Mena vs Tackboard
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Mena
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Private visual notes for iPhone, iPad and Mac. Build mind maps on an infinite canvas, study with FSRS flashcards, and sync through your private iCloud storage — no account required. Mena is an infinite canvas and visual second brain for iPad. Sketch ideas, build mind maps, embed media, and turn any board into spaced-repetition flashcards you actually review — no account required. Infinite canvas Pan, zoom, and draw with no page limits. Pastel sticky notes, shapes and connectors for mind maps and flowcharts, frames, tables, and 19 polygon shapes. Apple Pencil support with Draw to Shape — sketch a rough shape and Mena snaps it perfect. Every kind of content Drop anything onto your board: sticky notes, rich text and Markdown, code blocks with syntax highlighting, images, PDFs with full page navigation, video, audio files, and live maps. Record voice memos directly on the canvas — ink drawn during recording is seekable by playback time. Web embeds and URL preview cards keep sources right where you need them. Paper templates Note pages come in blank, lined, dotted, and grid. Change one page or every blank page at once, and choose auto, light, or dark paper independently of your system theme. The same page renders identically in the reader, sidebar, overview grid, library thumbnail, and exported PDF. Study with FSRS Turn any deck board into spaced-repetition flashcards. Mena uses FSRS — the most accurate scheduling algorithm available — to surface cards exactly when you need them. Again / Hard / Good / Easy grading with interval preview. Cloze deletion with one tap. Auto-generate flashcards from your notes on-device, no network needed. Study dashboard Track your streak, retention rate, and 14-day due forecast. See today's review count at a glance. Import and export decks Import any .apkg file directly. Mena imports your cards, scheduling data, embedded images, and cloze deletions. Export any deck back as .apkg. Slides & presentation Draw a frame around anything and it becomes a slide. Open the filmstrip panel, jump to any slide, present full-screen, or export the whole deck as a crisp PDF. 6 board types Board — infinite whiteboard. Note — vertical scroll page. Journal — one auto-created page per day. Atlas — a spatial map of all your boards. Document — PDFs, scans and images read page by page and marked up with Apple Pencil. Deck — FSRS study deck with review session. Home screen widgets 4 widget types for home screen and lock screen: Quick Capture (today's note in one tap), Board Preview (live thumbnail of any board), Today's Study (due count, streak, retention), and Deck (per-deck stats). All fully configurable. Share from anywhere A share extension catches text, links, images, PDFs, and videos from any other app — tap Share → Mena, pick a board, done. Private iCloud sync Every board, element, and attachment syncs across your Apple devices through your private iCloud CloudKit database. No Mena account. No third-party cloud server stores your Mena content. Flashcard generation runs on-device. Optional web embeds and Unsplash search connect only when you choose to use them. Mena fits how your brain actually works — capture, connect, and remember. Free & Pro Free covers 3 boards, 3 notes, 3 documents and 5 decks; journals and system boards are never limited. Mena Pro lifts every limit — Pro Monthly and Pro Yearly renew automatically, Pro Lifetime is a one-time purchase. iCloud sync is free on every plan. Pro Monthly and Pro Yearly start with a 1-week free trial for eligible new subscribers; the subscription is charged to your Apple Account when the trial ends unless you cancel at least 24 hours before. Prices appear in the app before you buy, and you can restore purchases at any time. Privacy Policy: https://apps.cihat.dev/mena/privacy-policy/ Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Tackboard
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Tackboard turns your ideas into colorful sticky notes on a huge, zoomable canvas. • Quick Capture — jot text, photos, and voice memos onto notes in seconds • Organize Your Way — group notes into boards, duplicate notes across boards, add tags, and pin your favorites • Never Miss a Thing — set a time alarm (one-time on any date, or repeating weekly, monthly, or yearly) or a location reminder so nothing slips by • Rich Formatting — bulleted, numbered, and checklist lists, with Undo & Redo for every change • Links & Paste — add links as rich preview cards, and paste from the web with fonts, colors, and links kept • Sketch & Draw — freehand drawings plus clean lines, rectangles, circles, and arrows right on any note • Personalize — choose a solid color or a background photo/illustration for every note • Stay in Sync — notes, boards, tags, and settings sync automatically across iPhone, iPad, and Mac via iCloud • Full History — every edit is saved, so you can always look back and restore an earlier version • Backup & Restore — export all your notes and boards to one file and restore them anytime • Search Instantly — find any note by content, tag, or board — even text inside your photos • Attach Anything — add photos, documents, and voice memos, and merge voice clips into one • Lock Private Notes — protect sensitive notes with Face ID or a passcode Tackboard is free to use on iPhone and iPad, with an optional ad-free upgrade. One purchase removes ads everywhere, including Mac. Terms of Use: https://vincentchiu.com/tackboard/terms.html Privacy Policy: https://vincentchiu.com/tackboard/privacy.html
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Mena at none against Tackboard's shown. Mena also leads on update cadence (every 3 days vs every 2 weeks). On price, in-app purchases, device support and iOS requirement 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. Mena sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month and Tackboard sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per 7 days. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Mena ships an update every 3 days, Tackboard every 2 weeks. Both last shipped on November 6, 2026.
| Parameter | Mena | Tackboard |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | — | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Number of ratings | — | 1 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 days — better | Every 2 weeks |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 18.6 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 51 MB | 18 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Cihat Salik | Vincent Chiu |
In-app purchases
Mena
- Pro Monthly: Flowchart Notes$2.991 Month
- Pro Yearly: Diagram & Quiz7 Days trial$19.991 Year
- Pro Forever: Concept Mapping$49.99
Tackboard
- Weekly7 Days trial$1.997 Days
- Monthly7 Days trial$4.991 Month
- Yearly7 Days trial$19.991 Year
- Lifetime$29.99









