Coronavirus caught everyone off guard. Fortunately, in our increasingly digital world, adapting to “new normals” has never been easier. In-person meetings were swapped out for video calls on Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and other platforms; trade shows and conventions were conducted via webinar tools like ON24 and GoToWebinar; and water cooler chit-chat moved from break rooms to #random Slack channels and other productivity apps.

But digitization has pushed productivity even further. While apps like Google Drive, SharePoint, and Jira bolster productivity and information sharing across entire organizations, others, like Evernote, Vault, and Scrivener, are capable of delivering measurable gains at an individual level. In order to thrive during these uncertain times, organizations and individuals need to familiarize themselves with the best productivity tools available.

To help out, we at 42matters have leveraged our app intelligence tools to analyze 10 of the top trending productivity apps currently available on Google Play and the Apple App Store. So, with that, let’s begin!

1. Todoist by Doist

Todoist is an online task management app and to-do list. It enables you to create nested lists of projects, so you can keep track of all aspects of your business and daily life.

Adding tasks on Todoist is quick and easy, since it leverages natural language processing to facilitate efficient scheduling. For instance, when you type “Provide data report every Wednesday,” Todoist will automatically schedule that item to repeat every Wednesday.

Currently, the Android version of Todoist has over 10 million global downloads, with 506,472 downloads in 2021, as of March 16th. Check it out:

Todoist has also been rated extremely well. Currently, as of March 16th, 2021, they boast a star rating of 4.555. Here’s a look at how users tend to rate the app:

Not too shabby!

2. Notion - Notes, Tasks, Wikis by Notion Labs, Inc

Notion is a highly diverse tool that’s great for project management, knowledge management, and data management. It enables users to take notes, manage kanban boards, set reminders, and more. It also offers databases, wikis, and a handy calendar feature.

Notion has been downloaded over 1,000,000 times, including a whopping 753,164 times in 2021 to date:

Notion is also held in high regard by its users. As of March 16th, 2021, the Android version of the app had a star rating of 4.325. Moreover, Notion’s ratings have been improving rapidly:

3. Evernote - Notes Organizer & Daily Planner by Evernote Corporation

Evernote was designed to enable users to take notes, stay organized, manage tasks efficiently, and archive information. The app allows users to create notes, including text, drawings, photographs, audio, or saved web content, which can then be stored digitally and synced across multiple devices.

Evernote is an exceptionally popular app, with over 100,000,000 global downloads. Moreover, Evernote has been downloaded 4,371,891 times since January 1st, 2021 (as of March 16th). Check it out:

However, while Evernote remains a very popular app, ratings for the Android version have been trending downwards since December. Indeed, on December 20th, 2021, Evernote had an average rating of 4.149. By March 14th, 2021 it fell to 4.026:

While this is likely nothing to be concerned about, the trend is remarkable nonetheless.

4. Vaultt - Secure Family by Vualtit Inc.

Vaultt is a productivity tracker app that keeps user information secure with end-to-end encryption. Available for iOS only, it lets users store and share important information that they want to keep safe by scanning documents and saving them in a digital format. Users can also use Vaultt to assign, accept, and track group tasks to help them and their teams stay organized.

Now, Vaultt is a much younger product than many of the others listed here. Launched on May 13th, 2020, Vaultt has already been downloaded 1,400 times, averaging roughly 20 downloads per day over the last 10 months. Check it out:

Wondering why downloads took a nosedive in mid-August? We took a look at their changelogs, and it appears as though the company was retooling some things. Indeed, on August 14th, 2020, they renamed the app Vaultt - Secure Family. Moreover, they released two version updates on August 12th and August 19th. See here:

In any event, this is a really cool app and certainly worth keeping an eye on as they continue to grow.

5. Trello: Organize anything with anyone, anywhere! by Trello, Inc

Trello is a web-based, kanban-style, list-making app that's especially popular for project management. It lets users create customizable boards, lists, and cards; manage everyday tasks; and add colleagues and friends to group tasks.

