Comparison

Checklists XL vs Notebooks

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

Head to head
About

Checklists XL

Organize your life with customizable checklists for travel, sports, and daily tasks. Easily create, manage, and share your lists, with options to hide completed items and reorder content.

Highlights
  • Multiple checklist creation
  • Check and uncheck items
  • Reset lists
  • Hide checked items option
  • Email list items
  • Bulk add items
  • Edit, sort, and reorder items
Features
Read full description

Create and manage all sorts of checklists. E.g. for travel, sports and things to do or to remember. Features: - Multiple checklists - check and uncheck the items on each list - reset the list to all unchecked state - optionally hide checked items - e-mail items - bulk add multiple items - edit, sort and reorder items - rename and reorder checklists

About

Notebooks

This app helps you write, organize, and manage documents, tasks, and files. It offers flexible writing modes, robust organization tools, and task management features, all while ensuring your data remains accessible and under your control.

Highlights
  • Formatted text, plain text, and Markdown writing
  • Create documents with styles, tables, and attachments
  • Organize with nested hierarchies and 'books'
  • Task management with due dates and checklists
  • Wiki-style linking and backlinks
  • Full-text search
  • Cross-device synchronization
Features
Read full description

Own your notes — forever. Notebooks is a writing and organization app with no subscription, no lock-in, and no worries. Your documents are stored as standard files you can always access, export, or move freely. Pay once. Use for life. Use Notebooks as a personal wiki, Zettelkasten, document archive, task manager, or long-term writing space. Capture quick notes, turn them into actionable tasks, combine text fragments into chapters, organize research, or keep business documents separate from personal journals — without ever switching apps. Designed to help you stay focused and work at your own pace, Notebooks grows with your needs and is always ready to support you. WRITE AND CREATE Create beautifully formatted documents with styles, attachments, tables, checklists, and optional tables of contents. Choose from ready-made styles or design your own. Write in different ways: Formatted text (WYSIWYG) Plain text, with smart handling of lists, automatic character pairing, and a focused writing view Markdown, supporting MultiMarkdown and Discount, with syntax highlighting, dedicated keyboard keys, wiki-style links, and interactive checklists Sketch ideas or annotate images and PDFs using Apple Pencil. STORE AND ORGANIZE Notebooks stores all documents as regular files in standard formats. You always remain in control — no lock-in, no export worries, fully compatible across devices and over time. Organize your work in books and nested hierarchies without limits. Import PDFs, emails, web pages, MS Office and iWork documents, images, audio, video, and more. Use full-text search to find even the most deeply nested document. PLAN AND ACT Turn books into project lists and documents into tasks. Assign due dates and alerts, create nested projects, and track progress naturally — right where your work lives. Use simple checklists in formatted documents or Markdown for lightweight task tracking. STAY FOCUSED Link documents together to build knowledge over time. Use wiki-style links, backlinks, contexts, and smart books to keep everything connected and within reach. When you rename or move documents, links stay intact. A PLACE YOU CAN RELY ON Sync your documents between iPhone, iPad, Mac, and PC. Work on documents stored in other apps, compile selections into PDFs or eBooks, scan documents and extract text using OCR, and trust that your data stays accessible — now and in the future. With time, Notebooks often becomes the one place users rely on to keep everything that matters close at hand. WHAT USERS SAY “Notebooks is a wonderful app — sophisticated in an unassuming way. I feel more productive without spending time managing the app itself.” “You are GTD in every way that makes it efficient — and makes me efficient.”

Screenshots

Notebooks4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Checklists XL at $0.99 against Notebooks's $17.99. Checklists XL also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 4) and rating (5.0 vs 4.7). Notebooks's advantage is update cadence (monthly vs every 11 months) and ratings volume (1.1K vs 1). On ads and monetization model 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

Checklists XL costs $0.99 and Notebooks $17.99 up front. Notebooks sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. Checklists XL asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Checklists XL holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Notebooks has 1.1K ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 71% of Checklists XL's written reviews are positive against 82% of Notebooks's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Checklists XL ships an update every 11 months, Notebooks monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 29, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard8 real differences · 2 level
Checklists XL versus Notebooks: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterChecklists XLNotebooks
Price$0.99 — better$17.99
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better4.7 (1.1K ratings)
Positive reviews71.4% of reviews82.3% of reviews — better
Number of ratings11.1K — better
Update frequencyEvery 11 monthsMonthly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidPaid
DevicesiPadiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — better
Requires iOS15.6 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size1 MB48 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperPiet JonasAlfons Schmid

Customer experience

Checklists XL

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews14 reviews
Positive71.4%
Neutral0.0%
Negative28.6%

Notebooks

All ratings1,069 ratings
Positive94.0%
Neutral2.7%
Negative3.3%
Written reviews215 reviews
Positive82.3%
Neutral5.6%
Negative12.1%

Bugs and requests

Checklists XL

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

Notebooks

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Data loss after iOS upgrades
  • Compatibility issues with newer iOS versions

Requested features

4 requests
  • Improved Markdown support
  • More font and color customization options
  • Better Apple Watch integration
  • Export to Word format

In-app purchases

None

Checklists XL

No in-app purchases

4 purchases

Notebooks

One-time4
  • Small Tip$0.99
  • Custom Storage Locations$2.99
  • Medium Tip$2.99
Show 1 more
  • Generous Tip$4.99

Questions

Is Checklists XL free?
Checklists XL costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Notebooks free?
Notebooks costs $17.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Checklists XL or Notebooks?
Checklists XL is rated higher. Checklists XL averages 5.0 out of 5 from 1 ratings, while Notebooks averages 4.7 from 1.1K ratings.
Do Checklists XL or Notebooks have ads?
Neither Checklists XL nor Notebooks shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Checklists XL or Notebooks?
Checklists XL ships an update every 11 months, and Notebooks monthly. Most recently, Checklists XL was updated on October 23, 2026 and Notebooks on October 29, 2026.

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