Benchpad vs Pellet

Benchpad is a scratchpad, not a second brain. Three pads. You name them — Work / Personal / Scratch, Today / This Week / Someday, whatever fits your head. No folders, no tags, no filing decisions. Open, type, close. WRITE WITHOUT DECIDING Every note app asks "where does this go?" before you've written a word. Benchpad doesn't. Three pads means the decision is already made. WORKS ON A PLANE Offline-first, not offline-tolerant. Every keystroke saves to your device before any network request. Sync happens in the background when you're online — and merges conflict-free if you edited on two devices at once. CONSTRAINT IS THE PRODUCT Benchpad is for people who want to write things down — not maintain a system. A note app that knows when to stop. When you can't create infinite folders, you write instead of organizing. Constraint isn't a compromise. It's the product. A REAL EDITOR Headings, checklists, tables, code blocks with syntax highlighting, images, file attachments all with slash commands and a block editor. NO AI. NO ADS. NO DATA MINING. Nothing reads, summarizes, or trains on your notes. Notes are encrypted at rest. Plain markdown — copy everything out anytime, no lock-in. FREE FOREVER, REALLY One pad, the full editor, offline support, sync, and an archive of 100 notes — free, no credit card, no time limit. Pro ($10/year flat) unlocks all three pads, all six themes, attachments, voice-note audio, and Markdown/PDF export. Benchpad is for people who want to write things down — not maintain a system. A note app that knows when to stop.

Pellet keeps your notes as plain markdown files in a folder you own. No account, no server, no proprietary format — open the same folder in any other editor and everything is still there. AN EDITOR THAT STAYS OUT OF THE WAY Write in markdown with live preview, wiki-style links between notes, backlinks, tags and full-text search. Your vault is just files, so nothing is trapped behind an export button. A TASK MANAGER THAT LIVES IN YOUR NOTES Tasks are ordinary markdown files with front matter, so a task can be a note and a note can be a task. Due dates, recurrence, subtasks, checklists and kanban boards — all reading from the same folder. CALENDAR ALONGSIDE YOUR WORK See your day next to your notes. Connect Google Calendar or your existing calendar accounts, or work entirely offline with dated notes. CANVAS, HANDWRITING AND VOICE Sketch on an infinite canvas, write by hand with Apple Pencil, and record voice notes. Handwriting and recordings can be turned into searchable text so they join the rest of your vault instead of sitting in a corner. SYNC YOU CONTROL Sync between your devices is end-to-end encrypted and runs through a relay you choose or host yourself. There is no Pellet account and no Pellet server holding your notes. WORKS OFFLINE, ALWAYS Everything works with no network. Nothing is fetched to open a note, and nothing phones home. Pellet reads and writes ordinary markdown, so it fits alongside whatever else you already use.