Oryne vs Vellum
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Oryne
Capture fleeting thoughts effortlessly through voice or text. This app automatically organizes your ideas by theme and relevance, surfacing connections and insights when you need them most. It's designed to help your scattered sparks grow into a connected body of thinking.
- One-tap thought capture (voice/text)
- Automatic titling and theming
- Intelligent thought surfacing
- Idea development into questions/projects
- On-device summarization of links
- Private iCloud syncing
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Your best ideas show up when you can't act on them. Walking, on the bus, mid-conversation, half-asleep. By the time you're back at a desk, the thought is gone. Notes apps were supposed to fix this, but they turn into a flat pile you never reopen, where nothing connects and nothing comes back. Oryne is built for the catch, not the filing. Hold to speak, let go, and it's caught. From there, on-device intelligence does the part you never get around to: it names the thought, finds its themes, gathers it into a current with the thoughts it belongs with, and brings it back to you when it matters. WHAT YOU CAN DO Catch it in one gesture. A capture bar sits at the bottom of Tide and the Library: tap it to type, or hold the disc and talk. Let go and the thought is saved, with ten seconds to undo. Slide up to keep listening through a longer thought. Catch it without opening the app. One press on the Action Button, in Control Center, or on the widget, and Oryne is already listening. Share links, text, and images into Oryne from any app. Catch it from your wrist. Press the Action Button on Apple Watch Ultra, tap the complication, or say "Whisper to Oryne", and speak. Your whisper reaches your iPhone on its own. Let it organize itself. Every thought gets a title and themes on its own, and a long whisper gets a short summary. You never tag, file, or sort. Start the day on Tide. The thought that came back today, what just drifted in, and your currents, in one glance. Nearby shows what sits close to it. Let it rest sends it back under. Ask your ideas anything. One question, one grounded answer, and every answer lists the thoughts it was drawn from. Summarize reads a whole current or a search in one tap. Find anything in the Library. Search, Recent and Related, with every filter in one menu. Grow an idea without losing the original. Branch any thought into a Question, a Concept, a Research direction, or a Project. Catch a link, keep the meaning. Drop in a link and Oryne reads the page on-device and summarizes what matters, so the reference becomes part of your thinking, not a dead bookmark. Think in English or Chinese. Voice is transcribed on-device in both, and every title stays in your thought's own language. Take it with you. Export the whole Ocean as one zip: a Markdown file per current, a full JSON backup, and your images. PRIVATE BY DESIGN The intelligence runs on your device, not in someone else's cloud. Your thoughts sync across your own devices through your private iCloud and stay yours. Nothing is mined, sold, or used to train anyone's model. Oryne is a quiet place to think, and a way to make sure the thinking adds up.
Vellum
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Vellum Journal is a calm, focused space for capturing thoughts, notes, and everyday moments. Write without distraction and organize your entries into topics. Use tags, notes, and Markdown to give your ideas structure while keeping everything easy to find. CORE FEATURES • Create entries and organize them into topics • Add tags and notes • Write with Markdown • Search your library • Export your content • Keep your library on your device by default VELLUM PRO Vellum Pro is available as a one-time in-app purchase and adds: • Cross-device library sync through your private iCloud database • Notion workspace integration and export A separate Vellum account is not required. Sync starts only after you enable it on a device signed in to iCloud. Content is sent to Notion only when you choose to export it to your connected workspace.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Oryne at none against Vellum's 1. Oryne also leads on update cadence (every 2 days vs weekly). On price, ads, 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
Both are free to download. Vellum sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Oryne asks for nothing beyond the download.
Oryne ships an update every 2 days, Vellum weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Oryne | Vellum |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (4 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 4 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 2 days — better | Weekly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 — better | 18.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 9 MB | 44 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | YUE ZHANG | 四扬 叶 |
In-app purchases
Oryne
No in-app purchases
Vellum
- Vellum pro lifetime$2.99









