What is the best productivity app for iPhone?

For most people who sell, Todoist: type or say a follow-up with its date and it lands on that day. It's free for five projects, and Pro costs US$5 a month billed yearly. If it has to be free, Apple's Reminders is already on your iPhone.

What is the best free productivity app for iPhone?

Apple's Reminders. It's built in, and it can alert you when you arrive at or leave a place, or the next time you chat with someone in Messages. Add Notes, which keeps call recordings and scans documents.

Can you record a phone call on an iPhone?

Yes, since iOS 18, in the countries and regions where Apple offers it and when you're talking to one other person. Both people hear an audio notice, and the recording saves to a Call Recordings folder in Notes.

Is Things 3 a one-time purchase on iPhone?

Yes. Things 3 for iPhone costs US$9.99 once on the App Store, sync through Things Cloud is free, and the Mac and iPad versions are sold separately.

Which iPhone app reminds you when you reach a client's office?

Apple's Reminders, for free: set a location and choose arriving or leaving. TickTick does it too, with location reminders that work on iOS only.

How many productivity apps does a salesperson need on an iPhone?

Three or four, one per job: a task list for follow-ups, a calendar, somewhere for call notes, and the office apps your quotes live in. Past a dozen live deals, add a CRM so notes and follow-ups sit on each client's record.

9 best productivity iPhone apps in 2026, for people who sell

How we chose

If you sell, your iPhone is the office. The call happens on it, the buyer texts you on it, and the promise you make goes into it or nowhere. So we judged every app on the minute after you hang up, when the follow-up gets a date or gets lost.

Five things decided the list:

You can capture a promise in under ten seconds, one-handed, from the lock screen or by voice.
Every follow-up gets a date and an alert that reaches you, even with the phone on silent.
It works with what the phone already has: your calendar, Siri, widgets and the people in your contacts.
It handles the paperwork a buyer sends: a quote to change, a form to scan, a call worth keeping.
The free version holds a real selling week, or the paid one costs less than one deal you'd lose without it.

We built the list from each app's own website, App Store page and help docs. We didn't test them hands-on, so there are no star ratings here. Prices are in US dollars, read on 29 October 2026. Several apps bill yearly, so check the price on the day you buy.

The 9 best productivity iPhone apps, by job

Most sellers need three or four of these, one per job: a task list for follow-ups, a calendar, somewhere for call notes, and the office apps your quotes live in. Start with Todoist if your follow-ups come out of phone calls. If you won't spend a cent, Apple's Reminders (number 2) and the call recorder in the Phone app (number 7) are already on your iPhone.

1. Todoist: best for most people who sell

Todoist is a task list that runs on the iPhone and on your laptop. Type a task with the date in plain words, "send Dana the revised quote tomorrow at 4pm" or "call Raj every other Tuesday", and Quick Add files it on that day or makes it repeat.

Ramble is why it wins on an iPhone: you talk, and the tasks appear as you speak. Todoist's Ramble help page shows three ways to start it without opening the app: a lock screen widget, the Action button on iPhones that have one, and "Hey Siri, open Ramble" once you add the shortcut. Free accounts get 10 Ramble sessions a month, and a session counts only when Todoist finds a task in it.

The free Beginner plan gives you 5 personal projects, Smart Quick Add and task reminders. Pro is US$5 a month billed yearly, which is US$60, or US$7 month to month, and brings unlimited Ramble, the calendar layout and deadlines.

Pick it if you finish calls in the car and want each promise dated before you pull out. Skip it if you'd talk in your tasks every day and won't pay, because ten sessions are gone by the second week.

2. Apple Reminders: best if it has to be free

Reminders comes with the iPhone and syncs through iCloud to your other Apple devices. Two of its alerts suit a seller better than most paid apps. Apple's Reminders guide shows a location alert that fires when you arrive at or leave a place, so "send the Tans the floor plan" pops up as you pull out of their driveway. It also has When Messaging: pick a person, and the reminder appears the next time you chat with them in Messages.

iOS 26 lets you add a reminder from Control Center or the Action button. Since iOS 26.2 you can mark one urgent, and it rings an alarm even with the phone silenced or a Focus on. Dated reminders also show in the Calendar app.

Pick it if your buyers text you on iMessage and you want the nudge to land when you open their chat. Skip it if most of your selling chats happen on WhatsApp, because When Messaging only watches Apple's Messages app.

3. Things 3: best one-time purchase for an all-Apple setup

Things 3 for iPhone costs US$9.99 once on the App Store, with no subscription. Its Today list sets your to-dos beside your calendar events, so the 2pm demo and the three callbacks around it sit on one screen. Forward a buyer's email with Mail to Things and it arrives as a to-do. The Apple Watch app lets you dictate a new one from your wrist.

