Comparison

Notes vs Ream

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

Head to head
About

Notes

Features
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Your notes. Your aesthetic. Aesthetic Notes is not an ordinary notes app. Here every note gets its own paper, its own type and its own colour โ€“ and, if you like, a strip of tape, a wax seal or punch holes along the edge. What comes out doesn't look like a form. It looks like something off your desk. THE SAME NOTES EVERYWHERE โ€“ AND THE SAME DESIGN iCloud keeps your notes on iPhone, iPad and Mac at once. Not just the text: paper, type, colour, trimmings and image crop travel with them. A note you design in the evening looks exactly the same on your other device in the morning. Nothing gets reformatted, nothing goes missing. Everything stays private in your own iCloud. FOUR KINDS OF NOTES โ€ข Text note with weight, alignment and bullets โ€ข To-do list to tick off, with a reminder for each item โ€ข Table for plans, weeks and overviews โ€ข Picture note with a clean crop DESIGN IT UNTIL IT FEELS RIGHT Ten paper colours from cream to sage. Blank, lined or grid. Seventeen typefaces from plain to handwriting. Plus around thirty trimmings: tape, wax seals, pins, paper clips, punch holes, torn edges, decorative frames and bows. Found a combination you love? Save it in the Style Studio as your own style and apply it to any other note with a single tap. ON YOUR HOME SCREEN Any note can go on your Home Screen as a widget โ€“ in three sizes and in its own design. Your shopping list ends up where you're already looking. FOR YOUR EYES ONLY Individual notes can be locked with Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode. A locked note stays milky โ€“ lovely to look at, impossible to read. DRAWING Pen, marker, pencil and eraser. On iPad with Apple Pencil too. ON MAC AS WELL Aesthetic Notes is also available for macOS. There your notes sit right on the desktop, free to place anywhere, and they can turn transparent. FREE AND PRO Aesthetic Notes is free. Pro unlocks custom colours with an eyedropper, your own images as note backgrounds, the Design Collection and more typefaces. Try it free for seven days. Privacy Policy: https://notes-privacy-museandmethod.sofia-schuster02.chatgpt.site/ Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Ream

Features
Read full description

Scan paper into clean PDFs you can actually search. No subscription, no ads, no watermarks and no account. Five documents free, and one payment for an unlimited library. SEARCH INSIDE YOUR SCANS Ream reads the words on every page as it scans. Search "dishwasher" and it finds the receipt, not just documents you remembered to name well. The text stays inside the PDF, so it is still searchable in Files, Mail, or anywhere else you send it. NOTHING LEAVES YOUR PHONE Scanning, text recognition and PDF creation all happen on your device. There is no account to make, no cloud, and no network access at all. Your documents are yours. FILL IN AND SIGN Type into a form, sign it with your finger, or draw on it freehand. Pick black, blue, red or white ink. A filled form stays searchable, because the text you add is real text and not a picture of words. STAY ORGANIZED Give a scan a name, or let Ream take one from the page. File documents under as many labels as you like and filter by them. Every page gets a thumbnail so you can find a document by what it looks like. MULTI-PAGE, ONE FILE Scan as many pages as you need and get one PDF. Combining pages is the whole point of a scanner app, so it is not going behind a paywall. BRING IN WHAT YOU ALREADY HAVE Share a PDF or photo to Ream from Mail, Files, or anywhere else, and it becomes a searchable document like everything else. YOURS TO KEEP Export every scan as a plain ZIP of ordinary PDFs. No proprietary format, nothing locked in. A backup you can only open with the app that made it is not a backup. FREE, AND HONEST ABOUT IT Every feature above is free and always will be. Scanning, text recognition, searchable PDFs, labels, Fill & Sign, search and export are never gated, at any library size. A free library holds five documents. If Ream is where your paperwork is going to live, one small payment makes it unlimited for good, and unlocks four extra accent colors while it is at it. It is a one-time purchase, not a subscription, and there is no trial to forget to cancel.

Screenshots

Notes4 screens
Ream4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Ream at weekly against Notes's every 3 weeks. Notes's advantage is device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.0). On price, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price ยท Rating ยท Positive reviews ยท Number of ratings ยท Update frequency ยท Ads ยท In-app purchases ยท Monetization ยท Best chart rank ยท Devices ยท Requires iOS

CostPrice ยท In-app purchases ยท Ads ยท Monetization

Both are free to download. Notes sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month and Ream sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Notes ships an update every 3 weeks, Ream weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 18, 2026 and October 16, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences ยท 3 level
Notes versus Ream: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterNotesReam
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksWeekly โ€” better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac โ€” betteriPhone
Requires iOS17.0 โ€” better26.0
Further details โ€” not scored
Size88 MB8 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSofia SchusterLavai Labs LLC

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Notes

Subscriptions2
  • Notes Pro Monthly7 Days trial$2.991 Month
  • Notes Pro Yearly7 Days trial$24.991 Year
One-time1
  • Notes Pro Lifetime$79.99
3 purchases

Ream

One-time3
  • Supporter$2.99
  • Generous Supporter$4.99
  • Very Generous Supporter$9.99

Questions

Is Notes free?
Notes is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Ream free?
Ream is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Notes or Ream have ads?
Neither Notes nor Ream shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Notes or Ream?
Notes ships an update every 3 weeks, and Ream weekly. Most recently, Notes was updated on October 18, 2026 and Ream on October 16, 2026.

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