TheBrain vs Cherry Notes
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
TheBrain
This app helps you capture, connect, and visualize all your ideas, notes, and files across devices. It acts as a digital memory, showing related items and allowing for dynamic mind mapping and powerful search to help you recall information instantly.
- Award-winning visualization
- Networked notes with backlinks
- Dynamic mind mapping
- Easy idea capture
- Cross-device sync
- Powerful search
- Visual file management
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YOUR DIGITAL MEMORY. VISUALIZED. TheBrain is the unique knowledge app that helps you capture everything — ideas, notes, web pages, files, photos — and connect it all the way you naturally think. Stop hunting through folders, tabs, and search bars. Start seeing your knowledge as a living network you can navigate with a tap. Described by the Wall Street Journal as "Software that thinks like you do" and MacLife as "the most compelling mind mapping adaptation we've encountered." Winner of KMWorld's Trendsetting Products award. WHY THEBRAIN? Traditional notes apps trap your ideas in folders, tags, or endless lists. TheBrain lets every piece of information connect to anything else — so the right idea finds you the moment you need it. It's note-taking, mind mapping, file management, and AI rolled into one beautiful experience that works the same on every device. KEY FEATURES CEREBRO — TALK TO YOUR BRAIN WITH AI Our built-in agentic AI assistant. Ask Cerebro anything — and let it create new thoughts and notes, surface exactly what you need, summarize long documents, suggest meaningful links, or just have a conversation about what you know. It can do anything you can do — only faster. DYNAMIC THOUGHT NETWORK Move beyond conventional mind maps and folders. TheBrain's animated visualization shows your ideas, their context, and the relationships between them — at any scale. Tap a thought, and the entire network reorganizes around it. NETWORKED NOTES Rich notes shown in context with automatic backlinks and concept discovery. Hybrid WYSIWYG + Markdown writing, powerful tables, resizable images, math, and folding — all the modern editor essentials. EVERYTHING IN ONE PLACE Attach web pages, PDFs, photos, and documents to any thought. Link people, projects, files, and ideas in a single living workspace. POWERFUL SEARCH Find any note, file, web page, or idea in seconds. Every match appears in the context of your thought network, so you instantly see how it relates to everything else you know. SEAMLESS SYNC ACROSS DEVICES Your brain is always with you. Mobile, Mac, Windows, Linux, and web stay in sync — even with large brains. Smart Sync downloads attachments on demand, keeping your brain fast and lightweight on every device. INFINITE SCALE Effortlessly handles hundreds of thousands of items and many gigabytes of data — without slowing down. COLLABORATE AND SHARE Publish your brain online for the world, or sync thoughts privately with your team. Great for shared knowledge bases, project planning, and team research. ==================================== WAYS TO USE THEBRAIN • Build your second brain — a living reflection of how you think, ready when you need it. • Manage everything in your life: projects, people, goals, files, and ideas in one place. • Capture interesting articles, videos, and references so they're activated when you need them. • Organize trips, travel, and major life events with all the right context at hand. • Power your research — go deeper on any concept and see how it connects to everything else. • Turn goals into action by linking them with the resources needed to achieve them. • Build a knowledge base that sparks new ideas and breakthroughs. • Link people, projects, and information for a smarter view of your business. • Create topic brains around your passions, hobbies, and special interests. • Plan personal projects like home renovations, weddings, or major purchases. GET STARTED IN MINUTES Start with a single thought — your name, a project, an idea you want to explore. Add a few connections. Within minutes you'll understand why people have trusted TheBrain for over two decades. For the best experience, install TheBrain on your phone, tablet, and computer. Our iPhone, iPad, Mac, Windows, and other mobile clients all sync seamlessly — your best thinking is always with you.
