Comparison

GTD Brain vs Relay GTD

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

Head to head
About

GTD Brain

Features
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Your head is a bad place to keep a to-do list. GTD Brain gives everything on your mind one place to land: one inbox, six clear lists and a weekly review short enough to keep doing. Say it or type it. Tap the mic and talk; whatever is on your mind lands in your Inbox before you forget it. Later, when you have a minute, clarify each capture into a next action, a project or something you are waiting on. That is the whole GTD workflow, without the friction. HOW IT WORKS โ€ข Capture everything. Every thought and task goes into one inbox. Zero decisions at capture time. โ€ข Clarify and organize. Captures become next actions tagged by context, and anything that takes more than one step becomes a project with its next action pinned to it. โ€ข Do, with a clear head. Open @desk, @calls or @errands and see only what you can do right now. ONE BOARD. SIX LISTS. Inbox, Next Actions, Projects, Waiting For, Someday and Reference. The lists a trusted GTD system runs on, and nothing else. Swipe between them, filter by context, search any card. VOICE CAPTURE THAT WAITS FOR YOU Tap the mic, think out loud, pause as long as you like. Dictation keeps listening until you tap stop, so a thought is never cut in half. A WEEKLY REVIEW YOU WILL KEEP DOING A guided review walks your board one card at a time: clear the Inbox, bring every project and next action up to date, and decide what to do with your someday ideas. You leave each review trusting your system again. BUILT TO STAY OUT OF YOUR WAY A calm, fast design with light and dark mode. Works offline and catches up when you are back online. Available in 46 languages. GTD BRAIN PRO SUBSCRIPTION Capturing, editing and organizing your board, and the guided Weekly Review, require GTD Brain Pro, an auto-renewing subscription: โ€ข Yearly: $143.99 / year, with your first month free (40% less than paying monthly) โ€ข Monthly: $19.99 / month Prices may vary by region. Payment is charged to your Apple ID at confirmation of purchase. The subscription renews automatically unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel anytime in your Apple ID settings. Without an active subscription you can browse the board, but making changes requires GTD Brain Pro. Terms of Use (EULA): https://gtdbrain.com/terms Privacy Policy: https://gtdbrain.com/privacy Support: https://gtdbrain.com/support GTD Brain is an independent app made by Minosin AB.

About

Relay GTD

Features
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Relay is a complete task, project and goal management app built for Getting Things Done. CAPTURE ANYTHING, ANYWHERE Type it into the app, share to Relay from any app's share sheet on iPhone and iPad, press Control+Option+N on a Mac to capture over whatever you are working in, or forward an email to your own private Relay address. Everything lands in the Inbox and waits there until you decide what it is. CLARIFY, THEN ENGAGE A short step-through turns each item into a next action, a project with a defined outcome, something you are waiting on, a Someday/Maybe item, reference, or something to drop. Engage then shows what you can do now, filtered by where you are, how much time you have, and whether you have the energy for it. GUIDED REVIEWS The weekly review is where most systems quietly fail, because it depends on remembering to check everything. Relay turns it into a wizard that walks you through clearing the Inbox, updating each project and checking your higher horizons, one step at a time. Trigger lists run you through the ordinary categories people skip, so open loops surface instead of staying in your head, and a five-minute daily review shapes each day. HORIZONS, NOT JUST A LIST Relay models the altitudes above the ground floor: the areas you are responsible for, the goals you are working towards, and the vision and purpose above them. A next action belongs to its project, and the project can link up to the goal or area it serves, so you can see what a piece of work is for and notice when a whole area has gone quiet. SHARED WORKSPACES A shared workspace is for a family, a couple or a small team: up to ten people, each with a Relay account of their own, invited with a link or by email. Delegate a task to someone: it lands in their Inbox and waits in your Waiting For. Each shared workspace has its own Agenda and a shared review. Comments on any item keep the discussion with the task. WIDGETS On iPhone and iPad, put a Relay list such as Inbox, Next Actions or your Soft Landscape on the Home Screen, tick something off without opening the app, or tap to capture. On a Mac, add a widget for Inbox, Next Actions, Soft Landscape, Scheduled, Waiting For or Projects. Widgets need iOS 17 or macOS 14. WORKS WITH THE APPS YOU ALREADY HAVE Apple Calendar, Apple Reminders, Google Calendar, Outlook Calendar, Google Tasks, Microsoft To Do, Todoist, Notion and Linear. Your calendar sits beside today's actions, and tasks you keep elsewhere come across without being retyped, into your Inbox first. ON EVERY DEVICE Relay runs on iPhone, iPad and Mac, on Windows and on the web, on one account. Sign in with Google to use one account on every device; Sign in with Apple works everywhere except the Windows app. AI THAT WAITS TO BE ASKED Ask and it helps you clarify. It questions a vague capture, says when something you wrote as a task is really a project, and holds a project's "done when" to a standard someone else could check. It never writes your next actions for you, never rewrites your words, and reads nothing unless you ask. SUBSCRIPTION Relay is a paid product, and every account gets the whole app. New accounts get 30 days free, with no card needed, starting when you choose. After that, pay monthly or yearly. Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase. A subscription renews automatically unless it is cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel yours on iPhone or iPad in Settings, under your name, then Subscriptions; on a Mac, in the App Store app, under your account. Terms of use: https://relaygtd.com/terms Privacy policy: https://relaygtd.com/privacy Getting Things Done and GTD are registered trademarks of the David Allen Company. Relay is not affiliated with, authorised by, or endorsed by the David Allen Company.

Screenshots

GTD Brain4 screens
Relay GTD4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: GTD Brain at none against Relay GTD's 2. Relay GTD's advantage is device support (4 vs 1). On price, update cadence, ads and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price ยท Rating ยท Positive reviews ยท Number of ratings ยท Update frequency ยท Ads ยท In-app purchases ยท Monetization ยท Best chart rank ยท Devices ยท Requires iOS

CostPrice ยท In-app purchases ยท Ads ยท Monetization

Both are free to download. Relay GTD sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $7.00 per month. GTD Brain asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

GTD Brain ships an update weekly, Relay GTD every 4 days. Both last shipped on October 31, 2026.

Scorecard2 real differences ยท 4 level
GTD Brain versus Relay GTD: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterGTD BrainRelay GTD
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyWeeklyEvery 4 days โ€” better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo โ€” betterYes
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac โ€” better
Requires iOS16.015.0 โ€” better
Further details โ€” not scored
Size13 MB67 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMinosin ABMichael Fraser Buffini

In-app purchases

None

GTD Brain

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

Relay GTD

Subscriptions2
  • Relay Monthly1 Month trial$7.001 Month
  • Relay Yearly1 Month trial$50.001 Year

Questions

Is GTD Brain free?
GTD Brain is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Relay GTD free?
Relay GTD is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do GTD Brain or Relay GTD have ads?
Neither GTD Brain nor Relay GTD shows ads.
Which is updated more often, GTD Brain or Relay GTD?
GTD Brain ships an update weekly, and Relay GTD every 4 days. Most recently, GTD Brain was updated on October 31, 2026 and Relay GTD on October 31, 2026.

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