# Ikiru — Lists, Notes & Reminders

> A versatile app for lists, notes, and reminders to live a productive life. (iPhone/iPad app by James Rhoades.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/ikiru/id1111565046 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [James Rhoades](https://appshunter.io/developer/359564371)
- Category: Productivity, Lifestyle
- Price: $4.99
- Rating: 3.90/5 from 101 App Store ratings · 131 written reviews indexed
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 11.1 · 62 MB
- Languages: American English, French (France), German (Germany), Italian, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese (Simplified, China), European Spanish
- Released: 2016-08-09
- Data updated: 2026-08-30
- Monetization: paid
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/ikiru/id1111565046/reviews.md

## What is Ikiru?

Ikiru is a simple but powerful app for making lists, keeping notes and setting reminders. It aims to help you live a productive and meaningful life, by enabling you to focus on the things that are most important to you.


IKIRU IS VERSATILE
Use it to create to do lists, shopping lists, take notes, store contact information, keep track of books to read, or movies to watch... or anything else you'd want to make a list for.


IKIRU IS BEAUTIFUL
With a clean and easy to use design, choose from over 2000 icons to assign to your lists.


IKIRU IS POWERFUL
- create lists within lists

- assign a due date and reminder to list items

- view all items with a due date in one convenient timeline

- add a photo to list items

- drag and drop to sort list items, or automatically keep a list sorted alphabetically, by modification date, completion date, and more

- easily copy or move items from one list to another

- mark items incomplete to return them to their original position in the list (this makes lists easy to reuse)

- send a list via email, and the receiver can import your list into their copy of Ikiru

- view items with due dates on your Apple Watch


IKIRU KEEPS YOUR DATA SAFE
- automatically back up and sync lists between iOS devices using iCloud

- use Touch ID or a custom passcode to protect your information


IKIRU HAS PURPOSE
The word "ikiru" (ee-kee-roo) means "to live" in Japanese. It's also the title of an Akira Kurosawa film about a man who decides to do something meaningful with his life. Ikiru (the app) is my attempt at doing something meaningful with my life, and hopefully help others live meaningful and productive lives.


IKIRU HAS HISTORY
In 2010 I released a list-making app called "Paperless". From busy moms to airplane pilots to people who needed a little help remembering things after suffering a brain injury, Paperless has been used by hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. Ikiru is built upon that legacy - incorporating the best ideas from Paperless, greatly improving upon them, and adding big features that people have requested.


IKIRU NEEDS LOVE
If you find Ikiru useful, please rate and review it in the App Store. Thank you!

## Key features

- Create nested lists
- Set due dates and reminders
- Add photos to list items
- Sort list items dynamically
- Sync data via iCloud
- Protect data with Touch ID/passcode
- View items on Apple Watch

## Chart rankings

- #126 in Top Paid · Productivity (US App Store)

## What do users think of Ikiru?

Overall sentiment: neutral

**Pros**

- 🚀 Stable and reliable
- 👍 Useful for organizing lists and notes
- 👍 Intuitive and easy to use
- 👍 Syncs well across devices
- 👍 Handy for tracking tasks and reminders

**Cons**

- 🐛 Sync issues and data loss
- 🐛 Crashes and bugs after updates
- 🔍 Limited search functionality
- 💡 Lack of formatting options
- 💡 Monochrome icons not as visually appealing

**Commonly reported bugs**

- Reminders not working properly
- Syncing issues causing data loss
- Crashes after iOS updates
- Inability to disable Face ID lock

**Most requested features**

- Add more formatting options (bold, italic, etc.)
- Improve search to allow searching within sublists
- Provide more customization options for themes and icons
- Add location-based reminders
- Implement better backup and restore functionality

## Recent user reviews (10 of 131)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/ikiru/id1111565046/reviews.md

### 4/5 — Nice stable app

*2026-01-08*

This is a lovely stable app. This is very important with note keeping apps. I’ve had others that have lost notes, crashed after updating. 

This one, however, is very reliable. I made my notes look prettier and more colorful by putting emojis in front of my categories.

The only thing that I wish with this app is that it had a universal search feature. It only searches the notes on the level you are on.

### 5/5 — Handiest list keeper, simple with a photo.

*2025-12-31, version 1.2.2*

Useful, syncable or not, as you wish. Don't need a shopping list on multiple devices. But can if I want to.

