Comparison

DayZen vs YostNotes

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

Head to head
About

DayZen

This app transforms your schedule into a visual 24-hour clock, making time concrete and manageable. It's designed to combat time blindness and anxiety for neurodivergent individuals by visualizing tasks as colored arcs on a clock face.

Highlights
  • Visual 24-hour clock schedule
  • Task arcs and time blocking
  • ADHD-friendly interface
  • Live Activities & Dynamic Island
  • Immersive Focus Mode
  • Calendar integration
  • Home Screen widgets
Features
Read full description

STOP LYING TO YOUR CALENDAR. To-do lists feel infinite. If you have ADHD, lists are just a source of anxiety. You keep adding tasks, but reality keeps disagreeing. You schedule 10 pounds of work into a 5-pound day, and then feel guilty when you don’t finish. DayZen: Visual Time Planner transforms your daily schedule from a stressful list into a logical 24-hour visual clock. Tasks become colored arcs. When the circle fills, it’s full. No more pretending a 3-hour project fits into a 30-minute gap. It is the ADHD planner that finally works. Design your time. See your visual schedule. Find your focus. WHAT’S NEW IN VERSION 2.0 We’ve rebuilt DayZen to be the ultimate time management companion for the neurodivergent mind. - Live Activities & Dynamic Island: Track your active focus time, remaining duration, and progress without unlocking your phone. - Immersive Focus Mode: A full-screen focus timer designed to eliminate ADHD distractions, complete with haptic feedback. - Deep Insights: Analyze your time usage patterns with new interactive charts for daily, weekly, and yearly trends. WHY THIS IS THE ULTIMATE ADHD PLANNER For the ADHD brain, time is abstract. DayZen makes time concrete. CONQUER ADHD TIME BLINDNESS Don't just read your schedule: see your time. DayZen acts as a visual timer and planner to fix time blindness. Drag and drop tasks onto the clock face and resize them with a finger. Conflicts glow red instantly so you can fix your daily routine before the day starts. INTUITIVE TIME BLOCKING Forget rigid spreadsheets that kill dopamine. Simply drag a slice of time to create a task. It’s the fastest, most tactile way to build a daily schedule using the time blocking method. STAY ON TRACK WITH WIDGETS Keep your visual day at a glance. Our beautiful Home Screen widgets show your current time block and what’s coming next to prevent executive dysfunction. SYNC WITH REALITY Seamlessly integrates with your Apple Calendar. Your meetings, classes, and time blocks live in one unified visual circle. BUILD BETTER HABITS Set recurring tasks once (e.g., "Morning Meds" or "Deep Work") and let DayZen protect that time forever. WHO IS DAYZEN FOR? -Adult ADHD & Neurodivergent Minds: If you struggle with time blindness, focus, or maintaining a routine, this is the ADHD tool you’ve been waiting for. -Visual Thinkers: For those who are allergic to endless text-based task lists. -Students & Freelancers: Perfect for Pomodoro focus sessions and managing irregular daily plans. -Over-committers: Learn the power of saying "no" when you see your time circle is full. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Your schedule is your business. DayZen requires no account and collects no data. There are no ads, ever. PRICING - Free Forever: Enjoy the full radial clock, 10 active tasks, and basic visual planning features. Experience the difference of visual time management. - Premium: Unlock unlimited tasks, advanced time statistics, two-way calendar sync, and Dynamic Island support. THE REAL DIFFERENCE Other planner apps ask, "What do you want to do?" DayZen asks, "What time actually fits?" See the circle. Respect the clock. Own your day. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: http://kavolis.xyz/dayzen/privacy-policy

About

YostNotes

Features
Read full description

Record the lecture. Get the notes. YostNotes records your classes, meetings, and calls, then writes them up for you: a full transcript, a summary of what actually mattered, and flashcards to study from. You listen. It writes. HOW IT WORKS 1. Tap record, then put your phone down and pay attention. 2. YostNotes transcribes every word, with speakers labelled. 3. You get a summary, the key terms, and a set of flashcards. Or skip the recording entirely. Paste or type any text and get the same summary back. WHAT YOU GET Full transcripts Every word, timestamped. Tap any line to jump straight to that moment in the audio. Long-press a line to fix it, and name a speaker once to update every line they said. Summaries that hold up An overview, the decisions, the action items, and the key terms. The parts you would have written down yourself if you had not been busy listening. Flashcards, generated One conversation becomes a study set. Review what was said instead of rereading it. A library you can search Folders, filters, and search across every note you have made. Find the meeting from three weeks ago without remembering when it happened. Photos alongside your notes Capture the whiteboard or the slide. It stays with the note it belongs to, and it travels with the summary when you share or export. Finishes without you Stop a recording and lock your phone. Transcribing and summarising carry on in the background, and YostNotes tells you when the note is ready. BUILT FOR Students recording lectures who would rather listen than type Professionals in back-to-back meetings who need the decisions and the action items Researchers running interviews who need an accurate record Anyone who thinks out loud and wants it written down PRIVACY CloudSync is end-to-end encrypted with a passphrase only you know. Your notes are encrypted on your device before they leave it, so we can never read them. We do not train on your data. POWERED BY CLAUDE Summaries, key terms, and flashcards are generated using Anthropic's Claude models. You stay the author and you stay in control. ALSO INCLUDED Markdown formatting, PDF export, sharing, and dark mode throughout. WHAT USERS SAY "I finally have one place for everything. My second brain feels real now." "Voice capture during walks changed how I work. Ideas land in YostNotes before I forget them." "Search alone is worth the price. I find old notes in seconds." PRICING Free to try. A subscription adds recording minutes, advanced AI features, and encrypted CloudSync. Monthly or yearly billing. Questions or feedback? We read everything and ship fast. Reach us at info@yost.group. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

DayZen4 screens
YostNotes4 screens

Verdict

The call

DayZen and YostNotes are too close to call on the numbers: across 6 compared parameters — price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.

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. DayZen sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month and YostNotes sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $14.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

DayZen ships an update monthly, YostNotes fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on November 5, 2026 and November 12, 2026 respectively.

ScorecardNo meaningful differences
DayZen versus YostNotes: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDayZenYostNotes
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.3 (4 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews75.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings4 — better—
Update frequencyMonthlyFortnightly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemium—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17 — better18.6
Further details — not scored
Size7 MB9 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJoris KavolisRick Yost

In-app purchases

3 purchases

DayZen

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly Premium$2.991 Month
  • Yearly Premium7 Days trial$19.991 Year
One-time1
  • Lifetime$24.99
3 purchases

YostNotes

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly14 Days trial$14.991 Month
  • Annual14 Days trial$169.991 Year
One-time1
  • 100 Minute Top-Up$6.99

Questions

Is DayZen free?
DayZen is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is YostNotes free?
YostNotes is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do DayZen or YostNotes have ads?
Neither DayZen nor YostNotes shows ads.
Which is updated more often, DayZen or YostNotes?
DayZen ships an update monthly, and YostNotes fortnightly. Most recently, DayZen was updated on November 5, 2026 and YostNotes on November 12, 2026.

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