Back Burner vs What to
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Back Burner
Capture tasks and goals you want to address later. This app offers a card-based system to manage eventual to-dos, helping you focus on personal accomplishments instead of endless lists. It's a simple way to track and complete your objectives.
- Card-based task management
- Swipe to postpone or complete tasks
- Capture eventual to-dos
- Alternative to social media scrolling
- Goal tracking
- Unlimited cards for subscribers
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You have projects. You have tasks. And you have things you want to do... eventually. Back Burner is a place to collect those eventual to-dos so that you can revisit them, revise them, and get them done when you've got the time. Back Burner is also an alternative to social networks. Have five minutes free on your commute? Instead of doom scrolling the latest bad news, check out your Back Burner and swipe to find something you can accomplish for YOU! Or if you have a new goal you want to jot down quickly, throw it on your Back Burner and come back to it later! Whether it's paying a bill or calling a loved one, signing up for that course or remembering to drink water a few times a day, Back Burner is a great way to track and accomplish your goals simply and easily. Other task managers fill your screen with llists, and require you to set time tables and dependencies. Back Burner follows the model of a card deck, allowing you to have one idea per card, and just rotate through, swiping left to postpone something you're not ready to do, or swiping right when you've done it. Users get 100 cards for free, with titles only. Subscribers get unlimited cards, with both titles and descriptions, tags, filters, and search. And there are dozens of features in development which will all be available to subscribers only. Download Back Burner now for FREE, and when you love it, subscribe to unlock everything! Use of this app is pursuant to the standard Apple App Store EULA at https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
What to
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Not another list. The thing that picks. You have forty things and no idea which one to do right now. What to: Do asks two questions — how long you've got, how much you've got in you — and answers with one task. Not five options. Five options is the list again. WHAT IT DOES • One answer, every time. One task, the reason it won, and the opening move so you don't stall on "where do I even start". • It shows its working. Every pick argues its case: what's urgent, what's quick, what you've been avoiding, what you actually have energy for. • Only ever what you wrote. It never invents a task. Everything it offers came from you — typed, dictated, brain-dumped, or read in from Reminders. • One sentence in, we read the rest. Capture is one field. It infers how long a task takes and what kind of thing it is from the words you used. • Nine in the morning, the task itself. Not a badge count — the actual thing worth starting, on your lock screen. • Passed on it four times? One question, and either answer ends it. Lists rot; this one gets swept. • How often the pick was right. The only score that matters, and the only one it keeps. BUILT TO BE LEFT, NOT LIVED IN Two taps and you're gone. There is no inbox to process, no projects to maintain, no system to keep up with. Bring your list from Reminders and keep using whatever you already use to capture — this is the layer that decides. FOR THE DAYS DECIDING IS THE HARD PART If executive function is the bottleneck — ADHD, burnout, or just a bad Tuesday — the work isn't writing things down. It's choosing. This does the choosing. WHATTO PLUS One subscription across What to: Do and What to: Wear. Unlimited tasks and connected lists. The app works without it. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://do.what-to.app/#/privacy
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is iOS requirement: Back Burner at 17.0 against What to's 26.0. 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
Both are free to download. Back Burner sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $0.29 per month and What to sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $12.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Back Burner ships an update monthly, What to every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 17, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Back Burner | What to |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (4 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 4 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Monthly | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium | — |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 — better | 26.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 1 MB | 20 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Benjamin Carroll | Melih Guler |
In-app purchases
Back Burner
- Monthly Subscription$0.291 Month
- Annual Subscription$2.901 Year
- Superfan Annual Subscription$29.001 Year
What to
- Plus Monthly$12.991 Month
- Plus Yearly$99.991 Year









