Apple Notes or TaskForge?

Name: TaskForge
Availability: InStock
Rating: 4.8 (247 reviews)

Apple Notes is free, already on your phone, and genuinely good. Most people should keep using it. This page is for the smaller group who keep hitting the same three walls: no markdown, no real due dates, and no way to get at the notes outside Apple's ecosystem.

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The short version

Apple Notes is free and it is fast

It opens instantly, it's on every Apple device you own, and it does things TaskForge will never do: scan a document with the camera, take Apple Pencil handwriting, draw, collaborate on a note with someone, lock a note with Face ID. For most people, most of the time, that's the right tool and it costs nothing.

TaskForge is for when you want the file

Your notes are .md files in a folder you chose, readable by any app on any machine. They support real markdown, checkboxes with due dates and notifications, and they work on Android and Windows. If you've ever wanted to grep your notes, this is the difference.

Side by side

Checked in August 2026.

Feature	Apple Notes	TaskForge
Price	Free, included with iOS and macOS	Free tier with no time limit. $49.99 once for premium
Markdown	No. Rich text only	Yes, standard markdown plus Obsidian callouts and wikilinks
How notes are stored	In Apple's database, synced by iCloud	As .md files in a folder you chose
Android and Windows	No. iCloud.com gives limited web access	Yes, native apps on both
Tasks with due dates	Checklists, but no dates and no notifications	Due dates, priorities, recurrence, reminders, dependencies
Calendar view	No	Day, week, and month with your device's events
Daily notes with templates	No	Yes, with three built-in templates or your own
Document scanning and handwriting	Yes, both, plus drawing	No
Sharing and collaboration	Yes, real-time with other Apple users	No
Images and PDFs in a note	Yes	Images render, PDFs open in your system viewer
Search	Yes, including text inside images and scans	Yes, across notes, tasks, and events. Text only
Works with an Obsidian vault	No	Yes

Where TaskForge comes out ahead

Real markdown, and real files

Headings, tables, code fences, callouts, wikilinks. Written to a .md file you can open anywhere. Apple Notes has no markdown at all and no file to open; getting a note out means copy and paste or a share sheet.

Checkboxes that know what day it is

An Apple Notes checklist is a list of ticks. A TaskForge checkbox has a due date, a priority, an optional reminder time, and it will notify you. It also shows on a home screen widget and on the calendar.

It works on the devices Apple doesn't cover

Apple Notes on Android is iCloud.com in a browser, if that. TaskForge is a native app on Android and Windows reading the same folder as your iPhone.

You can leave whenever you like

There is no export, because the notes were never inside anything. Delete TaskForge and the folder of markdown sits exactly where it was.

Where Apple Notes is the better app

This list is longer than the one above for a reason. Apple Notes is very good, and free.

It costs nothing and it's already installed

No download, no setup, no folder to pick. It's on the phone in your hand right now, and for capturing a thought in four seconds that is hard to beat.

Scanning, handwriting, and drawing

Camera document scanning, Apple Pencil notes, sketches, and searchable handwriting. TaskForge does none of this and won't.

Sharing a note with another person

Real-time collaboration with anyone on an Apple device. TaskForge is a single-person app on a single-person folder.

It goes everywhere in the OS

Share sheet from any app, Siri, Quick Note from the corner of an iPad, locked notes with Face ID, and search from Spotlight. Deep OS integration is what Apple can do and third-party apps can't.

Which one to install

Stay with Apple Notes if

You're happy with rich text, you scan or handwrite, you share notes with people, and everything you own has an Apple logo on it. It is free, and it is good.

Choose TaskForge if

You want markdown, you want notes as files you can open anywhere, you want checkboxes that turn into dated reminders, or you have an Android phone or a Windows PC in your life.

Using both

Common and sensible. Apple Notes for quick capture, scans, and anything you share. TaskForge for the notes that are really projects, with dates attached, that you want as files. They don't fight; they don't touch the same storage at all.

Apple Notes and TaskForge, common questions

Does Apple Notes support markdown?

No. Apple Notes uses rich text formatting. Typing markdown syntax leaves the characters as literal text. TaskForge reads and writes standard markdown, plus Obsidian callouts and wikilinks.

Can I get my Apple Notes into TaskForge?

There's no direct import. You can export notes from Apple Notes and save them as markdown or text into your workspace folder, and TaskForge will pick them up. Formatting that has no markdown equivalent, such as drawings and scans, won't survive the trip.

Can I use Apple Notes on Android?

Not properly. There's no Android app, and iCloud.com in a browser is limited. If you move between an iPhone and an Android device, TaskForge has native apps on both reading the same folder.

Does TaskForge do daily notes like Apple Notes' Quick Note?

They're different things. Quick Note is a scratchpad you pull from the corner of the screen. TaskForge daily notes are one dated markdown file per day, with a template, that opens or creates itself from search.

Is TaskForge free like Apple Notes?

The notes half is. The markdown editor, daily notes, file management, task management, and calendar viewing are free with no time limit. Premium is $49.99 once and covers custom lists and spaces plus calendar event editing.

Markdown, files, and a due date that actually fires.

Free to download and free to use. Keep Apple Notes for the scans; use this for the projects.

$49.99 one-time, or $19.99 a year. No account required.