BrainSack vs everything else
Honest comparisons against the apps people actually leave, written so you can decide not to switch. Every one of them has a section on what the other app does better, because a comparison where the author wins every row is an advert.
Comparisons
Pick the one you’re leaving
BrainSack vs Google Keep
Keep is free and on every phone. It also can’t take a text message, can’t hold a PDF, and can’t keep a note from Google.
Read the comparison →BrainSack vs Evernote
Most people leaving Evernote are leaving the price, not the product. It is still the more capable app - the question is whether you use enough of it.
Read the comparison →More on the way. If the app you’re leaving isn’t here yet, the five questions below are the ones worth asking it.
How to judge one
Five questions that decide it
How does something get in when your hands are full?
This is the one everybody underrates and the one that decides whether you keep using it. If capture means unlock, find app, open, new note, type, save, then the thoughts you have while walking will not make it. Look for a path that starts from a locked phone - a share sheet, a widget, an email address, or in BrainSack’s case a number you text.
What happens to the things that aren’t text?
Most notes apps take an image and stop. The quote as a PDF, the spreadsheet somebody sent you, the .zip of photos - if the app can’t hold them, they end up in a downloads folder and the note about them ends up meaningless. Check the file types and the per-item limits, not just whether "attachments" is on the feature list.
Can the company read your notes?
Usually yes, and usually that is fine. It stops being fine for the handful of notes that are a recovery code, a door code or a diagnosis. Ask specifically whether there is per-note encryption under a key the provider does not hold, and whether the encrypted body is excluded from search - an app that decrypts everything to run a search has not really encrypted anything.
What does the price do as you use it more?
Free tiers get smaller and paid tiers get tiers. The question is not what it costs today, it is what happens at note 51, at the second device, at the first file over 25 MB. A single flat plan is worth paying a little more for, because the number stops being a variable.
How do you get out?
Ask before you go in. Every app on this page exports, but the format decides whether the export is portable or a souvenir. And ask the same question of the app you are moving to - the honest answer for BrainSack today is that it has no importer at all, which is a real reason to stay where you are if you have an archive worth moving.
Before you read any of them
Is BrainSack even the right shape?
It is a small, opinionated app at $4.99/month. It is a poor fit for a lot of people, and it is cheaper for everyone if you find that out here rather than on day nine of the trial.
Probably yes if
- Your problem is capture - thoughts arriving faster than you can file them.
- You want one board with notes, checklists, files and a few genuinely private things on it.
- You’d rather text something in than open an app.
- You want one price with nothing held back for a tier above it.
Ten days, no argument
Card up front, cancel inside the trial and you pay nothing. It is the fastest way to answer the question this page can only guess at.