Comparison

Pensieve vs Note To Self Mail

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

Head to head
About

Pensieve

Easily capture fleeting thoughts, ideas, and to-dos by emailing them to yourself. This app provides quick capture tools like audio recording, photo attachments, and text pasting, ensuring your ideas are saved without interrupting your flow. It prioritizes user privacy with no data mining or ads.

Highlights
  • Audio recording with speech-to-text
  • Built-in camera for photo attachments
  • Attachment picker for photos and files
  • Quick paste for text, links, and images
  • Email from Apple Watch
  • Share extension for in-app capture
  • Customizable email formatting
  • Offline capture
Features
Read full description

If you’ve ever emailed yourself, Pensieve is for you. Just capture, send, and remember! Pensieve is the perfect Idea Inbox companion, a Magic Warp Zone for your mind. Ideas, to-dos, and inspiration pop into your head throughout the day, often at the wrong time and in the wrong place. You want to capture those thoughts somehow, but you’ll forget to check your other notes app, texting yourself won’t work, and writing an email is clunky. You need to get these ideas out of your mind and off of your phone now, so you can get back to what you’re doing and stay in the moment with a clear head. You need a powerful, easy-to-use tool that can teleport your thoughts from here and now to the time and place where they belong. You need an idea warp zone. You need Pensieve, the notes app you'll actually use. == Features == Powerful capture tools, deep customization, and lightning-fast email delivery: • Record audio memos and get automatic speech-to-text transcripts. • Built-in camera that attaches photos as soon as you take them. • Attachment picker with quick access to your photo library and files. • Quick paste button for emailing yourself text, links, and images. • Email yourself from your Watch using the Pensieve watch app. • Email yourself from within other apps using Pensieve Share. • Custom rules put you in control over how emails from Pensieve are formatted. • With the power of Pensieve you can send to multiple inboxes with one tap. • Works offline. Capture thoughts without the internet and send them later. == Privacy & Security First == Pensieve is committed to your privacy and security. The app doesn't contain any of the icky practices of big tech or other companies! - NO data mining. - NO advertisements. - NO attention-grabbing tactics. Only respect for you and your time, attention, and data. Learn more at https://privacy.pensieve.io. == Get in Touch == Tweet to @PensieveTweets with questions, feedback, etc. == Terms == By using Pensieve you agree to the Pensieve Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Note To Self Mail

Quickly capture your thoughts and send them directly to your inbox. This app integrates with popular to-do list applications, streamlining your workflow by sending notes via email. It offers basic note-taking with advanced features available in the pro version.

Highlights
  • Send notes directly to inbox
  • Integrates with Trello, Evernote, etc.
  • Attach photos (pro)
  • Create sketches (pro)
  • Attach audio notes (pro)
  • Scan documents (pro)
Features
Read full description

"Note To Self Mail" is the fastest app for your notes. You can send your notes directly into your inbox, fast and without much effort and detours. "Note To Self Mail" was designed to support mail import for your favorite todo apps like Trello, Evernote, Wunderlist, Any.do, Todoist and many more. The app is not intended to manage your notes, but it offers everything you expect from a note app: - Writing notes - Attaching photos or files (pro version) - Creating sketches (pro version) - Attach audio notes (pro version) - Scan documents (Pro-Version) To make things easier and more flexible: you can use different e-mail addresses as recipients and connect to your own e-mail account for sending. Suggestions or feedback? support@note2selfmail.app Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Pensieve4 screens
Note To Self Mail3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ratings volume: Note To Self Mail at 377 against Pensieve's 82. Note To Self Mail also leads on iOS requirement (12.0 vs 15.0). On price, rating, review sentiment and update cadence 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. Pensieve sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month and Note To Self Mail sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per year. 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 — 4.7 for Pensieve against 4.8 for Note To Self Mail. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 82 and 377 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 91% of Pensieve's written reviews are positive against 90% of Note To Self Mail's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 26, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Pensieve versus Note To Self Mail: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPensieveNote To Self Mail
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (82 ratings)4.8 (377 ratings) — better
Positive reviews91.2% of reviews — better90.2% of reviews
Number of ratings82377 — better
Update frequencyEvery 6 weeksEvery 6 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — betteriPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.012.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size33 MB85 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperWindow Seat Labs, LLCMathias Lipowski

Customer experience

Pensieve

All ratings82 ratings
Positive91.5%
Neutral3.7%
Negative4.9%
Written reviews34 reviews
Positive91.2%
Neutral2.9%
Negative5.9%

Note To Self Mail

All ratings374 ratings
Positive96.3%
Neutral0.0%
Negative3.7%
Written reviews122 reviews
Positive90.2%
Neutral1.6%
Negative8.2%

Bugs and requests

Pensieve

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

Note To Self Mail

Reported bugs

7 issues
  • Google OAuth doesn't work properly
  • Messages stuck in outbox with Google authentication
  • App stops working after several weeks of use
  • Safari share extension crashes or fails silently
  • Browser sharing shows grey rectangle and fails
Show 2 more
  • Music playback stops when sending notes
  • Exchange server incompatibility

Requested features

8 requests
  • Scheduled/delayed send functionality
  • Apple Watch native app
  • Document scanning with PDF export
  • YouTube title preservation in sharing
  • iOS 26 UI updates
Show 3 more
  • Improved browser extension performance
  • Pop-up interface option instead of full screen
  • Better Exchange server support

In-app purchases

4 purchases

Pensieve

Subscriptions4
  • Boost Monthly3 Days trial$0.991 Month
  • All Access Monthly7 Days trial$2.991 Month
  • Boost Yearly3 Days trial$9.991 Year
Show 1 more
  • All Access Yearly7 Days trial$24.991 Year
3 purchases

Note To Self Mail

Subscriptions1
  • Buy me a coffee$4.991 Year
One-time2
  • Pro Version$4.99
  • Buy me a coffee$4.99

Questions

Is Pensieve free?
Pensieve is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Note To Self Mail free?
Note To Self Mail is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Pensieve or Note To Self Mail?
Note To Self Mail is rated higher. Pensieve averages 4.7 out of 5 from 82 ratings, while Note To Self Mail averages 4.8 from 377 ratings.
Do Pensieve or Note To Self Mail have ads?
Neither Pensieve nor Note To Self Mail shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Pensieve or Note To Self Mail?
Pensieve ships an update every 6 weeks, and Note To Self Mail every 6 weeks. Most recently, Pensieve was updated on October 23, 2026 and Note To Self Mail on October 26, 2026.

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