Pachinko vs Notion.
You built your Notion setup page by page. Pachinko comes built. Give it a job and it keeps doing that job while you're gone.
No databases to design. It works the first night.
Pachinko
|  Notion | |
|---|---|---|
| tasks + notes | ||
| Tasks, projects, and areas | ✓ | no areas |
| Rich notes with images | ✓ | ✓ |
| Repeating tasks | ✓ | ✓ |
| Calendar events beside your tasks | ✓ | ✓ |
| Apple Reminders beside your tasks | ✓ | ✕ |
| Quick Note: a global shortcut to type a note from anywhere | ✓ | ✕ |
| Quick Capture: a global shortcut that saves the selected text or current page | ✓ | ✕ |
| Browser extension | ✓ | ✓ |
| Share sheet on Mac and iPhone | ✓ | mobile only |
| views + organization | ||
| Card view with image previews | ✓ | ✓ |
| Status view | nine statuses, one-key filters | ✓ |
| Tags | ✕ | ✓ |
| Start dates | ✓ | ✓ |
| Deadlines | ✓ | ✓ |
| Upcoming view | ✓ | ✓ |
| Themes | 20 color schemes | ✕ |
| ai | ||
| AI chat over your notes and tasks | ✓ | ✓ |
| Functions: write an instruction once, run it forever | ✓ | ✓ |
| Feeds: scheduled imports saved as notes | ✓ | ✕ |
| Ready-made Powerups | 35 ready-made | ✓ |
| Semantic search | ✓ | ✓ |
| AI account | your Claude or ChatGPT account | theirs only |
| MCP server for outside AI tools | built into the app | ✓ |
| platforms + privacy | ||
| Platforms | macOS, iOS, iPadOS | web, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android |
| Sync | iCloud | Notion cloud |
| End-to-end encryption option | with Advanced Data Protection | ✕ |
| AppleScript | ✓ | ✕ |
| price | ||
| Price | free app · Pro AI $9/mo or $229 lifetime | free · Plus $10 · Business $20 per member/mo, billed yearly |
| Free tier | full task manager and notetaking, free | 5MB uploads |
choosing pachinko over notion
A task list in Notion starts empty: you add the properties, the views, the templates, and you maintain them. Pachinko opens as a task manager with projects, statuses and dates already in it.
Feeds pull in the sites and journals you read: any RSS feed, YouTube transcripts, news topics, SEC filings, PubMed and arXiv papers, FRED economic data, GitHub trends, PDFs, and even custom feeds you build. New items show up as notes on a schedule you choose.
Tell Pachinko: flag any story that mentions my company. Each morning the flagged notes sit in your project.
You can ask Pachinko questions about your own notes and tasks, and search finds the note even when you've forgotten the words you used.
Pachinko's windows open fast. Your data stays in your own iCloud, encrypted if you turn on Advanced Data Protection.
The app is free; Pro AI is $9 a month or $229 once, on your own Claude or ChatGPT account.
The Notion column comes from their published pricing and documentation, compiled August 2026.