App roundups, written the way we’d want to read them.
We build iOS apps, so we spend a lot of time looking at what else is out there. These are the notes: every App Store link checked, every app given a stated drawback, and our own app declared at the top of the page rather than buried at the bottom.
10 iPhone apps. 10 on the App Store.
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Kalend: planners & habits · 22 posts
Planning your day without a subscription
From building Kalend, our free planner: to-do lists, calendars, habit trackers and journals, compared on what each one locks behind a paywall.
Best Free To-Do List App for iPhone
Ten iPhone to-do apps compared honestly — what each is genuinely best at, what it costs, and where each falls down. Including the free ones with no account.
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Best Free Habit Tracker App for iPhone
Nine habit trackers compared — streaks, reminders, privacy and what each actually costs. Including the ones that need no account and no subscription.
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Best Planner Apps With No Ads
Free and ad-free are not the same thing. Nine iPhone planner apps sorted by how each one is actually paid for, Kalend first.
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Best Planner App for ADHD
Nine ADHD planner apps for iPhone, judged on visible time, one thing at a time, and what happens after a missed day. Kalend is ours and is first.
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Day One vs Apple Journal: Which Is Better?
Day One vs Apple Journal on price, sync, prompts and export, plus four other journal apps judged on the same fields, including our own Kalend.
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Free Alternatives to Fantastical Calendar
Weighing up a Fantastical renewal? Nine iPhone calendar apps compared on accounts supported, tasks beside events and what a subscription gates.
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Habit Tracker With a Journal: Best Apps
Six apps that keep a habit tick and a written note in the same record, graded on how tightly the two are joined. Kalend, ours, is listed first.
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Quick Journal App for Busy People (iPhone)
A quick journalling app for iPhone only helps if it opens fast. Judged on friction: how soon you reach a blank line, and what the app asks first.
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Planner App That Works Offline
Nine planner apps for iPhone judged on one question: what happens with no connection. Kalend is ours and goes first, with eight alternatives.
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Planner Apps Without AI
Nine planner apps without AI, each checked against the developer's own listing for assistants, auto-scheduling and where your text actually goes.
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Free Alternatives to the Structured Day Planner
Structured shows your day as one timeline. Here are nine planners that do the same, what each puts behind a paywall, and where your data sits.
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Best Free Planner App for Students
Nine free student planner apps for iPhone, split into academic planners that model terms and grades and general planners that run your whole life.
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How to Time Block Your Day on iPhone (Free)
How to block out a day on an iPhone without paying: estimate, place, buffer, recover. Then nine free apps rated on how well they hold blocks.
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Free Todoist Alternatives for iPhone
Leaving Todoist on iPhone? Nine task apps compared on where your data lives, whether recurring tasks survive the move, and what the free tier holds back.
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Best All-in-One Planner App for iPhone
Nine iPhone apps that hold tasks, calendar, habits and a journal in one place — with each free tier's actual cap and each subscription's actual price.
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Apps Like Apple Reminders That Track Habits Too
Eight iPhone apps that replace Apple Reminders and track habits too — each app's free habit cap stated, plus what Reminders still does better.
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Planner App With Its Own Calendar (No Google)
Most planner apps write every appointment into your Google or Apple account and keep nothing themselves. Eight that store their own events — and what each.
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Best Free Journal App for iPhone (No Subscription)
Nine iPhone journal apps, each tagged free, one-time or freemium, with the export format stated — so you know how to get your entries out if you ever stop paying.
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Habit Tracker That Doesn’t Reset Your Streak
Skip days, scheduled rest days and streaks that only count scheduled days are three different mechanics sold with the same sentence. Seven habit apps.
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Productivity Apps With No Sign-Up
Eight iPhone planners and to-do apps you can use without signing up — each one checked against its App Store privacy label rather than its marketing copy.
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How to Plan Your Day on iPhone for Free
A free day-planning routine using Apple's Calendar, Reminders and Journal, the three places it breaks down, and seven no-ads apps that patch the gaps.
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Free Streaks Alternatives: 8 Habit Trackers
Eight free habit trackers scored on the four things Streaks users actually rely on — a real Apple Watch app, Home Screen widgets, the free habit cap, and.
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Jotter: notes · 5 posts
Writing things down, faster
From building Jotter, our notes app: the free notes apps worth using, which ones can read your notes, the fastest ways to capture a thought, checklists, and handwriting without a subscription.
Best Free Notes App for iPhone
Eight notes apps checked for note caps, sync paywalls, accounts and exports — with Apple Notes as the free app to beat.
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Most Private Notes App for iPhone
Six notes apps scored on four kinds of privacy: no account, no server, end-to-end encryption and a real lock.
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How to Take Quick Notes on iPhone (Fastest Ways)
Seven shortcuts from “I need to write this down” to typing in a second, set up once — and four apps built for it.
