Compared

nokko vs NotePlan, two Mac apps that keep plain Markdown.

NotePlan is a notes app built around a daily note, with your Apple calendar and reminders beside it and tasks inside your notes. nokko is a project app: client projects on a timeline and a board, a timer on each task, and invoices from the hours. Both keep your data as Markdown files on your device, and both work offline.

Free to download and read. Editing is free for 14 days.

Keep NotePlan if your day starts from a daily note and your calendar.

NotePlan is the better notes app. It has daily, weekly, monthly and yearly notes, time blocking beside your Apple Calendar events, your Apple Reminders lists inside the app, and it runs on Mac, iPhone, iPad and the web. nokko reads and writes Markdown docs, but writing is not what it is for, and it has no iPad or web version.

Choose nokko if you plan client projects by date and bill for the hours.

nokko is for projects with a start, a deadline and a client. It draws them on a Gantt timeline with milestones, gives each one a board, a list with your own columns and a calendar, and runs a timer on any task. The hours are summed by client and turned into an invoice with rates, VAT and a PDF.

A studio can share the same files through its own private GitHub repository or SFTP server, with each change in the name of the person who made it.

The Storefront board for Halden Coffee — To Do 7, In Progress 2, Waiting 1 and Done 4 — under a header reading 6 of 17 tasks done, 35%, with 17h25m logged. — A board in nokko: one lane per state, with the project's progress and logged hours in the header.

Capability by capability.

From NotePlan's own site in November 2026. Where we could not find a feature there, the cell says Not listed rather than No.

nokko compared with NotePlan
Capability	nokko	NotePlan
Plain Markdown files on your device	Yes	Yes
Works offline	Yes	Yes
Platforms	Mac, iPhone	Mac, iPhone, iPad, web
Free to use	Read everything, forever	Free trial
One-time purchase available	Yes	No
Daily notes and time blocking	A Today screen, no daily note	Yes
Apple Calendar and Reminders inside the app	No	Yes
Board view	Yes	Kanban of project notes
Gantt timeline	Yes	Not listed
Time tracking	Yes	Not listed
Invoices from tracked hours	Yes	Not listed
Sync	Your own GitHub, SFTP server, or iCloud	iCloud
Sharing with a team	Through your own GitHub or server	Shared Spaces, through NotePlan's servers

Swipe sideways for the other columns.

NotePlan is where you think and plan your day; nokko is where client projects, their hours and their invoices live. Plenty of people would be right to use both.

The things people ask.

What is the difference between nokko and NotePlan?

NotePlan is a Markdown notes app built around daily notes, with Apple Calendar events, Apple Reminders and time blocking beside them. nokko is a Markdown project app: a Gantt timeline, boards, a timer on each task and invoices drafted from the hours. Both keep files on your device and work offline.

Is nokko a NotePlan alternative?

For notes and daily planning, no; NotePlan is the better notes app. For client projects that you schedule by date, track time on and invoice, nokko does what NotePlan's site does not list.

Does NotePlan have time tracking or invoicing?

Its site, as of November 2026, does not list time tracking, a Gantt timeline or invoicing. nokko has all three, with the hours written into the task's own Markdown file.

Does nokko have daily notes like NotePlan?

No. nokko has a Today screen: what is due, what fits in the hours you have left and what is waiting on someone, in an order you set by hand. It reads and writes Markdown docs, but it has no daily, weekly or monthly notes.

Which one works on the iPad?

NotePlan, which also has a web version. nokko is for the Mac and the iPhone.

Everything else is on the features page and under pricing.

Free to read, on your Mac and your iPhone.

Download it, open a folder, and read everything your studio has planned. Subscribe when you are ready to edit; the first 14 days are free, and one subscription covers both.

macOS 26 · Apple silicon · iOS 26