Comparison

Cue vs Subnotes

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

Head to head
About

Cue

Features
Read full description

Cue is a cozy corner for the internet you mean to come back to. No feeds, no noise, no account โ€” just your queue, waiting for the right moment. SAVE WITHOUT LEAVING Tap Share in any app and pick Cue. Tag it and add a note right there in the share sheet โ€” Cue never opens, and you stay exactly where you were reading. The preview catches up on its own, title and image and all. Copied a link? Cue offers it when you open the app. Beautiful previews work across the sites that usually resist them: YouTube, X, Instagram, Threads, Bluesky, Reddit, TikTok, Hacker News, GitHub, Wikipedia, arXiv and more. TAGS THAT ALMOST TAG THEMSELVES When you save, Cue suggests the tags you'd probably pick for that link โ€” one tap files it. Tags sort themselves alphabetically, wear their own colors, and the tag box doubles as a live filter. Housekeeping is built in: merge duplicates, recolor, and see which tags have gone quiet. EVERY TAG BECOMES A SHELF Your Library keeps a shelf for each tag, so you can find things by how you filed them โ€” and your archive is a shelf too. Search everything, or narrow by tag and by what kind of thing it is: Video, Post, Thread, Paper, Repo, Audio, Article, detected automatically. In the mood to watch something? Two taps. A QUEUE THAT ENDS Swipe a card to archive it when you're done, pin what matters, and enjoy the calm of an empty queue. Cue is designed to feel finished, not infinite. PRIVATE BY ARCHITECTURE - No account. No ads. No analytics. No tracking. - Everything lives on your device and syncs through your own private iCloud โ€” we run no servers and cannot see your data. - Your library is yours: export it as JSON or CSV anytime, or erase everything with one tap. OPENS THE APPS YOU LOVE Optionally open saved links directly in their native apps โ€” YouTube, X, Instagram, Spotify, Apple Music, GitHub and more. Cue is lovingly small: fast to open, quick to save, calm to browse. Give your someday-links a home.

About

Subnotes

Read full description

Subnotes is a plain-text notes and to-do list app for iPhone, iPad & Mac. Any line you write can become a task. โ€ข Thoughts and tasks, side by side โ€” jot things down like a paper notebook, then switch views to see everything organized by priority, automatically. โ€ข Editing a task is just editing text โ€ข Recurring tasks and due dates โ€ข Link notes together to connect related thinking โ€ข Templates for weekly reviews, meeting notes, habit tracking, trip planning, and more. Note-taking and task planning are deeply personal โ€” so Subnotes stores everything as plain text, not a proprietary format. Copy, paste, or export anytime. It also syncs privately over your own iCloud account: no signup, no account creation, no servers but Apple's. For iPhone, iPad, and Mac

Screenshots

Cue4 screens
Subnotes4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is iOS requirement: Cue at 15.1 against Subnotes's 26.0. On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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

Cue ships an update every 6 days, Subnotes weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 28, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference ยท 5 level
Cue versus Subnotes: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCueSubnotes
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 6 days โ€” betterWeekly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad, Mac โ€” better
Requires iOS15.1 โ€” better26.0
Further details โ€” not scored
Size45 MB4 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperDaniel Di FilippoMartin Ramsin

In-app purchases

None

Cue

No in-app purchases

None

Subnotes

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Cue free?
Cue is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Subnotes free?
Subnotes is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Cue or Subnotes have ads?
Neither Cue nor Subnotes shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Cue or Subnotes?
Cue ships an update every 6 days, and Subnotes weekly. Most recently, Cue was updated on October 25, 2026 and Subnotes on October 28, 2026.

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