Comparison

Finalist vs Cohestry

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

Cohestry

This app helps you organize notes and discover connections between them. It visualizes your thoughts in a 3D brain and resurfaces older ideas to prevent them from being forgotten. Create rich notes with various formatting options and import existing notes from Apple Notes.

Highlights
  • Visualize note connections in a 3D brain
  • Rediscover older notes with 'Worth Revisiting'
  • Daily insights based on existing notes
  • Rich note creation with formatting, images, and tables
  • Import Apple Notes on Mac
  • Native iPhone and Mac app
Features
Read full description

Cohestry is a second brain for people who want their notes to become more useful over time. Capture ideas, thoughts, references, and unfinished threads in one place, then let Cohestry help you see how they connect. Instead of leaving notes buried in folders, Cohestry turns your knowledge into something you can explore, revisit, and build on. EXPLORE YOUR THINKING Cohestry visualizes connections between your notes as an interactive 3D brain, making it easier to spot related ideas and understand how your thinking is developing. REDISCOVER WHAT MATTERS Worth Revisiting brings older notes back into view so useful ideas do not disappear into an archive. Today’s Insight surfaces a connection from your existing notes, giving you a reason to return to ideas you may have forgotten. WRITE WITHOUT FRICTION Create and edit rich notes with support for formatting, lists, tables, images, and more. Cohestry is designed to work as a complete notes app, not just a layer on top of one. BRING YOUR APPLE NOTES WITH YOU On Mac, import your existing Apple Notes and start building from the knowledge you already have. BUILT FOR APPLE Cohestry is a native iPhone and Mac app designed around a simple idea: your notes should become more valuable the longer you keep them. Core note-taking features are free, including unlimited notes and Apple Notes imports. Advanced connection features are available with Cohestry Pro. End user license agreement: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Finalist4 screens
Cohestry4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ratings volume: Finalist at 543 against Cohestry's 1. Finalist also leads on device support (5 vs 3) and iOS requirement (18.0 vs 26.0). Cohestry's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 4.7). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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 Cohestry sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $5.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Cohestry holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Finalist has 543 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly weekly. The most recent releases landed on November 7, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Finalist versus Cohestry: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFinalistCohestry
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (543 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews76.4% of reviews—
Number of ratings543 — better1
Update frequencyWeeklyWeekly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Vision Pro — betteriPhone, iPad, Mac
Requires iOS18.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size121 MB16 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperDiversion Marketing IncUgochukwu Nwune

Customer experience

Finalist

All ratings543 ratings
Positive92.4%
Neutral2.8%
Negative4.8%
Written reviews127 reviews
Positive76.4%
Neutral6.3%
Negative17.3%

Cohestry

All ratings1 ratings
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

Cohestry

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
3 purchases

Cohestry

Subscriptions2
  • Cohestry Pro Monthly7 Days trial$5.991 Month
  • Cohestry Pro Annual7 Days trial$39.991 Year
One-time1
  • Cohestry Pro Lifetime$99.99

Questions

Is Finalist free?
Finalist is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Cohestry free?
Cohestry is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Finalist or Cohestry?
Cohestry is rated higher. Finalist averages 4.7 out of 5 from 543 ratings, while Cohestry averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Finalist or Cohestry have ads?
Neither Finalist nor Cohestry shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Finalist or Cohestry?
Finalist ships an update weekly, and Cohestry weekly. Most recently, Finalist was updated on November 7, 2026 and Cohestry on October 31, 2026.

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