Ariv vs Anchu
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Ariv
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Ariv is a local-first second brain for notes, tasks, journaling, study, projects, and personal knowledge management. Capture ideas, organize work, search your vault, ask questions about your notes, and keep your thinking connected without building a complicated plugin setup. Everything is built in: - Markdown notes and daily writing - Smart dashboard for active work - Tasks and Kanban - Quick capture - Voice memos with transcription - Ask Brain, an AI assistant for your notes - Calendar-aware planning and meeting context - Graph view and visual maps - Templates and presentation mode - Unified search across files, tags, and content Ariv is designed around a simple idea: your notes have a life. New thoughts land in your inbox. Active notes stay visible while you are working on them. Older notes move out of the way but stay searchable, linkable, and ready to resurface when you need them. No manual filing system required. No weekend spent setting up plugins. Open the app and start thinking. Your files stay yours: - Notes are stored as plain Markdown - Works with existing Markdown folders and vaults - No proprietary format - No account required to use the local app - Optional end-to-end encrypted sync is available AI is optional and on your terms. Use your own API key, run supported local models, or use Ariv's managed AI add-on. Ask Brain can answer questions from your vault and point back to the notes it used. Whether you are a student, writer, researcher, developer, founder, or lifelong learner, Ariv gives you one place to capture, connect, and use what you know. Think freely. No setup required.
Anchu
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Anchu gives your work a place to land. Keep tasks, notes, and documents together in a calm workspace that stays useful when life gets busy. A focused task board shows what needs attention now. The knowledge base keeps projects, research, and reference material in a simple folder tree. Search looks through document text—not only filenames—so the idea you remember is enough to find the page you need. On Mac, documents open ready to edit. On iPhone and iPad, they open in a clear reading view with native text selection, then switch to editing when you choose. Your document files remain ordinary, portable Markdown, HTML, or text files in the Vault you choose. Open that folder in Finder or Files, edit it with another app, back it up, or give a local AI agent permission to read and process the same files. Anchu indexes the files for fast navigation and search; it does not turn a hidden server-side document database into your source of truth. Privacy stays understandable: the local Vault remains under your control, and the service handles account, task synchronization, and the metadata needed to keep devices organized. Network connections use HTTPS. You choose which devices, folders, and local tools can access your documents. Anonymous mode lets you start without an account; sign in only when you want sync and device continuity. Anchu is deliberately quiet: no advertising profile, no dark patterns, and no lock-in to a proprietary document format.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Anchu at fortnightly against Ariv's every 2 months. Anchu also leads on iOS requirement (13.0 vs 15.0). 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Ariv ships an update every 2 months, Anchu fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on November 5, 2026 and November 4, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Ariv | Anchu |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Fortnightly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 13.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 37 MB | 36 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Ariv Studios | Zhaya Deutsch |
In-app purchases
Ariv
No in-app purchases
Anchu
No in-app purchases









