Comparison

Notepad vs Nimbus8

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

Head to head
About

Notepad

Capture thoughts, create to-do lists, and organize ideas with a versatile digital notebook. Offers rich text formatting, handwriting support, and folder organization. Keep your notes safe with iCloud sync and optional biometric lock.

Highlights
  • Create to-do lists with checkboxes
  • Rich text formatting (bold, italic, colors)
  • Handwritten notes with Apple Pencil support
  • Organize notes into folders
  • Pin and sort notes
  • iCloud sync and backup
  • Biometric lock for notes
Features
Read full description

Jot down notes and organize your ideas with Notepad—the classic notepad writing app designed for keeping track of everything that matters. [ TO-DO LISTS ] • Create beautiful task lists with interactive checkboxes to track your daily tasks and goals. • Drag and drop to reorder items—organize your to-dos exactly how you want them. • Enjoy the satisfying experience of checking off completed tasks as you get things done. • Perfect for shopping lists, daily chores, project tasks, and everything in between. [ NOTES ] • Create unlimited text notes with rich formatting—quickly and easily. • Tap anywhere to start typing—it's simple, fast, and always saved automatically. • Works perfectly in both light and dark mode. [ RICH TEXT FORMATTING ] • Style your notes with bold, italic, underline, and strikethrough. • Choose from 7 text colors and 7 highlight colors to make important details stand out. • Pick from 18 handpicked font families—each with proper bold and italic variants. • A convenient formatting toolbar sits right above the keyboard for fast access. • Switch fonts anytime—your existing formatting is preserved. [ HANDWRITTEN NOTES WITH APPLE PENCIL ] • Capture your thoughts naturally with fluid, responsive handwriting that feels like pen on paper. • Create beautiful handwritten notes, diagrams, and drawings with realistic ink flow and pressure sensitivity. • Choose from fountain pens, pencils, and highlighters with customizable colors for a personalized writing experience. • Enjoy our adaptive paper grid that works perfectly in any orientation or device. [ FOLDERS - ORGANIZE YOUR NOTES ] • Organize notes into folders and subfolders with a clean, nested structure. • Assign a unique color to each folder, making it simple to categorize and find notes at a glance. • Drag-and-drop to reorder, and move multiple notes easily. [ PIN & SORT NOTES ] • Pin important notes to the top and sort by date, custom order, or alphabetical order. [ BACKUP WITH ICLOUD ] • Keep notes safe with automatic backups and iCloud sync across your devices. [ PERSONALIZE YOUR NOTEPAD ] • Give your notepad a personal touch with unique app icons, custom colors, stylish fonts, and a sleek dark mode for night owls. [ FIND NOTES FAST ] • Use advanced search tools and text highlighting to track down exactly what you're looking for. [ KEEP YOUR NOTES SAFE ] • Lock your notes with FaceID or TouchID for extra privacy. [ SHARE & PRINT ] • Send your notes to other apps like Mail or WhatsApp, or print them directly from Notepad. [ PREMIUM FEATURES FOR POWER USERS ] • Go ad-free, unlock exclusive themes, and get advanced sorting options with Premium. Notepad combines the nostalgic feel of a simple notebook with the functionality of today's tech. Use Notepad for everything from brainstorming ideas and setting personal reminders to creating shopping lists, to-do lists, grocery lists, chores lists, appointment notes, class notes, daily goals, password hints, birthday reminders, packing lists, travel itineraries, and more. Write, organize, and stay on top of everything that matters—download Notepad now and stay productive your way! Terms of Use & Privacy Policy: https://www.oldnotepad.com/terms.

About

Nimbus8

An on-device AI studio for iPhone and iPad, enabling local model execution for chat, coding, image generation, and more. Enjoy privacy with no data sent to servers for inference, with optional cloud features available.

