Notes icon
Notes4.7 (3M+)

Jatisari Inovasi Studio

App Store

Report updated Apr 19, 2026

Notes is a well-regarded productivity app that is completely free. With a 4.7/5 rating from 2.9M reviews, it maintains solid user satisfaction. Users particularly appreciate simplicity and ease of use, though data loss and sync reliability remains a common concern.

What is Notes?

Notes is a cross-platform utility focused on high-speed thought capture and simple organization. It leverages deep OS hooks like Apple Pencil integration and Wear OS tiles to provide a friction-less entry point for general users. While it maintains a dominant market position with over 2.9 million ratings, recent performance issues and sync reliability have shifted user sentiment toward a declining trend.

Current Momentum

v2.0 · 2w ago

Maintenance

Notes is currently in maintenance mode, with no major feature updates released since version 2.0 in December 2025.

Active Nemesis

Evernote

Evernote

By Evernote

Other Rivals

Obsidian - Connected Notes
Bear: Markdown Notes
Notebook – Notes, Notepad
Standard Notes
Joplin
Craft: Notes, Documents, AI

7-Day Rank Pulse 🇺🇸

Productivity

No ranking data

ProductivityGrossing

Rating Pulse 🇺🇸

Recent User Mood

What makes this app unique?

What Does It Look Like?

Loading...

What Are The Key Features?

Location-Based RemindersDifferentiator

Triggers tasks based on geographic location.

Quick Note AccessDifferentiator

System-level shortcuts for instant capture without opening the full app.

Multimedia CaptureStandard

Support for PDFs, scanning, and handwriting.

How much does it cost?

Free
  • Completely free with no in-app purchases

The app is a loss-leader designed to increase ecosystem stickiness and data retention within the developer's broader product suite.

What do users think recently?

High confidence · Latest 100 of 2.9M total reviews analyzed

How did the latest release land?

Overall
4.7/ 5
(2.9M)
Current version
4.8/ 5
+0.1 vs overall
(572.2K)
Main signal post-update: simplicity and Ease of Use.

What is the recent mood?

Excited

Recent user voice shows a excited sentiment. Users appreciate simplicity and ease of use, but report data loss and sync reliability and missing power-user features.

What Users Love

Simplicity and Ease of Use

What Frustrates Users

Data Loss and Sync Reliability
Missing Power-User Features

View the full user-sentiment analysis

Mood gauge, ratings & review-volume history, every praise / complaint / request, and sentiment over time.

Go deeper

What is the competitive landscape for Notes?

How's The Productivity Market?

How does it evolve in the Productivity market?

Rank progression

1 active ranking tracked — 30-day window

No rank history available for this chart.

The rivals identified

The outtake for Notes

Strengths to defend, gaps to attack

Core Strengths

  • Native OS integration (Quick Note, Apple Pencil)
  • Massive social proof (2.9M+ ratings)
  • Zero-cost model with no ads

Critical Frictions

  • Sync engine instability (data loss reports)
  • Lack of internal note search
  • No Markdown support

Growth Levers

  • AI-assisted note summarization
  • Structured data/Smart Folders for power users

Market Threats

  • User trust erosion due to reliability issues
  • Migration to Obsidian/Bear for formatting features

What are the next best moves?

high

Audit and stabilize the sync engine

Data loss is the #1 critical complaint theme, with users reporting losing 'years of notes,' posing a terminal churn risk.

medium

Implement 'Find in Note' functionality

Explicitly requested by users in sentiment data to improve navigation within long-form notes.

medium

Add basic Markdown support

Identified as a key feature gap compared to contenders like Obsidian and Bear, frequently cited by migrating users.

Feature Gaps vs Competitors

  • Relational databases (available in Evernote)
  • Markdown support (available in Obsidian and Bear)
  • AI-powered content generation (available in Evernote)
  • Note version history (available in Simplenote)

Key Takeaways

Notes is a top-tier utility for speed-to-capture, but it is currently at a crossroads. While its free, integrated nature provides a massive moat, the 'Frustrated' user base reporting data loss represents a significant threat to its reputation that must be resolved before expanding the feature set.

Where Is It Heading?

Declining

High-frequency reports of data loss and sync failure in recent reviews.

Performance lag and widget refresh issues reported since the last major update.

Recent updates focused on maintenance rather than addressing requested feature gaps like Markdown.

FAQ

Is Notes good for long-term journaling and storage?
While designed for quick capture, recent user reviews highlight a risk of data loss and sync issues. For critical long-term storage, users may want to verify backups frequently or consider local-first alternatives like Obsidian.
Notes vs Evernote: which is better for power users?
Evernote offers advanced features like relational databases, AI summarization, and deep PDF search. Notes is superior for 'speed-to-capture' via lock-screen shortcuts but lacks the structured organization tools found in Evernote.
Why are my notes disappearing or not syncing?
Recent sentiment data shows a 'medium' frequency of sync reliability complaints. Users report notes disappearing overnight or failing to sync with iCloud/Google despite being connected, suggesting a current instability in the sync engine.
What is a good free alternative with Markdown support?
If you require Markdown for formatting, Zoho Notebook and Simplenote are free alternatives that offer cross-platform syncing, filling a gap currently present in the standard Notes app.

Disclosure: Independent intel to help mobile builders succeed.

AI-powered analysis with editorial review, built from publicly available sources. Marlvel.ai is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Notes, its developer, the app publisher, Apple, or Google Play. All trademarks, logos, and screenshots referenced remain the property of their respective owners.

What's new

The product has transitioned from a stable, well-regarded utility to one facing critical reliability issues and a lack of feature innovation, resulting in a declining outlook.

declined

Emergence of Critical Data Loss Complaints

shifted

Transition to Maintenance Mode

shifted

Feature Set Re-prioritization

declined

Increased Focus on Technical Debt

Cite this report

Marlvel.ai. “Notes Intelligence Report.” Updated Apr 19, 2026. https://marlvel.ai/apps/notes

Agent Markdown (.md)See methodologyContact support

Data licensed under CC-BY-NC 4.0