Notebook & Planner vs Skein Notes
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Notebook & Planner
This app offers a private, offline space for daily planning and note-taking, mimicking the feel of traditional paper. Organize your schedule with timed events and create custom notebooks with various paper styles.
- Daily planner with timeline events
- Customizable notebooks by topic
- Choice of ruled, blank, or grid paper
- Numbered index for notes
- Offline functionality
- No ads or tracking
- Light and dark mode support
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Notebook & Planner is a quiet, tactile space to write, plan and remember, with the understated elegance of old fashioned paper. DAILY PLANNER • Plan your day with events on a timeline: time, color and a note • All day events, and events that run across several days • Choose which hours to show: only the ones you actually use • Events outside those hours stay visible in the summaries above and below • Four text sizes, so the day reads the way you like • Write down breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks • Keep track of water and coffee • Log when you wake up and when you go to sleep • Swipe to change day YOUR NOTEBOOKS • Create notebooks by topic, with colored covers • Choose the paper of each notebook: ruled, blank or grid • Your writing sits on the lines, the way it does on real paper • Keep your notes in a numbered index • Addresses written in a note become links you can tap LIGHT AND DARK • Light, Dark, or follow the system SIMPLE AND PRIVATE • All your data stays on your device • No account, no ads, no tracking • Works completely offline
Skein Notes
This app allows users to create and organize notes using plain Markdown files stored locally or in iCloud Drive. It offers powerful search capabilities, real-time editing of Markdown features, and the ability to manage JSON Canvas boards. Notes are kept safe with version history and conflict resolution.
- Plain Markdown file storage
- Direct iCloud Drive integration
- Instant capture field
- Advanced search and tagging
- Full Markdown support
- JSON Canvas board integration
- Note version history
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Skein is a notes app for people who want to keep their own files. Your vault is a folder of plain Markdown on your device or in iCloud Drive. Skein reads and writes those files directly — the same folder you open in Skein for Mac, or in any other editor. Nothing is locked in a database, and there is no service in the middle. Write it down before you lose it The app opens on a capture field. Type the thought and send it; the first line becomes the note's title and Skein files it where you told it to. No dialog, no folder picker, no naming a file before you have written anything. Find it again Search matches titles the moment you start typing and searches inside every note once the index is ready, ranked, with the matching lines and their line numbers — tap one and land on it. The Vault filters by name, by #tag or by folder in one field, and tags are real: tap one anywhere in the app to see everything carrying it. Real Markdown, properly Headings, lists, task lists, tables, footnotes, code blocks, callouts, ==highlights== and [[wikilinks]] — read cleanly and edited as text. A keyboard bar puts the things you actually reach for above the keys, including arrows that move by character and by word, and you can choose which of them appear. Type / for a command, #for a tag it already knows. Canvas Open a JSON Canvas board, move cards, connect them, colour them and write on them. The same file, the same format Obsidian writes, so a board made on the Mac opens here and back again. It keeps your writing safe Skein keeps earlier versions of a note as you edit, so you can go back to what you wrote this morning. When the same note has been changed in two places, Skein keeps both and asks — it never picks a winner quietly. Also Share text from any app straight into your vault. Four themes, including one for reading at night. Dynamic Type throughout, and full VoiceOver support. Skein does not have an account, a subscription for the basics, a server, or telemetry. Your notes never leave your device except through iCloud Drive, which is yours. Skein for Mac is a separate app on the same purchase.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Skein Notes at 5.0 against Notebook & Planner's 4.5. Skein Notes also leads on update cadence (fortnightly vs monthly). On price, ratings volume, ads and in-app purchases 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Skein Notes holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.5. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 4 and 2 respectively.
Notebook & Planner ships an update monthly, Skein Notes fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on November 5, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Notebook & Planner | Skein Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (4 ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 4 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Monthly | Fortnightly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, Mac |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 9 MB | 22 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Gherardo Cesare Siliprandi | Tomasz Smieja |
Customer experience
Notebook & Planner
Skein Notes
In-app purchases
Notebook & Planner
No in-app purchases
Skein Notes
No in-app purchases









