Heute
Structured
Timo
Things
Todoist
Sunsama
TickTick
PrivacyNotes
Obsidian.md
Standard Notes
Apple Notes
Simplenote
Google Keep
Notion
Google Keep Notes
Heute (HOY-tuh, German for "Today") is a daily planner built for people who want structure without pressure.
Most planners try to optimize you: streaks, guilt for missed tasks, productivity scores. Heute takes the opposite approach: it gives you a calm, unified view of your day and gets out of your way.
One timeline, not three apps. Tasks, routines, and calendar events live together as equals in a single daily view. No switching between apps necessary to see what your day is going to look like.
Routines, not habit tracking. Routines in Heute aren't meant to be optimized or gamified. They're gentle entry points into the day. A soft starting structure, not a streak to protect.
Local-first, by design. All data stays on your device via local SQLite storage. No account, no server, no cloud sync, no tracking. Your daily plan is yours.
Calendar integration, free from day one. System calendar integration is included in the free tier, not locked behind a paywall, unlike other apps.
No carry-forward guilt for unfinished tasks. No red numbers. No engagement notifications nudging you back in. No productivity scores turning your day into a performance metric.
Free to use, with an optional Heute+ subscription (monthly, annual, or lifetime) unlocking extra themes and advanced features. No forced trial, no dark patterns.
iOS, built with a focus on privacy and calm daily use.
PrivacyNotes is a zero-knowledge encrypted workspace that brings your notes, tasks, journals, files, and passwords into one app, so you stop juggling four separate subscriptions.
Everything is encrypted on your device with XChaCha20-Poly1305 before it ever syncs. Your keys are derived from a recovery phrase that never touches our servers, so we cannot read your content, your filenames, or anything else. This is real zero-knowledge, not a marketing label.
Five pillars, one encrypted app:
Built for privacy, not surveillance:
Pricing that respects you:
Works on web, macOS, and soon iOS, Android, Windows and Linux with a responsive mobile layout. Import from Apple Notes, Standard Notes, Google Keep, Obsidian, and markdown in a few clicks.
Heute PrivacyNotesPrivacyNotes's answer:
Honestly? We have no idea, and that is the entire point. Signup is anonymous (a recovery phrase or Google, no email or personal details), the app ships zero analytics and zero trackers, and zero-knowledge encryption means we cannot see who you are or what you store. We could not name a single customer if we tried. A privacy product that tracked its users closely enough to brag about them would be missing the plot.
Heute's answer
Heute combines tasks, routines, and calendar events in a single unified timeline. No switching between separate apps.
PrivacyNotes's answer:
PrivacyNotes is the only zero-knowledge encrypted workspace that keeps notes, tasks, journals, files, and a password vault behind one set of on-device keys. Most privacy apps do one of those well and rent it to you monthly. We do all five, encrypt everything with XChaCha20-Poly1305 before it leaves your device, and charge once instead of forever. The encryption core is open core, published so the claims can be verified rather than trusted.
Heute's answer
Most planners combine two of these three: no account required, no server/cloud, and free calendar integration. Heute is the only one offering all three at once.
Compared to Structured, calendar integration isn't locked behind a subscription. Compared to Todoist, Heute isn't built around projects, labels, and filters โ it's built around one thing: what's happening today. No account, no server, just your day. Compared to Things 3, calendar events and routines are first-class parts of the daily timeline, not an afterthought.
For anyone who wants structure without being tracked, scored, or gamified, Heute is built specifically for that.
PrivacyNotes's answer:
Three reasons:
Heute's answer
People who want a calm, structured day without productivity pressure, including people with ADHD, people recovering from burnout, and anyone tired of apps that turn daily planning into a performance metric.
Also a good fit for privacy-conscious users who don't want their daily schedule stored on someone else's server.
PrivacyNotes's answer:
Privacy-conscious individuals and independent professionals who handle information they would not want a vendor reading: lawyers, journalists, healthcare and mental-health practitioners, developers, security specialists, researchers, and founders. It also fits anyone who simply wants one private home for their notes, tasks, journaling, and wellness tracking instead of spreading them across surveillance-funded apps.
Heute's answer
Expo, React Native, TypeScript, SQLite, RevenueCat (for in-app purchases), EAS Build
PrivacyNotes's answer:
React, TypeScript, Vite and Tailwind CSS.
Heute's answer
Heute was built by a small team with a background in psychology and UX, out of frustration with planning apps that optimize and gamify daily life instead of supporting it.
PrivacyNotes's answer:
PrivacyNotes started from a simple frustration: staying organized meant scattering your life across half a dozen apps, most of which could read everything you typed and billed you monthly for the privilege. We wanted one place for notes, tasks, journals, files, and passwords, encrypted so thoroughly that the people running the servers could not read a word of it, and paid for once rather than forever. So we built the encryption first, made the keys live only on your device, and published the crypto as open core so the promise could be checked, not just believed. Everything else grew from one rule: your data is yours, and no one else's to mine.
This app checks every box for me. Clean interface, no learning curve, local-first encryption, and secure sync across all of my devices.
The biggest surprise is how many apps it replaced. Instead of juggling separate apps for notes, habits, mood, activities, and important dates, everything lives in one place now. It's made staying organized a lot simpler.
Paying once and knowing I won't lose access to my workflow because I canceled yet another subscription is incredibly refreshing. That peace of mind is worth a lot to me.
The best thing about this: No subscription model, it's a one-time fee for a lifetime license. But you can start for free with the generous freemium model. I only needed to upgrade to pro because I wanted to use the app on my phone, laptop and desktop. Highly recommended! Btw, it's a perfect markdown editor as well, not sure why they don't emphasize this more.
Structured - Structured is a visual day planner, which combines calendars and to-do lists into an easy-to-use interface.
Obsidian.md - A second brain, for you, forever. Obsidian is a powerful knowledge base that works on top of a local folder of plain text Markdown files.
Timo - Time and task management in your browser โฒ
Standard Notes - A safe place for your notes, thoughts, and life's work
Things - Things is an easy to use task manager.
Apple Notes - Apple Notes functions as a service for making short text notes.