Finalist vs TypeDraw
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- Unified timeline view
- Calendar, task, and reminder integration
- Weather forecast display
- Journal and activity ring integration
- Customizable themes
- Native Apple technology integration
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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/
TypeDraw
This app combines the tactile feel of a paper notebook with digital convenience. Type, draw, and scribble notes, with smart features to organize and find them easily. Customize your pages and handwriting for a truly personal note-taking experience.
- Type, draw, and scribble notes
- Smart Marks for text and drawing integration
- Handwriting to font conversion
- Customizable page and ink colors
- Multiple notebook support
- Searchable notes and table of contents
- PDF export
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TypeDraw brings the joy and simplicity of a paper notebook to a notes app built for everyday life, with all the digital tools that make it useful and the freedom to make it yours. Type, draw and scribble wherever your thoughts take you and know that a little digital magic will help you find it all again when and where you need it. No account required. No subscription. Your notes stay local and private on your device, or sync through your own iCloud account if you choose. Your data stays yours, and you can even lock your book. Export a single page or your whole book as a PDF and send it to your files, your agents or your mother. - Open to what matters in the moment: a fresh page, your most recent note, or a note from that restaurant you’re finally visiting again after years. Or jump straight into what you need with a beautiful Home Screen widget. - Type, draw and write anywhere, just as you would in a real notebook. Turn the pages with a curl or a tap, sketch with your fingers, or use Apple Pencil on iPad and iPhone Duo. It adapts to how you want to use it: whether you prefer typing, drawing or using Apple’s Scribble feature, TypeDraw adjusts to you, not the other way round. - Enjoy a free canvas where text and drawings belong together. Highlight or underline text, and your strokes automatically convert to responsive “Smart Marks” that adapt when you edit words, change line breaks or adjust the layout. - Make it yours! Turn your handwriting into a font you can type with in just minutes. Choose your page colour, ink colour, font size and text colour either for all pages or for one specific page only and get really crazy. Pick lined, grid or dotted paper, and explore 12 handwritten typefaces from Shaped Fonts or choose from all preinstalled iOS system fonts. - Add up to four additional notebooks to your setup. Each requires a small one-time in-app purchase so we can keep the app subscription-free. Switch between books by long-pressing the cover, selecting one in Settings or, on iPhone Duo and iPad, swiping in the desk view. - Keep an overview with a table of contents you can sort by page number, time or location… so the notes nearest to you are always easy to find. All notes are searchable, too. - Have fun and don’t take life too seriously!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Finalist at Free against TypeDraw's $4.99. Finalist also leads on rating (4.7 vs 4.5) and ratings volume (550 vs 76). TypeDraw's advantage is update cadence (every 2 days vs weekly) and chart position (#1 vs unranked). On review sentiment, 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
Finalist is free to download; TypeDraw costs $4.99 up front. Finalist sells 7 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per 7 days and TypeDraw sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Finalist holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Finalist has 550 ratings behind it against 76, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 77% of Finalist's written reviews are positive against 85% of TypeDraw's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Finalist ships an update weekly, TypeDraw every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on November 12, 2026 and November 11, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Finalist | TypeDraw |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $4.99 |
| Rating | 4.7 (550 ratings) — better | 4.5 (76 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 77.1% of reviews | 84.9% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 550 — better | 76 |
| Update frequency | Weekly | Every 2 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Best chart rank | — | #1 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Vision Pro — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 — better | 26.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 121 MB | 50 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Diversion Marketing Inc | Trautmann & Dorre GbR Shaped Agency |
Customer experience
Finalist
TypeDraw
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
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- 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
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- 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
TypeDraw
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Finalist
- Finalist Pro Weekly3 Days trial$2.997 Days
- Finalist Monthly$4.991 Month
- Finalist Pro Monthly$4.991 Month
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- Finalist Yearly7 Days trial$29.991 Year
- Finalist Pro Yearly7 Days trial$29.991 Year
- Finalist Lifetime$59.99
- Finalist Pro Lifetime$59.99
TypeDraw
- Atlantic Notebook$1.99
- Bordeaux Notebook$1.99
- Highlands Notebook$1.99
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- Sahara Notebook$1.99









