10 best digital planner apps for iPad and iPhone to use in 2023-24

Updated on 20.09.2023.

Plan your daily tasks and big goals with these versatile, powerful digital planner apps that are compatible with iPad and iPhone.

A digital planner app can help you organize your tasks, schedule events, track goals, and jot ideas. 

It usually includes features such as reminders, task lists, calendars, and notes.

Digital planners available for iPad are typically synced with other devices. You will be able to access the same planner not only on your iPhone or Mac, but also devices operated by other systems, such as Android.

Below, I’ve listed the best digital planner apps that are available today for iPad and iPhone. They are either free, paid, or offered via subscription plans.

When it comes to handwriting and using digital planners on the iPad the good old way, the apps listed below support Apple Pencil the same way as all other apps.

However, in most apps you won’t be able to leave handwritten notes on the digital planner screen, either weekly or monthly. The notes can be handwritten into note fields only.

Best digital planners for iPad and iPhone

1. Todoist to-do list maker and digital planner

▸ Todoist is a task management app that helps you keep track of tasks, projects, and goals across all your devices. The platform is trusted by over 30 million users and teams around the world.

▸ Todoist digital planner app for iPad and iPhone can be linked with your calendar, voice assistant, and 60+ other tools.

▸ You can collaborate on projects of all sizes by assigning tasks to others and leaving comments, voice notes, and attachments.

▸ Project templates are available to help you tackle everything from meeting agendas to packing lists. 

▸ Quick Add is an especially handy feature. It allows you to capture and schedule tasks the moment they pop into your head.

▸ Todoist Pro plan is available for $4.99 per month, or for $47.99 if you buy an annual subscription.

2. Google Calendar with planner features

▸ At first, Google Calendar doesn’t fit in here. It’s a calendar app, and it’s not what you are looking for, right?

▸ You should give Google Calendar a chance. It lets you create not only calendar entries, but also tasks and reminders. And these two features turn the app into the hell of a digital planner.

▸ Tasks added in the Google Calendar app are synced with Tasks – another Google app that’s basically a dead-simple digital planner with checklists and notes.

▸ Reminders can be created both in the Calendar and Keep app, letting you better get ready for planned tasks and events.

▸ In short: Google Calendar is a powerful tool that lets you collect all events, tasks, and reminders in a friendly and easy to manage workspace.

▸ Most of all, Google Calendar, with its advanced and synced features, is free of charge.

3. Trello organizer & planner

▸ Trello is a visual project management tool that uses boards, lists, and cards to help teams organize, manage and track projects. The platform is used daily by more than 35 million users.

▸ Trello app allows you to create cards and track progress in seconds, add checklists, labels, and due dates to all your projects.

▸ The app has a simple interface that allows team members to comment on tasks, assign tasks, set deadlines, and upload files.

▸ Trello integrates with a wide variety of apps, including popular tools like Slack and Google Drive. This makes it easy to get data from other apps into Trello.

▸ You can add Power-Ups like a Calendar view of your due dates or add locations to cards to get a Map view.

▸ The app is free to use on the iPad and iPhone.

4. Any.do planner and to-do list

▸ Any.do is the app that was designed with iPad in mind. It’s a hybrid to-do planner & calendar workspace that “sets a new standard for uncompromising achievers.”

▸ The app lets you organize your tasks and projects with lists and colorful categories, add notes, subtasks and files, as well as share items with others.

▸ Any.do’s unique feature is personalization. You can change layouts, colors, notifications, and dozens of other preferences, so that you can have fun fulfilling your tasks.

▸ To enhance your productivity Any.do added cross-platform support for recurring reminders, location reminders, sub-tasks, notes & file attachments.

▸ The app is free if you have basic needs, but you will need to upgrade for a full feature set. The monthly plan is $9.99, the 6-month plan costs $26.99, and the annual subscription is $59.99.

5. Google Tasks simple planner

▸ Google Tasks is an app focused on helping you get things done. It allows you to create, manage and organize tasks, set due dates and reminders, and collaborate on tasks with others.

▸ The best thing about Google Tasks is that it can be used anywhere, be it your iPad, iPhone, or a web browser on your Mac.

▸ You can add, edit, and manage tasks created in Gmail or Calendar. You can also create a task in the sidebar of your Google web app, be it Google Docs or Keep.

▸ You can add details and subtasks to any task you create and organize your tasks by date. You can also prioritize the tasks using the drag-and-drop feature.