### 3/5 — Great Secondary App for Personal Lists

*2025-12-12*

As a longtime happy user of Paperless, I’ve been looking for an app that allows you to build lists within list categories and add photos, when necessary. This would’ve been exactly what I was looking for, had it been an app that offered shared live lists through something like Dropbox, as Paperless does. My husband and I share the grocery list and add items to it regularly, even as one of us is in the store shopping. This app, unfortunately, doesn’t allow for that.

### 3/5 — Do I rate this ⭐️⭐️ or a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️star???  I guess I’ll make it ⭐️⭐️⭐️… Please read why.

*2025-11-27, version 1.2.2*

For those who aren’t in reading the details. Long story short, this will make your life and lists so much better. I really do love it and use it weekly, if not daily.   Now read and I’ll tell you things you can do. 

This is a long review, but I promise it’s worth it. 

I LOVE THIS APP!  REALLY, REALLY!!!  That’s why I’d give it a ⭐️⭐️⭐️ ⭐️However, it hasn’t had any updates in forever.  Which is why I want to give it ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. If it would get some updates, I’d be more than happy to give it ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. 

I use it for groceries, bills, medications… things are easy to cross off and then restore.  Things may take time to set up depending on your level of detail and number of things on your list. But it is well worth your time. 

Like bills… I have a list by date. If it’s only on a specific month. Then the bill and if I have auto deduct set. If so, which account is it coming out of.  After I’ve finished a month, I mark everything incomplete. I’ve got things set up so they’ll sort by the number.  Go thru, mark thins completed that aren’t due this month. Now I have a list of bills due and on what date. When I pay or a bill’s auto deduct date passes, I mark complete.  Rinse and repeat. End of month, mark all incomplete and do it again. It has really helped me make sure I’m paying everything on time.  

I have a lot of medications and doctors. And a new doctor always wants to know what you’re on.  I have a list with the med name (generic and/or brand), strength, quantity per am/pm, what is prescribed for, who prescribed it, and start date (if I know it).  So very helpful. And if they read your meds to you, you can check things off. Then when they say, “are you on anything else,” you can see if there’s anything left unchecked on your list. 

I used to travel a lot for work. I have a packing checklist.  A list of certain items at home, so I stop from buying something again if I already have it.  Vaccines and dates back to babyhood.  Restaurants, locations, how I feel about them, what I really like (if anything).  Todo lists.  History of car maintenance and repairs.  Cat food, if they like or hate it.  Surgeries/dates.  Lists of places I want to go, movies I want to see, songs I want to buy, and on and on

This app has been a godsend. But there’s a number of improvements I think they can make and the version listed in the App Store is years old. So I’m very disappointed that they seem to have made it and the forgot about it. Maybe they’re out of business, the person passed away, had a stroke, whatever. Then I’m very apologetic to them.   But if sound and healthy, please update things (contact me, I’m happy to give suggestions).

### 2/5 — Can't search within sublists

*2024-10-27*

I've been a Paperless user for years and have always loved it, however it was missing the ability to create lists within lists. I just found out about Ikiru and decided to buy it as I’m a massive fan of the clean, smooth and user-friendly interface from this dev. However, the fact that you can't search terms within sublists foils for me the main purpose that I wanted the app for, which is to create searchable database-type lists with sub-categories, not just to-do type lists.

### 5/5 — Gets better and better

*2024-09-05*

I’ve been using this app for years. I use it for everything — notes, reminders, checklists, other lists, recipes and all sorts of things. Recently I’ve been astonished at the quality of the AI it uses for its predictive text. Its predictions are far more context-based than other apps (or social media) seem to be, and it’s constantly learning from your previous inputs, so it has an uncanny ability to get it right. The more you use it the better it gets.

### 3/5 — Bogus reminders

*2024-07-31, version 1.2.2*

I loved this app.  Last several months I started to have reminders from past timed items.  I got more and more of the lately.  All the timed items are removed, and reminders are coming.  Very annoying!

### 3/5 — Great App But I Stopped Using It

*2024-07-01*

The features of this app are great; you can build lists within lists and the interface is user friendly, but the two main issues I found challenging were the limited options for reminders (for example, you cannot set a reminder for every 4 months, or every third Monday, etc.); the only options are every day, week, month, year. This was a minor annoyance compared to that of the second issue of getting multiple reminders for the same item, or worse yet, getting reminders for items deleted as though they were never deleted. For these reasons, I decided to delete the app for good and to use something else. Disappointing.

