Comparison

Finalist vs Harbor Notes

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

Head to head
About

Finalist

This app combines your calendar, tasks, reminders, and weather into a single, visually appealing timeline. It integrates with your journal and activity data to inspire your planning. Enjoy a beautiful and joyful planning experience without complex workflows.

Highlights
  • Unified timeline view
  • Calendar, task, and reminder integration
  • Weather forecast display
  • Journal and activity ring integration
  • Customizable themes
  • Native Apple technology integration
Features
Read full description

Inspired by paper planners, Finalist shows your calendar, tasks, notes, reminders and weather forecast in one beautiful timeline. It even pulls in your Journal Suggestions and Activity Rings to keep you inspired. Gorgeous themes make planning a joy, not a chore. Finalist is built for people who finish things, no complex workflows or productivity theater. NOTES, IN YOUR PLANNER Your planner remembers what you wrote. A dedicated Notes tab gives you notebooks, tags and search. Keep native notes that sync over iCloud, or connect a folder of plain markdown files, including your Obsidian vault, and edit them in place. Tasks inside your markdown files become real Finalist tasks: dated, tagged and checkable anywhere in the app. YOUR DAY, ON YOUR WRIST The Apple Watch app puts your whole day one glance away: events, tasks, reminders and habits in one scrollable view, topped by a Now card that always knows what matters next. Check off pinned lists from the wrist, grocery list included, and add tasks by keyboard, scribble or dictation. Complications and a Smart Stack widget round it out. (Requires watchOS 26.) DESIGN YOUR DAY Choose between two Daily designs: Daybook, the classic stacked layout, or Broadsheet, a newsprint-inspired look that shines on iPad and Mac. Rearrange sections with the layout editor and save your own presets. On the rebuilt Timeline, drag tasks onto the grid to sketch your day in pencil, then commit when it's real. "I've tried dozens of planning apps, this is the one that finally works." - Beta user "The integration of Reminders and Lists reduces the apps I need daily and makes planning actually fun." - Beta user Built with native Apple technologies: no accounts to create, syncs over iCloud, supports Family Sharing, and runs on iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Vision Pro and Mac. Full database backup, export and import via JSON and OPML. Finalist is a love letter to paper planners. Give it a try, it feels great :) Purchasing information To get the full functionality in Finalist you will need to either purchase a subscription or a one time In-App Purchase for Lifetime access. The purchase amount will be applied to your iTunes account. Subscriptions will automatically renew unless canceled within 24-hours before the end of the current period. You can cancel anytime with your iTunes account settings. Lifetime purchase is a one-time fee. For more information, see our Terms of Use at https://finalist.works/eula/ and our Privacy Policy at https://finalist.works/privacy-policy/

About

Harbor Notes

Capture, organize, and secure all your thoughts, tasks, and files in one private space. This app offers rich note-taking features, robust organization, and instant search, even within images and scanned documents. Your data is yours, with optional end-to-end encryption and no ads or data selling.

Highlights
  • Rich notes with checklists, tables, and highlights
  • Notebooks, stacks, and tags for organization
  • Task management with due dates
  • Document scanning and sketching
  • Voice memos and file attachments
  • Instant search with OCR
  • Offline-first native apps
Features
Read full description

Harbor is your private second brain — a fast, native notes app for people who want to remember everything and own it for life. Capture notes, organize them into notebooks, tag anything, attach photos and files, scan paper documents, sketch ideas, and record voice memos. Then find any of it in seconds — Harbor's search even reads the text inside your images and scans. REMEMBER EVERYTHING • Rich notes with checklists, tables, images, links, and highlights • Notebooks and stacks that keep every part of your life organized • Tags that cut across notebooks • Tasks with due dates, right beside your notes • Scan documents with your camera; sketch with your finger or Apple Pencil • Voice memos and file attachments of every kind • Instant search across everything — including the text inside images and scans (OCR) YOURS, EVERYWHERE • Truly native apps for iPhone, iPad, and Mac — no web wrapper • Offline-first: your notes live on your device and sync automatically • The full web app at app.harbor.my from any browser • A web clipper that saves articles and pages straight into your notebooks PRIVATE BY DESIGN • No ads. No selling your data. No training AI on your notes. Ever. • Optional end-to-end encryption locks down your most sensitive notes so that no one — not even us — can read them • Export everything anytime in open formats. You are never locked in. SWITCHING FROM ANOTHER NOTES APP? Import your Evernote notebooks (.enex files) with the Mac or web app — your notebooks, tags, and attachments sync straight to your iPhone and iPad. SIMPLE, HONEST PRICING Harbor is free for up to 50 notes, 3 notebooks, and 20 tags — no credit card required. When you outgrow the free plan, Harbor Unlimited removes every limit: • $9.99/month or $99/year • Unlimited notes, notebooks, tags, tasks, and files • A written price-lock promise in our terms: your price won't go up for at least 3 years Subscriptions are billed to your Apple ID and renew automatically until cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel anytime in your App Store account settings. And even if you stop paying, you can always read and export your notes — Harbor never holds your data hostage. Privacy Policy: https://harbor.my/privacy/ Terms of Use: https://harbor.my/terms/ Questions? A real person answers: help@harbor.my

