Gasp

Gasp vs Apple Notes

Apple Notes comes free on every iPhone, iPad and Mac. It's great for quick notes, drawings and lists you share with family. Gasp is for writing you want to keep as ordinary text files that any app can open. Gasp opens faster, runs on Linux and lets AI assistants like Claude work in your notes.

Which one fits you

Apple Notes fits if you

Gasp fits if you

Apple NotesGasp

Pick what you need from either list.

Measured side by side

Time from opening the app to a note you can type in
Gasp
0.42 s
Apple Notes
1.53 s

We recorded the screen of a MacBook Pro with an M2 Pro chip. We quit each app first, then timed it from the moment we opened it until a note appeared.

Feature by feature

TopicGaspApple Notes
Price
Free.
Free. It comes with every Apple device.
Your notes
Ordinary text files (Markdown) in a folder on your computer.
Kept inside the Notes app. You can copy a note out as Markdown.
Markdown
You write in Markdown. Gasp saves your notes as Markdown.
When you import a Markdown file, Notes turns it into its own format.
Sync
Through iCloud Drive or GitHub.
Through iCloud.
Locked notes
Lock a note with a password. On a Mac, you can unlock it with Touch ID.
Lock a note with your device's password or a separate password.
Working with others
A team can share one folder of notes through GitHub. Each person's changes reach the others within a few minutes.
You can share a note with other people. Everyone can edit it at the same moment.
Handwriting
Gasp is for typing. It doesn't support drawing or handwriting.
You can draw and handwrite with an Apple Pencil.
AI assistants
AI assistants like Claude, Cursor and Codex can read and edit your notes. You connect one with a click in Gasp's settings.
Apple's Writing Tools can rewrite and summarize text. There's no official way for other AI assistants to reach your notes.
Computers and phones
Mac and Linux today. An iPhone app is coming.
iPhone, iPad, Mac, and any web browser through iCloud.com.

Moving from Apple Notes

  1. Download Gasp and open it.
  2. In Gasp, make a new vault, which is a folder for your notes. You can also open a folder where you already keep notes.
  3. On a Mac with macOS Tahoe or later, open a note in Apple Notes. Choose Edit › Copy as Markdown.
  4. Make a new note in Gasp and paste. Do this for each note you want to bring over.

Questions

Is Gasp faster than Apple Notes?

Yes, in our test. We recorded both apps on a MacBook Pro with an M2 Pro chip. Gasp had a note ready to type in 0.42 seconds after we opened it. Apple Notes took 1.53 seconds.

Can I keep my Gasp notes in iCloud?

Yes. In Gasp's settings, choose Sync with iCloud. Gasp copies your notes into a folder called Gasp in your iCloud Drive. Your notes stay ordinary files that you can see in Finder.

Can Gasp lock notes like Apple Notes does?

Yes. When you lock a note in Gasp, it's scrambled on your computer and in iCloud. You open it with your password. On a Mac, you can also turn on Touch ID to open it.

Try Gasp

Download Gasp