▸ In short, you can treat Google Tasks as a dead-simple digital planner that sits inside other Google apps you are using every day.

▸ Just like most other Google apps for iPad and iPhone, Tasks Planner is free to use.

6. Microsoft To Do digital to-do planner

▸ From Microsoft platform comes a dedicated digital planner and to-do list app that lets you create lists, reminders, and notes for any purpose.

▸ You can accomplish daily tasks day with My Day and Suggestions, personalized day planner tools. Intelligent suggestions recommend tasks from across your lists.

▸ Quickly capture and retrieve your lists and tasks across devices by syncing reminders and tasks with Microsoft 365 to access them anywhere.

▸ The app lets you make your lists unique with customizable features like emoji, colorful themes, dark mode and more.

▸ The app is free to use. What you only need is a Microsoft account.

7. Actions by Moleskine

▸ Offered by Moleskine Studio, an award-winning Actions app is a sophisticated tool for getting things done. 

▸ It is designed for busy people who make lists to stay on track at work and home. The digital card-based design is a clutter-free way to visualize everything.

▸ The app allows you to create Action Cards with things you need to remember, like “post a status report every second Friday”.

▸ It also has advanced features like repeating actions with rules and the ability to sync to the cloud securely.

▸ Plus, you can use the iOS Share extension and Siri to manage your Actions hands-free.

▸ The app is offered with a free trial. The membership allows unlimited use across all of your devices. It costs $2.49 per month, or $14.99 if you pay once a year. 

8. OmniFocus 3

▸ OmniFocus 3 is a task management application designed to help users stay organized and on top of their tasks.

▸ The app allows users to quickly capture tasks and store them for later review, set deadlines and reminders, and organize tasks into projects and folders.

▸ A new updated of the app new includes tags, batch editing, flexible inspectors, a forecast view, enhanced repeating tasks, an inbox, end-to-end encryption, notes, attachments, and a review perspective.

▸ OmniFocus Mail Drop lets you add tasks via email, and it works with services both IFTTT and Zapier web automation platforms.

▸ Today’s Forecast pro feature can include items with a specific tag, and you can reorder those tasks however you choose.

▸ The app comes with a 2-week free trial. The legacy subscription costs $9.99, but if you want to unlock all premium features from OmniFocus 3, you will have to add $37.99.

9. Good Notes 5 handwritten planner

▸ If you are desperate to find a good digital planner that fully supports handwriting, you should take a look at Good Notes 5.

▸ The app is a combination digital notepad and PDF markup tool. The app is capable of recognizing your handwriting (even when you can’t) and converting it to text.

▸ There is no dedicated calendar feature in Good Notes 5. However, you can easily turn the app into a handwritten digital planner by creating a folder with notes that are aimed at meeting your goals.

▸ Most importantly, you can choose from a large set of beautiful covers and useful paper templates. Among the templates you will find checklists, planners, and to-dos. Sounds like we’re at home!

▸ You can use iCloud, Google Drive, Dropbox, or OneDrive to sync your Good Notes 5 content between all connected devices.

▸ You can start with a free version, and if you like the app, you can upgrade to a full version for $8.99. The Universal Daily Planner variant is $12.99.

10. Agenda note-taker and planner

▸ Agenda is a powerful date-focused note-taking app with advanced digital planner and beautiful hand-writing features.

▸ The app combines your calendar events with to-do items and notes, so you can stay on top of tasks and appointments.

▸ The notes in Agenda are beautifully styled, and include powerful features like images, file attachments, tags, lists, and links. You can connect notes to calendar events, and add reminders to your tasks.

▸ Agenda’s unique timeline approach to organizing notes gives your projects momentum. “While other apps focus specifically on the past, present, or future, Agenda is the only notes app that keeps track of each in a single timeline.”

▸ You can organize your projects into categories to make them easier to find, and order the notes according to your preference.

▸ You can try the app for free, but to unlock all features, you will have to pay $14.99 for iPad and iPhone

Digital planners for iPad and iPhone – my personal choice

After trying numerous digital planner and calendar apps on my iPad Pro and iPhone, I have eventually come back to Google ecosystem.

I learned a couple of things that help me make the most of the Calendar app combined with:

▸ Tasks that I use as daily things-to-do lists

▸ Keep that I use as a digital library of all interesting things that I find on the web.

What features do you need in a digital planner app for iPad and iPhone?

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Keep exploring. Here are other lists and tips: