Comparison

Memory Spots vs Lociform

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

Head to head
About

Memory Spots

Features
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Memory Spots is a lightweight app for practicing the method of loci with photos of real places. Create a route from familiar places such as your room, desk, commute, or favorite park. Add locations to photos, see them on a Memory Map, place visual notes directly on each photo, and switch themes to reuse the same route for different topics. Use Memory Spots for exam prep, shopping lists, language practice, presentation cues, or anything that becomes easier to remember when it is attached to a place. Features: Create ordered albums from place photos Add photos from the library or camera Show geotagged photos on a Memory Map Add or change a photo location later Organize notes by theme Place sticky text, image notes, icons, number labels, and arrows on photos Zoom and pan while editing a photo Review notes in route order by album and theme Keep data local on your device Memory Spots is intentionally small and tactile. It helps you build a walkable path in your head, then attach what you want to remember to that path.

About

Lociform

Features
Read full description

A memory palace is the oldest study technique there is. Lociform makes it practical. Type what you need to remember. Lociform binds each item to a spot in a place you already know, with a vivid image that actually interacts with that spot. Then it walks you through the route out loud and brings each item back on a spaced-repetition schedule. WHY PUT THINGS IN PLACES Your memory for places is far better than your memory for lists, so you smuggle the list into a place. Roman orators used this to deliver speeches without notes. When Eleanor Maguire's team scanned ten of the highest-ranking competitors at the World Memory Championships in 2003, nine of the ten were using the method of loci, and they were not smarter than the controls and their brains were not structurally different. FREE, WITH TWO PALACES - A worked sample palace, one tap from first launch - A three-minute before-and-after test, so you see your own two scores - Starter decks: the 12 cranial nerves, the 8 carpal bones, the Krebs cycle, the first 12 letters of the NATO alphabet - Memory Walks read aloud while you look at each locus - Spaced repetition built on FSRS-6, showing the real interval on every button - Build a palace from your own photo, rendered with real depth - Full VoiceOver support, and a designed flat mode for Reduce Motion VERIFIED, NOT GUESSED For factual material Lociform uses a human-written hook library, each entry carrying the etymology that justifies it. Scaphoid is a boat because scaphe is Greek for boat. For the starter decks and any term in the library, on-device Apple Intelligence only phrases a hook it has been handed. For your own items with no library entry it may suggest an image, labelled AI suggestion. Every scene is labelled so you can see where it came from. PRIVATE BY CONSTRUCTION No account. No servers. No analytics. No third-party SDKs of any kind. Lociform makes no network requests at all. The depth model and the language model both run on your iPhone, so your palaces, your photos and everything you memorise stay on the device. ONE OPTIONAL UNLOCK Every feature is free. If you want more than two palaces, Unlimited Palaces is a single purchase that never renews and never expires. No feature is locked behind it, there are no ads, and if you ever lose access every palace you have built stays readable and walkable. HONEST ABOUT THE LIMITS The method of loci is good at ordered lists of discrete things. It will not give you understanding, and two items per locus is the sensible limit. Lociform says so inside the app, and sets out what the research shows alongside where that research is weak.

Screenshots

Memory Spots4 screens
Lociform4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Memory Spots at none against Lociform's 1. Memory Spots also leads on update cadence (every 5 days vs every 2 months) and iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.0). On price, ads 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. Lociform sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Memory Spots asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Memory Spots ships an update every 5 days, Lociform every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 9, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 3 level
Memory Spots versus Lociform: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMemory SpotsLociform
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 5 days — betterEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad — better
Requires iOS17.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size53 MB21 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperNAOTO FUJIMURAJOSHUA JOHN

In-app purchases

None

Memory Spots

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Lociform

One-time1
  • Unlimited Palaces$9.99

Questions

Is Memory Spots free?
Memory Spots is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Lociform free?
Lociform is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Memory Spots or Lociform have ads?
Neither Memory Spots nor Lociform shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Memory Spots or Lociform?
Memory Spots ships an update every 5 days, and Lociform every 2 months. Most recently, Memory Spots was updated on October 9, 2026 and Lociform on October 25, 2026.

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