ZenNotes vs HomeLab Watcher
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
ZenNotes
This app allows you to write, organize, and connect ideas using plain markdown files stored locally or via iCloud. An optional cloud service offers syncing, backups, and web publishing.
- Local-first markdown notes
- iCloud Drive integration
- Optional cloud sync and backup
- Web publishing for notes
- Rich markdown editor
- Offline preview with math and diagrams
- Home screen widgets
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ZenNotes is a local-first markdown notes app for writing, organizing, and connecting ideas without giving up ownership of your files. YOUR NOTES, YOUR FILES Every note is a plain .md file in a vault you control. Start with storage on your iPhone or iPad, use iCloud Drive, or open a folder through the system document picker. Local and iCloud vaults work without an account. ZENNOTES CLOUD Connect an optional ZenNotes Cloud plan to: • Sync a vault across ZenNotes desktop and mobile • Sync notes and attachments • Create manual and automatic daily backups • Restore a full vault or a single note from a backup • Publish notes to the web and manage their public links Cloud never replaces the free local-first workflow. Use it only when you want hosted sync, backup, or publishing. WRITE IN MARKDOWN Use a focused editor with headings, lists, tasks, tables, code, links, wikilinks, tags, callouts, footnotes, and frontmatter. A mobile formatting bar keeps common actions close to the keyboard, and a pinch resizes the text to your eyes. RICH, OFFLINE PREVIEW Render KaTeX math, Mermaid diagrams, JSXGraph, function plots, tables, callouts, and more directly on your device. ORGANIZE YOUR WAY Pin your go-to notes and folders to the top, swipe rows to act on them, create and rename nested folders, browse tags, search the full vault, manage tasks, create periodic notes, and work with table databases stored as CSV. CAPTURE QUICKLY Create a quick note from the app or send text and links to ZenNotes from the iOS share sheet. HOME SCREEN WIDGETS Start a note, open a recent one, or check today's tasks without opening the app. New Note also lives on the Lock Screen, and the widgets wear your theme. PRIVACY BY DEFAULT ZenNotes has no advertising or tracking. Local and iCloud notes stay in the storage you choose. When you enable ZenNotes Cloud, the account identity, connected-device information, and vault content needed for the Cloud features you use are sent to the ZenNotes service. Payment details are handled by Stripe. ZenNotes is open source. Your vault remains useful outside the app because it is made of ordinary files.
HomeLab Watcher
Monitor the health of your homelab resources with a private, one-glance dashboard. View HTTP services, Beszel machines, and Proxmox VE nodes, with customizable widgets for your home and lock screens. All data and configuration remain on your device.
- Unified dashboard for HTTP, Beszel, and Proxmox VE
- Real-time status and observation age
- Home Screen, Lock Screen, and interactive widgets
- Direct refresh from iPhone
- Private by design: no accounts, cloud, or analytics
- Read-only status checks
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HomeLab Watcher gives you one calm, private glance at the latest known health of the homelab resources you care about. ONE HONEST DASHBOARD • See HTTP services, Beszel machines, and Proxmox VE nodes together • Separate the last successful observation from the latest refresh attempt • Recognize healthy, attention, unhealthy, unknown, aging, and stale states • Refresh all resources or one system directly from your iPhone USEFUL WIDGETS • Small Home Screen status widget • Medium resource overview • Lock Screen status • Interactive refresh without automatically opening the app • Explicit observation age because iOS controls background timing PRIVATE BY DESIGN • No HomeLab Watcher account • No cloud relay or hosted backend • No analytics, ads, tracking, or remote logs • Configuration stays on device • Credentials stay in Apple Keychain • Requests go directly to systems you configure READ ONLY HomeLab Watcher checks status and metrics. It does not start, stop, restart, delete, update, or otherwise administer your infrastructure. TRY BEFORE YOU BUY Sample Lab demonstrates every important presentation state without credentials or a reachable homelab. The free app also supports two HTTP or HTTPS resources and the small widget. LIFETIME UNLOCK A one-time purchase unlocks unlimited resources, Beszel, Proxmox VE, and every widget family. There is no subscription. SUPPORTED CONNECTIONS HomeLab Watcher works with addresses reachable from your iPhone over LAN, an existing private network route, or public HTTPS. iOS system certificate trust is required; the app never bypasses TLS security. HomeLab Watcher is not affiliated with or endorsed by Proxmox Server Solutions GmbH or the Beszel project.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: ZenNotes at none against HomeLab Watcher's 1. ZenNotes also leads on update cadence (every 2 days vs every 5 days) and ratings volume (12 vs 2). On price, rating, 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
Both are free to download. HomeLab Watcher sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. ZenNotes asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.9 for ZenNotes against 5.0 for HomeLab Watcher. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: ZenNotes has 12 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two.
ZenNotes ships an update every 2 days, HomeLab Watcher every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on November 13, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | ZenNotes | HomeLab Watcher |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.9 (12 ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 12 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 days — better | Every 5 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 93 MB | 15 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Lumary Labs LLC | YANCY SHEPHERD |
In-app purchases
ZenNotes
No in-app purchases
HomeLab Watcher
- HomeLab Watcher Lifetime$4.99
Questions
Is ZenNotes free?
Is HomeLab Watcher free?
Which has better reviews, ZenNotes or HomeLab Watcher?
Do ZenNotes or HomeLab Watcher have ads?
Which is updated more often, ZenNotes or HomeLab Watcher?
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