Comparison

FoldNotes vs HelloNotes

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

Head to head
About

FoldNotes

Organize long notes by collapsing completed sections, keeping your workspace focused. This app uses plain Markdown files stored in iCloud or locally, ensuring your data is accessible across devices and future applications. It offers advanced Markdown features, task management, and powerful search capabilities.

Highlights
  • Collapse any heading or list item
  • Hoist sections for focused work
  • Live Markdown styling with syntax highlighting
  • Task management with four states
  • Wiki-links with automatic backlinks
  • Search with regular expressions
  • Import from Bear or Obsidian
Features
Read full description

Some notes are short. Others grow into chapters, plans and running logs you scroll past a hundred times. FoldNotes lets you fold the finished parts away, so a long note stays as small as the part you are actually working on. Every note is a plain Markdown file. No database, no proprietary format, no export step. Your notes sit in iCloud Drive or on your device, and any other app can open them, today or in ten years. It is also a real iOS app, written in Swift. Not a web page in a wrapper. It opens instantly, works offline, handles a hardware keyboard properly, and does not sit in the background eating your battery. FOLD ANYTHING • Collapse any heading or list item and everything beneath it folds away • Hoist a section to work on it alone, with everything else out of sight • Task counts stay on the folded heading, so you can see what is left without unfolding WRITTEN FOR MARKDOWN • Live styling as you type — headings, lists, quotes, code, links • Six heading levels, and GFM tables with a real table editor • Code blocks with syntax highlighting • Wiki-links [[like this]], with previews and automatic backlinks • Nested tags TASKS WHERE YOU WROTE THEM • Four states: to do, in progress, done and cancelled • Due dates and priorities written inline, in plain text • Assign them to a project and add context and comments • Counts roll up to the section above them BUILT FOR IPAD • Library, notes and editor side by side • Hardware keyboard shortcuts throughout • An inspector with outline, tasks, references, properties and a note graph • Scan printed text straight into a note with the camera FIND ANYTHING • Search every note, including regular expressions • Saved queries and database views across your whole collection • Daily notes with a calendar COMING FROM ANOTHER APP • Import from Bear or Obsidian in a tap • Or simply point FoldNotes at the Markdown files you already have MAKE IT YOURS • Light and dark themes, including Nord, Dracula and Catppuccin • Choose your body, heading and code fonts • Paragraph focus, sentence focus and typewriter scrolling Folding is not a formatting trick. A long document asks you to hold every section in your head at once; folding lets you put the finished ones down. That is the whole idea, and everything else here is built around it. Your notes will outlive this app, and every app like it. That is rather the point.

About

HelloNotes

Features
Read full description

HelloNotes is a fast, private, local-first Markdown knowledge base for iPhone and iPad. Your notes are plain .md files in a folder you choose — no account, no lock-in, no cloud required. WRITE IN LIVE MARKDOWN • A native editor with live styling — headings, bold, lists, tables and syntax-highlighted code • LaTeX math ($…$ and $$…$$) and Mermaid diagrams rendered inline • Obsidian-style callouts, hidden comments, and a clean editor that tucks YAML front matter into an editable Properties panel CONNECT YOUR IDEAS • [[Wiki-links]] with autocomplete, including links straight to a heading • Backlinks and unlinked mentions, with one-click linking • #tags (nested) with autocomplete, and a Tags view of every tag in the collection • Note transclusion — embed a whole note or a single section • A mind map of the links across your whole vault, and a graph of each note's links in and out FIND ANYTHING • Full-text search and "Open Quickly" across notes and headings • Bookmarks, daily notes and templates AI ON YOUR DEVICE, OR ON PRIVATE CLOUD COMPUTE • Summarise a note, suggest tags and links, and rewrite a passage — with Apple Foundation Models, powered by Apple Intelligence • An Assistant that answers from your own notes and shows the notes it read, and can look things up on the web — experimental, and it doesn't change your notes • Run Apple's model on your device, Local (Apple), or choose Cloud (Apple), Apple's server model on Private Cloud Compute: what it is sent isn't stored, and isn't accessible to Apple. Its answers and suggestions say which model made them • Or download an open model and run it on your device with MLX There are no third-party AI services and no API keys. VERSION HISTORY WITH GIT • Built-in Git: initialise a repo, browse a note's history and restore earlier versions EXPORT & MORE • Export to HTML or PDF • Full light and dark support Your files stay yours — readable in any editor, syncable with any tool. HelloNotes just makes them a joy to think in. SUPPORTING HELLONOTES (OPTIONAL) HelloNotes is free, and every feature is included for everyone. Two entirely optional purchases live in Settings > Support. Backing HelloNotes adds one thing — the ability to send a support request from inside the app — and nothing else: • Champion — a one-off contribution of A$50. You can give more than once; the app remembers how many times. • Commercial — an annual licence for using HelloNotes at work. A$50 per year, an auto-renewable subscription charged to your Apple Account on confirmation and renewing each year unless turned off at least 24 hours before the period ends. Manage or cancel it in Settings > your name > Subscriptions. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://hellotham.com/hellonotes/privacy

Screenshots

FoldNotes4 screens
HelloNotes4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: FoldNotes at none against HelloNotes's 2. FoldNotes also leads on update cadence (every 3 days vs every 3 weeks) and iOS requirement (18.0 vs 27.0). 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. HelloNotes sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $30.00 per year. FoldNotes asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

FoldNotes ships an update every 3 days, HelloNotes every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 5, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 6 level
FoldNotes versus HelloNotes: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFoldNotesHelloNotes
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.0 (2 ratings) — better—
Number of ratings2 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 3 days — betterEvery 3 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, Mac — better
Requires iOS18.0 — better27.0
Further details — not scored
Size24 MB58 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperFoldsoft Pty LtdHello Tham Pty Ltd

In-app purchases

None

FoldNotes

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

HelloNotes

Subscriptions1
  • Commercial$30.001 Year
One-time1
  • Champion$30.00

Questions

Is FoldNotes free?
FoldNotes is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is HelloNotes free?
HelloNotes is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do FoldNotes or HelloNotes have ads?
Neither FoldNotes nor HelloNotes shows ads.
Which is updated more often, FoldNotes or HelloNotes?
FoldNotes ships an update every 3 days, and HelloNotes every 3 weeks. Most recently, FoldNotes was updated on November 5, 2026 and HelloNotes on October 31, 2026.

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