Moreover, with over 10,000,000 total global downloads, the Android version of Trello has already been downloaded 659,335 times in 2021:

Trello’s ratings have also remained remarkably consistent. For instance on December 20th, 2020, it was rated 4.428. Today, on March 16th, it sits at 4.441. The distribution of 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 star ratings has also remained stable:

6. Fantastical - Calendar & Tasks by Flexibits Inc.

Fantastical is a visually appealing organizer app exclusively for iOS devices. Users can download Fantastical to their smartphones and execute multiple work-related tasks on the go. Moreover, apps like Google Hangouts, Google Meet, and Zoom can all be integrated and managed from within the Fantastical app.

Over the last 12 months, Fantastical was downloaded an impressive 949,496 times; and between January 1st, 2021 and March 16th, 2021 it was downloaded 201,687 times. Check it out, here’s how Fantastical has performed over the last 12 months:

As you can see, Fantastical has a rather erratic download history. Nevertheless, the ratings appear to be on the rise:

On December 28th, 2021, Fantastical was rated 3.284. Today, they’re at a solid 3.4.

7. Covve: Stay in Touch by Covve Visual Network Limited

Covve is a relationship management tool that was recently named the “Best Contacts App 2020” by Tom’s Guide, which provides tech product reviews. The app includes smart reminders to notify users if they haven’t contacted someone for too long. Moreover, Covve searches the web and provides news sources related to contacts, their organizations, countries, or industries.

To date, Covve has been downloaded over 100,000 times, including 5,663 times in 2021 (as of March 16th):

While that might not knock anyone’s socks off, Covve is in any event popular with its users, maintaining a star rating of 4.14. And things even appear to be trending upwards:

8. MYKI: Offline Password Manager & Authenticator by Myki, Inc.

MYKI is an offline password manager and authenticator. It enables users to own their digital identities by securely storing their passwords and two-factor authentications (2FA) offline and across devices.

It’s been downloaded over 100,000 times, including 4,395 times in 2021 to date. Check it out:

While the app’s star rating has been trending downward recently, it nevertheless maintains a respectable 3.69 rating based on 2,976 total ratings. See here:

9. Scrivener by Literature & Latte

Scrivener is a great app for people that want to do some serious writing. Currently available for iOS devices only, it’s full of features tailor-made for people who do long-form writing. This includes the ability to home in on specific sections, as well as a digital “corkboard” for playing with the arrangement of scenes, chapters, sections, etc.

Scrivener is also exceptionally popular with its user base, boasting an impressive 4.44 star rating, based on 2,017 total ratings:

It also seems to be generally trending upwards in terms of popularity. In the United States, for instance, Scrivener has assumed a solid position in the App Store’s top charts. Indeed, it now ranks 25th in the Productivity genre, up 36 spots from 61st:

10. Visual Studio Code by Mrognor

Last, but certainly not least, Visual Studio Code. VS Code is a freeware source-code editor that was developed by Microsoft for Windows, Linux, and macOS. It includes support for debugging, syntax highlighting, intelligent code completion, snippets, code refactoring, and embedded Git.

Visual Studio Code was released for Android devices only recently, on February 12th, 2021. While it surpassed 50 downloads on February 24th, 2021, 12 days after it was released, it currently averages approximately 10 downloads a day:

Currently the app is rated 3.6 stars, based on 5 reviews. Here’s a breakdown of those ratings:

Again, this is a very new Android app. So the jury is still mostly out. But so far, it seems to be gaining some steam, meaning it’s probably a worthwhile app to keep your eye on in the future.

More App Insights from 42matters

At 42matters, we provide app data, insights, and analytics via a host of useful APIs, file dumps, the 42matters SDK Explorer, and the 42matters Explorer. This includes:

• Developer details
• Downloads
• Ratings, reviews, and top chart rankings
• Categories, genres, and IAB categories
• Technical insights, including SDKs, permissions, and app-ads.txt
• And more

The 42matters Explorer is an app market research tool that offers a comprehensive look at app trends and statistics. This includes data on both iOS and Android apps. Moreover, our APIs facilitate programmatic access to app intelligence data from both Google Play and the Apple App Store, as well as the Amazon Appstore, Tencent MyApp, Apple TV App Store, Fire TV, and the Roku Channel Store.

To learn more about 42matters, schedule a meeting with one of our app market experts. We’ll walk you through everything.