Zoho Writer vs Standard Notes
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Zoho Writer
Create and edit documents with a clean, distraction-free interface. Collaborate with others in real-time, import and export various file formats, and access your work across all devices. Your changes are automatically saved and synced.
- Create and edit documents
- Real-time collaboration
- Import/export MS Word, PDF, ODT
- Sync across devices
- Offline access
- Automatic saving
Read full descriptionHide full description
Simple, slick word processing app to create and edit documents, and collaborate on them with your friends. Sync docs across devices and access them wherever you go. Writer is carefully designed to create a clean, blank paper-esque writing experience across your smartphone, tablet and computer. And it's free forever! Collaborate with your team - Join discussions, even when you're away from your desk. Add your thoughts to documents, reply to friends' comments, or just appreciate them by clicking "like." Work with multiple formats - Import and edit your existing Microsoft Word documents. Take stories off your world by exporting it as an MS Word, PDF, ODT, HTML, or TXT file. Get access to the full-blown web version - One of the best advantages of using Writer is that it features a powerful word processor on the web. It's incredibly easy to jot down notes on the move, and continue working on it on the web when you're back to your desk. Create beautiful looking documents - Format your documents. Add images, tables, and more. Work offline - Apart from a "Make available offline" option, 20 of your most recent documents will available offline by default too! Forget saving documents - Forget clicking save, and manual back up. Your changes are saved and synced across all your devices as you make them. What's stopping you now? Get started. Write away!
Standard Notes
Securely capture and sync your thoughts across all devices with end-to-end encryption. This app offers a simple, lasting place for all your notes, from personal thoughts to sensitive information, with robust privacy features.
- End-to-end encryption
- Cross-device syncing
- Offline access
- Passcode and biometric lock
- Tagging system
- Open-source code
- Optional productivity editors and themes
Read full descriptionHide full description
Standard Notes is a private and secure end-to-end encrypted notes app. It allows you to write and sync your notes across all your devices, including your iPhone, iPad, Mac, and web browser. Private means your notes are end-to-end encrypted, so only you can read your notes. Even we can't read the contents of your notes. Simple means it does one job and does it well. Standard Notes is a safe and lasting place for your life's work. Our focus is making it easy to write notes wherever you are and syncing them with encryption to all your devices. Our users love us for: • Personal Notes • Tasks & Todos • Passwords & Keys • Code & Technical Procedures • Private Journal • Meeting Notes • Cross-platform Scratchpad • Books, Recipes, & Movies • Health & Fitness Log Standard Notes comes free with: • Seamless sync across all your devices, with easy to use applications on iPhone, iPad, Mac, web browsers, and other platforms. • Offline access, so you can access your downloaded notes even without a connection. • No limit on number of devices. • No limit on number of notes. • Passcode lock protection, along with Touch ID and Face ID protection. • A tagging system to organize your notes (like #work, #ideas, #passwords, #crypto). • The ability to pin, lock, protect, and move notes to trash, which allows you to recover deleted notes until the trash is emptied. Standard Notes is completely open-source, which means when we say your notes are encrypted with industry-leading XChaCha-20 encryption, and that only you can read your notes, you don't have to take our word for it. Our code is open to the world to audit. We made Standard Notes simple because longevity is important to us. We want to make sure we're here, protecting your notes, for the next hundred years. You shouldn't have to find a new notes app every year. To sustain our development, we offer optional paid subscriptions which give you access to powerful tools like: • Productivity editors (like Markdown, Code, Spreadsheets) • Beautiful themes (like Midnight, Focus, Solarized Dark) • Powerful cloud tools including daily backups of your encrypted data delivered to your email inbox every day, or backed up to your cloud provider (like Dropbox and Google Drive). We're always happy to talk, whether it be a question, thought, or issue. Please feel free to email us any time at help@standardnotes.com. When you take the time to send us a message, we'll be sure to do the same. EULA: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Standard Notes at 4.7 against Zoho Writer's 2.9. Standard Notes also leads on review sentiment (64% vs 30%) and ratings volume (3.8K vs 136). Zoho Writer's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1). On price, update cadence, ads and device support 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. Standard Notes sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $119.99 per year. Zoho Writer asks for nothing beyond the download.
