DS note vs Swift Paperless
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
Swift Paperless
This app allows users to manage documents directly from their iOS device. It seamlessly integrates with a self-hosted document management system, ensuring data privacy and control. Easily find, categorize, and add new documents on the go.
- Native iOS integration
- Paperless-ngx compatibility
- Document finding
- Document categorization
- Add documents from phone
Read full descriptionHide full description
Swift Paperless is a native iOS app that interacts with the popular Paperless-ngx document management software. Paperless-ngx is self-hosted, and therefore fully privacy preserving: you control your data! With Swift Paperless, it's easy to find, categorize and also add documents from your phone!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Swift Paperless at 97% against DS note's 31%. Swift Paperless also leads on rating (4.9 vs 2.8) and update cadence (monthly vs every 3 months). DS note's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 4) and device support (4 vs 2). On price, ratings volume, ads and monetization model 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. Swift Paperless sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. DS note asks for nothing beyond the download.
Swift Paperless holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 2.8. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 109 and 72 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 31% of DS note's written reviews are positive against 97% of Swift Paperless's.
DS note ships an update every 3 months, Swift Paperless monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 1, 2026 and September 29, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | DS note | Swift Paperless |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.8 (109 ratings) | 4.9 (72 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 30.7% of reviews | 97.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 109 — better | 72 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Monthly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 14.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 38 MB | 29 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Synology Inc. | Paul Gessinger |
Customer experience
DS note
Swift Paperless
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
Swift Paperless
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
DS note
No in-app purchases
Swift Paperless
- Coffee money$3.99
- Proper thank-you$8.99
- Above and beyond$17.99
Show 1 moreShow fewer
- Legendary generosity$44.99
