Comparison

relnote vs PrivacyNotes

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

Head to head
About

relnote

Features
Read full description

One calm app for everything you think, write, and remember — private by design. Relnote brings your notes, ideas, and knowledge into a single elegant workspace. Write in clean Markdown, connect your thinking with #tags and [[wikilinks]], and see it come together in a visual graph. Then lock anything you want behind zero-knowledge encryption that not even we can read. WRITE THE WAY YOU THINK - Clean Markdown editor: headings, lists, checkboxes, bold and italic. - Inline math with $...$ for quick formulas. - Draw inside any note — sketch a diagram or jot an idea by hand. - Voice notes: dictate and it becomes text. - OCR: snap a photo and pull the text straight out of it. ORGANIZE WITHOUT FRICTION - Notebooks to group related notes. - #tags that auto-link as you type. - [[wikilinks]] between notes — tap to jump, or create a new note on the spot. - Quick switcher: find any note by title in a keystroke. - Local-first and fully offline — your notes are always there. SEE THE BIGGER PICTURE - Brain view: a living graph of how your notes connect. - Mood line: on-device sentiment of your writing over time — your journal's emotional arc, computed privately with no server AI. - Daily note: today's calendar events pulled in automatically. BRING IN WHAT MATTERS - Import EPUB or PDF — each chapter becomes its own note. - Presentation mode: turn any note into clean slides in seconds. PRIVATE BY DESIGN - Zero-knowledge end-to-end encryption (AES-256) for any note or notebook. - Optional biometric unlock with Face ID or Touch ID. - Everything is encrypted on-device. Nobody — not even us — can read your content. - End-to-end encrypted sync keeps your notes in step across your devices, still unreadable to us. - Share a note through a secure link, only when you choose to. Because your encryption is zero-knowledge, only you hold the key. If you forget your password, no one — including us — can recover that content. That is what private means. Whether you keep a private journal, a diary, a second brain, or a knowledge base of ideas, Relnote stays elegant, fast, and genuinely secure. A serious markdown notes app and note organizer that respects what you write. Relnote is free and ad-supported.

About

PrivacyNotes

Securely store notes, tasks, passwords, and files with end-to-end encryption. This open-source app prioritizes user privacy, offering offline functionality and cross-device syncing without ads or data mining.

Highlights
  • End-to-end encryption
  • Offline functionality
  • Cross-device syncing
  • Open-source code
  • Password manager
  • Task management
  • Rich note editor
Features
Read full description

Your notes app knows everything about you. PrivacyNotes does not. Notes, tasks, calendar, journal and passwords, encrypted on your device. Not mined, not sold, not shown to anyone. WHY PEOPLE SWITCH - Always encrypted, on your phone and on the way to our servers in Switzerland - No ads, no trackers, no analytics. You are not the product - Open source: anyone can check what the app does - Sign up with a 12-word phrase instead of an email - Lock the app with Face ID or a PIN - Works offline, syncs across your devices EVERYTHING IN ONE PLACE - Notes: a rich editor, tags, links between notes, instant search - Tasks: every checkbox from every note, in one list - Calendar: events, repeats and birthdays, with reminders on Pro - Journal: track your mood, sleep and medication - Vault: passwords, cards and SSH keys - Files: photos, documents, audio and video - Bookmarks: your saved links, with their icons - Contacts: an address book that stays private BRING YOUR NOTES ALONG Import from Apple Notes, Evernote, Google Keep, Obsidian, Standard Notes, Joplin, Notesnook, UpNote, Samsung Notes and plain Markdown files. Export everything, any time. FREE FOREVER Free on 2 devices, with no time limit and no credit card. Pro is a one-time purchase, not a subscription: unlimited devices, 500 MB of encrypted storage, reminders, note history and more. ABOUT THE APP PRIVACY LABEL Apple asks us to list everything that can reach our server, even when it arrives encrypted. User Content is your notes, encrypted on your device. Identifiers are a key made from your recovery phrase and a device hash, not your name. Contact Info is an email, only if you sign in with Apple, Google or GitHub. Purchases is your Pro status. Nothing is shared, sold or used for ads. Privacy Policy: https://lifetimelabs.dev/privacy/ Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

relnote4 screens
PrivacyNotes4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: relnote at none against PrivacyNotes's 4. PrivacyNotes's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (every 3 days vs every 3 months). On price, device support and iOS requirement 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. PrivacyNotes sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per year. relnote asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

relnote ships an update every 3 months, PrivacyNotes every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 28, 2026 and November 10, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
relnote versus PrivacyNotes: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterrelnotePrivacyNotes
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (11 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings—11 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsEvery 3 days — better
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
Monetization—Free with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS16 — better17.4
Further details — not scored
Size92 MB18 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperRELTECO TEKNOLOJI SANAYI VE TICARET LIMITED SIRKETILifetime Labs LLC

In-app purchases

None

relnote

No in-app purchases

4 purchases

PrivacyNotes

Subscriptions3
  • 1 GB Encrypted Storage$4.991 Year
  • 2 GB Encrypted Storage$8.991 Year
  • 5 GB Encrypted Storage$17.991 Year
One-time1
  • PrivacyNotes Pro$49.99

Questions

Is relnote free?
relnote is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is PrivacyNotes free?
PrivacyNotes is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do relnote or PrivacyNotes have ads?
relnote shows ads; PrivacyNotes does not.
Which is updated more often, relnote or PrivacyNotes?
relnote ships an update every 3 months, and PrivacyNotes every 3 days. Most recently, relnote was updated on October 28, 2026 and PrivacyNotes on November 10, 2026.

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