Notebook vs Brain;Notes
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Notebook
Capture your thoughts, ideas, and tasks with a versatile digital notebook. Create rich notes with text, files, audio, and video. Organize content visually, collaborate in real-time, and access everything across your devices.
- Rich note creation with text, files, audio, and video
- Checklist creation for task management
- Bookmark collection and offline reading
- Kanban-style note organization
- Real-time collaboration and sharing
- AI-powered journaling suggestions
- Cross-device and cloud synchronization
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Zoho Notebook is a free, ad-free note-taking app for students, teams and researchers: capture, find and reuse what you write down — typed notes, Apple Pencil handwriting, voice recordings with AI transcription, checklists, files and document scans in one note. Syncs across iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and other devices. WHAT PEOPLE USE NOTEBOOK FOR 1. MEETING AND LECTURE NOTES Record with audio or video cards; Notebook AI turns it into searchable text with timestamps, so you jump straight to the decision instead of replaying it. Structured minutes with title, participants, decisions and action points sit in the note beside your highlights. Record screen and self at once; longer videos get chapters. 2. STUDY AND RESEARCH Record lectures and search the transcript weeks later. Scan textbooks and business cards, handwrite and sketch with Apple Pencil, use OCR to find text inside photos and handwritten notes, so nothing you captured becomes unfindable. A long note becomes an AI mind map before an exam. 3. DAILY TO-DOS AND JOURNALING Dedicated checklist cards keep tasks beside your notes, and recurring reminders keep them on schedule. Journaling prompts come from your own activity, easier to keep than a blank page. 4. FILES, SCANS, AND SAVED READING Add PDFs, Word docs and spreadsheets with file cards. Articles, videos, recipes and how-tos become Smart Cards, formatted automatically, readable offline and ad-free. Group it all into nested collections. QUESTIONS PEOPLE ASK Is it free? Yes, with 2GB of free storage and no ads. Notebook Pro adds more storage, longer notes, larger attachments, Email-In to save emails as notes, premium covers, and custom recurring reminders. Can I move my notes from Evernote, Google Keep, or OneNote? Yes, with dedicated migration tools; it arrives organized. Is my data private? Notes are encrypted in transit and at rest. We never sell your data and never show ads. Lock notes or notebooks with a password, Touch ID or Face ID; previews stay hidden until unlocked. Does it work offline? Yes. Create, edit and read offline, then pick up on another device once it syncs to the cloud. What can Notebook AI do? Transcribe audio and video, build mind maps, summarize and simplify, fix grammar, set tone (casual, professional, friendly, direct, or confident), translate into any language, draft notes, checklists, tables, code or a template from a prompt, and suggest tags. Notebook AI is a separate add-on. Does it use on-device AI and Siri? Yes. An on-device Knowledge Graph links ideas across notebooks and answers questions from your own notes. Siri creates and updates notes by voice with the app closed, and On-Screen Awareness summarizes what's on screen without switching apps. Can I share with non-users? Yes. @mention people to collaborate in real time, or publish a public note or video by link. MORE INSIDE - Search by title, content, tag, collaborator, or notebook; filter by any card type, contact, or link; search within one note; sort by date or relevance, with auto-suggestions and recent searches, offline and across languages - iPhone: text-search audio notes, share via iMessage, dictate with Siri, recent notes from the Notification Bar, SharePlay in calls - iPad: drag and drop, split view, slide over, multiple windows, Stage Manager - Apple Watch: record audio, scribble notes, check off lists, add photo notes, record in one tap from a watch face complication - VoiceOver and a dark interface - Roll back to any of a note's last 10 versions Subscriptions auto-renew unless cancelled and are charged to your Apple Account. Prices vary by location. Manage in your account settings. Privacy - https://www.zoho.com/privacy.html Terms - https://www.zoho.com/terms.html
Brain;Notes
Organize your thoughts and information with a scrapbook-style notepad. Freely add text, photos, maps, URLs, and voice memos to multiple workspaces. Notes can be secured with biometric authentication and exported as PDFs.
- Scrapbook-style organization
- Support for text, photo, location, URL, and voice notes
- Multiple workspaces with custom wallpapers
- Biometric note locking
- Calendar and Reminder integration
- PDF export and AirDrop support
- Stable and Shared note modes
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"Brain;Notes" is a scrapbook-like sticky note that uses sticky notes to efficiently organize your ideas and information. You can freely write down not only text but also maps, photos, URLs, and other notes on your workspace. It can be used in a variety of ways depending on your ideas and thoughts, such as mind mapping. Main Features ・Simple menu-driven user interface. ・Available note types: text, photo, location, URL, and voice. ・Voice notes can be recorded for 60 seconds. ・Multiple workspaces are available for managing notes. ・Each workspace can have its own wallpaper. ・Each note can be locked by biometric authentication. ・Notes can be created as events in Calendar.app. ・Notes can be registered in Reminder.app. ・Workspaces can be exported as PDF files. ・AirDrop is supported. ・App supports for Sharing. (Notes can be created by "Share" from other apps. Notes can be created by dragging from other apps.) Unique Features: ・When a note is set to "Stable" mode, it will appear in all workspaces. If you create a new workspace, the note will still appear automatically. ・When a note is set to "Shared" mode, it will only appear in the workspace you select. Attentions: ・There is no ability to delete a workspace. However, you can delete all notes on a workspace with a three-finger tap gesture. Please be careful not to create too many workspaces. ・If there are less than 10 notes left, the app will automatically refill notes to 10 at midnight. Gesture Operations: Workspace (gray area): ・Single Tap: shows menu. ・Double Tap: creates new note. ・Two Finger Tap: reset wallpaper. ・Three Finger Tap: deletes all notes on the workspace. Sticky notes: ・Single Tap: shows menu. ・Double Tap: transforms appearance. ・Long Press: shows context menu.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Notebook at 64% against Brain;Notes's 0%. Notebook also leads on rating (4.7 vs 1.0) and ratings volume (24K vs 1). Brain;Notes's advantage is monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases). 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. Notebook sells 7 in-app purchases, starting at $2.49 per month and Brain;Notes sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Notebook holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 1.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Notebook has 24K ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 64% of Notebook's written reviews are positive against 0% of Brain;Notes's.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 6 days. The most recent releases landed on October 14, 2026 and October 3, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Notebook | Brain;Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (24K ratings) — better | 1.0 (1 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 64.4% of reviews — better | 0.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 24K — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 6 days | Every 6 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — better | iPad |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 — better | 17.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 220 MB | 9 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Zoho Corporation | Kouichi Abe |
Customer experience
Notebook
Brain;Notes
Bugs and requests
Notebook
Reported bugs
4 issues- Notes disappearing or getting corrupted
- Freezing and crashing issues
- Inconsistent behavior when editing notes
- Syncing problems across devices
Requested features
5 requests- Improved sorting and reordering options for notes
- Enhanced search capabilities
- Ability to export notes in various formats
- More customization options for notebook covers
- Integration with other productivity apps
Brain;Notes
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Notebook
- Notebook Pro$2.491 Month
- Notebook Pro Plus$3.991 Month
- Notebook AI$4.991 Month
Show 4 moreShow fewer
- Notebook Personal$14.991 Year
- Notebook Pro2 variants$24.991 Year
- Notebook Pro Plus$39.991 Year
- Notebook AI$49.991 Year
Brain;Notes
- 20 notes$0.99
- 50 notes$1.99
- 80 notes$2.99
Show 1 moreShow fewer
- 150 notes$4.99









