Comparison

Orbit vs Second Brain

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

Head to head
About

Orbit

Capture and organize your thoughts, ideas, and moments effortlessly. This AI-powered tool creates a calm timeline of your life, offering daily recaps and the ability to search your memories. It integrates with Apple services for seamless capture and organization.

Highlights
  • Capture text, voice, photos, links, and locations
  • AI-powered organization and summarization
  • Daily recap of your day
  • Searchable memory recall
  • Task suggestion from memories
  • Reading list and habit tracking
  • Beautiful shareable memory cards
Features
Read full description

Orbit is a second brain for the things you don't want to forget — moments, ideas, voice notes, photos, the link you saved at 2am. Everything lives in one calm timeline that AI quietly organizes for you. No tagging. No folder hierarchy. No notification fatigue. Just capture, and let Orbit find the meaning later. — WHAT YOU GET — • Capture anything in seconds — text, voice memos, photos, links, screenshots, even a place. Apple Intelligence handles the rest: titles, tags, summaries, categorization. • Daily Recap — a one-paragraph reflection of your day, generated each evening from the moments worth revisiting. • Ask Orbit — chat with your own memories. Ask "what did Pamela say last weekend?" or "what was the restaurant in Roatan?" Orbit answers from your captures, never from the cloud. • On This Day, Year in Review, Time Capsules — Orbit surfaces your past at the right moment. • Tasks that find themselves — write "I should call mom tomorrow" anywhere in a memory and Orbit suggests it as a task. Promote what you mean. Ignore what you don't. • Reading list & habit tracking — captures like "I want to read…" or "ran 5k" land in their own surfaces, quietly tracked over time. • Beautiful share cards — turn a memory, a Daily Recap, or a Year in Review into an editorial-quality image, ready for Stories, iMessage, or just keeping. • Privacy by design — On-device AI via Apple Intelligence. Voice transcribed locally. Sleep + steps stay on your phone. iCloud sync runs end-to-end. Nothing is sold. Nothing is shared. — DESIGNED FOR APPLE — Lock Screen camera capture · Apple Watch voice notes · Siri Shortcuts · Spotlight search · Home Screen widgets · Safari extension · Share extension · iOS Reminders & Calendar sync · HealthKit sleep + steps in your Daily Recap — PRO — A monthly or annual subscription unlocks unlimited captures and the full AI surfaces. Cancel anytime from Settings → Subscription. — WHY WE BUILT IT — Journaling apps ask too much. Note apps forget everything. The things we want to remember keep slipping away. Orbit is what we wished existed — a calm, native, private place where life can quietly accumulate, and an AI that helps you find what matters without taking over the experience. Welcome to Orbit. — Terms of Use (EULA): https://orbitbrain2.netlify.app/terms Privacy Policy: https://orbitbrain2.netlify.app/privacy By downloading Orbit, you agree to the Terms of Use linked above. Subscriptions auto-renew unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period — manage or cancel anytime from iOS Settings → Apple ID → Subscriptions.

About

Second Brain

Features
Read full description

Speak or type one messy thought. Second Brain separates every intention, creates the right Apple Reminder, Calendar event, or Markdown update, and shows exactly what changed. Your tasks stay in Apple Reminders, your dates stay in Apple Calendar, and your knowledge stays in ordinary Markdown files you control. VOICE TO ACTION • Speak or type when one thought contains several intentions • Attach an existing image or take a photo without leaving the capture • Turn things you need to do into Apple Reminders • Put meetings, deliveries, and passive dates into Apple Calendar • Create, append to, or update the right Markdown page • Keep dates and times exactly as you expressed them SEE AND CONTROL EVERY CHANGE Each capture keeps your words and a receipt for every result. Review destinations, confirm pending events, retry failures, repair exact duplicates, or undo supported changes. YOUR TOOLS, NOT ANOTHER SILO • Tasks live in Apple Reminders • Events live in Apple Calendar • Context stays in ordinary Markdown files • Use the recommended iCloud Drive folder, another Files folder, or an Obsidian vault • Capture from Siri, Shortcuts, widgets, Control Center, the share sheet, or the Action Button KNOWLEDGE WITH SOURCES Ask questions about your pages and inspect linked sources. Search in the app, Siri, or on-device Spotlight. Projects keep notes, pages, reminders, events, and recent activity together. MANAGED INTELLIGENCE Managed Intelligence is an optional monthly or annual App Store subscription for hosted OpenAI processing. The secure service verifies access and limits, stores no request bodies, and deletes temporary results after acknowledgement or within 24 hours. EXTERNAL AI PROVIDER CONNECTIONS Settings > AI & Providers can connect an existing Anthropic or OpenAI developer account as an external service. Second Brain does not sell provider access or include provider sign-up, pricing, or purchase links. The credential stays in Apple Keychain, and requests go directly to the selected provider under that provider's terms. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Before any personal data is sent to an AI service, Second Brain names the recipients and data categories and asks for permission. Choose Use Without AI to keep all AI transmission disabled while local capture, notes, reminders, events, and search remain available. Managed requests go to Second Brain's Cloudflare-hosted service and then OpenAI. Personal-key text requests go directly to OpenAI or Anthropic. Permission can be reviewed or withdrawn in Settings > Privacy & AI. Voice can be transcribed fully on device with Apple Speech, so audio never uploads, or through an optional permission-gated online route. When Online transcription is selected, recordings go to OpenAI directly or through the managed Cloudflare route. Failed or cancelled online uploads preserve the local recording for retry. Photos stay local unless the user includes them in an authorized AI request. There is no Second Brain login, advertising, or tracking. Firebase Analytics and Crashlytics receive content-free product or diagnostic data, never captures, transcripts, audio, chat, files, titles, keys, or model content. The public What Gets Sent view and content-free privacy ledger show the applicable routes and transfers. SUBSCRIPTION TERMS Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation. Subscriptions renew automatically unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Your account is charged for renewal within 24 hours before the period ends. Manage or cancel subscriptions in your Apple Account settings. Any trial converts to the selected paid plan unless canceled before the trial ends. Terms of Use: https://second-brain-in-motion.heartsker.chatgpt.site/terms Apple Standard EULA: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://second-brain-in-motion.heartsker.chatgpt.site/privacy

Screenshots

Orbit4 screens
Second Brain4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Second Brain at none against Orbit's 3. Second Brain also leads on iOS requirement (18.0 vs 26.0). On price, update cadence, ads 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. Orbit sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Second Brain asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Orbit ships an update every 3 days, Second Brain every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 18, 2026 and October 17, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 7 level
Orbit versus Second Brain: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterOrbitSecond Brain
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.0 (1 ratings) — better—
Number of ratings1 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 3 days — betterEvery 5 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemium—
DevicesiPhone, Apple WatchiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS26.018.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size19 MB17 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJoshua Caleb GreenAleksandr Pustotin

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Orbit

Subscriptions2
  • Orbit Pro$2.991 Month
  • Orbit Pro7 Days trial$29.991 Year
One-time1
  • Orbit Pro Lifetime$79.99
None

Second Brain

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Orbit free?
Orbit is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Second Brain free?
Second Brain is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Orbit or Second Brain have ads?
Neither Orbit nor Second Brain shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Orbit or Second Brain?
Orbit ships an update every 3 days, and Second Brain every 5 days. Most recently, Orbit was updated on October 18, 2026 and Second Brain on October 17, 2026.

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