Comparison

Surely vs Structured Outliner

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

Head to head
About

Surely

This app offers a streamlined approach to task management, focusing on completion rather than complex organization. It provides essential actions like completing, deleting, or deferring tasks, intentionally omitting features that might encourage procrastination.

Highlights
  • Complete tasks
  • Delete tasks
  • Defer tasks
  • Minimalist interface
  • Focus on task completion
Features
Read full description

Most todo apps give you lots of features to organize your todos. But you don't want to be spending time organizing your todos: you want to be completing them. Surely is a focused todo app giving you just the features you need to get your todos done. There are only three things you can do with a todo: * Complete it * Delete it * Defer it Here are all the features Surely doesn't have because they encourage you to keep more todos instead of completing them: * Separate defer dates and due dates * Complex ways of searching for todos * Separate lists of todos so you aren't looking at all of them at once * Bulk defer features. It should not be painless to defer many todos to the future; it should be painful to work with multiple todos so that you complete or delete them Surely is available for free on both iOS and the web.

About

Structured Outliner

Features
Read full description

Keep your entire outline in a single portable file you control. No account, no server, no lock-in, future-proof. ORGANIZE IN UNLIMITED DEPTH Build trees as deep as you need. Expand, collapse, and reorder topics with just a few taps. Every topic can have its own notes. Write as much or as little as you like. SEARCH EVERYTHING Search titles or note content at once. The tree expands automatically to show every match in context, so you always know where a result lives in your outline. CROSS-LINK TOPICS Link any note to another topic using the outlook: link format. Tap to jump directly there. Tap the back arrow to return where you came from. OPEN FILES AND URLS Tap any file path or URL inside a note to open it. Connect your outline to existing documents in the folder: PDFs, photos, or anything else you reference. COLOR LABELS Assign a background color to any topic: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, or Purple. The color flows down to all child topics that don't have their own. Use it to visually separate sections at a glance. AUTOMATIC BACKUPS The app writes a .bak backup before every save. Restore at any time from the menu. SYNC YOUR WAY Store your file in iCloud, Dropbox, Google Drive, or any Files-compatible provider. Open it from there on each device. No special sync setup required. MEMPAD COMPATIBLE Structured Outliner uses the same .lst format as MemPad for Windows, a portable outliner that has been around since the early 2000s. Open existing MemPad files directly, no conversion needed. FREE VERSION Structured Outliner is free to use. Development is supported by a small banner ad shown at the bottom of the screen. PRO VERSION Upgrade to Pro to remove the banner ad, unlock Color Labels and Topic + Note Search and future planned features. One-time purchase. Restore on any device from the menu.

Screenshots

Surely4 screens
Structured Outliner4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Surely at none against Structured Outliner's 1. Surely also leads on ads (none vs shown) and iOS requirement (15.1 vs 17.0). Structured Outliner's advantage is update cadence (every 9 days vs every 6 weeks). On price and device support 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. Structured Outliner sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Surely asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Surely ships an update every 6 weeks, Structured Outliner every 9 days. The most recent releases landed on October 30, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Surely versus Structured Outliner: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSurelyStructured Outliner
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings1 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 6 weeksEvery 9 days — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.1 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size34 MB6 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJosh JusticeFelipe Carraro

In-app purchases

None

Surely

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Structured Outliner

One-time1
  • Pro Version$7.99

Questions

Is Surely free?
Surely is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Structured Outliner free?
Structured Outliner is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Surely or Structured Outliner have ads?
Structured Outliner shows ads; Surely does not.
Which is updated more often, Surely or Structured Outliner?
Surely ships an update every 6 weeks, and Structured Outliner every 9 days. Most recently, Surely was updated on October 30, 2026 and Structured Outliner on October 24, 2026.

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