TaskScratch vs Etched
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side ā with what reviewers say about each.
TaskScratch
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TaskScratch is a task manager built on a simple promise: you pay once, you own it forever. No subscription. No "Pro" upgrade that changes the deal. No bait-and-switch. The price you see is the price you pay, and it never expires. YOUR TASKS, YOUR DEVICES, YOUR DATA TaskScratch syncs across iPhone, iPad, and Mac through your personal iCloud account. Your tasks never touch our servers, because we don't have any. No account to create, no third-party cloud service, no data harvesting. Just your Apple ID and end-to-end encryption courtesy of iCloud. ORGANIZE YOUR WAY Create collections for every part of your life: Personal, Work, Family, Travel. Each collection holds multiple lists, and each list holds tasks with priorities, due dates, subtasks, and tags. Sort by priority, due date, name, newest, oldest, or drag to reorder manually. MARKDOWN NOTES ON EVERY TASK Add rich notes to any task with a formatting toolbar: bold, italic, headings, bullet lists, numbered lists, checklists, code blocks, and links. Preview your notes as beautifully rendered text, or expand to a full-screen editor for longer writing. Lists auto-continue as you type. EXPORT AND SHARE IN OPEN FORMATS Share any list or entire collection as plain text or Markdown. Send via iMessage, Mail, AirDrop, or any app on your device. Your data is never locked in. Export a grocery list to a friend or back up your entire project plan in a format any text editor can read. SCRATCHPAD: PRIVATE BY DESIGN A local-only notepad built for sensitive content. Passwords, credentials, private notes, code snippets, anything you need to jot down but never want in the cloud. Your scratchpad is stored only on your device. It does not sync to iCloud. It does not appear in backups. It does not leave your hands. BUILT FOR APPLE TaskScratch is a native SwiftUI app, not a web wrapper, not a cross-platform port. On Mac, it lives in your menu bar with quick access to today's tasks, hides to the background when you close the window, and comes back when you need it. On iPhone, it feels like it belongs. WHAT YOU GET - Collections, lists, tasks, subtasks, and tags - Markdown notes with toolbar and live preview - Seven sort options including priority, due date, and manual reorder - Show or hide completed tasks - Today view with overdue, due today, and this week - Search across everything: titles, notes, subtasks, and tags - iCloud sync across all your Apple devices - Share lists and collections as plain text or Markdown - Scratchpad that is local-only, never synced, never backed up - macOS menu bar app with today's tasks at a glance - Dark mode and Dynamic Type support - No ads, no analytics, no tracking NO SUBSCRIPTION. NO TRICKS. NO ASTERISKS. We believe software should be something you buy, not something you rent. TaskScratch will never move to a subscription model. Future updates are included. The app you buy today is the app you keep forever.
Etched
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Stop losing your own notes. Etched finds what you wrote by meaning ā not just by keyword. Ask for "the note about slowing down to think" and it surfaces, even if those exact words were never written. Everything runs on your device. Write in plain markdown and watch it render as you type ā no symbols, no preview pane, no modes. What you see is the file. Your notes stay portable .md, yours forever. FREE, and complete: ⢠On-device semantic search ā find notes by meaning ⢠Live WYSIWYG markdown ā bold, headings, lists, quotes, code ⢠Tables, callouts, code blocks, footnotes, highlights, links ⢠iCloud sync across your devices ⢠Export to .md (raw or with rendered images), PDF, plain text ETCHED PRO ā one-time purchase, yours forever: ⢠Flashcards + spaced repetition ā turn notes into memory ⢠Diagrams from plain text (flowcharts, sequences, mind maps) ⢠Typeset math and chemistry (LaTeX) ⢠Charts from a few rows of data ⢠Sheet music from ABC notation ⢠Handwriting / sketches ⢠Present mode ā turn a note into full-screen slides ⢠Per-note themes Reading every format is always free ā Pro unlocks creating them. No subscription, ever. Pay once and keep it. Coming from Apple Notes, Obsidian, or Bear? Your markdown imports as plain .md, and you finally get search that finds notes by meaning ā privately, with no account. Private by design: your notes never leave your devices except through your own iCloud. No account, no tracking, no ads. Your notes, etched in memory. ā Made by Hyojin Mo. Support: support@vibeland.app
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: TaskScratch at none against Etched's 1. On price, update cadence, ads and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price Ā· Rating Ā· Positive reviews Ā· Number of ratings Ā· Update frequency Ā· Ads Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Monetization Ā· Best chart rank Ā· Devices Ā· Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Etched sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. TaskScratch asks for nothing beyond the download.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 2 days. Both last shipped on October 25, 2026.
| Parameter | TaskScratch | Etched |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Every 2 days | Every 2 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No ā better | Yes |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, Mac ā better |
| Requires iOS | 17.6 | 17.0 ā better |
| Further details ā not scored | ||
| Size | 2 MB | 87 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Steve Eubanks | Soyeon Noh |
In-app purchases
TaskScratch
No in-app purchases
Etched
- Etched Pro$14.99









