Alternatives › Hippo
vs
Ciao! vs Hippo
Hippo - Contact Notes, by Roel van der Kraan
A private notebook for the people in your life: notes, events, to-dos, and how people are linked to each other.
8 ratings in the US App Store, October 2026. Also on iPad and Mac.
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Ciao!
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Hippo
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| What it costs | One payment $9.99 |
$1.99 a month, $14.99 a year, or $29.99 once |
| Free tier | 3 friends | 25 contacts (its site describes a one-month trial) |
| Account needed | None | None |
| Where it runs | iPhone | iPhone, iPad and Mac |
| Where your notes live | Your phone and your own iCloud | Your device and your own iCloud Drive |
| A creature for each friend | 15 animals, 6 moods | No |
| A weekly swipe deck | Yes | No |
Every row comes from Hippo’s own App Store listing or website, read on 2 October 2026. Nothing here is taken from another app’s reviews.
Sources: Hippo on the App Store · Hippo on AlternativeTo · Hippo’s website
Where Hippo wins
- •25 people free instead of three, and a $29.99 lifetime option after that.
- •It runs on iPad and Mac as well as iPhone, and it comes in ten languages. Ciao! is iPhone only, in English, Italian and Spanish.
- •Siri and Shortcuts: say "add a note about Natalie to Hippo" and it is saved. It also links people to each other, so you can see who is whose partner, sibling or colleague.
Where Ciao! wins
- •Hippo is built around notes, events and to-dos. Ciao! is built around a rhythm for each friend, like every 3 weeks, and a timer that counts from the last time you talked.
- •One deck on Sunday with only the friends who are due. Swipe right when you’ve talked, and that friend’s timer starts again.
- •An animal for each friend that wakes up when you get in touch, plus WhatsApp, Message and Call buttons right on the friend.
Which one should you actually get?
Both keep your notes on your own devices with no account, so privacy will not decide this one. Get Hippo if you mostly want to remember details about a lot of people, colleagues included, and you want them on your iPad or Mac too. Get Ciao! if the thing you keep losing is time: you want to see once a week who you have not talked to in a while, and clear it with a swipe.
