Author vs Quick Notes
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Author
This app serves as a companion to its macOS counterpart, offering a minimalist and powerful writing experience on iOS devices. It allows users to create and manage their written content seamlessly across platforms.
- Minimalist writing interface
- Powerful writing tools
- iOS companion app
- Syncs with macOS version
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The iOS companion to Author macOS.
Quick Notes
This app helps you quickly capture thoughts, lists, and reminders as they come to you. Easily organize and export your ideas to over 20 other applications, or use Siri Shortcuts for custom workflows. Sync your notes across devices with iCloud and set intuitive reminders.
- Quick note-taking
- Export to 20+ apps
- iCloud Sync
- Intuitive reminders
- Automatic date & URL recognition
- Widgets
- Siri & Shortcuts integration
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Capture's intuitive interface and smart features turn your mobile device into a powerful thought organizer, letting you seize, sort, and execute your ideas with unprecedented ease. • Quick Notes: Immediacy is key, and with Capture, the moment inspiration hits, you're ready. Our quick note-taking feature is designed for those who think fast and want to write faster. Notes, lists, and reminders are captured in real-time, ensuring no idea ever slips through the cracks. Brain dump on the go and stay one step ahead of your inspiration. • Export to 20+ apps: Looking to migrate your captures to other platforms like Obsidian, Things 3, Todoist, iA Writer, Craft, Omnifocus 4, Fantastical, UpNote, NotePlan, Reminders or Apple Calendar? Capture's export functionality allows you to move your content with ease. It's all about getting your thoughts out there, wherever 'there' might be, from to-do to calendar apps. In addition, you can run any Siri Shortcut as an export option, enabling all kinds of workflows by using the capture as input. • iCloud Sync: Keep your ideas and tasks in harmony across all your devices with Capture's iCloud Sync. Every note, list, and preference is automatically updated, ensuring you have access to your latest thoughts wherever you go. • Intuitive reminders: With our badge system, subtle yet effective reminders keep you informed of your tasks. These intuitive nudges ensure that important notes don't get lost in the shuffle, keeping you alert and on track. • Automatic date & URL recognition: Organization has never been so effortless. Capture's data recognition identifies your dates and URLs so you don't need to manually insert them. They are also pre-filled with your favorite export option. • Widgets: Access your captures instantly with our widgets right from your home and lock screen. Capture prioritizes convenience, giving you a visual snapshot of your latest thoughts and to-dos without having to open the app. • Share Extension: Add content to Capture with ease using the Share extension — available from any app. • Siri & Shortcuts: Capture thoughts hands-free with Siri voice commands and enhance your workflow with Siri Shortcuts to create, open, and search captures effortlessly. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Quick Notes at Free against Author's $19.99. Quick Notes also leads on rating (4.8 vs 3.0) and update cadence (every 4 days vs every 2 months). On review sentiment, ads, in-app purchases 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
Quick Notes is free to download; Author costs $19.99 up front. Author sells 2 one-off in-app purchases and Quick Notes sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Quick Notes holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 3.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Quick Notes has 287 ratings behind it against 5, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 73% of Author's written reviews are positive against 79% of Quick Notes's.
Author ships an update every 2 months, Quick Notes every 4 days. Both last shipped on September 22, 2026.
| Parameter | Author | Quick Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $19.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 3.0 (5 ratings) | 4.8 (287 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 73.1% of reviews | 79.4% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 5 | 287 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 4 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Vision Pro | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Vision Pro — better |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 18.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 4 MB | 194 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | The Augmented Text Company LTD | Furkan Simsir |
Customer experience
Author
Quick Notes
User reviews
Author
From 5 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- ✨ Clean, minimalist interface design
- 💡 Innovative concept mapping and mind mapping features
- 📚 Excellent citation and reference management
- ⌨️ Useful keyboard shortcuts and productivity features
- 🎯 Powerful outlining and document folding capabilities
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent crashes and data loss issues
- 📱 iOS/iPad app severely broken and non-functional
- 🔄 Syncing problems between devices
- 🎨 Limited formatting and customization options
- 📊 Poor image handling capabilities
Quick Notes
From 287 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Quick and easy capture
- 👍 Simple and intuitive UI
- 💡 Great for organizing information
- ✨ Satisfying categorization
- 💰 Lifetime license option
Room to improve
- 🐛 Defective, data loss
- 🐛 Sidebar sorting buggy
- 🐛 Crashes a lot
- 🐛 Mac app non-functional
- 🐛 MacOS app crashing
Bugs and requests
Author
Reported bugs
20 issues- App crashes frequently, causing data loss
- iOS app shows blank screen and won't open documents
- iPad app completely non-functional
- Text disappears or becomes greyed out during iCloud saves
- Vision OS app lacks cursor for text input
Show 15 moreShow fewer
- Ask AI feature shows infinite loading spinner
- Unexpected Russian pricing text displayed to US users
- App doesn't launch or open on some systems
- Files not detected in Downloads folder
- Cannot open documents created in desktop version on iOS
- Automatic file conversion to Liquid format breaks iOS compatibility
- Text rendering issues (white text on white background)
- Table function broken - cannot write in cells
- App lags and deletes lines when typing quickly
- Highlight feature not working
- Citations not resolving automatically
- Markdown export only exports preamble
- Copy-paste functionality issues
- French localization not working despite being advertised
- App not compatible with iOS 18 and latest macOS versions
Requested features
20 requests- iPad and iOS app that actually works
- Typewriter scrolling mode
- Variable screen width for large displays
- Complete LaTeX export with full file support
- Markdown support
Show 15 moreShow fewer
- Better image handling and integration
- Find and replace functionality
- Dark mode for older macOS versions
- Inline predictive text support
- Nested list creation and editing
- Paragraph indentation options
- Photo support on macOS version
- Keyboard shortcut reference guide
- Table editing improvements
- Integration with reference management software (Zotero, EndNote)
- Local AI endpoints or BYOK (Bring Your Own Key) for privacy
- Better onboarding and UI guidance for new users
- Typeface options (Courier, American Typewriter, serif fonts)
- Line spacing options (1.5, double spacing)
- Color themes and dark mode options
Quick Notes
Reported bugs
8 issues- Data loss/notes vanishing
- Sidebar sorting is buggy and breaks
- Mac app does not work
- App crashes frequently
- Stickie notes do not work on MacOS 14 Sonoma
Show 3 moreShow fewer
- MacOS App keeps crashing when hitting Enter key
- App keeps crashing when making lists
- Cannot share more than 1 note at a time
Requested features
19 requests- Batch operations (export/merge)
- More keyboard shortcuts for macOS
- Tags and coloring
- An "all items" view with grouping and sorting
- Calendar or timeline view
Show 14 moreShow fewer
- View and live-edit notes expanded
- Themes (black/white)
- Ability to share to Supernotes and Tasks
- Apple Watch app
- New items to appear at the bottom of the feed
- Ability to swipe left and right to move between lists
- App icon customization
- More widget presentation
- Visual customization
- Pin and archive lists
- Support for images
- WatchOS app with dictation
- Better Markdown support
- More keyboard shortcuts
In-app purchases
Author
- Export & AIFree
- Eng$1.99
Quick Notes
- Monthly3 Days trial$1.991 Month
- Yearly3 Days trial$9.991 Year
- Lifetime$19.99
