Notch vs Buckets
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Notch
This app consolidates tasks, schoolwork, finances, habits, and notes into a single, private platform. It offers features like syllabus import, budget tracking, habit streaks, and customizable views. Designed for privacy, it stores data locally without cloud sync or user accounts.
- Consolidated life management
- Private, local data storage
- Syllabus and assignment import
- Budget and financial tracking
- Habit tracking with streaks
- Customizable dashboard and themes
- Quick-add assistant
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Your whole life, one place. And it never leaves your phone. Notch brings tasks, classes, habits, money, health, meals, notes and reminders into one fast, private planner. Start with the free planner, or open the labelled sample planner to see every section filled in before you add a thing. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No account. No cloud. No analytics. No tracking. Your records live in files on your iPhone. There are no servers and no way for anyone else to read what you enter. Lock it all behind Face ID. INCLUDED FREE • Unlimited tasks and notes • Up to five active habits, with streaks and history kept • One active class with assignments, grades and its dated agenda • One syllabus import, reviewed before it is saved • Alerts for your tasks and class deadlines • Daily backups on your device, export, themes, accent colours and Face ID lock • The full sample planner, to explore any section NOTCH PRO • Unlimited classes and syllabus imports: paste a Canvas assignments page or scan a screenshot, review the titles, dates and times, save • Calendar with day, week and month views, with your iPhone calendars alongside • Finance: income, spending, bills and subscriptions, budgets, debts, savings goals, investments, safe to spend and projected balance • A live shift tracker that counts your earnings in real time, right in the Dynamic Island • Health: workouts, splits, volume, nutrition and optional Apple Health insights • Meals: a week of meals built around your goals and budget, with the grocery list and prep plan to match • Travel, standalone Reminders, shopping lists, order tracking, bucket list and the weekly review • The full dashboard with the money trend QUICK ADD Type "$14 lunch" or "call mom friday 2pm" and it lands in the right place. Widgets for the Home Screen and Lock Screen. MAKE IT YOURS Light and dark themes, custom accent colours, alternate app icons. Reorder tabs and dashboard sections to match how you think. PRICING Notch Pro is a yearly or monthly subscription, or a one-time lifetime purchase with no renewal. Eligible subscribers get a seven-day free trial; the price and terms shown before purchase apply. Manage or cancel a subscription in your Apple Account settings. Restore purchases from Settings on any iPhone signed in with the same Apple Account. Everyone who installed Notch before version 1.3 keeps Pro at no charge, on this phone and the next. Optional weather, exchange rates and place search contact their providers. Purchases are handled by Apple. Nothing else leaves the phone. Plan it. Notch it. Questions? notchsupport@gmail.com Privacy policy: https://notchplanner.com/privacy.html
Buckets
This app helps you manage your time by setting weekly intentions for different life areas. It allows you to block out time, run focus sessions, and confirm actual time spent, ensuring your week reflects your priorities. All data stays on your device.
- Set weekly intentions for life areas
- Block time on your calendar
- Run focus sessions with a timer
- Confirm actual time spent
- Calendar mirroring
- Health app integration for workouts
- Data export to JSON
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Where does your week actually go? Buckets holds the parts of your life that matter, work, movement, sleep, family, and gives each one a weekly intention: how much time you actually want to pour in. Then it helps you protect that time before the week gets noisy. HOW IT WORKS Bucket. One area of your life, with a weekly intention. Work. Movement. Sleep. Family. Study. Faith. Whatever yours are. Block. You protect time for a Bucket by placing a Block on your calendar, in advance. A promise made to yourself while the week is still quiet. Session. When the Block arrives you start a focus session, and the timer runs. Work, move, rest, read. The session just holds the time. Pour. When you finish you confirm what actually happened, and only then does it pour into the Bucket. A Pour is never recorded without you. That last part is the whole point. Buckets does not watch you, guess at you, or fill itself in behind your back. Your week is only as full as you say it is, which is what makes the number worth looking at. YOUR WEEK, IN ONE PLACE Vessels for each Bucket that fill as the week goes on A plan timeline where you drag a Bucket onto the day to protect time Your existing calendar shown alongside, so open space stays honest Widgets for today's plan, one Bucket's ring, and how the week is filling A Live Activity and Dynamic Island for the running session Morning and evening moments, a daily reflection, and a weekly close Shortcuts for starting and finishing a session by voice ON YOUR DEVICE, AND NOWHERE ELSE No account. No sign up. No server. Every Bucket, Block, Session and Pour lives in the app's own database on your phone. Nothing is uploaded, nothing is sold, nothing leaves the device unless you choose to connect your calendar or Health. FREE, AND PRO Free holds one Bucket, with the full day, sessions, reflections, and every Pour you ever confirm. Buckets Pro holds as many Buckets as your life has parts, plus repeating Blocks, calendar mirroring, workouts that arrive ready to pour from Health, and export of every confirmed Pour as plain readable JSON. Built by one person, in Swift, for iPhone on iOS 18 and later. SUBSCRIPTION Buckets Pro is an auto-renewing subscription. Buckets Pro (Yearly): $39.99 per year, with a 1 week free trial for new subscribers. Buckets Pro (Monthly): $6.99 per month. Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase. The subscription renews automatically unless it is cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Your Apple Account is charged for renewal within 24 hours before the end of the current period. You can manage your subscription and turn off auto-renewal in your Apple Account settings after purchase. If you take the free trial, any unused portion of it is forfeited when you buy a subscription. Terms of Use: https://buckets-app-xi.vercel.app/terms.html Privacy Policy: https://buckets-app-xi.vercel.app/privacy.html
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Notch at none against Buckets's 2. On price, rating, review sentiment and ratings volume 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. Buckets sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $6.99 per month. Notch asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Notch against 5.0 for Buckets. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 5 and 4 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.
| Parameter | Notch | Buckets |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (5 ratings) | 5.0 (4 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 5 — better | 4 |
| Update frequency | Weekly | — |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 21 MB | 23 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Marko Deric | Rami Salameh |
Customer experience
Notch
Buckets
In-app purchases
Notch
No in-app purchases
Buckets
- Buckets Pro$6.991 Month
- Buckets Pro7 Days trial$39.991 Year









