organize tasks, notes, meetings, and plans
- View due and overdue tasks, priorities, and waiting work
- Manage meeting agendas, notes, and follow-ups
- Utilize calendar and agenda views for planning
- Focus mode with optional timer
- Cross-device synchronization (iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Web, Android)
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Less to hold in your head. ADHD Notes is a calm place to capture thoughts, see what needs you, and follow through. Keep tasks, notes, meetings, and plans together without turning organization into another full-time job. CATCH THE THOUGHT Save a quick thought in Remember. Keep your original words, then decide what belongs in a task, a note, or your plans. Use text, voice input, Siri, the share extension, or a widget when it is convenient. SEE TODAY CLEARLY Find due and overdue tasks in Today. Use Board for the bigger picture, priorities, and waiting work. Due dates, reminders, and recurring nudges help bring open loops back into view. KEEP NOTES USEFUL Write notes, make checklists, pin what matters, and keep a journal. Find your ideas again instead of rebuilding them from memory. MAKE MEETINGS LEAD SOMEWHERE Keep the agenda, notes, people, and follow-ups in context. Carry the next step forward from one conversation to the next. GIVE YOUR PLANS A PLACE Use calendar and agenda views to see time alongside your work. Keep projects moving and separate work, personal, and school life with workspaces. FOCUS YOUR WAY Choose one task and an optional timer. Focus is there when it helps, without requiring another routine to maintain. ON THE DEVICES YOU USE Use ADHD Notes on iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. Home Screen widgets, Siri and Shortcuts, the share extension, and Spotlight give you more ways to capture and find things. Your account also connects with the web and Android apps. Features vary by platform. YOUR WORDS, YOUR CHOICE Optional AI workflows explain what will be sent and ask for permission. Review suggestions before saving them. Core organization does not require accepting an AI suggestion. Some features require an account, permissions, a paid plan, or service availability. ADHD Notes is an organizational tool, not medical advice or treatment. Start with one thought. Carry less.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Lumen at 5.0 against ADHD Notes's 4.2. Lumen also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 67%). ADHD Notes's advantage is update cadence (every 4 days vs every 2 weeks) and device support (3 vs 1). On price, ratings volume, 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Lumen holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.2. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 4 and 5 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 100% of Lumen's written reviews are positive against 67% of ADHD Notes's.
Lumen ships an update every 2 weeks, ADHD Notes every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on November 5, 2026 and November 10, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Lumen | ADHD Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (4 ratings) — better | 4.2 (5 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better | 66.7% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 4 | 5 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks | Every 4 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — better |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 28 MB | 27 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Daniel Kosukhin | Useful Tools LLC |
Customer experience
Lumen
ADHD Notes
In-app purchases
Lumen
No in-app purchases
ADHD Notes
No in-app purchases