Cherry Notes
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Cherry Notes is a task list that outlives the chat. Capture notes, tasks, features, and bugs on your phone - then connect your AI coding agent to work through them. No more pasting lists into chat every session. The problem: AI coding agents are powerful, but they forget. Every session starts blank - you paste your bug list, the agent works, you close it, and tomorrow you're pasting again. And as chat grows, earlier messages fall out of context. "I'm working on item 5" is just text - the agent can't claim work, track what's done, or release items back. The solution: Cherry Notes lives outside the chat. The agent reads your items and gets a clean, structured response every time, regardless of context window state - whether the session is 5 minutes or 5 days old. You cherry-pick an item, the agent works on it, and marks it done. This state is in a database, not a chat log. It survives session restarts, context clears, and agent switches. Captured when you think of it. You're in line at coffee, think of a new feature, jot it down. It's synced before you reach your desk - capture anywhere, the agent picks it up when it's time to work. Flag it and forget it: Swipe to flag any item. A connected agent automatically picks up flagged work - point it at a project and walk away. How it works: 1. Create projects and add items (ideas, features, bugs, tasks) 2. Connect an AI coding agent (Claude Code, ChatGPT, Cursor, Codex, GitHub Copilot, Gemini, Devin, and other MCP-compatible agents) 3. The agent reads your items, cherry-picks work, and marks it done 4. You stay in control - approve work before it's marked complete Features: - Quick capture: jot down ideas as they come, organized into projects - Flag for pickup: mark items for automatic pickup by your agent - Agent integration: connect any MCP-compatible AI coding agent - Session management: see which agents are connected and revoke access anytime - Cherry-pick workflow: agents claim specific items before starting work - Three-state items: todo, picked (in progress), done - Drag to reorder: arrange items exactly how your agent should see them - Done items visibility: control how many completed items the agent sees - Export data: export everything anytime from Settings - Face ID lock: protect your data with biometric authentication - Apple Sign In, Google Sign In, or email/password - Multi-project: separate lists per repo, each with its own profile - Project profiles: software, games, content, or research - Real-time sync across all your devices - Works offline: capture without a connection, syncs when you're back Use cases: - Software projects: track bugs, features, refactors, and tech debt - Game development: capture mechanics, levels, and polish items - Content creation: plan videos, articles, and creative projects - Research: organize tasks, hypotheses, and follow-ups Privacy first: - No tracking, no advertising, no selling or sharing data - No third-party analytics or crash reporting - Revoke agent access anytime - Delete your account anytime - permanently removes all data Cherry Notes Pro: Free includes up to 5 projects with 20 items each. Pro lifts the limits via auto-renewable subscription. Payment is charged to your Apple ID at purchase confirmation. Renews automatically unless canceled at least 24 hours before period end. Manage anytime in Settings > Apple ID > Subscriptions. If you use Claude Code, ChatGPT, Cursor, Codex, Copilot, Gemini, Devin, Cline, Zed, or any MCP-compatible agent, Cherry Notes bridges the gap between capturing ideas on your phone and having your agent ship code. Your agent forgets. Cherry Notes doesn't. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://cherrynotes.app/privacy
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is iOS requirement: TheBrain at 15.0 against Cherry Notes's 17.0. On price, update cadence, 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
Both are free to download. TheBrain sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $17.99 per month and Cherry Notes sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
TheBrain ships an update every 2 weeks, Cherry Notes every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 12, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | TheBrain | Cherry Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (174 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 44.3% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 174 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks — better | Every 3 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 260 MB | 26 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | TheBrain Technologies LP | Closing CRM LLC |
Bugs and requests
TheBrain
Reported bugs
5 issues- Crashes on iOS 9
- Inability to open brains
- Freezing after each action
- Login and account issues
- Sync problems
Requested features
7 requests- Offline mode
- Improved mobile UI and UX
- Better integration with other apps
- More affordable pricing options
- Enhanced search and filtering
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- Split-screen support on iPad
- Handwriting and stylus support
Cherry Notes
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
TheBrain
- TheBrain Pro Monthly$17.991 Month
- TheBrain Pro Annual$189.991 Year
Cherry Notes
- Cherry Notes Pro Monthly$4.991 Month
- Cherry Notes Pro Yearly$29.991 Year









