Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Pencil Project VS Checkvist

Compare Pencil Project VS Checkvist and see what are their differences

Pencil Project logo Pencil Project

Single-user mockup / wireframing / diagramming tool

Checkvist logo Checkvist

A professional list-making tool. Minimalist, keyboard-centric online outliner and task management application. Free sharing, unlimited lists, cross-linking, free import and export. Markdown support. Created for geeks 🤓 and all keyboard lovers ⌨️
  • Pencil Project Landing page
    Landing page //
    2018-09-30
  • Checkvist Landing page
    Landing page //
    2020-04-22

Checkvist is a minimalist yet feature-rich and super-flexible list-maker

  • Endless flexibility - unlimited nested lists
  • Cross-linking between items, backlinks
  • Action items with due dates, tags, priorities, task delegation, links, and attachments
  • Free sharing - private or public, write or read-only
  • Import and export
  • Markdown support

The superpower here is unique vim-like keyboard support. Type, structure, and re-structure a list as fast as you can type. All commands are literally at your fingertips.

The tool comes with a 'forever free' account which includes all major features.

Pencil Project

Pricing URL
-
$ Details
Platforms
-
Release Date
-

Checkvist

$ Details
freemium $3.9 / Monthly (PRO)
Platforms
Browser REST API Web Google Chrome Firefox Progressive Web App (PWA)
Release Date
2008 August

Pencil Project features and specs

No features have been listed yet.

Checkvist features and specs

  • Search and Filtering: With smart syntax
  • Email-in-tasks: Ability to create tasks from email
  • Recurring due dates: Yes
  • Markdown: yes
  • Tags: Custom tagging
  • Priorities: Priority setting and color-coding
  • Web clipper: For Chrome and Firefox
  • Keyboard support: Vim-like keyboard support
  • Clean UI: yes
  • Customizable: Customize UI with CSS

Pencil Project videos

Pencil Project | Free UI Mockup Design Software

More videos:

  • Demo - Wireframing with Pencil Project Demo

Checkvist videos

Ultra Productivity with Autofocus v.4 and Checkvist

More videos:

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Pencil Project and Checkvist)
Diagrams
100 100%
0% 0
Task Management
0 0%
100% 100
Flowcharts
100 100%
0% 0
Project Management
0 0%
100% 100

Questions and Answers

As answered by people managing Pencil Project and Checkvist.

What makes your product unique?

Checkvist's answer:

Keyboard-first approach! With Checkvist, you can perform almost all actions without touching the mouse - work fast and focused, organise and re-organise tasks, ideas, notes, combine them into larger or smaller lists. Checkvist is an open tool - import or export your lists without restrictions, use unlimited hierarchy, share and publish lists online, all for free.

Why should a person choose your product over its competitors?

Checkvist's answer:

If you prefer speed and focused work with keyboard-driven interfaces, like text or code editors, you should give Checkvist a try. There is no other tool on the market in this category that offers the same level of keyboard support.

How would you describe your primary audience?

Checkvist's answer:

IT people - software developers, projects managers, but also writers, scientists, bloggers, analysts, information architects - people who love working efficiently, organising information, and who love working with keyboard, of course! 🤓

What's the story behind your product?

Checkvist's answer:

Checkvist is a brainchild of two IT professionals - and keyboard freaks, as you might have guessed. It's hobby project which has been serving people online since 2009 :)

Which are the primary technologies used for building your product?

Checkvist's answer:

Checkvist is a Ruby-on-Rails application.

User comments

Share your experience with using Pencil Project and Checkvist. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Pencil Project and Checkvist

Pencil Project Reviews

10 Best Visio Alternatives for Cost Effective Diagramming [2022]
Pencil Project is one of the best Visio alternatives which is open-source GUI prototyping software suitable for developers to create mockups, flow charts, floor designs, etc. It has a rich set of shapes and designed collections that make it easier to draw.

Checkvist Reviews

  1. Seamless, smooth, beautiful experience

    I cannot recommend Checkvist highly enough: project manager, meeting agenda, brainstorming a programme, you name it Checkvist is very likely exactly what you need. The keyboard control is quite simply unsurpassed!

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Checkvist should be more popular than Pencil Project. It has been mentiond 17 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Pencil Project mentions (11)

  • Uizard: Figma alternative with low learning curve
    I am a software developer, so doing UX is never my strength. From time to time though, I would resort to using the open source tool Pencil (https://pencil.evolus.vn/) to get a low fidelity mock-up. Lately I've been encountering bugs where images would come out broken when I re-open my wireframe in Pencil. Frustrated of the issue on Pencil, I tried out uizard yesterday, and have been really happy with it. It's... - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • Quick UI-design tool for mockups?
    Thanks for your replies. I checked some of them out, but I found one on my own that fits me perfectly: Pencil. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Best practice to draw/describe UIs in plain text?
    I wouldn't use text to illustrate a GUI. We use Pencil with the crayon-styled stencils to make quick mockups. The crayon styling makes it clear that they're just mockups so people don't poke at the style aspects of the design. We've gotten great feedback from our clients that these are effective illustrations too. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Simple tool for network documentation?
    I use MS Visio at work and Pencil (free) at home. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • A blog web design with Inkscape, what do you think about it?
    Thank you ! Of the ones I have tested, the only one that really works is Pencil, unfortunately, it lacks a lot of functionalities, and it is still far from being as practical as Figma, adobe xd etc. I think Inkscape is much more practical and powerful, but maybe it's just because I'm used to it :). Source: over 2 years ago
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Checkvist mentions (17)

  • *exits Unity after staring at scene for 5 seconds*
    I like using checkvist.com to break down a project. It's a to-do list, but you can zoom into subtasks which can be 'focused' into and appear as its own master list... You can break things down infinitely in a clean way. Source: about 1 year ago
  • Frequent loss of keyboard focus - expected?
    Thanks, yes I can see it's tricky. An outcome of Logseq's ambition I suppose. My primary tool for this kind of thing is Checkvist which is simpler but ergonomically very elegant and predictable. I'm looking at Logseq for more ramified topic notes, but I don't think it can replace Checkvist yet for the rapid-fire stuff (todos, quick capture etc). The ambition and achievement in Logseq to date is nonetheless... Source: about 1 year ago
  • Outliner + UpNote
    You might check out Checkvist. Simply link from an UpNote note to there for certain lists and you're done. Source: about 1 year ago
  • Show HN: I Made a Todo List for Developer Power Users [video]
    This reminds me of https://checkvist.com, which I hope would be used more. It's actually a great replacement for Trello or any other kind of board for smaller projects. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Looking for a good Bookmark manager
    I use an online outliner Checkvist for my bookmarks as well as notes. It has all the organization features you mentioned and way more. It also has Chrome and Firefox extensions for making bookmarks. It's especially good if you're a keyboard user. Source: over 1 year ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Pencil Project and Checkvist, you can also consider the following products

draw.io - Online diagramming application

Todoist - Todoist is a to-do list that helps you get organized, at work and in life.

SuperNotecard - Introducing SuperNotecard. SuperNotecard is an online writing tool that features virtual notecards to help arrange facts or scenes, track details, organize paragraphs, and clarify your composition process.

Workflowy - A better way to organize your mind.

Linked Ideas - A macOS/iOS apps to treat ideas as links of concepts.

Dynalist - Dynalist is a web app that lets you break down and organize your thoughts in the format of lists.