Almost everyone ends up running a task app and a notes app, and almost everyone finds the boundary between them annoying. A meeting produces four notes and two tasks. A half-formed idea is neither. So things get filed in the wrong place, and the piece of information you need is reliably in the app you did not open.
The combined app is the obvious fix, and most attempts at it are good at one half and tolerable at the other. Here is which is which. I build one of them.
The Two Honest Shapes
Every app here is really one of two designs, and knowing which you want saves a lot of time:
- A notes app with checkboxes. Apple Notes, Google Keep, Obsidian, Notion. Writing is first class, tasks are text with a tick next to them. Great for capture, weak at anything with a deadline or a state.
- A task app with a notes section. TickTick, Taskaro. Tasks are structured records with dates and status, notes are a separate simple area. Great for work that has to happen on a day, weaker for long-form writing.
Apps that genuinely do both at full strength, basically Notion, pay for it in setup. There is no free lunch in this category.
The Options, Compared
| App | Shape | Notes strength | Task strength | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple Notes | Notes with checkboxes | Very good | Minimal | Free, Apple only |
| Google Keep | Notes with checkboxes | Good, fast capture | Minimal | Free |
| Notion | Both, if you build it | Excellent | Excellent | Free to about $10/mo |
| Obsidian | Notes, tasks via plugin | Excellent, local files | Needs plugins | Free for personal use |
| TickTick | Tasks with notes | Adequate | Excellent | Free or $3.99/mo |
| Taskaro | Tasks with notes | Deliberately plain | Board, calendar, timer | Free or $3.49/mo |
1. Apple Notes: The One Most People Already Won With
If you are on an iPhone, Apple Notes is free, instant, syncs perfectly, and handles checklists, images, scans and handwriting. For a large number of people this is genuinely the whole answer and they never needed a task app at all.
Where it stops: no due dates that notify you, no board, no stats, and checklists buried inside notes are easy to forget. Apple's answer is Reminders, which means two apps again.
2. Google Keep: Fastest Capture, Thinnest Structure
Keep is the best quick-capture tool on this list. Open, type, done, with colour-coded cards and labels, and it is free on everything. For notes that are mostly short, it is hard to beat.
Where it stops: it falls over as soon as you have more than about forty notes, because a wall of cards has no hierarchy. Task management is a checkbox and a reminder, nothing more.
3. Notion: Both, Properly, Eventually
The only app here that does both halves at full strength. Notes link to tasks, tasks live in databases, everything is queryable. The free personal plan is generous.
Where it stops: the build. You design the system before you use it, and it is slow to open on a phone, which is exactly when you want to capture a note. Notion vs Taskaro covers the trade in full.
4. Obsidian: Best If You Want to Own the Files
Plain Markdown files on your own disk, linked together, free for personal use. For anyone who wants their notes to outlive the app, nothing else here comes close, and plugins can add a respectable task layer.
Where it stops: tasks are a plugin, not a product. You are assembling a tool, and sync on mobile takes setting up. Fantastic for thinking, fiddly for "remember to pay the invoice on Thursday."
5. TickTick: The Strongest Task Side
If tasks are the priority and notes are secondary, TickTick is the best balance on this list. Full task management, a Pomodoro timer, habits, plus notes that are perfectly adequate for anything short.
Where it stops: notes are clearly the junior feature, and nobody is writing anything long in there. Free tier caps you at 9 lists of 99 tasks. The comparison has the detail.
6. Taskaro: A Board Plus Deliberately Boring Notes
Mine, so here is the design decision stated plainly, because it is the main thing worth knowing. The notes section is a flat list. No folders, no nesting, no tags, no links between notes, no formatting to speak of. Type, save, done.
That is intentional, and it is the same instinct behind cutting features that add decoration. A notes system with folders asks you to decide where each note belongs, which is a decision at exactly the moment you are trying to capture something before it evaporates. A flat list has no filing decision, so it stays fast. Alongside it: a kanban board, a calendar week view, and a focus timer that starts from a task.
Where it stops, plainly: this is not a notes app and you should not treat it as one. Nothing long-form, no formatting, no search across a large archive, no linking notes to each other, no images. The free tier allows 3 notes, which is a demo rather than a system. No iOS app. Pro is $3.49 a month or $26.99 a year. If notes are the bulk of what you do, use Apple Notes, Obsidian or Notion and keep tasks elsewhere.
Which to Pick
- Notes are 80% of your use: Apple Notes on Apple, Google Keep for speed, Obsidian if you want to own the files.
- Tasks are 80% of your use: TickTick, or Taskaro if you want a board and timer with fewer settings.
- Genuinely both, and you enjoy building: Notion.
- You just want the two side by side with no filing: a task app with a flat notes section.
The Test Worth Running
For one week, every time you open a notes app, write down whether what you typed was a thought or an obligation. Most people find it is eight thoughts to two obligations, or the reverse, and almost nobody is at fifty-fifty. Whichever side wins should pick the app, and the other side gets the plain, boring version attached to it.
The combined app does not win because it is one install instead of two. It wins because the boundary question, is this a note or a task, stops costing you anything.