Comparison

Slips vs Notedown

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

Head to head
About

Slips

This app offers a streamlined note-taking experience with a maximum of five customizable notes. Personalize each note with icons and colors, and sync them seamlessly across all your Apple devices. It provides rich text formatting and quick access options.

Highlights
  • Five customizable notes
  • iCloud synchronization
  • Rich text formatting
  • Home/Lock Screen widgets
  • Share sheet integration
  • Mac app support
Features
Read full description

Slips — Five notes, made yours Five slips. That's all. Slips is a notes app built on a simple idea: five fixed notes are enough for the things you actually return to, and few enough that you always know where everything is. No folders to organize, no archive to dig through, no blank-page guilt. Pick a slip and write. MADE YOURS Name each slip, choose an icon from hundreds of symbols, and give it a color. Groceries, Books, Trips, Meds, Faith, Projects, whatever your five are. Reorder them any time. ALWAYS IN SYNC Your slips live in your own private iCloud and stay current on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Edit on one device, and it's on the others. Nothing is collected, nothing is tracked, and there are no accounts to create. BACKED UP, JUST IN CASE Every device quietly saves a daily backup of your slips, keeping the last three. Restoring takes one tap, and a safety copy is made first, so even a restore can be undone. You can also export your slips to a file and keep it anywhere. RICH WHERE IT COUNTS Bold, italic, underline, highlight, headers, bulleted and numbered lists, tap-to-check checklists, dividers, and links that turn into preview cards. FAST WAYS IN Add to a slip from any app with the share sheet. Automate with Siri and Shortcuts. Put a slip on your Home Screen or Lock Screen with widgets, or capture instantly from Control Center. AT HOME ON THE MAC A real Mac app: your slips in the sidebar, formatting in the menu bar, Cmd+1 through Cmd+5 to switch slips, an optional menu bar icon, and sharing straight from Safari. SIMPLE PRICING Try a single Slip for free forever. Slips Plus unlocks all five. One purchase covers iPhone, iPad, and Mac, and is shareable with your family. Slips Plus subscriptions renew automatically until canceled in your App Store account settings, at least 24 hours before the current period ends. Lifetime is a one-time purchase. Privacy policy: https://mattlangford.com/slips-privacy Terms of use: Apple's standard EULA Support: https://mattlangford.com/slips-support

About

Notedown

Features
Read full description

Notedown is a featherweight markdown notes app for people who just want to write. No accounts, no sync, no clutter — every note is saved as a plain .md text file on your device and never leaves it. WRITE IN MARKDOWN Use familiar markdown to structure your thoughts: headings, bold and italic, bulleted lists, checkboxes, quotes, code, and links. A one-tap formatting toolbar inserts the syntax for you, so you never have to remember it. EDIT OR PREVIEW Flip between a distraction-free editor and a clean rendered preview with a single tap. See exactly how your note looks, then jump back to writing. FULLY OFFLINE, FULLY YOURS Your notes are stored as standard markdown files in the app's own folder on your device. There is no cloud, no login, and nothing to set up. What you write stays with you. FIND ANYTHING FAST Search across all of your notes instantly. The list keeps your most recently edited notes at the top. SHARE WHEN YOU WANT Export any note as markdown text through the standard share sheet. SIMPLE BY DESIGN - Light and dark themes - English and Japanese - Portrait, one-handed friendly layout - Free to use (contains ads) Notedown is the calm, lightweight alternative to heavy note apps — just markdown, and nothing in your way.

Screenshots

Slips4 screens
Notedown4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Notedown at none against Slips's 3. Notedown also leads on update cadence (every 4 days vs weekly) and iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.0). Slips's advantage is device support (3 vs 1). On price and ads 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. Slips sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Notedown asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Slips ships an update weekly, Notedown every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 31, 2026 and October 9, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Slips versus Notedown: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSlipsNotedown
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings1 — better—
Update frequencyWeeklyEvery 4 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac — betteriPhone
Requires iOS26.017.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size22 MB24 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMatthew LangfordYuki Okawa

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Slips

Subscriptions2
  • Slips Monthly$1.991 Month
  • Slips Yearly$14.991 Year
One-time1
  • Slips Lifetime$49.99
None

Notedown

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Slips free?
Slips is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Notedown free?
Notedown is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Slips or Notedown have ads?
Neither Slips nor Notedown shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Slips or Notedown?
Slips ships an update weekly, and Notedown every 4 days. Most recently, Slips was updated on October 31, 2026 and Notedown on October 9, 2026.

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