Notes vs Local Memo
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Notes
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If you want a notes app that's “open and write, tidy as you go, never lose a word,” Mini Notes is built for you. **Auto-save, so every quick note is safe** Even if a call comes in, the app is interrupted, or your phone runs flat, anything you hadn't saved is brought back automatically. No hunting for a save button—just write. **Flexible organization, your own knowledge base** Manage things as “Notebook → Group → Note” with multi-level nesting for complex setups—or skip filing entirely and just jot things down. **One-tap sharing, capture ideas on the spot** When you spot a passage or link in Safari or another app, just tap Share and choose Mini Notes. It drops straight into your inbox—no copying back and forth. **Effortless formatting, clear at a glance** The rich-text editor gives you bold, strikethrough and a 12-color preset palette, and remembers the last color you used so you don't set it again. Titles inherit the body's formatting, keeping list previews clean and readable. **Home Screen widget, no need to open the app** Put your most recently edited notes on your Home Screen and see what you wrote today at a glance. Tap one to jump straight back into it. **Recently Deleted, for when you delete by mistake** Deleted notes stay in Recently Deleted for 30 days, so you can restore them anytime. Sure you don't need them? Clear them out in one tap. **Text Size, so everything is easy to read** Drag a slider in Settings to resize the text and icons throughout the app, without changing the setting for any other app. **Markdown checklists for quick to-dos** Type "# checklist" to turn the current line into a tappable checkbox. Press Return and the next line starts with a checkbox too. Tap to tick it off—tapped the wrong one? Just undo it. We'll keep updating Mini Notes. If there's something you'd like improved, or a feature you'd love to see, please leave a review on the App Store or get in touch via Send Feedback in the app. Your support and encouragement keep us building a better product. Thank you!
Local Memo
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Keep your notes close. Local Memo organizes notes, folders, photos and voice recordings on your iPhone or iPad, without an account or cloud sync. ORGANIZE YOUR WAY Create as many folders as you need, nested up to 15 levels deep. Choose folder colors from a palette or fine-tune them with hue, saturation and brightness sliders. Move items between folders, use drag and drop, and switch between grid and list views. WRITE AND COLLECT Write notes with bold, red or blue text. Add photos directly to folders or attach photos and files to notes. Record and play voice memos alongside your writing. FIND WHAT YOU NEED Search folder names, note titles and text, photo names and attachment filenames. Matching text is highlighted to help you find the right item. LOCK PRIVATE FOLDERS Protect selected folders with Face ID, Touch ID or your device passcode. Your device must have a passcode set. The app does not store your password. Locked content is excluded from the Home Screen widget. MAKE IT COMFORTABLE Choose your own background color and black or white text. If a combination becomes hard to read, restore the default colors in Settings. Red and blue note text keeps its own color. QUICK ACCESS Use the small widget to create a new note, or the medium and large widgets to read a selected note. The layout adapts to iPhone and iPad, including landscape orientation. ON YOUR DEVICE Your notes and files stay in the app on your device. There is no account, advertising, analytics or in-app purchase, and the app does not sync through iCloud or an external server. Keep a device backup: deleting the app also deletes its contents. Links to the developer’s other apps open the App Store. 20 LANGUAGES Japanese, English, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Dutch, Turkish, Arabic, Hindi, Indonesian, Thai and Vietnamese.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Local Memo at none against Notes's shown. On price, update cadence, 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 22, 2026 and October 18, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Notes | Local Memo |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Weekly | Weekly |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 19 MB | 5 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | ZHONGCHENG YANG | tomohide yanome |
In-app purchases
Notes
No in-app purchases
Local Memo
No in-app purchases