Standard Notes holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 2.9. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Standard Notes has 3.8K ratings behind it against 136, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 30% of Zoho Writer's written reviews are positive against 64% of Standard Notes's.
Zoho Writer ships an update every 3 weeks, Standard Notes every 5 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 7, 2026 and October 14, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Zoho Writer | Standard Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.9 (136 ratings) | 4.7 (3.8K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 29.8% of reviews | 64.1% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 136 | 3.8K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks — better | Every 5 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 15.1 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 132 MB | 92 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Zoho Corporation | Standard Notes Ltd. |
Customer experience
Zoho Writer
Standard Notes
User reviews
Zoho Writer
From 136 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Clean and intuitive interface design
- 🔒 Privacy-focused alternative to Google Docs
- 📝 Good font variety and formatting options
- 💾 Automatic document saving
- 🌐 Cross-platform functionality (desktop, mobile, web)
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent app crashes and freezing
- ⚠️ Severe data loss issues
- 🐢 Significant lag and slow typing response
- ❌ Missing core formatting features on mobile
- 🔐 Permission and access errors
Standard Notes
From 3.8K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Fast and reliable sync
- 🔒 Excellent privacy and security
- 👍 Simple and intuitive interface
- 📚 Great for organizing notes
- 💻 Cross-platform availability
Room to improve
- 🐛 Occasional bugs and crashes
- 🔑 Frustrating login/authentication issues
- 💰 Expensive premium subscription
- 📱 Limited features in free version
- 🖍️ Lack of formatting options
Bugs and requests
Zoho Writer
Reported bugs
23 issues- App crashes on document open
- Cursor jumps randomly in document
- Keyboard disappears during typing
- Punctuation disappears after saving
- Text erased or goes missing
Show 18 moreShow fewer
- Undo function behaves erratically
- Diacritics cause app crashes and data loss
- Apple Pencil input causes immediate crashes
- Documents fail to load with permission errors
- Data migration errors on new accounts
- Offline mode loses documents on sync
- Lag increases with document size
- Copy-paste corrupts text formatting
- App freezes on tutorial screen
- Documents deleted after app update
- Sync fails to reflect web version changes
- Microphone input text disappears
- App locks up during formatting operations
- Blank page display in read mode
- Random extra spaces between words
- Cursor placement in middle of words
- Update failure notifications
- App crashes when using WorkDrive integration
Requested features
18 requests- Dark mode for mobile app
- Text wrapping around images
- Adjustable image sizing
- Cover page and page formatting options
- Document list view (not just icon view)
Show 13 moreShow fewer
- Search within document contents
- Ability to save to specific folders
- Multi-select for batch operations
- Select all functionality
- Landscape view support
- Split-screen iPad support
- Cloud import from Dropbox/OneDrive
- Track changes feature
- Outline navigation on mobile
- Font size customization
- Margin adjustment controls
- Document templates
- Alphabetical document sorting
Standard Notes
Reported bugs
4 issues- Notes disappearing or getting deleted unexpectedly
- Sync issues between devices
- Keyboard and UI bugs on mobile
- Compatibility problems with older iOS versions
Requested features
5 requests- Add support for images and attachments
- Implement a more robust search function
- Introduce a dark mode option
- Allow for better note organization (folders, nested tags)
- Add undo/redo functionality
In-app purchases
Zoho Writer
No in-app purchases
Standard Notes
- Professional Plan7 Days trial$119.991 Year
Questions
Is Zoho Writer free?
Is Standard Notes free?
Which has better reviews, Zoho Writer or Standard Notes?
Do Zoho Writer or Standard Notes have ads?
Which is updated more often, Zoho Writer or Standard Notes?
Other comparisons