Highlights
  • On-device AI model execution
  • Local chat and coding agents
  • Image generation and translation
  • Hybrid local/web search
  • Speech-to-text and text-to-speech
  • Background agents and scheduling
Features
Read full description

Nimbus8 is an on-device AI studio for iPhone and iPad. Run open models locally — chat, code, search, vision, image generation, audio, translation, and background agents — with nothing sent to Nimbus servers for inference. Gale (chat) is free forever. Download models from Hugging Face, attach photos and PDFs, and stream replies entirely on your device. Nimbus8 Pro (one-time in-app purchase) unlocks: • Cirrus — repo-aware coding agent with inline diffs • Ashe — confirm-first background agents and scheduled Hands • Mist — hybrid local search with optional web layer • Mirage — on-device image generation • Stratus — camera, OCR, and vision Q&A • Overture — speech-to-text, text-to-speech, and audio tools • Zephyr — on-device translation • Haze — cross-module memory and recall Built native in Swift with a Rust core. No Nimbus account required. Optional cloud inference. No telemetry. Models you choose are downloaded to your device and run locally. Processing stays on your phone unless you explicitly enable optional network features (such as web search or a BYOK cloud provider in Cirrus). Purchase Nimbus8 Pro once through Apple In-App Purchase. Restore anytime with your Apple ID. Family Sharing follows Apple's IAP rules. Privacy policy: https://trynimbus.org/privacy.html

Screenshots

Notepad4 screens
Nimbus83 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Nimbus8 at none against Notepad's shown. Nimbus8 also leads on update cadence (every 2 days vs every 9 days). Notepad's advantage is ratings volume (29K vs 6) and iOS requirement (18.0 vs 26.0). On price, rating, review sentiment 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. Notepad sells 7 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month and Nimbus8 sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for Notepad against 4.8 for Nimbus8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Notepad has 29K ratings behind it against 6, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 84% of Notepad's written reviews are positive against 89% of Nimbus8's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Notepad ships an update every 9 days, Nimbus8 every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on November 7, 2026 and November 5, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Notepad versus Nimbus8: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterNotepadNimbus8
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (29K ratings) — better4.8 (6 ratings)
Positive reviews84.2% of reviews88.9% of reviews — better
Number of ratings29K — better6
Update frequencyEvery 9 daysEvery 2 days — better
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, Mac — better
Requires iOS18.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size76 MB269 MB
Age rating4+9+
Developer1381802 Ontario Inc.Robert Georges Jr.

Customer experience

Notepad

All ratings28,814 ratings
Positive96.6%
Neutral1.8%
Negative1.5%
Written reviews990 reviews
Positive84.2%
Neutral4.6%
Negative11.1%

Nimbus8

All ratings6 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews9 reviews
Positive88.9%
Neutral11.1%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

Notepad

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Notes randomly disappearing
  • Ads covering up the note-taking area

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add drawing/highlighting tools
  • Integrate with calendar and contacts
  • Ability to sort and organize notes
  • Option to password protect specific notes

Nimbus8

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

7 purchases

Notepad

Subscriptions4
  • Monthly Premium Membership$1.991 Month
  • Monthly Premium Subscription$2.991 Month
  • Yearly Premium Subscription$14.991 Year
Show 1 more
  • Yearly Premium Subscription$19.991 Year
One-time3
  • Lifetime Premium Membership$19.99
  • Lifetime Premium Membership$29.99
  • Lifetime Premium Membership$49.99
2 purchases

Nimbus8

One-time2
  • 3-day TrialFree
  • Nimbus8 Pro - Lifetime$19.99

Questions

Is Notepad free?
Notepad is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Nimbus8 free?
Nimbus8 is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Notepad or Nimbus8?
Notepad is rated higher. Notepad averages 4.8 out of 5 from 29K ratings, while Nimbus8 averages 4.8 from 6 ratings.
Do Notepad or Nimbus8 have ads?
Notepad shows ads; Nimbus8 does not.
Which is updated more often, Notepad or Nimbus8?
Notepad ships an update every 9 days, and Nimbus8 every 2 days. Most recently, Notepad was updated on November 7, 2026 and Nimbus8 on November 5, 2026.

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