Comparison

Gift Exchange Lite vs Private Notes.

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

Head to head
About

Gift Exchange Lite

Organize secret Santa and other gift exchanges with ease. This app allows participants to be selected from contacts or entered manually, with options for complex giving and receiving rules. It prevents repeat drawings and can notify participants via email or print results.

Highlights
  • Participant selection from contacts or manual entry
  • Customizable giving and receiving rules
  • Exclusion grouping for family members
  • Prevents drawing the same name twice
  • Email notifications to participants
  • AirPrint compatibility for printed results
  • History of past drawings
Read full description

The easy and fun way to do your name drawings for gift exchanges. Participants may be selected from contacts or entered manually. After the drawing is completed the app will notify the participants of their names by e-mail. Gift Exchange Lite allows up to seven participants to be chosen from the device contacts or entered manually. Grouping feature allows exclusions of spouses or group members from drawing a name in the same group. Memory of previous drawing prevents people from drawing the same name as the previous drawing. Each participant may be designated as "Gives and receives a gift in shared exchange", "Gives and receives in shared exchange, also may give to receive only participant(s)", "Does not receive gift, may give to receive only participant(s)", or "Does not give gift, receive only. For example, child". The results can be printed to an Airprint printer for each participant without email, or who want a printed copy. History display shows the name drawn and gift given for each person for previous drawings. Compatible with PC Gift Exchange files. You may email your *.gx files from PC to yourself and open on iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. Multiple exchanges may be created and saved. For example, an exchange file can be used for your direct family. A separate file may be used for an exchange for your spouse’s family.

About

Private Notes.

Securely store your personal thoughts, ideas, and text with a passcode or biometric authentication. This app offers intuitive text editing tools and a straightforward interface for organizing timestamped notes.

Highlights
  • Biometric and passcode security
  • Intuitive copy/paste/cut
  • Text formatting (underline, bold, italic)
  • Timestamped notes
  • Straightforward user interface
Features
Read full description

Have personal notes you would like to keep secret? Look no further. With this app you can safely secure personal thoughts, ideas or any text with with Apple’s touch/Face ID or a passcode. FEATURES: -Intuitive copy/paste/cut functions are at your disposal. -Underline, embolden or change any word in italic. -Straight forward user interface allows you to quickly organize your timestamped notes.

Screenshots

Gift Exchange Lite4 screens
Private Notes.3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Gift Exchange Lite at 54% against Private Notes.'s 14%. Gift Exchange Lite also leads on ads (none vs shown) and monetization model (free vs ad-supported). Private Notes.'s advantage is update cadence (every 2 months vs every 13 months). On price, in-app purchases, device support and iOS requirement 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Gift Exchange Lite ships an update every 13 months, Private Notes. every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on September 30, 2026 and October 12, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Gift Exchange Lite versus Private Notes.: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterGift Exchange LitePrivate Notes.
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.3 (9 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews53.8% of reviews — better14.3% of reviews
Number of ratings9 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 13 monthsEvery 2 months — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree — betterAd-supported
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS1212.0
Further details — not scored
Size1 MB16 MB
Age rating4+4+
Developerwilsonware.comWALABOK LLC

Customer experience

Gift Exchange Lite

All ratings9 ratings
Positive55.6%
Neutral11.1%
Negative33.3%
Written reviews13 reviews
Positive53.8%
Neutral15.4%
Negative30.8%

Private Notes.

Written reviews7 reviews
Positive14.3%
Neutral0.0%
Negative85.7%

In-app purchases

None

Gift Exchange Lite

No in-app purchases

None

Private Notes.

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Gift Exchange Lite free?
Gift Exchange Lite is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Private Notes. free?
Private Notes. is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Gift Exchange Lite or Private Notes. have ads?
Private Notes. shows ads; Gift Exchange Lite does not.
Which is updated more often, Gift Exchange Lite or Private Notes.?
Gift Exchange Lite ships an update every 13 months, and Private Notes. every 2 months. Most recently, Gift Exchange Lite was updated on September 30, 2026 and Private Notes. on October 12, 2026.

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