Comparison

Koku vs Harbor Notes

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

Head to head
About

Koku

This app helps you focus on tasks with customizable work and rest intervals. It offers a simple, distraction-free interface and integrates with your home screen and Apple Watch for easy access and control. Enjoy deep work without accounts, streaks, or subscriptions.

Highlights
  • Customizable focus and rest sessions
  • Classic Pomodoro rhythm option
  • Home Screen widget for quick access
  • Live Activities on lock screen
  • Apple Watch companion app
  • Minimalist, distraction-free design
Features
Read full description

Koku is a focus timer for deep work. Focus. Rest. Repeat. Set your own session lengths or use the classic rhythm - twenty-five minutes of focus, five minutes of rest, a longer break every four sessions. Each minute is a dot. Watch them fill. - No accounts. - No streaks. - No subscriptions. Just time, and the work in front of you. Add Koku to your Home Screen for quick access - start, pause, and skip sessions right from the widget. Keep the timer visible on your lock screen with Live Activities. Koku also includes an Apple Watch companion app that works with the iPhone app, so you can check your timer and control sessions from your wrist. Designed for iPhone, with an Apple Watch companion. Light and dark mode. Works in any language. Koku (刻) is the Japanese word for a moment of time.

About

Harbor Notes

Capture, organize, and secure all your thoughts, tasks, and files in one private space. This app offers rich note-taking features, robust organization, and instant search, even within images and scanned documents. Your data is yours, with optional end-to-end encryption and no ads or data selling.

Highlights
  • Rich notes with checklists, tables, and highlights
  • Notebooks, stacks, and tags for organization
  • Task management with due dates
  • Document scanning and sketching
  • Voice memos and file attachments
  • Instant search with OCR
  • Offline-first native apps
Features
Read full description

Harbor is your private second brain — a fast, native notes app for people who want to remember everything and own it for life. Capture notes, organize them into notebooks, tag anything, attach photos and files, scan paper documents, sketch ideas, and record voice memos. Then find any of it in seconds — Harbor's search even reads the text inside your images and scans. REMEMBER EVERYTHING • Rich notes with checklists, tables, images, links, and highlights • Notebooks and stacks that keep every part of your life organized • Tags that cut across notebooks • Tasks with due dates, right beside your notes • Scan documents with your camera; sketch with your finger or Apple Pencil • Voice memos and file attachments of every kind • Instant search across everything — including the text inside images and scans (OCR) YOURS, EVERYWHERE • Truly native apps for iPhone, iPad, and Mac — no web wrapper • Offline-first: your notes live on your device and sync automatically • The full web app at app.harbor.my from any browser • A web clipper that saves articles and pages straight into your notebooks PRIVATE BY DESIGN • No ads. No selling your data. No training AI on your notes. Ever. • Optional end-to-end encryption locks down your most sensitive notes so that no one — not even us — can read them • Export everything anytime in open formats. You are never locked in. SWITCHING FROM ANOTHER NOTES APP? Import your Evernote notebooks (.enex files) with the Mac or web app — your notebooks, tags, and attachments sync straight to your iPhone and iPad. SIMPLE, HONEST PRICING Harbor is free for up to 50 notes, 3 notebooks, and 20 tags — no credit card required. When you outgrow the free plan, Harbor Unlimited removes every limit: • $9.99/month or $99/year • Unlimited notes, notebooks, tags, tasks, and files • A written price-lock promise in our terms: your price won't go up for at least 3 years Subscriptions are billed to your Apple ID and renew automatically until cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel anytime in your App Store account settings. And even if you stop paying, you can always read and export your notes — Harbor never holds your data hostage. Privacy Policy: https://harbor.my/privacy/ Terms of Use: https://harbor.my/terms/ Questions? A real person answers: help@harbor.my

Screenshots

Koku4 screens
Harbor Notes4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Harbor Notes at 5.0 against Koku's 3.0. Harbor Notes also leads on ratings volume (4 vs 1) and iOS requirement (18.0 vs 26.4). Koku's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 2). On price, update cadence, ads 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Harbor Notes sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month. Koku asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Harbor Notes holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 4 respectively.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Koku ships an update every 3 days, Harbor Notes every 4 days. Both last shipped on October 11, 2026.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Koku versus Harbor Notes: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterKokuHarbor Notes
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.0 (1 ratings)5.0 (4 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings14 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 days — betterEvery 4 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFreemium
DevicesiPhone, Apple WatchiPhone, iPad, Mac — better
Requires iOS26.418.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size10 MB37 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperRodolfo Alberto Lopez TerriquezCloudmanic Labs, LLC

Customer experience

Koku

All ratings1 ratings
Positive0.0%
Neutral100.0%
Negative0.0%

Harbor Notes

All ratings4 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Koku

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

Harbor Notes

Subscriptions2
  • Unlimited — Monthly$9.991 Month
  • Unlimited — Yearly$99.001 Year

Questions

Is Koku free?
Koku is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Harbor Notes free?
Harbor Notes is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Koku or Harbor Notes?
Harbor Notes is rated higher. Koku averages 3.0 out of 5 from 1 ratings, while Harbor Notes averages 5.0 from 4 ratings.
Do Koku or Harbor Notes have ads?
Neither Koku nor Harbor Notes shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Koku or Harbor Notes?
Koku ships an update every 3 days, and Harbor Notes every 4 days. Most recently, Koku was updated on October 11, 2026 and Harbor Notes on October 11, 2026.

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