Comparison

Pendo Note vs smalltype

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

Head to head
About

Pendo Note

This app helps you capture ideas, manage tasks, and organize events with smart features. It offers AI assistance for writing, learning, and translation, and syncs your data across devices using iCloud.

Highlights
  • AI writing and learning assistant
  • Smart calendar event creation
  • Recurring to-do list management
  • Unified timeline for all entries
  • Customizable tags for organization
  • Contact info parsing for new contacts
  • iCloud sync across devices
Features
Read full description

Pendo brings your notes and calendar together in one place. Write notes, plan your day, and keep everything organized with a clean, intuitive timeline. Whether you're jotting down ideas, planning meetings, or keeping a journal — Pendo keeps it all in sync across your devices. Your data stays yours: export every note with its photos, location and weather into a single file, and import it back anytime — perfect for backups or moving to a new device.

About

smalltype

Read full description

Short notes, many times a day, saved as plain .md files in real folders. Open the same folder on your Mac in VS Code, Vim, or any editor. Calm, minimal, and ready for iPhone Duo. smalltype is for your notes. The small ones, the quick ones, the big ones, the unpolished ones. It's a fast, quiet place to type. ## Start No tutorial, no setup screen. Tap New Note and start typing. Leave one empty and it quietly disappears, so you never end up with a pile of blank untitled notes. That's the whole app. ## Yours Every note is a real .md file, sitting right there in the Files app. You can open it, copy it, or back it up yourself, anytime. Delete one and it still goes to Recently Deleted, same as any other file: nothing's gone for good. ## Sync or Don't Keep notes in iCloud Drive to have them on every device. Or keep them On My iPhone, fully local, never leaving your device. Either way, you can switch anytime. ## Visible Markdown Markdown markers stay gently visible as you type. What you see is exactly what's in the file. A bar above the keyboard types the markers for you, with undo and redo a tap away. ## Organize Folders, search, and quick note-making, all from one screen. Nothing to set up first. Put "daily" in a folder's name and new notes inside it get today's date as their name. ## No Catch No ads. No subscription. No tracking. No account, ever. Markdown notes. Yours to keep.

Screenshots

Pendo Note4 screens
smalltype4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: smalltype at none against Pendo Note's 3. smalltype also leads on update cadence (every 4 days vs every 11 days). Pendo Note's advantage is device support (4 vs 1) and iOS requirement (18.4 vs 26.0). On price and ads 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. Pendo Note sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. smalltype asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Pendo Note ships an update every 11 days, smalltype every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on September 29, 2026 and September 22, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Pendo Note versus smalltype: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPendo Notesmalltype
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (840 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews90.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings840 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 11 daysEvery 4 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch — betteriPhone
Requires iOS18.4 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size133 MB8 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperShenzhen Lychee Isle Co., Ltd.Herman Haidin

Bugs and requests

Pendo Note

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Notes and to-do items disappearing after updates
  • Calendar events not syncing correctly
  • Widget not displaying all information as expected
  • Inability to add more than 3 images to a note

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add password protection or biometric lock
  • Improve note-taking capabilities with more formatting options
  • Integrate with more calendar/productivity apps
  • Introduce a web/desktop version for better cross-platform experience

smalltype

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Pendo Note

One-time3
  • A tikka$0.99
  • A basket of buns$1.99
  • A cup of Coffee$4.99
None

smalltype

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Pendo Note free?
Pendo Note is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is smalltype free?
smalltype is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Pendo Note or smalltype have ads?
Neither Pendo Note nor smalltype shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Pendo Note or smalltype?
Pendo Note ships an update every 11 days, and smalltype every 4 days. Most recently, Pendo Note was updated on September 29, 2026 and smalltype on September 22, 2026.

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