Comparison

ArkNote vs Alcove

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

Head to head
About

ArkNote

Organize your daily life with a unified journaling and task management system. Capture thoughts, to-dos, and reflections in a chronological timeline, with features like recurring tasks and customizable templates to streamline your record-keeping.

Highlights
  • Daily chronological timeline
  • Integrated notes and to-dos
  • Recurring and auto-carrying tasks
  • Customizable templates
  • Nested tags for organization
  • System Share Extension for quick capture
  • iCloud sync and JSON backup
Features
Read full description

ArkNote - Stay Present, Record Every Day It is a note-taking and life-logging app designed around each day. Notes, Todos, reading lists, reflections, and movie reviews no longer need to be scattered across different apps. ArkNote brings them together in a clear daily timeline: write today, continue tomorrow, and rediscover them years later in “Time Rings.” 【Bring Your Records Back to Each Day】 Swipe left or right to switch dates, or use the calendar to quickly look back. Your thoughts, tasks, photos, and everyday moments are naturally organized by time. 【More Than Text Notes】 Add Todos, photos and videos, links, reminders, moods, ratings, tags, and child notes. Use lists, bold text, colors, and covers to give every kind of content the right form. 【Todos No Longer Quietly Expire】 Unfinished items can automatically carry over to today. Recurring tasks can reappear daily, weekly, or on a custom schedule, naturally connecting yesterday, today, and tomorrow. 【Templates Make Repeated Records Easier】 Create templates for reading lists, movie journals, daily reflections, or your own workflows. Customize their icons, colors, and covers to reduce repetitive steps and make it easier to start recording. 【Stay Organized Without the Effort】 Use nested tags to organize different topics, and quickly search titles, text, Todos, links, and tags. Open “Time Rings · On This Day” to rediscover records from the same date in previous years. 【Quick Capture and Sharing】 Use the system Share Extension to quickly import web pages, text, and links into ArkNote. When a record is complete, save or send it through system sharing, as an image, or as a PDF. 【Sync and Backup】 Optionally sync across devices with iCloud. JSON backup, export, and restore are also supported, helping you keep important records safe. May ArkNote help you carry today forward and connect it with tomorrow ===== ArkNote is available for monthly subscription, annual subscription or one-time purchase. When you choose the subscription plan, we will charge your iTunes account after the free trial starts or the purchase is confirmed. The subscription will automatically renew unless you turn off auto-renewal at least 24 hours before the end of the billing period. You can go to your iTunes Account Settings to manage your subscription and turn off auto-renewal. Terms of Use : https://my.feishu.cn/wiki/RXKMwRE5fiRPWokHjabcRmIYnwd Privacy Policy : https://my.feishu.cn/wiki/OpdFw61g9iyFsNk7fshcRdOZnTd

About

Alcove

Features
Read full description

Alcove is a calm to-do list, daily planner and notes app, free to use. Capture tasks in plain words, plan your week on a calendar, keep notes that do the maths, record meetings into notes with a summary, and move work along on kanban boards. Tick tasks off from a widget, and with Alcove Unlock find the same lists on your Mac and iPad. FREE TO USE, FOR GOOD Tasks and reminders without limits, Today, Upcoming and the calendar, quick add, widgets, notes and the Notifications page are free, with three lists and three meeting recordings. No account, no ads and no subscription. TYPE IT THE WAY YOU'D SAY IT Write "Call mum Friday 6pm" or "Stand-up every weekday 9:30 15m /Work" and Alcove picks out the day, time, length, repeat, priority, list and tags as you type. On the Mac, press Option-Space from any app to add a task. MEETINGS, WRITTEN UP Press Record when a meeting starts. On the Mac, Alcove hears your microphone and the call, so it works with any call app, with no bot joining. On iPhone and iPad it records the room. When you stop, you get a note with the recording, the transcript with who said what, and a summary with the decisions and action items, ready to become tasks, where Apple Intelligence supports the language. Speech is transcribed on your device, in more than a dozen languages including Malayalam, Hindi and Tamil, written in their own script. Meeting notes need macOS 26 or iOS 26. PLAN YOUR DAY AND WEEK • Today, Upcoming and a calendar with an hour grid and an all-day row • Drag a task to a new time or day • Repeating tasks for any rhythm: every few days, weeks, months or years, chosen weekdays, or counted from when you finished REMINDERS AS LOUD AS THE TASK Pick quiet, a notification, or an alarm. On iPhone with iOS 26, an alarm rings through silent mode and Focus, with Stop and Snooze. Mark a task done right from its reminder, and look back on every reminder, and anything you missed, on the Notifications page. NOTES THAT DO THE MATHS Headings, checklists, code, quotes and tables, written with Markdown shortcuts. End a line with = and it's worked out, and tables add up their own totals. Turn any checklist line into a task. KANBAN BOARDS Lay tasks out in To do, Doing and Done, or columns of your own. Tasks stay in their lists and in Today, and a card dropped in Done is finished everywhere. WIDGETS, SIRI AND SHORTCUTS • Widgets for the Home Screen, Lock Screen and Mac desktop, with tasks you can tick without opening the app • Controls for Control Center and the Lock Screen • Siri adds tasks, reads out your day and takes notes, and Shortcuts actions build your own automations MADE FOR THE MAC A menu bar list with a live count, a main window with a sidebar of every list, board and note, floating windows that stay on top, and keyboard shortcuts throughout. AI assistants can work with your tasks too, only once you turn them on, only with the permissions you approve, and every call is logged. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No account to create, no ads and no tracking. Your tasks and notes stay on your devices and in your own iCloud. AND THE DETAILS • 100 steps of undo, and six months of history for every task • Search across tasks, notes, tags and attachments • Lists with colours and icons, folders and tags • Nine accents and eight papers, in light and dark ALCOVE UNLOCK: ONE PURCHASE, NO SUBSCRIPTION One purchase unlocks everything on your Mac, iPhone and iPad: unlimited lists and folders, boards, iCloud sync, unlimited meeting notes, alarm reminders, Siri and Shortcuts, Speak tasks, AI assistants, files on tasks, floating windows and every theme. Try it all free for 14 days first if you like. When a trial ends, Alcove goes back to the free version and nothing you made is lost. Family Sharing included. Privacy Policy: https://alcovetasks.com/privacy Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

ArkNote4 screens
Alcove4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: ArkNote at every 3 days against Alcove's weekly. On price, ads, in-app purchases 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. ArkNote sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month and Alcove sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

ArkNote ships an update every 3 days, Alcove weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
ArkNote versus Alcove: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterArkNoteAlcove
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (3 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings3 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 3 days — betterWeekly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, MaciPhone, iPad, Mac
Requires iOS17.0 — better17.4
Further details — not scored
Size63 MB60 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperLexyTech Ltd.Muhammed Basil E

In-app purchases

3 purchases

ArkNote

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly$3.991 Month
  • Yearly7 Days trial$6.991 Year
One-time1
  • PRO$14.99
2 purchases

Alcove

One-time2
  • 14-day TrialFree
  • Alcove Unlock$14.99

Questions

Is ArkNote free?
ArkNote is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Alcove free?
Alcove is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do ArkNote or Alcove have ads?
Neither ArkNote nor Alcove shows ads.
Which is updated more often, ArkNote or Alcove?
ArkNote ships an update every 3 days, and Alcove weekly. Most recently, ArkNote was updated on October 29, 2026 and Alcove on October 31, 2026.

Other comparisons