Comparison

Matters Planner vs Polite Fish Planner

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

Head to head
About

Matters Planner

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Matters is a calm daily planner built around one idea: focus on what truly matters. Most to-do apps bury you in everything at once. Matters lets you pool everything in organized lists, then pull only what matters today — finish it, and let it cycle back. Calm, focused, and beautifully minimal. MAC APP INCLUDED Matters comes with a full Mac app, synced through your own iCloud — no extra purchase. Work in multi-column lists side by side, plan weeks and months ahead in the planning views, capture a task from any app with a global hotkey, mindmap with pro/con feature, and drive it all from the keyboard. ORGANIZE YOUR LIFE Create lists for the areas that matter — Nutrition, Movement, Skills, Projects, anything. Each list is a focused home for related tasks, so your mind stays clear and your work stays organized. Group lists into folders to see whole areas at a glance. PLAN YOUR DAY, NOT JUST YOUR TASKS - Today shows exactly what you've committed to - Time blocks let you build your day hour by hour and protect time for deep work - Drag a task onto your timeline to do it at the right moment - A built-in focus timer keeps you on track, one session at a time - Set a target for the week ahead and plan into it YOUR CALENDAR, RIGHT NEXT TO YOUR TASKS Bring your existing calendar events into the same view as your work, so you can see the meeting at 2pm before you promise the afternoon to something else. Your events stay in your own calendars — Matters only reads them. BUILD HABITS THAT STICK - Track habits on the schedule you actually keep: every day, every few days, or specific weekdays - Count repetitions toward a daily target, not just done or not done - Streaks that understand your rest days instead of punishing them - A clear history so you can see the pattern, not just today TASKS THAT HOLD THE WHOLE STORY - Sub-task checklists, image attachments, and notes on any task - Deadlines with multi-day tracking - Recurring tasks: daily, weekly, monthly, and custom intervals - Rolling tasks that cycle back instead of disappearing, perfect for routines - Reminders that arrive when you asked for them SEE WORK YOUR WAY - Every list is also a Kanban board: drag work across columns - A per-list Brief keeps meetings, decisions, references, and notes in one operating page - Sort, section, and reorder each list the way that suits it ON EVERY SCREEN Built for iPhone and iPad, with widgets for your Home Screen and Lock Screen: today's agenda, your time blocks, and your habit streaks at a glance. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Your data stays yours — it lives on your device and in your own iCloud, never on our servers. No sign-up, no tracking, no third-party data sharing. Beautifully minimal, light or dark to match your system, with a set of themes when you want a different feel. Built to get out of your way. Start free for 14 days. Then keep everything with a Monthly, Annual, or Lifetime plan. ——— SUBSCRIPTION & PRICING Matters is free for 14 days. To keep using it after the trial, choose a plan: • Monthly — an auto-renewing subscription billed each month • Annual — an auto-renewing subscription billed each year • Lifetime — a one-time purchase (not a subscription) Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase. A subscription automatically renews at the same price unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. You can manage or cancel anytime in Settings > Apple Account > Subscriptions. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://mattersplanner.com/privacy

About

Polite Fish Planner

Features
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Design your planner and write in it — all in one iPad app. Instead of buying a static, bloated PDF template and importing into another app you have to also pay for, customize and create your planner or travel journal on your iPad, then start writing in it using the same app. TRULY YOUR PLANNERS AND TRAVEL JOURNALS Include only the pages you want across categories like ADHD, finance, faith, content creation, sobriety & recovery, wellness, solopreneurship, travel and more. Add your name and word of the year to the cover, specify your favorite color, specify labels for habit tracker and other pages, choose your layout, the start and end time for your daily schedule and more. Integrate important dates right into the planner. Your planner will be generated and available on your iPad in seconds. After that, open it in the app and start writing. Instead of committing to a single planner for an entire year consider creating a new planner every month. Change the color with the seasons. Adjust the pages according to the changes in your life throughout the year. Each document a chapter in your year. Pages are thoughtfully designed with lots of open space for writing and decorating with stickers. Create planners and travel journals in landscape or portrait orientation. WRITE WITH APPLE PENCIL Write in your planner or travel journal using the Apple pencil. Both pen and pencil line styles are included, as well as three line weights, highlighter, color picker, eraser and lasso tool. STICKERS AND PHOTOS Import sticker packs or photos from your library. Place, resize, rotate, and layer them on any page. Stickers stay with your planner, exactly where you left them. CUSTOM TRAVEL JOURNALS WITH YOUR DESTINATIONS AND BEAUTIFUL MAPS Create travel journals that are not only in your favorite color they have your planned destinations built in. Using the design studio customize your destinations and the number of days you'll be in each destination. Page counts are adjusted for each destination and the name of the destination is printed on each page. There are three separate travel modules, pre-trip planner, daily travel journal and post trip memoir. You can create three separate documents for each stage of your trip or combine them into a single document. You choose which pages you want. You can also use the map design studio to create stunning maps to add to your travel journal pages along with your photos and stickers. With the Pro plan you can create as many travel journal documents as you like. Create a travel journal that compliments your memories. KEY FEATURES • Customize and use your planners and travel journals in one app with the built in design studio — no import needed • Custom-generated PDF tailored to your personal preferences • Apple Pencil writing with full color palette and highlighters • Built in map design studio for adding beautiful maps to your travel journals • Sticker support — import from Photos, Files, or ZIP packs • iCloud sync across all your iPads • Tap-to-navigate links built into every planner and travel journal • Create links from your writing to the calendar, other pages, locations and more • Export individual pages as PDF documents • Undo/redo, archiving, and iCloud sticker library FREE TO START — PLANNER PRO Try it free: create a single 1-week planner and a single travel journal, no subscription needed. Upgrade to Planner Pro ($19.99/year) for unlimited 1-12 month planners , unlimited journals with up to 20 destinations.

Screenshots

Matters Planner4 screens
Polite Fish Planner1 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Polite Fish Planner at none against Matters Planner's 3. Matters Planner's advantage is update cadence (every 2 days vs weekly). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement 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. Matters Planner sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $6.99 per month. Polite Fish Planner asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Matters Planner ships an update every 2 days, Polite Fish Planner weekly. Both last shipped on October 24, 2026.

Scorecard2 real differences · 6 level
Matters Planner versus Polite Fish Planner: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMatters PlannerPolite Fish Planner
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Number of ratings—1 — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 days — betterWeekly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
DevicesiPhone, MaciPhone, iPad
Requires iOS18.017.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size15 MB10 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperModum Ventures ABSeth Bourget

In-app purchases

3 purchases

Matters Planner

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly$6.991 Month
  • Yearly$39.991 Year
One-time1
  • Lifetime$99.00
None

Polite Fish Planner

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Matters Planner free?
Matters Planner is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Polite Fish Planner free?
Polite Fish Planner is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Matters Planner or Polite Fish Planner have ads?
Neither Matters Planner nor Polite Fish Planner shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Matters Planner or Polite Fish Planner?
Matters Planner ships an update every 2 days, and Polite Fish Planner weekly. Most recently, Matters Planner was updated on October 24, 2026 and Polite Fish Planner on October 24, 2026.

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