### 3/5 — Great app - that’s sadly stopped synching, and zero response from support

*2024-01-08*

I’ve loved and used this app now for years.
Suddenly, it’s stopped synching across devices. I’ve removed and reinstalled it several times, ensured I’m on all current OS versions, quadruple checked that all synch settings are on, and written the support email four times asking for guidance, each time ignored.
It’ll be a shame to delete the app, which is now useless, as is their help line.

### 3/5 — Lacks punch for serious writers

*2023-11-15, version 1.2.2*

There’s still no formatting after all this time. Last I checked, this is an all-around note taking and list making app. Formatted text is crucial in apps like this to create punch. You need bold, italics, underlines, and strike-throughs at the very least but bullets would be nice too.

Formatting must be really hard to code for but c’mon already. This app has been around long enough to add these crucial features. The developer seems really nice, so hopefully he’ll take this request seriously. I’m raising my rating to 3-stars I hope that an update comes soon, but it can’t be higher than that without formatting.

## Frequently asked questions about Ikiru

### What does the Ikiru app do?

Ikiru is a productivity app designed for creating lists, taking notes, and setting reminders. It aims to help users live a more productive and meaningful life by focusing on important tasks and information.

### What are the key features of Ikiru?

Key features include the ability to create nested lists, assign due dates and reminders to items, add photos, sort items in various ways, copy/move items between lists, and sync data across iOS devices using iCloud. It also offers Apple Watch integration and data protection with Touch ID or a passcode.

### Is Ikiru free to use?

Based on the provided information, Ikiru is a paid application. It does not appear to have in-app purchases or advertisements, suggesting a one-time purchase model.

### What devices is Ikiru compatible with?

Ikiru is compatible with iOS devices and offers synchronization via iCloud across these devices. It also provides integration with Apple Watch for viewing items with due dates.

### What are some common use cases for Ikiru?

Common use cases include creating to-do lists, shopping lists, taking general notes, storing contact information, tracking books to read, or managing movies to watch. Its versatility allows for organizing virtually any type of list or information.

## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 1.2.2 — 2019-12-14

On iOS 13, Ikiru's theme (light or dark) is now determined by the system Appearance setting.

(Open the Settings app, tap "Display & Brightness" and choose Light or Dark.)

### 1.2.1 — 2019-10-07

Fixes a problem with moving / copying items on certain devices.
Fixes an issue where new items could not be added while searching a list.
Fixes an issue with the 'search all' feature where some items could be incorrectly crossed out.

### 1.2 — 2019-10-03

Fixed a bug that could cause the app to crash while syncing.
Other bug fixes and improvements.

### 1.1.2 — 2018-10-04

- fixes layout issue when editing list name on iOS 12
- minor bug fixes

### 1.1.1 — 2017-12-08

Bug fixes

## Apps similar to Ikiru

| App | Rating | Price | Category |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Do.List: To Do List Organizer](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/dolist-to-do-list-organizer/id1036135343) | 4.7 (2,434) | Free | Productivity |
| [List!](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/list/id377625479) | 4.8 (243) | $1.99 | Productivity |
| [KwikList Plus](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/kwiklist-plus/id364931661) | 4.6 (8) | $2.99 | Productivity |
| [Clary: Your Second Brain](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/clary-your-second-brain/id6747652843) | 4.4 (8) | Free | Productivity |
| [Purelist: Notes & Tasks](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/purelist-notes-and-tasks/id1549367431) | 4.6 (41) | Free | Productivity |
| [Re:List](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/relist/id1551656021) | 4.7 (6) | Free | Productivity |

## More apps by James Rhoades

- [Paperless: Lists + Checklists](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/paperless-lists-plus-checklists/id359564368)
- [Paperless Lite](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/paperless-lite/id370096766)
- [True Note - Record Player Test](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/true-note-record-player-test/id1200544741)
- [Plastipic](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/plastipic/id6478136498)

All apps by James Rhoades: https://appshunter.io/developer/359564371

## Related topics

[ikiru](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/ikiru)

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-30.*