Amplenote Review (2026): Pricing, Features & Honest Verdict

TLDR

Amplenote is a note-taking and task management app that fuses Daily Jots, bidirectional links, and Eisenhower-Matrix task scoring with drag-and-drop calendar scheduling. It is one of the few tools that treats tasks as first-class citizens inside notes. Best for: productivity-focused knowledge workers and solo founders. Price: free plan, paid from $7/mo. Rating: 7.6/10.

What is Amplenote?

Amplenote is an all-in-one productivity app that combines note-taking, task management, and calendar scheduling in a single workspace. Instead of forcing you to keep notes in one app and a to-do list in another, it lets tasks live inline inside any note, then surfaces them in a central dashboard you can drag onto your calendar. Daily Jots give you a frictionless place to capture ideas, which you can later promote into tasks or move into project notes.

It is built by Bill Harding and Jordan Phillips of Alloy.dev, a bootstrapped studio that has run profitable software since 2008. Amplenote has been available since 2019 and has steadily built a following among productivity enthusiasts who want markdown, bidirectional linking, and serious task scheduling without switching apps. The company’s privacy-first, ad-free, self-funded stance is a big part of its appeal.

What Are Amplenote’s Key Features?

Daily Jots for frictionless capture

Daily Jots are a running, date-stamped scratchpad where you dump thoughts as they happen. The point is to never lose an idea: later you review your jots and convert the important ones into tasks, move them into the right project note, or leave them as a journal of your day. It is the capture layer that makes the rest of the system work.

Eisenhower-Matrix task scoring

This is Amplenote’s signature feature. Every task gets a calculated “Task Score” based on the Eisenhower Matrix of urgency and importance, so the app tells you what to focus on today instead of leaving you staring at a flat list. Combined with drag-and-drop calendar scheduling, it turns scattered to-dos into an actual plan.

Bidirectional links and Rich Footnotes

Notes connect to each other with bidirectional links, letting you build a personal knowledge base the way Obsidian or Roam users do. Rich Footnotes go a step further, letting you pop links, images, videos, and embedded note sections off the page so you can convey more meaning in fewer words.

Privacy and encryption

On higher tiers you get encrypted Vault Notes for sensitive material, plus the option to publish notes as web pages or share them by tag. Because Alloy.dev is bootstrapped and ad-free, the privacy posture feels genuine rather than a marketing checkbox.

How Much Does Amplenote Cost?

Amplenote has a free Personal plan, with paid plans starting at $7/mo for Pro (or $5.84/mo billed annually). Unlimited is $12/mo and Founder is $25/mo, and annual billing shaves off roughly 17-20%. Paid plans come with a 14-day free trial. That $7 entry point undercuts most all-in-one competitors: Roam Research runs $15/mo and Notion’s paid plans start around $10/user/mo, while Obsidian is free for personal use but charges for sync and publish add-ons. For an app that bundles notes, tasks, and calendar, Amplenote’s pricing is one of the better values in the category.

Who Is Amplenote Best For?

Use Amplenote if you think in tasks-inside-notes and are tired of stitching together a note app and a separate to-do tool. Solo founders, freelancers, and productivity-obsessed knowledge workers who want bidirectional linking, real task scheduling, and a privacy-first company behind their data will get the most out of it.

Skip Amplenote if you just need a lightweight place to jot things down. The interface is dense and the learning curve is real; if you do not plan to use the task scoring and calendar features, you will be paying for complexity you do not need, and a simpler app will serve you better.

What Are the Best Amplenote Alternatives?

Obsidian

Obsidian is the local-first, plugin-driven knowledge base of choice for tinkerers. It is free for personal use and infinitely extensible, but task scheduling and calendar features require community plugins and setup. Amplenote offers a more cohesive out-of-the-box task system; Obsidian wins on customization and offline ownership.

Notion

Notion is the broader all-in-one workspace, with databases, wikis, and team collaboration, starting around $10/user/mo after a generous free tier. It is more flexible for teams and documents but weaker at quick task prioritization. Amplenote is the sharper choice if individual task scoring and capture matter most.

Roam Research

Roam pioneered networked thought and bidirectional linking, but at $15/mo it is pricier and more academic in focus. Amplenote borrows the linking philosophy while adding concrete task scoring and calendar scheduling, making it more practical for getting things done rather than just connecting ideas.

Final Verdict: Is Amplenote Worth It?

Amplenote is one of the rare apps that genuinely merges notes, tasks, and calendar instead of bolting them together. The Eisenhower-Matrix task scoring and Daily Jots are real differentiators, the privacy-first bootstrapped company is reassuring, and at $7/mo Pro is a fair price for what you get. The free plan is usable enough to evaluate the workflow before paying.

The catch is the learning curve. The interface is dense and rewards investment, so casual note-takers will bounce off it. But if you are the kind of person who wants your tasks living inside your notes and surfaced by priority, Amplenote is well worth a trial. Recommended for committed productivity users; skip it if you only need a simple notepad.