Sync through Things Cloud is free. The Mac and iPad versions are sold separately, and the free trial is for the Mac only.

Pick it if you sell from an iPhone and a Mac, hate subscriptions and want enquiry emails turned into follow-ups. Skip it if your work laptop runs Windows, because Things lists its other versions for Mac, iPad and Apple Vision Pro, and nothing else.

4. TickTick: best for follow-ups, a calendar and a call timer in one app

TickTick keeps tasks, a calendar view, habits and a Pomodoro timer in one app. Its location reminders are iOS only, so your iPhone pings you when you reach a client's office. A constant reminder keeps ringing until you tick the task off, and voice input covers the moments you can't type.

The free plan has 9 lists, 99 tasks per list, 2 reminders per task and a basic calendar view. The paid plan is US$49.99 a year for 299 lists, 999 tasks per list, 5 reminders per task and more calendar views.

Pick it if you want the day's callbacks, your calendar and a timer for the calling block on one screen. Skip it if you'd keep a list per client and won't pay, because nine lists fill up before your tenth live deal.

5. Fantastical: best for booking the next meeting from your phone

Fantastical puts your iCloud, Google and Exchange calendars in one app. You type a sentence such as "demo with Priya Thursday 3pm at her office" and it becomes an event. Dated tasks from Reminders, Todoist and Google Tasks show up beside your meetings.

You pay for Openings, a link you share: the buyer picks a date and time, and the slots on offer skip anything already in your calendar. Proposals, its meeting polls, let a buying committee vote on a time. Both come with the Individual plan at US$4.75 a month billed yearly, or US$6.99 monthly, after a 14-day free trial, while the free plan gives you the calendar itself.

Pick it if you want the second meeting booked before the first call ends, by sending a link instead of trading times. Skip it if you only ever look at one calendar, because the booking tools are what you'd be paying for.

6. Structured: best for planning a calling day hour by hour

Structured lays your day out as one timeline, so the calling block, the drive to a site visit and the follow-up hour sit in order from top to bottom. Its App Store page lists the drag-and-drop timeline, an inbox for quick capture, a Pomodoro focus timer, Live Activities and interactive widgets as free, with sync across iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Mac.

Pro adds calendar and Reminders connections, recurring tasks and routines, and Replan, which moves missed tasks to a new slot. The App Store lists a lifetime purchase at US$99.99, plus monthly and yearly plans at several prices.

Pick it if you plan tomorrow the night before and want to see whether 30 calls fit around three meetings. Skip it if you want the 9am calling block to repeat every day without paying, because recurring tasks are on Pro.

7. Phone and Notes: best for keeping the buyer's exact words

Since iOS 18 your iPhone can record phone calls and FaceTime audio calls. It works on a one-to-one call in the countries and regions Apple supports, and both of you hear a notice that the call is being recorded. The recording saves to a Call Recordings folder in Notes. In select regions and languages you get a transcript there too, and with Apple Intelligence a summary. Apple tells you to check the transcript before you rely on it.

You won't get it in the European Union, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, South Africa or Turkey, among other places. Ask the buyer first, even with the notice.

Notes also scans documents and adds your signature, handy for a signed order form. Both apps are free and already on your iPhone.

Pick it if you run discovery calls by phone and want the budget and the start date in the buyer's own words. Skip it if your buyers call you on WhatsApp, because Apple's pages cover phone calls and FaceTime audio and nothing else.

8. Microsoft Word and Excel: best for changing a quote between meetings

If your quote template is a Word file and your price list lives in Excel, the Microsoft apps open both on the iPhone. Microsoft's support page says every Microsoft 365 plan lets you view documents. Even Microsoft 365 Basic or a one-time Office purchase lets you create files and make basic edits to personal files on screens up to 10.1 inches, and an iPhone screen is well inside that.

The catch is a work account: files from your company's Microsoft account need a qualifying plan, the kind that comes with the desktop apps. For one person, that plan is Microsoft 365 Personal at US$99.99 a year or US$9.99 a month.

Pick it if you change a number in the quote while the buyer waits on the line. Skip it if your company's files sit in a business account it hasn't licensed you for, because you'll open the quote and won't be able to change it.

9. ChatGPT: best for a first draft of the follow-up message

After a long call, the follow-up message takes longer to write than the call took to make. Paste your rough notes into ChatGPT, "price too high, wants a March start, his partner signs off", and ask for a three-line message you can send. The free plan has unlimited text chats and limited voice chats, so typing your notes in costs nothing. Go, Plus and Pro add more; see their pricing page for what each costs where you are.

