NowCue vs SideQuest
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
NowCue
This app helps you organize your day by consolidating tasks, habits, and calendar events into a clear, actionable view. It allows for quick capture of ideas and provides focus sessions to minimize distractions, offering structure without overcomplication.
- Consolidated Today view
- Quick idea capture
- Habit tracking
- Voice-friendly input
- Widgets for at-a-glance checking
- Focus sessions
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NowCue is a daily planning app for iPhone that helps you turn loose tasks, habits, calendar events, and reminders into a clear view of what to do now, what can wait, and what should repeat. Plan your day without managing a complex schedule. Capture ideas quickly, organize flexible tasks, keep track of habits, and stay focused with a simple Today view designed around your real day. Key features: • Today view for tasks, habits, calendar events, and flexible plans • Quick capture for ideas, notes, and reminders • Habit tracking for daily routines • Voice-friendly capture for fast input • Widgets for checking your day at a glance • Focus sessions to help reduce distractions • A clear planning flow with less mental overhead NowCue is built for people who want structure without overplanning.
SideQuest
Transform your to-do list into an engaging adventure. Organize tasks by urgency and difficulty, earn experience points for completion, and tackle large goals as boss battles. Unlock rewards and track your progress with detailed statistics.
- Task Matrix for organizing tasks
- XP and leveling system
- Daily streaks and Momentum bonuses
- Boss Battles for large goals
- Unlockable rewards and animations
- Statistics dashboard
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Turn your to-do list into an adventure. SideQuest turns everyday tasks into a game you actually want to play. Instead of a flat list, your tasks live on the Task Matrix — a simple 2×2 board that sorts what you have to do by urgency and difficulty: • QUICK WIN — urgent and easy. Knock these out first. • HERO MOMENT — urgent and hard. This is where you rise to the occasion. • IF TIME — flexible and easy. Nice to get to. • PLAN IT — flexible and hard. Important work that deserves real time. Every task you finish earns XP. Level up, build daily streaks, and stack Momentum by clearing multiple tasks in a day for bonus XP — the more you get done, the faster you grow. BOSS BATTLES Break a big goal — a launch, a move, a deadline — into a Boss Battle. Every linked task chips away at the boss's HP. Finish them all, and watch the boss go down in a genuinely satisfying defeat celebration. Big goals stop feeling abstract and start feeling beatable. REWARDS & STATS Unlock new sticky-note colors and completion animations as you level up. Track your progress with a Statistics dashboard covering your streak, task breakdown, and XP trends over time. SIDEQUEST PREMIUM Go further with a Premium subscription: - Boss Battles - Every board theme, present and future - Exclusive achievements - Premium rewards and animations - Advanced analytics and deeper history - No ads Premium is an auto-renewing subscription: - Monthly: $4.99/month - Yearly: $39.99/year Payment is charged to your Apple ID at confirmation of purchase. Subscriptions renew automatically unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel anytime in your Apple ID account settings. Stop staring at a to-do list. Start leveling up. Terms of Use: Apple Standard EULA https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: NowCue at none against SideQuest's 2. NowCue also leads on ads (none vs shown). SideQuest's advantage is ratings volume (5 vs 1). On price, rating, update cadence and device support 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. SideQuest sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. NowCue asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for NowCue against 5.0 for SideQuest. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: SideQuest has 5 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
NowCue ships an update every 3 days, SideQuest every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 13, 2026 and October 29, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | NowCue | SideQuest |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) | 5.0 (5 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | — | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 5 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 days | Every 2 days — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 5 MB | 28 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Jean Millan | Thirty Six Pixels |
Customer experience
NowCue
SideQuest
In-app purchases
NowCue
No in-app purchases
SideQuest
- Premium (Monthly)$4.991 Month
- Premium (Yearly)7 Days trial$39.991 Year









