Comparison

Note vs Second Brain Vault

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

Head to head
About

Note

Organize your thoughts and to-dos in one app. Create rich notes with embedded media and tasks, set reminders, and manage projects with flexible layouts. Offers advanced features like AI assistance and privacy controls.

Highlights
  • Rich text editing with media embedding
  • Tasks with due dates and reminders
  • Folders, tags, and smart filters
  • Multiple view layouts (list, agenda, calendar, Kanban)
  • Focus mode for distraction-free work
  • Privacy Vault and note locking
  • AI-powered summarization and task extraction
Features
Read full description

Note-Due brings your notes and tasks together. Write a note, add tasks inside it, set due dates, and get reminded — all without switching apps. NOTES THAT DO MORE Rich text with bold, italic, highlights, checklists, and code blocks. Attach photos, scan documents, record voice memos, and embed video. Draw with Apple Pencil or your finger — handwriting can be recognised and converted to typed text. While you write or scroll, toolbars slide away so your words get the whole screen. TASKS BUILT INTO YOUR NOTES Create tasks inside any note, or add standalone tasks. Set due dates, priorities, and reminders. Quick Add understands natural language — type "call James tomorrow at 9am high priority" and Note-Due does the rest. Block tasks behind other tasks to map real dependencies. POWERFUL ORGANISATION Folders, subfolders, tags, and smart filters keep everything findable. Switch between Today, Upcoming, Overdue, All, and Inbox, and between list, agenda, calendar, and kanban layouts. Snooze tasks, pin notes, and search everything instantly. The Trash keeps deleted items until you're sure. INBOX AND FOCUS MODE Capture first, schedule later: tasks without a date land in your Inbox. When it's time to work, Focus Mode shows only today's tasks in a distraction-free view. SIRI, SHORTCUTS & SPOTLIGHT Add tasks, check what's overdue, or complete something with your voice or the Shortcuts app. Find notes and tasks from Spotlight search. BUILT FOR EVERY SCREEN Designed for iPhone, iPad, and iPhone Duo. On iPad, see your notes list beside the open note, or open any note in its own window with Stage Manager. PRIVATE BY DEFAULT Your data lives on your device. No accounts, no servers, no tracking. Optional iCloud sync keeps your Apple devices up to date using your personal iCloud — we never see it. ——— UNLOCK NOTE-DUE PRO — $9.99 ONCE, NO SUBSCRIPTION Apple Intelligence Extract tasks from a note, summarise long notes, and rewrite selected text in any style — all on-device. Your previous version is saved before every AI rewrite. Privacy Vault & Note Locking Hide folders behind Face ID in the Vault, lock individual notes, or require Face ID every time you open the app. Version History Every note is versioned automatically. Browse and restore any earlier draft. Power Tasks Recurring tasks (daily, weekdays, weekly, monthly, yearly), subtasks, dependencies, and Apple Calendar sync. Advanced Notifications Morning daily digest, second reminders, quiet hours, custom lead times, lock-screen snooze, and custom sounds. Export & Import Export notes as PDF or HTML, or your whole library as a Markdown ZIP. Import Markdown and text notes from Bear, Obsidian, or Apple Notes, and tasks from Apple Reminders. Projects & Time Tracking Group notes and tasks into projects with live progress and due dates. Add time estimates to tasks and track real time with a built-in timer. PDF Annotation & Tables Draw on PDF attachments with Apple Pencil, saved per page. Insert editable grid tables into any note. Smart Scheduling Smart Schedule checks your task load and suggests the least-busy day and time. Kanban Board Manage tasks across To Do, In Progress, and Done, and drag cards between columns.

About

Second Brain Vault

Features
Read full description

Second Brain Vault isn't another folder-organizing app. You just save — the on-device AI files it for you and finds it back later when you ask in plain language. A private memory vault that lives entirely on your iPhone. We're all good at saving. The real question was always "where did I put that?" Second Brain Vault flips the order: you save, the AI organizes and recalls. HOW IT WORKS • Save in one tap — a note, a photo, a voice memo, a PDF, or a web link. Anything, instantly, into your vault. • AI organizes it for you — every saved item gets a title, a summary, a category, and tags, automatically. Photos are read with OCR, voice is transcribed, PDFs and links have their text extracted. • Recall like a person — ask "that real-estate article I read last year," "the best cold-noodle place I saved," "the app idea I jotted last month," and it finds the right memory. It's hybrid retrieval — semantic meaning plus keywords plus recency — so it works even when you don't remember the exact words. • It grows with you — Insights show your top topics and saving trends, and every week the AI writes a short Retrospective of what you saved. The more you save, the higher your Brain Level. WHAT'S INSIDE • Home — today's and recent items, plus a one-line AI insight • Quick capture — five kinds: note, photo, audio, PDF, link • Natural-language Recall — hybrid semantic + keyword + recency ranking • Insights — top topics, save volume, Brain Level growth • Weekly Retrospective — an AI recap of your week of memories • Automatic categories & tags — organized without you filing anything PRIVACY BY CONSTRUCTION Everything is processed on this iPhone. Because it uses Apple's on-device AI (Foundation Models), your notes, photos, voice and documents never leave the device. No account, no server, no ads, no tracking. The only time it uses the internet is to fetch the page of a web link you choose to save. APPLE INTELLIGENCE REQUIRED Auto-organizing, natural-language search, Insights and the Retrospective run on Apple-Intelligence-capable devices. On other devices you can still save and search by keyword; the AI features show an "Apple Intelligence required" state. START FREE, UNLOCK WHEN YOU NEED IT Free: up to 100 items, full on-device AI organizing & search on all 100, every capture type, Insights and Brain Level included. Pro (₩6,600 / year): unlimited saves, iCloud backup & sync, weekly Retrospective history, and more. Lifetime (₩29,000, one-time): everything in Pro, forever, no renewal. You save it; Second Brain Vault remembers it. Drop in your first memory today. ■ Device requirements AI auto-organizing and semantic (meaning-based) search require an Apple Intelligence–capable device — iPhone 15 Pro / 15 Pro Max and iPhone 16/17 or later, iOS 26 or later. On other devices, saving and keyword search still work fully. Everything is processed on-device; nothing is ever sent off your iPhone. ■ Terms of Use (EULA) https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://blue-code.github.io/legal/second-brain-vault/privacy.en.html

Screenshots

Note4 screens
Second Brain Vault4 screens

Verdict

The call

Note and Second Brain Vault are too close to call on the numbers: across 5 compared parameters — price, ads, in-app purchases and device support among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.

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. Note sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Second Brain Vault sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ScorecardNo meaningful differences
Note versus Second Brain Vault: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterNoteSecond Brain Vault
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.0 (1 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings1 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 days—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPhone
Requires iOS26.026.0
Further details — not scored
Size12 MB2 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJames RocheByoungho Kim

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Note

One-time1
  • Note-Due Pro$9.99
1 purchases

Second Brain Vault

One-time1
  • Second Brain Vault (Lifetime)$17.99

Questions

Is Note free?
Note is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Second Brain Vault free?
Second Brain Vault is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Note or Second Brain Vault have ads?
Neither Note nor Second Brain Vault shows ads.

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