Comparison

Second Brain vs Einfall

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

Head to head
About

Second Brain

Features
Read full description

Second Brain is your offline-first personal knowledge management app. Capture every idea, note, and insight — and never lose a thought again. No ads. No tracking. No account required. Your data stays on your device. FEATURES: • Rich Notes — Write with Markdown support, add images, link notes together • Collections — Organize notes into collections with icons and colors • Tags — Tag anything for instant filtering • Daily Notes — One note per day, automatically created • Goals — Track personal goals with milestones and progress • Book Notes — Capture key takeaways from books you read • Quotes — Save your favorite quotes • Knowledge Graph — See how your ideas connect visually • Bi-directional Links — Link notes and see backlinks automatically • Full-Text Search — Find anything instantly • Favorites & Archive — Star important notes, archive the rest • Quick Capture — Capture thoughts from the home screen widget • Face ID / Touch ID — Lock your app for privacy • iCloud Backup — Optional, off by default • Export — PDF, CSV, Markdown • 15 Languages — English, Turkish, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish, Arabic, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Russian PRIVACY FIRST: Second Brain collects zero data. No analytics, no tracking SDKs, no servers. Everything lives on your device. PREMIUM (one-time purchase): Unlock unlimited notes, collections, Knowledge Graph, exports, Face ID, and home screen widgets with a single lifetime purchase.

About

Einfall

Quickly capture fleeting ideas and thoughts from any device. Organize them in a simple, searchable stream and take action when you're ready. Your thoughts are private and sync securely via iCloud.

Highlights
  • Instant capture from any device
  • Simple, searchable plain text stream
  • Actionable thoughts (edit, export, integrate)
  • Optional local AI agent
  • Private, no account required
  • iCloud sync across devices
  • Face ID/Touch ID lock
Features
Read full description

Einfall is a place for fugitive thoughts. The thought arrives while you are busy with something else — in a queue, on a walk, halfway through a meeting. Einfall is the fastest place to put it, and a place you can trust to keep it. Get it out of your head in a second. Deal with it later. Or never. One-time purchase. No subscription. Capture wherever you are Whichever device is nearest your hand, and never more than one gesture: • The Mac menu bar, summoned by a keyboard shortcut from any app • Home-screen and lock-screen widgets • Control Centre, on iPhone, iPad and Mac • The share sheet, for a link or a passage of text • The Services menu on Mac, for selected text in any app • Shortcuts, Siri, Spotlight and the Action Button • Your voice, transcribed on your device as you speak None of them make you look at your stream first. Capture is free and unlimited, forever. One calm stream Everything you capture lands in a single flat list, newest first. No folders, no notebooks, no unread counts, no reminders that you are behind. Plain text you can read, edit and search. Tags if you want them, nothing to tend if you do not. A long stream is not a backlog — it is a notebook you trust. Do something with a thought, when you are ready Open the stream, pick a thought and fire an action: • Send it out — to Reminders, Calendar, Mail, Messages, Files, the share sheet or a Shortcut • Change it in place — tidy the phrasing with Apple Intelligence on your device, turn prose into a list, change the case, stamp the time it was caught, copy it • Fold it into another thought, so related notes gather in one place A thought that gets routed leaves the stream. A thought you no longer need is deleted, without ceremony. Both are good endings. Your own AI agent, if you use one Einfall carries an optional local server on Mac — off until you turn it on — so your own AI agent can read and work on your stream on your behalf. Whatever you can do in the app, your agent can do too. Nothing it writes changes a thought until you accept it. Private because there is nowhere else to be No account. No sign-in. No infrastructure of ours between you and your thoughts. Your stream syncs across your own devices through iCloud, and nowhere else. Dictation and Apple Intelligence run on your device. Einfall's App Store privacy label reads Data Not Collected, because none is. You can lock the stream behind Face ID or Touch ID, export the whole thing as one plain-text file whenever you like, and keep automatic backups in a folder you choose. Free to capture. Pay once to unlock everything you can do with your thoughts. Capturing is free and unlimited, forever. Reading and searching your stream is always free. So are the in-place actions — copy, listify, change case and timestamps. The routing layer — sending a thought out to another app, folding one thought into another, and Apple Intelligence — gives you fifteen free fires. After that, a single one-time purchase unlocks it for good, on every device you own, and for your household through Family Sharing. No subscription. Nothing to renew. Nothing expires. Your own thoughts are never held behind a lapsing fee. Einfall is the German word for an idea that falls into your mind unprompted. This is the place to put those thoughts before they are gone. Mac, iPhone and iPad. Requires macOS 26, iOS 26 or iPadOS 26.

Screenshots

Second Brain4 screens
Einfall4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Einfall at every 5 days against Second Brain's every 3 months. Second Brain's advantage is iOS requirement (15.0 vs 26.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support 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. Second Brain sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Einfall sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Second Brain ships an update every 3 months, Einfall every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 1, 2026 and September 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 7 level
Second Brain versus Einfall: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSecond BrainEinfall
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Number of ratings—1 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsEvery 5 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
Monetization—Free with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, Mac
Requires iOS15.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size25 MB8 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSelahattin BozatJEAN PIERRE MARAIS

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Second Brain

One-time1
  • Second Brain Premium$9.99
1 purchases

Einfall

One-time1
  • Unlock Everything$29.99

Questions

Is Second Brain free?
Second Brain is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Einfall free?
Einfall is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Second Brain or Einfall have ads?
Neither Second Brain nor Einfall shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Second Brain or Einfall?
Second Brain ships an update every 3 months, and Einfall every 5 days. Most recently, Second Brain was updated on October 1, 2026 and Einfall on September 25, 2026.

Other comparisons