Read every draft before it goes out. Never paste in ID numbers, account numbers or anything the buyer said in confidence.

Pick it if writing follow-ups is the part of the day you put off. Skip it if your company bans client details in outside tools, because your notes are what make the draft worth sending.

Free plans and starting prices

All prices are in US dollars on 29 October 2026, and some apps only bill yearly.

App	Free version	Paid from	Best for
Todoist	5 projects	US$5 a month	Follow-ups after calls
Reminders	Built in	Free	A zero budget
Things 3	No	US$9.99 once	All-Apple sellers
TickTick	9 lists	US$49.99 a year	Tasks plus a timer
Fantastical	Calendar	US$4.75 a month	Booking links
Structured	Timeline	US$99.99 lifetime	Hour-by-hour days
Phone and Notes	Built in	Free	The buyer's words
Word and Excel	Basic edits	US$99.99 a year	Quotes on the move
ChatGPT	Text chats	See pricing page	Drafting follow-ups

When the free apps are enough

Reminders, the call recorder, Notes and basic edits in Word and Excel cost nothing, and together they carry a light pipeline.

Count before you pay, because each free version stops in a different place:

Todoist: 5 personal projects and 10 Ramble sessions a month.
TickTick: 9 lists and 2 reminders per task.
Structured: free tasks don't repeat, so you retype the morning calling block every day.
Fantastical: the calendar without a booking link.
Word and Excel: basic editing, and none on a business account's files.

Say you have 14 live deals and make 25 calls a day. The free kit holds that until the week you type the same callback twice, or forget to set one at all, and that week tells you what to buy. Talk your follow-ups in? Todoist Pro, at US$60 a year. Never want a subscription? Things 3 at US$9.99 once.

Where the follow-ups go

Every app above holds one piece of a deal. The task app has "call Dana Friday", Notes has what she said on Tuesday, and your chat app has the photo of the quote she sent back with two lines crossed out. None of them knows those three things are about the same person, and once you're past a dozen live deals the gap starts costing you:

Before a callback you open three apps to remember what was said.
A promise sat in a call transcript and never became a task.
Your manager asks where a deal stands and you rebuild it from your camera roll.
A buyer went quiet for two weeks and nothing told you.

If two of those sound like your week, the follow-ups belong in a CRM, where each call, note and next step sits on the client's record. Pick two CRMs from best CRM for small business and run a week of callbacks from each on your phone. For how often to chase and when to let a deal go, follow the sales follow-up process.

ActivityTracker runs in Safari on your iPhone. On your Contacts page, tap Share, then Add to Home Screen. The icon opens straight to your clients, and each follow-up sits on the client's record.

See the CRM on your iPhone

Set up your iPhone for a selling day

The apps pay off only when each one is a tap away. Here's the setup:

Give capture one button. On an iPhone with an Action button, assign it to Ramble or to Reminders, so a promise goes in before you've found the app.
Put today's follow-ups on the lock screen as a widget, so you see what's due every time you check the time.
Make a Work Focus for the calling block. Apple's Focus guide lets you allow notifications from only the people and apps you choose, and schedule the Focus to switch on at a set time. Pick the hour from the best time to make sales calls, and protect it like a meeting with timeboxing.
Before a call worth keeping, ask the buyer whether you can record it, then tap record and listen instead of scribbling.
When the call ends, say or type the promise with its date before you dial the next number.
Before you log off, tick off what's done, move what slipped and check tomorrow's first calls. The daily sales routine template puts that check into your morning.

A week selling from one iPhone

Made-up example: Wei Ling sells branded uniforms to restaurants and gyms. She works from an iPhone and a Windows laptop, so this week she runs Todoist, Apple's Reminders, the Phone app's recorder and Excel.

On Monday at 9am her Work Focus switches on and silences everything except clients and her task reminders. She makes 22 calls in the block and talks three follow-ups into Ramble with the Action button between dials.

On Tuesday a gym owner, Marcus, agrees to a recorded call. He says the budget is US$4,000, he needs 40 shirts by 15 December and his co-owner signs off. The transcript lands in Notes, and she copies those three lines into the task "send Marcus the quote Wednesday 10am".

On Wednesday she changes the quantity in her Excel price list between two site visits and sends the quote at 9:50. Leaving a restaurant at 3pm, a location reminder tells her to photograph their old aprons for sizing.

On Friday Marcus asks for navy instead of black. She updates the quote that afternoon, and the 15 December date is still on his task, so nobody has to ask anything twice.