Comparison

Daily Notes Planner vs Noteshelf

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

Head to head
About

Daily Notes Planner

This app offers a straightforward way to jot down plain-text notes for each calendar date, with dates containing notes visually highlighted. It features robust search functionality, iCloud backup for seamless data transfer across devices, and customization options for text and appearance.

Highlights
  • Calendar date notes
  • Plain-text note entry
  • Searchable notes
  • iCloud backup and transfer
  • Customizable appearance
  • Folder and weekly schedule notes
Read full description

Simple and powerful, Daily Notes Planner is a revolutionary notes app that will upgrade your life. This app simplifies the iCalendar app by allowing you to type only plain-text-notes for every date. Tap on the date in the calendar to go into that date and type in notes. The dates with notes will be highlighted in the calendar. Notes are so easily and so effectively searchable with the search bar in the Calendar Page. Carefully formatted chronologically, the list of your notes can be seen immediately (today's note in the middle of the list will be seen first) after tapping once onto the search bar. With iCloud support, you can backup your all of yours notes in iCloud very fast. You can load the notes from iCloud from any devices (inside this app). App does not sync between devices automatically, but it gives you a manual option to sync if you so desire. The primary purpose of this feature is that the user can transfer the data to new iPhone from the old iPhone seamlessly. Undo and Redo are supported. Every character you type, that note is immediately saved. You can organize your notes by calendar dates, and in addition you can use Extras page to add notes in different formats. This single app will completely satisfy all of your iPhone-note-taking needs. IN "EXTRAS" (previously "Settings") PAGE You can customize the font and size of texts. Also, many different colors can be set to make the app look different---such as today's color, texts color, calendar highlight color, etc. . Password or touchID can be set to privatize your notes. You can turn on and off auto correction. You can input additional notes in three additional formats: "One Page Note", "Folder Notes", and "Weekly Schedule" (There are three large buttons in the top of the "EXTRAS" Page. ). "One Page Note" has one page of note. This is useful if you are recording temporary information that needs to be erased soon. You get one page of notes. This note can be added to Folder Notes, into a folder there if you want it to by pressing "Save To Folder" Button in the bottom. "Folder Notes" allows you to save your notes with folder and file name. Searching is easy and effective. You can change the color of texts in your notes dynamically; this helps you organize content of your notes when you write them down. "Weekly Schedule Notes" allows you to draw a nice, colorful chart of your schedule, classes, or weekly appointments. (You can change the color of texts in your notes dynamically; this helps you organize content of your notes when you write them down.)

About

Noteshelf

This app combines natural handwriting, AI summarization, PDF annotation, and audio recording for students, professionals, and journalers. It offers a smooth writing experience with Apple Pencil, extensive templates, and robust organization features. Syncs across devices and offers cloud backup options.

Highlights
  • Natural handwriting with Apple Pencil
  • AI-powered summarization and explanation
  • PDF and document annotation
  • Audio recording alongside notes
  • 200+ digital planner and journal templates
  • Handwriting to text conversion
  • Cross-device iCloud sync
Features
Read full description

Write. Plan. Study. Work. Create. Noteshelf 3 brings natural handwriting, powerful AI, PDF annotation, audio recording and planning together in one beautiful app for iPad, iPhone and Mac. Free to start. FOR STUDENTS • Take lecture and class notes with lifelike pens, pencils and highlighters • Annotate textbooks, worksheets, slides and PDFs • Record audio while you write, so you never miss a word • Use Noteshelf AI to summarize and explain what you've learned FOR PROFESSIONALS • Capture meeting notes and record important discussions • Mark up contracts, reports and presentations • Present your notes on an external display with a laser pointer • Export and share notes as PDFs or images in one tap FOR PLANNERS & JOURNALERS • 200+ templates for digital planners, journals, diaries and trackers • Plan your days, track goals and keep a personal journal • Decorate pages with stickers, photos and custom covers WRITE NATURALLY • A smooth, natural handwriting experience built for Apple Pencil • Write, type, draw and sketch on the same page • Turn handwriting into text and search your notes in 65 languages • Choose lined, dotted or grid paper in any color WORK WITH PDFs & DOCUMENTS • Import and annotate PDFs, Word documents, PowerPoint files and images • Highlight, mark up, write and draw directly on your documents • Scan paper documents with the built-in scanner NOTESHELF AI • Summarize handwritten pages in seconds • Explain difficult terms and concepts • Translate text into other languages • Generate notes on any topic RECORD & REMEMBER • Record lectures, meetings and ideas alongside your handwritten notes STAY ORGANIZED & SECURE • Folders, subfolders, tags, bookmarks and a table of contents • Link notebooks together to connect ideas • Lock notes with a password, Face ID or Touch ID • Sync across iPad, iPhone and Mac with iCloud • Automatic backup to Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox or WebDAV YOUR NOTES, YOUR WAY • Custom notebook covers and a toolbar you can rearrange • Presentation mode, dark mode and flexible page layouts FREE TO START Create up to 3 notebooks with core pens and paper for free. Upgrade to Noteshelf Premium for unlimited notebooks, all templates, handwriting recognition, auto-backup and 100 monthly AI credits. Write beautifully. Work smarter. Stay organized. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula

Screenshots

Daily Notes Planner4 screens
Noteshelf4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Noteshelf at 4.5 against Daily Notes Planner's 3.2. Noteshelf also leads on ratings volume (7.2K vs 10) and update cadence (every 3 days vs weekly). Daily Notes Planner's advantage is monetization model (free vs freemium) and iOS requirement (8.0 vs 18.0). On price, review sentiment, ads and in-app purchases 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. Daily Notes Planner sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Noteshelf sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $7.99 per 7 days. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Noteshelf holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 3.2. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Noteshelf has 7.2K ratings behind it against 10, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 50% of Daily Notes Planner's written reviews are positive against 57% of Noteshelf's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Daily Notes Planner ships an update weekly, Noteshelf every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and November 9, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Daily Notes Planner versus Noteshelf: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDaily Notes PlannerNoteshelf
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.2 (10 ratings)4.5 (7.2K ratings) — better
Positive reviews50.0% of reviews57.5% of reviews — better
Number of ratings107.2K — better
Update frequencyWeeklyEvery 3 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree — betterFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch — better
Requires iOS8.0 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size3 MB558 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperTruth Honest Messaging, Inc.Fluid Touch Pte. Ltd.

Customer experience

Daily Notes Planner

All ratings9 ratings
Positive44.4%
Neutral11.1%
Negative44.4%
Written reviews14 reviews
Positive50.0%
Neutral7.1%
Negative42.9%

Noteshelf

All ratings7,221 ratings
Positive88.4%
Neutral3.3%
Negative8.3%
Written reviews1,107 reviews
Positive57.5%
Neutral10.4%
Negative32.2%

Bugs and requests

Daily Notes Planner

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

Noteshelf

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Notebooks failing to open or sync correctly
  • Handwriting recognition not working as expected
  • Imported PDFs losing formatting or functionality
  • Unexpected loss of data or notes
  • Compatibility issues with older devices or operating systems

Requested features

6 requests
  • Add ability to create folders within notebooks
  • Improve page organization and navigation
  • Implement a more intuitive color picker and pen customization
  • Introduce a history/undo feature for linked pages
  • Add support for custom stickers and templates
Show 1 more
  • Optimize performance and reduce loading times

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Daily Notes Planner

One-time1
  • Full Version$4.99
10 purchases

Noteshelf

Subscriptions8
  • Noteshelf 3 Weekly Premium$7.997 Days
  • Noteshelf3 Weekly Premium3 Days trial$7.997 Days
  • Noteshelf3 Monthly Premium$9.991 Month
Show 5 more
  • Noteshelf 3 Yearly Premium3 Days trial$19.991 Year
  • Noteshelf3 Yearly Premium3 Days trial$29.991 Year
  • Noteshelf3 Yearly Premium$39.991 Year
  • Noteshelf 3 Yearly Premium3 Days trial$39.991 Year
  • Noteshelf3 Yearly Premium3 Days trial$49.991 Year
One-time2
  • Premium for Noteshelf 2 users$9.99
  • Noteshelf 3 Premium - Lifetime$14.99

Questions

Is Daily Notes Planner free?
Daily Notes Planner is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Noteshelf free?
Noteshelf is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Daily Notes Planner or Noteshelf?
Noteshelf is rated higher. Daily Notes Planner averages 3.2 out of 5 from 10 ratings, while Noteshelf averages 4.5 from 7.2K ratings.
Do Daily Notes Planner or Noteshelf have ads?
Neither Daily Notes Planner nor Noteshelf shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Daily Notes Planner or Noteshelf?
Daily Notes Planner ships an update weekly, and Noteshelf every 3 days. Most recently, Daily Notes Planner was updated on November 6, 2026 and Noteshelf on November 9, 2026.

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