DS note vs Filebar
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
DS note
Create, organize, and share notes anywhere, even offline. This app syncs with your personal cloud storage, allowing you to manage to-do lists, project information, and memories. Organize with tags, notebooks, and shortcuts for easy access and sharing.
- Note creation and editing
- Offline access
- Tagging and notebook organization
- Note sharing
- Sync with Synology NAS
Read full descriptionHide full description
**You must own a Synology NAS to run this app, and be running the Note Station 1.1 to get the complete set of features** Whether for creating your weekly to-do list, sharing information on projects with your teammates, or simply describing your best holiday memories, DS note’s editing features make it easy and pleasant to take note of anything you want, anywhere you need, even with no network. Use tags, notebooks and shortcuts to organise all your notes, and share them instantly with anyone you want. And that’s always safe as DS note keeps it all in sync with your note library on your Synology NAS server, your personal cloud. Find all detailed features about the app on our website: https://www.synology.com/dsm/software_spec/note_station
Filebar
A versatile multimedia player that handles video and music playback from local files, cloud services, and media servers. It also includes robust file management capabilities for both local and remote storage.
- Plays numerous video formats (MP4, MKV, AVI, etc.)
- Supports local and cloud music playback (MP3, FLAC)
- Manages cloud services (SMB, WebDAV, FTP, SFTP)
- Browse and play from media servers (Plex, Emby)
- Comprehensive file management (move, copy, delete)
- Batch renaming for files and folders
Read full descriptionHide full description
# Filebar Filebar is a modern multimedia player that offers video player, music player, cloud services and file management features. ## Main features ### Video player Filebar offers a powerful video player that allows you to play more video formats, including standard MP4, M4V and MOV, plus MKV, AVI, WMV, FLV, OMG, OGV, 3GP, RMVB and more. You can browse and play videos from your mac, pc, NAS, FTP, and also support playing videos from media servers (such as Emby/Plex/Jellyfin media server), and you can also play videos from cloud services. ### Music Player Filebar provides a nice local music player for playing local and cloud music, supported audio formats are MP3/M4A/FLAC. ### Cloud Services Cloud services are another core feature of Filebar. With Filebar you can easily manage cloud services, including creating folders/deleting/playing/batch renaming/viewing information. It also provides support for remote protocols. The supported protocols are SMB, WebDAV, Synology, FTP, SFTP. ### File Management Filebar also provides a file manager. You can manage your local and remote files: move, delete, edit, copy, upload, batch rename, etc. ## Customer Support Feel free to contact us if your have any suggestions or ideas. - Website: https://fileball.app - Email: filebox.app@outlook.com
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Filebar at 4.3 against DS note's 2.8. Filebar also leads on review sentiment (67% vs 31%) and update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 3 months). DS note's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1). On price, ads, 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
Both are free to download. Filebar sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. DS note asks for nothing beyond the download.
Filebar holds the better App Store score, 4.3 against 2.8. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 109 and 345 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 31% of DS note's written reviews are positive against 67% of Filebar's.
DS note ships an update every 3 months, Filebar every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 17, 2026 and October 18, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | DS note | Filebar |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.8 (109 ratings) | 4.3 (345 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 30.7% of reviews | 66.8% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 109 | 345 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Every 2 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple TV |
| Requires iOS | 14.0 — better | 15 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 38 MB | 142 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Synology Inc. | 水峰 徐 |
Customer experience
DS note
Filebar
User reviews
DS note
From 109 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🔒 Data stored on personal NAS for privacy
- 🔄 Reliable synchronization across devices
- 💰 Free alternative to Evernote
- 📱 Available on multiple platforms (iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, Web)
- ✅ Simple and intuitive interface
Room to improve
- 🐛 Notes disappear when app left open without saving
- 🐛 Frequent crashes and app instability
- 🐛 Copy-paste functionality unreliable
- 🐛 Keyboard arrow keys don't work on iPad
- 🐛 Apple Pencil causes app crashes
Filebar
From 345 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Easy and convenient to use
- 🚀 Fast and responsive
- 🔒 Secure file management
- 💡 Excellent media playback capabilities
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent crashes and bugs
- 🔥 Overheating issues on certain devices
- 🕰️ Slow loading times for large media libraries
- 🚫 Lack of support for certain cloud storage services
Bugs and requests
DS note
Reported bugs
26 issues- Notes content erased when leaving app open
- App crashes on startup
- App crashes when using Apple Pencil
- App crashes during text input with swipe-to-text
- App crashes when printing
Show 21 moreShow fewer
- Keyboard disappears during note editing
- Cannot paste text from clipboard
- Arrow keys non-functional in note body
- Sync stuck at certain percentage
- Login failures with QuickConnect
- HTTPS connection not working on iOS
- Formatting changes after sync between devices
- Shared notes don't sync properly
- Copy-paste causes font changes
- Phantom bullets in lists after paste
- Cursor control issues in text editing
- Images not displaying or loading slowly
- Voice input crashes app
- Checklist items not syncing in shared notes
- iPad version text input issues
- Incompatibility with iOS 14 and 15
- DynDNS connection broken after updates
- Sync conflicts between devices
- Search returns irrelevant results
- Notification functionality unreliable
- iPad Pro resolution not interpreted correctly
Requested features
26 requests- Dark mode for all platforms
- Apple Pencil support for iPad
- Arrow key support for Bluetooth keyboards
- Auto-save functionality
- Offline mode for note creation
Show 21 moreShow fewer
- Markdown support
- Code block formatting
- Table creation and editing
- PDF import and annotation
- Export to PDF and other formats
- Nested notebooks/folders (sub-notes)
- Drag-and-drop file attachments
- Web clipper browser extension
- Recurring tasks/reminders
- Task assignment to other users
- Calendar integration
- Improved search functionality
- Import from Evernote (.enex files)
- Widgets for home screen
- Better formatting options
- Image editing and markup
- Handwriting recognition
- Split-screen support on iPad
- Collaborative editing
- Password-protected note sharing
- TLS 1.3 support
Filebar
Reported bugs
4 issues- Playback issues with 4K and high-bitrate videos
- Inconsistent behavior when connecting to SMB/FTP servers
- Subtitle display problems, especially for Chinese characters
- Inability to resume playback from the last position
Requested features
5 requests- Add support for Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos
- Implement a more intuitive and customizable user interface
- Introduce a background download/upload feature
- Add a built-in subtitle search and download functionality
- Implement a cross-device playback sync feature
In-app purchases
DS note
No in-app purchases
Filebar
- Filebar Pro Lifetime$9.99
