Ox vs Alcove
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Ox
This AI assistant helps you research, create notes, and complete tasks across various apps and websites. It integrates with your device's services and files, offering a customizable experience with user-defined profiles and skills.
- Streaming chat interface
- Research information
- Work with files
- Create notes and artifacts
- Turn websites into services
- Create custom skills
- Organize into profiles
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Ox is a free, open-source local agent for iPhone and iPad that uses websites and apps on your behalf. Choose a language model provider, then research information, work with files, create notes and interactive artifacts, and complete tasks through supported websites and device services. Ox works with commercial, free, local, and self-hosted language models, and can turn websites into reusable services or create custom skills for recurring workflows. Ox can also connect to supported AI apps, search and continue existing conversations, and import reviewed memories into your active Profile. With permission, Ox can access selected folders, use location, add calendar events and reminders, schedule notifications, look up contacts, prepare messages for review, and find, preview, and organize photos you choose to share. You can also share text, links, images, PDFs, and other files with Ox through the Share Sheet or Shortcuts. Chats, memory, skills, character settings, and generated artifacts are organized into separate Profiles that can be stored on-device, synced through iCloud, or opened from a folder you select in Files. Ox asks for approval before sensitive actions and keeps website credentials isolated from the language model.
Alcove
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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
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Ox at none against Alcove's 2. Ox also leads on update cadence (every 2 days vs weekly). Alcove's advantage is iOS requirement (17.4 vs 26.0). On price, 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
Both are free to download. Alcove sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. Ox asks for nothing beyond the download.
Ox ships an update every 2 days, Alcove weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Ox | Alcove |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 2 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 2 days — better | Weekly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 17.4 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 25 MB | 60 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Ziyuan Zhu | Muhammed Basil E |
In-app purchases
Ox
No in-app purchases
Alcove
- 14-day TrialFree
- Alcove Unlock$14.99









