Daily planner apps with a one-time purchase and no subscription, for Mac and Windows

If you're searching for the best daily planner apps for Mac and Windows with a one-time purchase, the pricing pages we read show two that sell one and name both systems, as of October 2026. Ellie lists a Lifetime plan at $299.99, paid once, next to its monthly Pro plan. Everdo sells Pro as a $99.99 one-time purchase and charges a separate ongoing fee for encrypted online sync. Sunsama, Amazing Marvin and Todoist list subscriptions, and Things is sold through the App Store for Apple devices only, as a one-time purchase for each kind of device according to Cultured Code's support article.

We make Barside, a free desktop app for Windows, Linux and Mac. Barside isn't sold as a one-time purchase: the planner parts cost nothing, and Barside Plus is an optional subscription. Everything below about other products comes from each company's own pricing page, and from a support or help article where we link one, as we read them in October 2026. We ran no hands-on tests of those apps and took no screenshots, and where a page shows a plain dollar sign with no currency code, we copied it that way.

Which daily planner apps for Mac and Windows have a one-time purchase?

The best daily planner apps for Mac and Windows with a one-time purchase make a short list, going by the six pricing pages we read. Two offer a price you pay once and name both systems, one sells its apps through the App Store for Apple devices, and three list subscriptions. The table copies each price as the vendor's page shows it, as of October 2026, with Barside in the last row for comparison.

A short way to read the table:

• You want to pay once and you use both a Mac and a Windows computer. Look at Ellie's Lifetime plan and Everdo Pro.
• You only use Apple devices. Open Things in the App Store, which shows the price for your country.
• You'd accept a subscription. Sunsama and Amazing Marvin each offer a 14-day free trial, and Todoist has a plan that is free to start.
• You'd rather pay nothing. Barside covers calendar, tasks and daily notes for free, with the limits described further down.

Ellie

Ellie's pricing page describes a daily planner with three ways to pay. As of October 2026, Free costs $0, and Pro is $9.99 a month with a yearly option labeled "Save 20%". Pro adds timeboxing, Google and Apple Calendar, recurring tasks, labels and subtasks, due dates and reminders, and an AI assistant.

Lifetime is $299.99, paid once, as of October 2026. The page's FAQ says: "Lifetime includes the same current features as Pro for a one-time $299.99 purchase." It adds, "There is no recurring subscription."

The FAQ says Ellie runs on Mac, Windows, the web, iPhone and iPad, and that there is no Android app right now. Before you pay, check two details. The Free plan's card names iPhone, iPad and web only, so confirm whether the Mac and Windows apps need a paid plan. The word "current" matters too: we found nothing on the page about features added later, refunds or sync between devices for Lifetime buyers, so ask Ellie how those are handled.

Everdo

Everdo's home page carries its pricing. As of October 2026, Pro is listed at $99.99 and labeled a one-time purchase, and the top of the page reads "Buy once, own forever." The page says all plans work on Windows, Mac, Linux, Android and iOS, and puts the line "One license, all your devices" beside that list. A Free plan is limited to 5 projects and 2 areas of responsibility.

Sync is where the one-time price stops. Local network sync is included in both plans, and the page describes it as harder to set up and limited to your own trusted network. Encrypted online sync is an add-on listed at $1.66/mo as of October 2026, and the FAQ says it "requires a small ongoing fee." The page doesn't say how that add-on is billed.

The same page says an all-in-one subscription and an all-in-one lifetime purchase are coming soon. We found nothing on it about paid upgrades for later major versions, a trial or refunds. Everdo's plans are measured in projects and areas of responsibility, which suggests a task organizer more than an hour-by-hour day planner, so look at its site to see whether its views suit the way you plan a day.

Things

We also read Cultured Code's pricing page for Things. It lists four App Store apps, each with its own link: Mac, iPhone and Watch, iPad, and Vision Pro. The page prints no price. Cultured Code explains that it sets a price in US dollars, that Apple then sets the price in your currency, and that you should check your App Store for what Things costs in your country.

We found no monthly or yearly plan on that page, and no Windows, Android or web version. Cultured Code's support article Getting Things fills in the rest: Things is a one-time purchase with no subscription, it is sold separately for Mac, iPad, iPhone and Vision, and sync between your devices is free of charge. Count one purchase for each kind of device you use, and read each App Store listing for the price.

