jottie vs apple notes

let's get this out of the way: apple notes is really good.

it's free. it syncs perfectly. it's already on your phone. if apple notes works for you, keep using it.

okay now that the lawyers are satisfied, let me tell you why i still built jottie.

what apple notes does well

honestly? a lot.

- rock solid sync across devices
- handwriting support that's actually good
- scanning documents works great
- shared notes and folders
- it's free and pre-installed

if you just need a place to write things down and find them in a list, apple notes is perfect. i used it for years.

where apple notes falls short

apple notes search is... fine. it finds notes that contain the exact words you type. that's it.

but what if you search for "pet" and your note says "dog"? nothing.

what if you search for "that conversation with sarah about the project" and your note says "met with sarah re: q3 launch"? nothing.

apple notes doesn't understand concepts. it matches strings.

the jottie difference

jottie uses semantic search. it understands what you mean, not just what you typed.

search "pet" and find notes about dogs, cats, veterinarian appointments. search "that meeting" and find notes that are actually about meetings, even if the word "meeting" isn't there.

it also auto-tags everything. write "coffee with sarah on monday at blue bottle" and jottie tags it with sarah (linked to your contacts), monday (resolved to the actual date), and blue bottle (linked to maps).

you don't have to do any of this manually. it just happens.

the privacy thing

here's where it gets interesting. both jottie and apple notes keep your data on-device and in the apple ecosystem.

jottie's ai features run locally using apple's ml frameworks. no server. no internet required. same privacy model as apple notes.

your notes never leave unless you opt into cloud sync. and even then, it's your choice.

so which should you use

use apple notes if:

- you mostly use search to find notes by title or exact text
- you share notes with other people a lot
- you use handwriting regularly
- free is important to you

use jottie if:

- you have lots of notes and can't find things
- you want search that understands concepts
- you hate manually organizing and tagging
- you want notes connected to contacts, calendar, locations
- you use siri shortcuts for automation

my honest take

i use both. apple notes for shared grocery lists with my partner. jottie for everything else.

they solve different problems. apple notes is a great general-purpose notes app. jottie is specifically for people who write a lot of notes and can never find them later.

if that's you, give jottie a try. if apple notes is working great, stick with it.

no hard feelings. we're all just trying to remember things.