These two ship on every Apple device, they are both free, and they both make checklists. That last fact is the entire source of the confusion, because it means either app can technically hold your grocery list, your packing list and your project plan.
They are not really competitors. They are two halves of one system, and most people's problem is not choosing between them but having put half their life in the wrong half.
(We make a notes app for iPhone, so we have an obvious interest here. Everything below is about Apple's two apps and would be true if we did not exist.)
The line
Reminders holds things that need to happen. Notes holds things you need to know.
That is the whole distinction and it survives almost every edge case.
If an item has a moment attached to it, a point at which it becomes relevant or overdue, it belongs in Reminders. If it is information you will want to look at, think about, or add to, it belongs in Notes.
The test that resolves arguments: does this item stop existing once it is done? "Book the dentist" stops existing. "Dentist's address and what they said about the crown" does not. Different apps.
At a glance
| Notes | Reminders | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Information you keep | Actions you complete |
| Base unit | A note, any length | A single task |
| Time | No concept of due dates | Due dates, times, repeats |
| Alerts | None | Time, location, messaging, early alerts |
| Rich content | Images, scans, tables, drawings, PDFs, audio | A title, notes field, URL, image |
| Organisation | Folders, smart folders, tags, links between notes | Lists, smart lists, tags, sections, subtasks |
| Search | Full text, including handwriting and scans | Titles and notes fields |
| Sharing | Per note or per folder | Per list, with assignment |
| Lock | Yes, per note | No |
The row that decides most cases is alerts. Notes cannot notify you. If the value of an item depends on it reaching you at the right moment, Notes cannot do the job at any level of organisation.
Where people get it wrong
The to-do list living in a note. Extremely common, and it works until it does not. A checklist in Notes is fine for something bounded and short-lived, like a packing list you will use once. It fails for ongoing work, because nothing surfaces it. The list sits in a folder being quietly out of date, and the tasks are effectively invisible until you happen to open it.
Reference material living in Reminders. The opposite error, usually starting as "remind me about this" and ending as a list of forty things with no dates that has become a bad filing cabinet. Reminders has no real reading experience and no rich formatting, and a permanently incomplete reminder is a notification that has lost all meaning.
Meeting notes split across both. The most defensible mistake, because meetings genuinely produce both kinds of output. The right handling is not to choose, it is to write in Notes and promote the actions into Reminders as they appear. See how to take meeting notes.
Everything in Notes because Reminders feels like an obligation. Understandable and self-defeating. Notes will accept anything, which is a virtue for capture and a problem for follow-through. Something has to be able to interrupt you, or your commitments are stored in a place with no alarm.
Using them together
Apple has built the seam deliberately, and using it is what makes the pair work.
- Type
#or@in a note to link to another note, or to tag it. Notes now supports linking between notes, which turns it into something closer to a small personal wiki than most people realise. - Ask Siri or use the share sheet to push something into Reminders from anywhere, including while reading a note.
- Use Reminders' notes field for a link back, not for the content. One line of context, then the detail lives in Notes where it belongs.
- Tag both with the same words. Both apps support tags, and using an identical vocabulary in each gives you a rough project view across the two. This is the closest thing to a unified system Apple currently offers.
The workflow that follows: capture into Notes, promote into Reminders. Thoughts arrive faster than they can be sorted, and Notes is the better inbox because it accepts anything without demanding a date. Once a week, read through and pull the actions out. That is the note inbox and the weekly review done with two stock apps.
What each is genuinely good at
Notes is better than its reputation. Document scanning is excellent and produces searchable text, handwriting search works, the tables are adequate, folder and tag organisation is real, per-note locking is genuinely useful, and it syncs reliably across Apple devices at no cost. For most people it is enough, and its main weaknesses are being trapped inside Apple's ecosystem and having no export worth the name. See export your notes and Apple Notes vs Notion.
Reminders was rebuilt years ago and is now a competent task manager rather than an afterthought. Sections within lists, subtasks, smart lists, tags, location and messaging triggers, natural-language date entry and shared lists with assignment cover most of what people buy dedicated apps for. It has no real notion of projects, no review workflow and no priorities beyond a flag, which is where dedicated task apps still earn their price.
Choose Notes if…
The thing has content. You will read it, edit it, add to it, or need it in a year. Ideas, research, meeting records, recipes, account details, drafts, anything with a photo or scan in it.
Choose Reminders if…
The thing has a moment. It needs to reach you at a time or a place, or someone is waiting on it, or you will genuinely forget it otherwise.
Choose something else if…
You need notes that outlive your Apple account, real export, linking between ideas at scale, or a task system with projects and priorities. Both apps are good and both are firmly ecosystem-bound, which is a fair trade at zero cost and a bad one if you ever leave. See the best notes app for iPhone and Apple Notes vs OneNote.
More in Apple Notes vs Google Keep, Bear vs Apple Notes, and the wider note app comparisons section.