Can you get a daily planner app with a one-time purchase and no subscription at all?

A daily planner app with a one-time purchase and no subscription on Mac and Windows is possible, with one condition: check what happens to sync. On the pages we read, at prices as of October 2026, three routes end with no recurring bill.

1. Ellie Lifetime. One payment of $299.99, and the page says there is no recurring subscription. It doesn't mention sync or later features for Lifetime buyers, so confirm both.
2. Everdo Pro with local network sync. One payment of $99.99 and no ongoing fee, as long as sync that works only on your own network is enough. Add encrypted online sync and a small recurring fee comes back.
3. A free app. Barside costs nothing for calendar, tasks and daily notes on one computer, so there is no purchase and no subscription. Sync between computers is part of Barside Plus, which is a subscription.

All three follow one pattern. The software on your computer can be paid for once or given away, while the parts that run on a company's servers tend to carry a recurring fee. Our guide to AI note taking apps with a lifetime license shows the same split for AI features.

Which planner apps are subscription only?

Three of the six pricing pages list subscriptions and no price you pay once. Each one names a free trial or a plan that is free to start, so you can test the app before the first bill.

• Sunsama. Its pricing page is the most direct of the three: a section headed "No lifetime deals" says Sunsama charges a subscription instead of a one time fee. As of October 2026, Pro is US$17 a month billed yearly or US$22 billed monthly, with a 14 day free trial. The page says, "Sunsama doesn't have a free forever plan and doesn't plan to." It lists apps for Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS/iPadOS and Android. An answer lower on the page gives different per-person figures for shared workspaces, so confirm the price when you sign up.
• Amazing Marvin. The pricing page lists Marvin Pro at $8/month, billed as $96/year, as of October 2026, with a 14-day free trial and apps for web, Mac, Windows, iOS and Android. We found the words "lifetime" and "one-time" nowhere on the page, its FAQ included. One of Marvin's help articles, How can I change my subscription?, does mention switching to a lifetime plan, with no price, so ask Marvin whether one is still sold. The view we read shows no month-to-month figure, and the page says there is no free plan at the moment.
• Todoist. The pricing page lists Beginner, which it describes as a way to start for free, plus Pro and Business with a billing cycle of yearly or monthly. We found no one-time option on the page. Its plans FAQ sits on a separate page that we didn't read, and the pricing page doesn't name the systems Todoist runs on, so check its download page for Mac and Windows.

A subscription isn't a worse deal by default. Sunsama's page argues that a subscription keeps customers committed to the product and the company committed to maintaining it, and a subscription often bundles sync, phone apps and new versions that a one-time license may leave out. Our guides to AI planner apps that auto schedule tasks and free daily planner apps that sync with Google Calendar cover more planners and link each company's pricing page, where you can run the same check.

What does a one-time or lifetime price usually leave out?

A one-time or lifetime price usually buys the app as it exists on the day you pay, on the devices the license names. Anything that costs the maker money every month, or that hasn't been built yet, is where the terms differ from one app to the next. The pages we read show each gap.

Before you pay once for any planner, send the company a short message or search its help center. The questions below are examples to adapt to your own setup.

1. Example question: Does my license cover the next major version, or only updates to this one?
2. Example question: Is sync between my Mac and my Windows computer included in the price, and for how long?
3. Example question: Does one purchase cover the phone app too, or is that sold separately?
4. Example question: On how many of my own devices can I use one license at the same time?
5. Example question: If the app doesn't suit me after two weeks, can I get a refund?

What do these planners cost over three years?

The three-year totals below are our own arithmetic from the prices listed as of October 2026, before tax, and they assume the prices stay where they are. The apps do different jobs, so use the totals to compare within your own shortlist.

Ellie's Lifetime price equals about 30 monthly Pro payments, so paying once comes out ahead if you would otherwise stay on the monthly plan for more than two and a half years. The yearly plan, labeled 20% off, pushes that point later. Everdo is the lowest paid total in the table even with the sync add-on, assuming the add-on stays at its listed rate.

The free row has a catch of its own. Barside with Plus comes to US$600 over three years, more than either one-time license going by the figures as listed, so Plus only makes sense if you want sync between computers, cloud backup or cloud agents. To see what your current app subscriptions add up to over a year, use the subscription cost calculator.

