Comparison

smalltype vs Lorem

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

Head to head
About

smalltype

Read full description

Short notes, many times a day, saved as plain .md files in real folders. Open the same folder on your Mac in VS Code, Vim, or any editor. Calm, minimal, and ready for iPhone Duo. smalltype is for your notes. The small ones, the quick ones, the big ones, the unpolished ones. It's a fast, quiet place to type. ## Start No tutorial, no setup screen. Tap New Note and start typing. Leave one empty and it quietly disappears, so you never end up with a pile of blank untitled notes. That's the whole app. ## Yours Every note is a real .md file, sitting right there in the Files app. You can open it, copy it, or back it up yourself, anytime. Delete one and it still goes to Recently Deleted, same as any other file: nothing's gone for good. ## Sync or Don't Keep notes in iCloud Drive to have them on every device. Or keep them On My iPhone, fully local, never leaving your device. Either way, you can switch anytime. ## Visible Markdown Markdown markers stay gently visible as you type. What you see is exactly what's in the file. A bar above the keyboard types the markers for you, with undo and redo a tap away. ## Organize Folders, search, and quick note-making, all from one screen. Nothing to set up first. Put "daily" in a folder's name and new notes inside it get today's date as their name. ## No Catch No ads. No subscription. No tracking. No account, ever. Markdown notes. Yours to keep.

About

Lorem

Features
Read full description

Lorem is a personal archive for everything you write, collect, and keep. Your original data stays on your own device, so it runs at your device's native speed. Nothing is ever uploaded to the developer's servers, so your privacy is 100% protected. And because everything is saved as plain Markdown and attachments rather than a special data format, your data stays forever โ€” even if the app goes away.

Screenshots

smalltype4 screens
Lorem4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Lorem at daily against smalltype's every 5 days. Lorem also leads on iOS requirement (17.2 vs 26.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

smalltype ships an update every 5 days, Lorem daily. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 29, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences ยท 4 level
smalltype versus Lorem: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParametersmalltypeLorem
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 5 daysDaily โ€” better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad โ€” better
Requires iOS26.017.2 โ€” better
Further details โ€” not scored
Size8 MB35 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperHerman HaidinJiyong Ahn

In-app purchases

None

smalltype

No in-app purchases

None

Lorem

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is smalltype free?
smalltype is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Lorem free?
Lorem is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do smalltype or Lorem have ads?
Neither smalltype nor Lorem shows ads.
Which is updated more often, smalltype or Lorem?
smalltype ships an update every 5 days, and Lorem daily. Most recently, smalltype was updated on October 25, 2026 and Lorem on October 29, 2026.

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