Screenshots

Finalist4 screens
Harbor Notes4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ratings volume: Finalist at 491 against Harbor Notes's 4. Finalist also leads on device support (5 vs 3). Harbor Notes's advantage is review sentiment (100% vs 76%) and rating (5.0 vs 4.7). On price, ads, in-app purchases 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

Both are free to download. Finalist sells 7 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per 7 days and Harbor Notes sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Harbor Notes holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Finalist has 491 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 76% of Finalist's written reviews are positive against 100% of Harbor Notes's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Finalist ships an update every 11 days, Harbor Notes every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 15, 2026 and October 11, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Finalist versus Harbor Notes: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFinalistHarbor Notes
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (491 ratings)5.0 (4 ratings) — better
Positive reviews76.4% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings491 — better4
Update frequencyEvery 11 daysEvery 4 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Vision Pro — betteriPhone, iPad, Mac
Requires iOS18.018.0
Further details — not scored
Size120 MB37 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperDiversion Marketing IncCloudmanic Labs, LLC

Customer experience

Finalist

All ratings491 ratings
Positive92.3%
Neutral2.6%
Negative5.1%
Written reviews110 reviews
Positive76.4%
Neutral6.4%
Negative17.3%

Harbor Notes

All ratings4 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

Finalist

Reported bugs

9 issues
  • Settings/preferences crash the app
  • Pro subscription not recognized after canceling auto-renewal
  • Weather widget fails to display without manual toggling
  • App freezes and becomes unresponsive on iPad
  • Empty tasks cannot be permanently deleted
Show 4 more
  • App crashes when accessing certain reminder lists
  • Slow performance after force closing and reopening
  • Widget functionality discontinued or broken
  • macOS version crashes and lacks performance

Requested features

18 requests
  • Apple Watch native app
  • Recurring/repeating tasks and reminders
  • Subtasks functionality
  • Task tagging and filtering
  • Event location and travel time details
Show 13 more
  • Natural language input for tasks and events
  • Snooze reminder functionality
  • Task comments and checklist support
  • List grouping and archiving options
  • Menubar-only mode for macOS
  • Early/advance reminders for tasks
  • Notes section for daily journaling
  • School/team collaboration version
  • Chinese language support
  • Dark mode option
  • Family sharing features
  • Multiple calendar visibility in month view
  • Invite others to meetings and add conferencing

Harbor Notes

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

7 purchases

Finalist

Subscriptions5
  • Finalist Pro Weekly3 Days trial$2.997 Days
  • Finalist Monthly$4.991 Month
  • Finalist Pro Monthly$4.991 Month
Show 2 more
  • Finalist Yearly7 Days trial$29.991 Year
  • Finalist Pro Yearly7 Days trial$29.991 Year
One-time2
  • Finalist Lifetime$59.99
  • Finalist Pro Lifetime$59.99
2 purchases

Harbor Notes

Subscriptions2
  • Unlimited — Monthly$9.991 Month
  • Unlimited — Yearly$99.001 Year

Questions

Is Finalist free?
Finalist is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Harbor Notes free?
Harbor Notes is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Finalist or Harbor Notes?
Harbor Notes is rated higher. Finalist averages 4.7 out of 5 from 491 ratings, while Harbor Notes averages 5.0 from 4 ratings.
Do Finalist or Harbor Notes have ads?
Neither Finalist nor Harbor Notes shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Finalist or Harbor Notes?
Finalist ships an update every 11 days, and Harbor Notes every 4 days. Most recently, Finalist was updated on October 15, 2026 and Harbor Notes on October 11, 2026.

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