Take a made-up example. Lena, a freelance translator, plans on a Windows laptop at her desk and a MacBook when she travels. She expects to keep one planner for at least four years, wants the same list on both computers and doesn't need her phone. For her, a one-time license that names both systems is worth pricing against four years of a subscription, and the sync terms decide which one she picks.

The free route: calendar, tasks and daily notes in Barside

Barside is free on Windows, Linux and Mac, with no account needed, and it covers the three parts of a daily planner in separate views.

• Calendar. Barside reads Google Calendar, Outlook and any other calendar with an iCal link through the calendar's private address, with up to 10 calendars in one agenda. The Calendar view shows today and the next 7 days with a Now line. It never adds, moves or deletes events. See the calendar next to your notes.
• Tasks. Every checklist item in every note is a task. The Tasks board groups them as Overdue, Today, Tomorrow, Next 7 days, Later and No due date, and an item can carry a due date and a reminder at an exact time. See the task board from note checklists.
• Daily notes. The built-in Daily journal template starts with a Top three priorities checklist, and a repeating note can make a fresh one every weekday at the time you choose. See note templates and repeating notes.
• One page for the day. The Daily briefing tab in Library & briefing lists the rest of today's calendar, reminders that are due or overdue and every unchecked task, worked out on your computer with no AI. See the daily briefing from your notes.

Setting it up takes a few minutes, and the steps are the same on Windows, Linux and Mac.

1. Download Barside and open it.
2. Open Settings & backups, scroll to Calendars and choose Add calendar. Paste your calendar's private iCal address into Secret iCal address, choose Check address, then Add calendar.
3. In Settings, click Templates next to Templates & repeating notes, then New repeating note. Pick the Daily journal template, a workspace and a time, choose Every weekday and click Save.
4. Write the day's tasks as checklist items in the journal. Point at an item and click + date for a due date, or press the bell at its end for a reminder.
5. Each morning, open Library & briefing and the Daily briefing tab to see meetings, due reminders and open tasks on one page.
6. Turn on Start with Windows in Settings (it's called Open at login on Linux and in Barside for Mac) so reminders and repeating notes arrive on time.

If you'd rather start from a ready-made page, the free daily planner template has three priorities and an hour-by-hour schedule. From any app, Alt+Shift+Space opens the search bar: type cal for the calendar, brief for the briefing, or task and a few words to add a task. The time blocking guide shows how to plan blocks by hand around the meetings you see.

A second made-up example: Omar, a graduate student, connects his university Outlook calendar and a personal Google calendar, gets a journal note at 8:00 every weekday and writes three priorities in it. He pays nothing, and he accepts that he can't drag a task onto a time slot.

What Barside doesn't do

• It isn't a one-time purchase. The app is free, and Barside Plus is an optional subscription at US$20 a month or US$200 a year for cloud backup, sync between computers and cloud agents. There is no lifetime license.
• The calendar is read-only. You schedule in Google Calendar or Outlook, and Barside shows the result, so you can't drag a task onto a time slot. Barside refreshes each calendar every 15 minutes, and Google can take hours to pass a change along.
• No phone app and no timer. Barside is a desktop app with reminders at exact times and no countdown.
• Simple tasks. A task has its text, a done state, an optional due date and an optional reminder. There are no priorities, assignees or repeating tasks.
• Sync needs Plus. Sync between computers comes with Barside Plus, and cloud sync is not end-to-end encrypted. The guide to planner apps that sync between Windows and Mac covers that case.

Where your plan is stored

Whichever way you pay, find out where your tasks are kept. In Barside, your notes, tasks and reminders are saved on your computer, and you don't need an account. The private calendar address you paste is stored encrypted on your computer and left out of backups, and your calendar is downloaded straight from Google or Microsoft. Read how calendar feeds are stored and how Barside stores your data.

Everdo's page describes its apps as offline-first, and Ellie's pricing page doesn't say where your plans are stored. Read each company's privacy page before you add client names or a work calendar to any planner. A license tells you what you may use, and the privacy page tells you where your data lives.

Works well with

A free daily plan in Barside draws on the calendar, the task board, templates and the briefing. Each has its own guide.