Comparison

petal vs CoreNote Notes

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

Head to head
About

petal

This app provides a private space to capture and organize your thoughts without immediate categorization. It offers smart sorting, rich text editing, document scanning, and offline functionality, ensuring your ideas are saved and easily retrievable.

Highlights
  • Capture first, file later
  • Smart sorting learns your preferences
  • Document scanning to searchable PDFs
  • Rich text editing with formatting options
  • Dictation for voice-to-text notes
  • Offline functionality
  • Recently deleted notes recovery
Features
Read full description

Petal is a forget-me-not for your mind - a quiet, private place to put every thought you don't want to lose. Most note apps ask you to decide where something belongs before you've finished thinking it. Petal doesn't. You open it, you write, and it handles the filing. CAPTURE FIRST, FILE LATER Start typing the moment the app opens. Your words are saved as you go, so a half-finished thought survives a phone call, a locked screen or a closed app. Nothing is categorized until you say so. SMART SORT When you're ready to save, Smart Sort reads the note and puts it in the right category for you. It learns from your corrections, so it gets better the more you use it. Prefer to file it yourself? Choose a category and Petal won't second-guess you. PHOTOS, FILES AND DOCUMENT SCANNING • Attach photos straight from your library, or take a new one with the camera. • Scan paper with the camera and Petal turns it into a searchable PDF, right inside the note. • Add files you already have, rename them, and preview them without leaving the note. A PROPER EDITOR Bold, italic and underline. Bulleted lists, numbered lists and checklists — with the option to drop ticked items to the bottom. Adjustable text size. Paste that keeps your structure and leaves someone else's formatting behind. Links recognized automatically. DICTATION Speak a note instead of typing it, punctuation and all. FIND ANYTHING Search across every note, browse by category, and create, rename, color and reorder categories to match the way you think. NOTHING LOST BY ACCIDENT Deleted notes wait in Recently Deleted for 15 days. Restore one and it goes back where it came from. WORKS OFFLINE Write on a plane, in a lift or in a basement. Changes are kept on your device and sync as soon as you're back online. LIGHT AND DARK Petal follows your system appearance automatically, or you can pin it to light or dark in Settings. YOURS ALONE Your notes belong to you. Sign in with an email and password, read the privacy policy any time from Settings, and permanently delete your account - and everything in it - whenever you choose. Plant your thoughts. Petal will remember them for you.

About

CoreNote Notes

Features
Read full description

CoreNote is a local notes app. No account, no ads, no sign-in. Each note has its own title, body, and ink color, written on a floating card instead of a full-page sheet. Bookmark the ones you come back to. Deleted notes sit in Trash for 7 days, then clear themselves. Empty notes are kept, not thrown away. Accounts is a single page: write down an email address or phone number, then list the apps you registered with it. Grouped by email and phone automatically. It records where you signed up — names only, nothing else. What it does: - Notes with a separate title line, body, and one of four ink colors - Bookmarks, and a 7-day Trash - Accounts: which email or phone signed up for what, on one page - Three canvases: Indigo, Slate, and Pine - One app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac What it doesn't do: No account, no sync, no sharing, no search, no attachments, no analytics SDKs. It does not store passwords and is not a password manager. Everything stays on this device; nothing is uploaded, analyzed, or shared.

Screenshots

petal4 screens
CoreNote Notes3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: petal at every 9 days against CoreNote Notes's every 3 weeks. 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

petal ships an update every 9 days, CoreNote Notes every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 21, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
petal versus CoreNote Notes: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterpetalCoreNote Notes
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (3 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings3 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 9 days — betterEvery 3 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, Mac — better
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details — not scored
Size7 MB2 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAaditya Sharma腾 骆

In-app purchases

None

petal

No in-app purchases

None

CoreNote Notes

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is petal free?
petal is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is CoreNote Notes free?
CoreNote Notes is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do petal or CoreNote Notes have ads?
Neither petal nor CoreNote Notes shows ads.
Which is updated more often, petal or CoreNote Notes?
petal ships an update every 9 days, and CoreNote Notes every 3 weeks. Most recently, petal was updated on October 21, 2026 and CoreNote Notes on October 24, 2026.

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