Comparison

Harbor Notes vs WatchNotes

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

Head to head
About

Harbor Notes

Capture, organize, and secure all your thoughts, tasks, and files in one private space. This app offers rich note-taking features, robust organization, and instant search, even within images and scanned documents. Your data is yours, with optional end-to-end encryption and no ads or data selling.

Highlights
  • Rich notes with checklists, tables, and highlights
  • Notebooks, stacks, and tags for organization
  • Task management with due dates
  • Document scanning and sketching
  • Voice memos and file attachments
  • Instant search with OCR
  • Offline-first native apps
Features
Read full description

Harbor is your private second brain — a fast, native notes app for people who want to remember everything and own it for life. Capture notes, organize them into notebooks, tag anything, attach photos and files, scan paper documents, sketch ideas, and record voice memos. Then find any of it in seconds — Harbor's search even reads the text inside your images and scans. REMEMBER EVERYTHING • Rich notes with checklists, tables, images, links, and highlights • Notebooks and stacks that keep every part of your life organized • Tags that cut across notebooks • Tasks with due dates, right beside your notes • Scan documents with your camera; sketch with your finger or Apple Pencil • Voice memos and file attachments of every kind • Instant search across everything — including the text inside images and scans (OCR) YOURS, EVERYWHERE • Truly native apps for iPhone, iPad, and Mac — no web wrapper • Offline-first: your notes live on your device and sync automatically • The full web app at app.harbor.my from any browser • A web clipper that saves articles and pages straight into your notebooks PRIVATE BY DESIGN • No ads. No selling your data. No training AI on your notes. Ever. • Optional end-to-end encryption locks down your most sensitive notes so that no one — not even us — can read them • Export everything anytime in open formats. You are never locked in. SWITCHING FROM ANOTHER NOTES APP? Import your Evernote notebooks (.enex files) with the Mac or web app — your notebooks, tags, and attachments sync straight to your iPhone and iPad. SIMPLE, HONEST PRICING Harbor is free for up to 50 notes, 3 notebooks, and 20 tags — no credit card required. When you outgrow the free plan, Harbor Unlimited removes every limit: • $9.99/month or $99/year • Unlimited notes, notebooks, tags, tasks, and files • A written price-lock promise in our terms: your price won't go up for at least 3 years Subscriptions are billed to your Apple ID and renew automatically until cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel anytime in your App Store account settings. And even if you stop paying, you can always read and export your notes — Harbor never holds your data hostage. Privacy Policy: https://harbor.my/privacy/ Terms of Use: https://harbor.my/terms/ Questions? A real person answers: help@harbor.my

About

WatchNotes

Features
Read full description

WatchNotes puts your notes and checklists where you actually need them — on your wrist. Write on your iPhone with real formatting, tick things off on your Apple Watch, and share lists with the people you live with so everyone stays on the same page. MADE FOR THE WRIST • A true standalone watch app — works without your iPhone nearby • Tick checklist items with one tap, with big, glanceable rows • Dictate a new note or add items by voice, straight from the watch • The note stays up while you shop or cook — raise your wrist and it's right there • Always-On display support CHECKLISTS DONE RIGHT • Groceries, packing, chores — reorder, strike through, clear completed • Tick an item on the watch and it checks itself off on your iPhone in seconds • Progress bars show what's left at a glance A REAL EDITOR, NOT A TEXT BOX • Titles, headings, bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, bullets • Text and a checklist can live in the same note • Pin your most-used notes to the top SHARE AND EDIT TOGETHER • Share any note by iCloud email, invite link, or a WatchNotes username • Everyone you invite can edit — two people can tick different items at the same time and nothing gets lost • Stop sharing or remove people at any time PRIVATE BY DESIGN • Your notes live in YOUR iCloud, not on our servers • No account, no password, no ads, no tracking, no analytics • Shared notes are visible only to the people you invite WatchNotes is for everyone who ever walked into a shop and left their list on the fridge. Put it on your wrist instead.

Screenshots

Harbor Notes4 screens
WatchNotes3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: WatchNotes at none against Harbor Notes's 2. Harbor Notes's advantage is iOS requirement (18.0 vs 26.0). 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. Harbor Notes sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month. WatchNotes asks for nothing beyond the download.

Scorecard2 real differences · 7 level
Harbor Notes versus WatchNotes: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHarbor NotesWatchNotes
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better—
Number of ratings1 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 3 days—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFreemium—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac — betteriPhone, Apple Watch
Requires iOS18.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size32 MB2 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperCloudmanic Labs, LLCLukas Varanausksa

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Harbor Notes

Subscriptions2
  • Unlimited — Monthly$9.991 Month
  • Unlimited — Yearly$99.001 Year
None

WatchNotes

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Harbor Notes free?
Harbor Notes is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is WatchNotes free?
WatchNotes is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Harbor Notes or WatchNotes have ads?
Neither Harbor Notes nor WatchNotes shows ads.

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