Comparison

Life Lists vs Cairn

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Life Lists

This super organizer helps manage checklists, notes, habits, groceries, and budgets with an AI assistant. It offers automatic sorting for groceries, gentle habit reminders, and tools like timers and focus modes. Folders and a daily overview keep everything tidy and accessible across Apple devices.

Highlights
  • AI-powered list creation and organization
  • Automatic grocery sorting by aisle
  • Habit tracking with streaks and reminders
  • Comprehensive note-taking and journaling
  • Budget management and pro/con lists
  • Cross-device syncing with iCloud
  • Customizable folders and visual themes
Features
Read full description

Life Lists is the super organizer with a place for everything: checklists, notes, habits, groceries, budgets and more — with an assistant right under your lists that adds, answers and keeps it all tidy. EVERY KIND OF LIST • Checklists, prioritized and numbered lists, lists with sections • Groceries that sort themselves by aisle: add "apples" and it lands in Produce • Habits with streaks and gentle reminders • Reminders with due dates, repeats and subtasks • Notes, notebooks, a journal and stickies • Budgets that add themselves up, weighted pro/con lists, side-by-side comparisons • Packing lists with to-buy / have / packed statuses • People lists for birthdays and the details worth remembering • Photo albums, counters and a breathing timer • Tools beside your lists: timer, stopwatch, alarms, focus mode, voice memos and meeting notes AN AMAZING ORGANIZER • Folders for every part of your life — Home, Health, Family, Work — and folders within folders • Your day at a glance above your lists: what's due, what's late, your habits and the weather • Star an item to see it in Important; everything with a date shows in Upcoming • Search, sort, reset a checklist to do it again, archive a list to keep a record • Pin a list to open the app on it • 500+ icons and colors, unlimited lists, no ads AN ASSISTANT ON YOUR LISTS • Ask or add anything from the bar under your lists: "add milk and eggs", "what's left to pack?", "remind me Friday at 9" • Tap the mic and just say it • Ask a question and the answer becomes something you keep — a checklist, a budget, a pro/con list, habits — filed in the right folder • Snap a photo of a listing or a receipt and get the answer it implies: is it a good deal? how do we split it? • Organize automatically tidies as you go; every change is one tap to undo THE BEST GROCERY APP • Auto-section: every item lands in the right aisle • Build your own catalog to make long lists in seconds • One list per store, and reset it to shop again EVERYWHERE YOU ARE • iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch, plus home screen widgets • Sync with iCloud and share a list with family and friends — or keep everything on your device YOUR DATA IS SAFE • Your lists live on your device and, if you choose, in your iCloud, secured by Apple • AI features send what you ask to our AI providers only after you allow it. Turn AI off anytime and Life Lists works as a classic list app.

About

Cairn

Features
Read full description

Cairn is a second brain for every random thought. The idea in the shower. The thing you promised to do. The name of that book. Dump it into Cairn in seconds and let your head go quiet. Cairn keeps it, understands it, and brings it back when it matters. No account. No cloud AI. Your thoughts never leave your iPhone. Use it however your brain works: ideas, plans, reminders, to-dos, things to remember, or the occasional 2am thought. No folders, no formatting, no rules. DUMP IT • Type, dictate or take a photo. Voice is transcribed on your device • Add a reminder that rings like an alarm, or pin the place you were • Home Screen widget, Siri Shortcuts and the Share sheet, so nothing slips away • Your own filters for ideas, plans, a morning to-do, anything FIND IT BY MEANING, NOT EXACT WORDS • Type "trouble sleeping" and find "can't sleep again" • Search by date: "last March", "June 2024", "this week" • Photos are searchable too. Cairn reads the text in them and knows what they show • Search with your voice • Optional: find your thoughts from iPhone Search CAIRN REMEMBERS, SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO • Echoes: write something you thought months ago, and Cairn shows you the first time • Open loops: plans you wrote down and never closed, brought back gently • On this day: what was on your mind a year ago today • One card a day, never more. Tap "Not useful" and you'll see less of it SEE YOUR MIND • List or Sky: every thought is a star, and related thoughts connect on their own • Today: build a cairn, a stone for every day you dump a thought • Your thinking archetype and the themes that keep coming back • A calendar of your days. Go back to any date in one tap • With Apple Intelligence, themes get names and answers read naturally, always from your own words, never made up PRIVATE BY DESIGN • Everything runs on your device: understanding, search, transcription, photo reading • No account, no sign-in, no ads, no tracking. Your thoughts stay on your device, and backups go only to your own iCloud • Face ID app lock • Free encrypted backup to your own iCloud Drive, and an encrypted export you keep • Nothing is ever deleted on a timer FREE, AND CAIRN+ ONCE Capture, search, the Sky, photos, voice, reminders, On this day and backup are free forever. Cairn+ adds Echoes, Open loops, insights and your archetype, your own filters and extra themes. Every new user gets all of Cairn+ free for 14 days, no card, nothing to cancel. After that, Cairn+ is one payment, yours for good. No subscription. Works on iPhone and iPad. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy: https://shreypinnada.github.io/cairn-legal/privacy-policy-ios.html

Screenshots

Life Lists4 screens
Cairn4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Life Lists at none against Cairn's 1. Life Lists also leads on device support (4 vs 2) and iOS requirement (16.0 vs 18.0). Cairn's advantage is update cadence (every 3 days vs weekly). On price and ads there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Cairn sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Life Lists asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Life Lists ships an update weekly, Cairn every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Life Lists versus Cairn: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterLife ListsCairn
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (1.8K ratings) — better—
Positive reviews74.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings1.8K — better—
Update frequencyWeeklyEvery 3 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS16.0 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size142 MB18 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperDG Apps, Inc.Shrey Pinnada

Bugs and requests

Life Lists

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Lists disappearing or getting corrupted
  • Inability to paste text into list items
  • Unexpected list item reordering
  • Crash when trying to create new lists

Requested features

5 requests
  • Recurring reminders or to-do items
  • Ability to sort lists manually
  • Cross-device syncing and sharing
  • Password protection for sensitive lists
  • iPad and landscape mode support

Cairn

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Life Lists

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Cairn

One-time1
  • Cairn+ Lifetime$14.99

Questions

Is Life Lists free?
Life Lists is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Cairn free?
Cairn is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Life Lists or Cairn have ads?
Neither Life Lists nor Cairn shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Life Lists or Cairn?
Life Lists ships an update weekly, and Cairn every 3 days. Most recently, Life Lists was updated on November 6, 2026 and Cairn on October 31, 2026.

Other comparisons