Comparison

NoteScreen vs Linger

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

Head to head
About

NoteScreen

This app displays your notes directly on your Lock Screen and Dynamic Island, ensuring you never miss important reminders. It offers simple scheduling and widget support for constant visibility, all while maintaining complete privacy.

Highlights
  • Lock Screen Live Activities
  • Dynamic Island integration
  • Scheduled note rotation
  • Always-on note mode
  • Home and Lock Screen widgets
  • Up to 10 notes, 80 characters each
Features
Read full description

Write a note. It lives on your Lock Screen. That's it. NoteScreen is the simplest reminder app you'll ever use. The thing you need to remember sits on your Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island — front and center every time you pick up your phone. Impossible to miss. SCHEDULE YOUR DAY • Notes rotate on your schedule — "Take out the trash" 7–8 AM, "Wind down" at 9 PM. NoteScreen swaps them automatically with a silent nudge at each change. • Recurring days — set "Trash night" for every Tuesday, "Water plants" for Sundays. • Always mode pins one note up all day. GLANCEABLE EVERYWHERE • Lock Screen Live Activity, Dynamic Island, and Home & Lock Screen widgets — your current note is wherever you look. • Interactive widgets — check off a note right from your Home Screen without opening the app. • Up to 10 notes, 80 characters each. Short enough to read at a glance. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No account, no login, no cloud. NoteScreen never touches the network — your notes live on your iPhone and nowhere else. Good to know: iOS limits Live Activities to 8 hours, so the Lock Screen banner refreshes whenever you open the app. Add the Lock Screen widget for a note that never expires.

About

Linger

This app places reminders directly on your lock screen, ensuring they remain visible until completed. It uses natural language processing to understand scheduling and allows for quick completion with a simple swipe. Track your progress with visual streaks and archive past reminders.

Highlights
  • Persistent lock screen reminder cards
  • Natural language reminder scheduling
  • One-gesture completion
  • Habit streak tracking
  • Reminder archiving
  • Home screen widget
  • Customizable colors and dark mode
Features
Read full description

Reminders that don't go away. Every reminder gets its own card on your Lock Screen, and it stays there until you deal with it. No badge to miss, no list you have to remember to open. Swipe the card away and it's done. If you have ever closed a reminders app and forgotten the reminder existed, Linger is built for exactly that. WRITE IT THE WAY YOU'D SAY IT Type "water the plants every Tuesday at 8am" and Linger reads the schedule out of the sentence. It shows you what it understood, so nothing gets silently misread. Every repeat you'd actually want is there — daily, weekdays, every Tuesday and Thursday, the 1st of the month — without a form to fill in. FINISHING IS ONE GESTURE Swipe the card off your Lock Screen and the reminder is complete. A repeat rolls forward to its next date on its own. You never have to open the app at all. SEE WHAT IT ADDS UP TO Every reminder keeps a grid of each day you ticked it off — months of it, readable at a glance. Streaks count themselves. It's the difference between thinking you've kept something up and knowing you have. PUT SOMETHING DOWN WITHOUT LOSING IT Archive takes a reminder off your Lock Screen and out of the list, and keeps its whole history. Bring it back whenever you like and the grid comes back with it. Something archived in March and restored in August returns on its next real date, not five months overdue. YOUR REMINDERS NEVER LEAVE YOUR PHONE No account. No sign-up. No ads, no analytics, no tracking of any kind. What you write is a file on your device and nowhere else — there is no copy of it on any server, ours included. ALSO • A Home Screen widget, so it's there before you unlock • Fourteen colours, so a glance tells you which is which • Dark mode, lit properly rather than dimmed • A backstop notification, so a reminder can never quietly vanish FREE, AND WHAT PLUS ADDS Linger is free to use, with one reminder on your Lock Screen at a time. Linger Plus lifts that limit — keep as many as you like, each on its own card — and is a monthly or yearly subscription, or a one-off lifetime purchase. The yearly plan starts with seven days free: the whole app, nothing held back. We'll remind you the day before the trial ends, so it can't turn into a charge you didn't expect. SUBSCRIPTION DETAILS Linger Plus is available as a monthly subscription and a yearly subscription, both auto-renewing, and as a one-time lifetime purchase that never renews. The price in your local currency is shown on the purchase screen before anything is charged. A subscription renews at the end of each period unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before that period ends. You can turn it off at any time in your App Store account settings. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://spicelabs.app/linger/privacy/

Screenshots

NoteScreen4 screens
Linger4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: NoteScreen at none against Linger's 3. NoteScreen also leads on iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.0). Linger's advantage is update cadence (daily vs every 3 days). On price, rating, review sentiment and ratings volume 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. Linger sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. NoteScreen asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for NoteScreen against 5.0 for Linger. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 2 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

NoteScreen ships an update every 3 days, Linger daily. The most recent releases landed on October 6, 2026 and October 7, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
NoteScreen versus Linger: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterNoteScreenLinger
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings)5.0 (2 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings12 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 daysDaily — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFreemium
DevicesiPhoneiPhone
Requires iOS17.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size1 MB13 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSameer BhutaniNeel Chary

Customer experience

NoteScreen

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Linger

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

NoteScreen

No in-app purchases

3 purchases

Linger

Subscriptions2
  • Linger Plus Monthly$1.991 Month
  • Linger Plus Yearly7 Days trial$14.991 Year
One-time1
  • Linger Plus Lifetime$44.99

Questions

Is NoteScreen free?
NoteScreen is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Linger free?
Linger is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, NoteScreen or Linger?
NoteScreen and Linger are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 1 and 2 ratings respectively.
Do NoteScreen or Linger have ads?
Neither NoteScreen nor Linger shows ads.
Which is updated more often, NoteScreen or Linger?
NoteScreen ships an update every 3 days, and Linger daily. Most recently, NoteScreen was updated on October 6, 2026 and Linger on October 7, 2026.

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