Drafts vs Heynote

Drafts

• Jotting text down quickly on iPhone, iPad, Mac or Apple Watch
• People who route notes into other apps such as task managers
• Automation fans who script their own text workflows

Heynote

• Developers who need a holding place for JSON, logs and code snippets
• Quick calculations and unit conversions next to working notes
• People who want scratch notes kept as plain files on their own disk

Drafts

• Apps exist only for iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch. The Web Capture page can create drafts in any browser but cannot review or edit them.
• Creating and editing actions, workspaces, themes, Mail Drop and the AI chat console all require the Drafts Pro subscription.
• Sync runs through iCloud and needs the same iCloud account, with iCloud Drive active, on every device.
• A subscription bought on iOS cannot be restored on the Mac App Store or the reverse; it carries over only through a shared iCloud account.

Heynote

• Desktop only: there is no mobile app, and the author says one is out of scope for now.
• No sync of its own. The docs suggest a file-syncing service such as Dropbox and warn that editing one buffer on two machines at once can cause conflicts.
• The Windows build is not code-signed, so Windows may show a warning when installing it.
• The code is under the MIT license with the Commons Clause, which does not allow selling the software.

Drafts

Capture first, file later

The app opens to a new page with the keyboard ready. Entries go to an inbox and can be tagged, flagged or archived afterwards.

Actions

Actions copy, share or send text to other apps and services. Running installed actions is free; creating and editing them needs Drafts Pro.

Dictation and transcription

A custom dictation interface built on Apple's speech recognition, plus transcription of existing audio and video files into text.

Workspaces

Saved views of the drafts list that restore a preferred tag filter, query and sort order. Workspaces are a Drafts Pro feature.

Capture from outside the app

Text can arrive through Siri, widgets, the share extension, a personal Mail Drop email address (Pro) and a Web Capture page for any browser.

Automation hooks

Supports Shortcuts, URL schemes, AppleScript and JavaScript scripting in actions, and Pro adds an AI chat console that can query and edit drafts.

Heynote

Buffers divided into blocks

A buffer is a persistent stretch of text split into blocks. One keystroke adds a block, and select-all picks the current block first, then the whole buffer.

A language for each block

Each block has its own language, detected automatically or set by hand, with syntax highlighting for more than 30 languages and auto-formatting for JSON, JavaScript, HTML, CSS and Markdown.

Math blocks

A math block works as a calculator pad with variables, functions and unit and currency conversion. It is built on Math.js expressions.

Multiple buffers

Besides the default Scratch buffer you can create any number of buffers, open them in tabs, sort them into directories and search across them. Each one is a .txt file on disk.

Inline images with markup

Images pasted or dropped into a buffer appear inline, can be resized and annotated with a freehand drawing tool, and copied back to the clipboard.

Keyboard control

Default, Emacs-like or custom key bindings, a command palette, multi-cursor editing and an optional global hotkey that shows or hides the app.

Drafts

• Free$0

  Unlimited drafts, editing and iCloud sync, plus the actions that ship with the app or come from the Drafts Directory.

• Drafts Pro$19.99

  per year; $1.99 billed monthly

  Create and edit actions, themes and custom icons, workspaces, the AI chat console, Mail Drop and enhanced widgets on all Apple devices.

• Drafts Pro Patron$29.99

  billing period not shown on the App Store listing

  A supporter tier with the same features as Drafts Pro, for people who want to pay more toward development.

Heynote

• Heynote$0

  The full app as Mac Universal, Arm and Intel builds, a Windows installer, and an AppImage or Snap for Linux.

Drafts

• Annual discount

  Annual billing costs about 16% less

  Drafts Pro is $19.99 a year or $1.99 a month, so twelve monthly payments come to $23.88 against $19.99 for the annual option.

• Other savings

  Family Sharing on both subscriptions

  The monthly and annual Drafts Pro subscriptions support Apple Family Sharing, so one subscription can unlock Pro features for the family group.

Heynote

No public discounts listed.