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How to Make a Checklist on iPhone (Notes & Reminders)
Checklists in Apple Notes and Reminders step by step, the settings worth changing, and five apps compared.
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Best Free Handwriting Notes App for iPad
Six Apple Pencil and finger-writing apps compared on notebook limits, handwriting search and what turns into a subscription.
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Clinch: sales & CRM · 3 posts
Selling without a CRM subscription
From building Clinch, our free sales tracker: simple CRMs for a phone, and what the big ones charge for.
Easiest CRM App for iPhone
Eight CRMs compared for the person who wants a pipeline, not a platform — what each is genuinely built for, what it costs, and the drawback each one has.
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Best CRM App With No Monthly Fee
Seven ways to run a sales pipeline without a monthly bill — genuinely free apps, free tiers with strings, and the self-hosted options. With the catch on each stated up front.
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Best CRM App for iPhone for Salespeople
Eleven iPhone sales CRM apps for reps who'd rather talk than type — verified App Store links, what each one actually logs, and an honest drawback for each.
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Reset: dopamine detox · 8 posts
Quitting the scroll, honestly
Notes from building Reset: what a dopamine detox actually is, how to block apps on iPhone so it holds, the friend key, and what a hundred community threads say works. Sources at the bottom of every post. Reset is free on the App Store.
How to Stop Doomscrolling: What Actually Works
We read the top posts on r/dopaminedetox, r/nosurf and their neighbours. Here's what people who quit scrolling keep saying, and what Reset does about it.
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What Is a Dopamine Detox, and Does It Work?
The phrase is everywhere. The biology behind it is mostly wrong, but the practice underneath it works. Here's the honest version.
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How to Block Instagram and TikTok on iPhone
Screen Time limits are one tap from being ignored. Here's what a block that holds looks like on iOS, and where Apple's limits are.
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Let a Friend Lock Your Apps: Does It Actually Work?
Commitment devices are as old as Ulysses tied to the mast. Here's the research behind handing your unlock code to someone else, and how Reset does it.
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How to Stop Scrolling on Your Phone in Bed
The last hour of the day is where most phone time goes and where it does the most damage. Three changes, in order, that actually take.
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How to Get Better at Being Bored: 6 Exercises
If quiet minutes feel unbearable, that's trainable. Six short practices from the Boredom Gym, and the studies each one leans on.
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Is the Reset App Private? How Your Data Stays Safe
No account, no server, no analytics. A short tour of how a Screen Time app can work without ever learning what you do on your phone.
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How to Help a Friend Who’s Addicted to Their Phone
Someone asked you to hold their key. Here's what that means, what to say when they ask for the code, and how to be useful.
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Brolic: gym · 1 post
SmartFolio & VaultFlow: money · 2 posts
Tracking stocks and net worth
Portfolio and net-worth trackers compared, from building SmartFolio and VaultFlow.
Best Investment Tracker App for iPhone
A buyer's guide to 10 iPhone portfolio trackers for investors holding stock at more than one brokerage: real features, pricing models, honest drawbacks.
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Best Net Worth Tracker App for iPhone and iPad
Ten real iPhone net worth trackers compared — auto-syncing dashboards versus private manual apps. Honest features, pricing models, and every drawback.
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Gathr, Neighbr & CleanConnect · 3 posts
Events, neighbours and volunteering
Roundups for our other apps: Gathr for events, Neighbr for local help and CleanConnect for cleanups.
Best Event Planner and Guest List App for iPhone
The best iPhone apps for guest lists, RSVPs and shared costs — for weddings, birthdays and multi-day events. Honestly compared, drawbacks included.
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Best Apps to Find Volunteer Work Near You
Ten iPhone apps for joining, organising and logging community cleanups — every App Store link fetched and confirmed, with a real drawback for each pick.
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Apps to Find Help in Your Neighbourhood
Ten neighbourhood help apps on the App Store, compared: who each one suits, how it makes money, and the honest catch. Every listing checked in July 2026.
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Free themes, browser tools and other guides
Roundups where our own thing is a theme, a tool or a website — and a few market guides with no app of ours in them.
Free Online Tools That Don’t Upload Your Files
Free online tools compared by the thing that actually matters: whether your file is processed inside your browser or uploaded to somebody else's server.
GuideReadBest Free Shopify Themes
Shopify's free themes compared for 2026, plus the two MIT-licensed themes we build ourselves. What each one suits, and the honest trade-off on each.
GuideReadBest Free WordPress Themes
Eight wordpress.org themes plus our own free library, compared on installs, rating and the honest trade-off. Every figure read off the listing.
GuideReadBest UFC App for Fans: Picks, Rankings and Stats
Eleven real MMA apps on the App Store for fantasy picks, live rankings and round-by-round scoring — every link checked, plus the honest drawback of each.
GuideReadBest Fleet Management App for iPhone
Ten trailer, fleet and yard management apps for iPhone, each with a verified App Store link, what it genuinely does well, and where it falls short.
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