Comparison

Idea Notes vs FrankenOCR

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

Head to head
About

Idea Notes

Features
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APP INTERFACE: English. IdeaCatch is a focused, private notebook for thoughts that arrive before you have time to organize them. CAPTURE FIRST - Save a thought in a few taps - Type @work, @app, @blog, @biz or @personal anywhere in the line to file it automatically - Edit, delete or favorite any saved idea FIND IT AGAIN - Search both idea text and tag names - Filter the notebook by tag - Group by tag or sort alphabetically - Export every saved idea as Markdown or CSV FULL ACCESS Full Access removes the saved-idea cap and unlocks custom @tags. Weekly, yearly and one-time lifetime options may be available. Prices, billing periods and availability are supplied by Apple. An introductory offer appears only when the App Store reports both an offer and eligibility for your Apple Account. Saved ideas always remain readable, editable, exportable and deletable. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Ideas stay in the app's on-device database. There is no account, advertising or analytics SDK, and IdeaCatch does not collect or sell personal data. Optional daily reminders are scheduled locally by iOS, and notification permission is requested only when you enable one. Terms of Use: https://leanstudio.asia/terms-of-use Privacy Policy: https://leanstudio.asia/privacy-policy Support: support@leanstudio.asia

About

FrankenOCR

Features
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Extract text from an image or scanned PDF without uploading the document. FrankenOCR uses the same pure-Rust Unlimited-OCR engine as the FrankenOCR command-line project. Choose a photo, file, camera capture, tall scrolling screenshot, or scanned PDF. The app reads the input in memory and produces structured Markdown on the device. The flagship recognition path uses a downloaded, verified Baidu Unlimited-OCR model for careful document extraction. Tall screenshots are divided with overlap-aware smart cuts, while PDF pages are processed as a document and low-yield pages are called out instead of silently disappearing. Live Camera mode uses Apple's on-device Vision text recognition for speed. It is less accurate than the flagship FrankenOCR model, and the app labels that tradeoff clearly. Recognized words flow from their camera positions into the capture tray as the view updates. The current app ships one flagship model: Unlimited-OCR. It does not claim to include GOT-OCR2, SmolVLM2, OneChart, or a music-recognition model. Images, PDFs, camera frames, and recognized text stay on the device. Network access is used only to download the static flagship model files.

Screenshots

Idea Notes4 screens
FrankenOCR2 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: FrankenOCR at every 5 days against Idea Notes's every 4 months. FrankenOCR also leads on device support (3 vs 1). On price, ads, in-app purchases and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price ยท Rating ยท Positive reviews ยท Number of ratings ยท Update frequency ยท Ads ยท In-app purchases ยท Monetization ยท Best chart rank ยท Devices ยท Requires iOS

CostPrice ยท In-app purchases ยท Ads ยท Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Idea Notes ships an update every 4 months, FrankenOCR every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 8, 2026 and September 21, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences ยท 4 level
Idea Notes versus FrankenOCR: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterIdea NotesFrankenOCR
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 4 monthsEvery 5 days โ€” better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad, Mac โ€” better
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details โ€” not scored
Size3 MB10 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperLEAN ASIA CO., LTDJeffrey Emanuel

In-app purchases

None

Idea Notes

No in-app purchases

None

FrankenOCR

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Idea Notes free?
Idea Notes is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is FrankenOCR free?
FrankenOCR is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Idea Notes or FrankenOCR have ads?
Neither Idea Notes nor FrankenOCR shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Idea Notes or FrankenOCR?
Idea Notes ships an update every 4 months, and FrankenOCR every 5 days. Most recently, Idea Notes was updated on October 8, 2026 and FrankenOCR on September 21, 2026.

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