Super Productivity vs Zanshin

Super Productivity

• Developers who plan their day from Jira, GitHub or GitLab issues
• Freelancers who need time sheets from the tasks they tracked
• People who want a free app that keeps data on their own device

Zanshin

• KDE Plasma users who follow Getting Things Done
• People who already use KMail and KOrganizer
• Adding and filing tasks without leaving the keyboard

Super Productivity

• The web app is more limited than the desktop app: calendar integration and WebDAV sync are likely to fail in a browser because of CORS.
• SuperSync is labeled beta, and the project's wiki suggests Nextcloud, WebDAV or Dropbox for production use until it is stable.
• Fetching issues and sending work logs needs a network connection, and a failed issue update is not retried automatically.
• The project is maintained by volunteers and funded by donations; help comes from the community on GitHub and Reddit.

Zanshin

• KDE's app listing offers it for Linux only. The project's install page says there is no Mac version and that the team never tested the Windows build.
• The project pages list no mobile or web app.
• It depends on Akonadi and other KDE libraries, and the KMail, KOrganizer and KRunner features need those KDE applications.
• The project site's last announcement is version 0.5.71 from January 2020; later versions arrive with KDE's regular app releases, most recently 26.08.2 on October 8, 2026.

Super Productivity

Tasks, projects and boards

Tasks take subtasks, notes, tags, projects and repeat rules, and can be viewed as lists, on a Kanban board, in an Eisenhower Matrix or on boards you build yourself.

Time tracking and time sheets

Starting a task tracks time against it. Tracked time can be turned into time sheets and work summaries for export to a company's time-tracking system.

Focus mode and break reminders

Focus mode offers Pomodoro, Flowtime and countdown sessions, and a break reminder tells you when it is time to step away.

Planner and schedule

The planner lays the day out on a schedule timeline next to calendar events, which come in through Google Calendar or any CalDAV calendar.

Issue tracker imports

Issues assigned to you can be imported from Jira, GitHub, GitLab, Gitea and other trackers, with time tracked per issue and work logs sent back.

Local data and optional sync

Data is stored on the device and no account is needed. Devices can sync through Dropbox, WebDAV or SuperSync, the project's end-to-end encrypted service that can be self-hosted.

Zanshin

Inbox for collecting tasks

New tasks land in an inbox so they are written down first and sorted later, which is the collect step of Getting Things Done.

Projects and contexts

Tasks are filed into projects and contexts by drag and drop. Focusing on one project or context, such as phone calls, shows only the tasks that belong to it.

Keyboard control

The app can be driven entirely from the keyboard, with shortcuts to add tasks, move them to a project or a context, and navigate.

Due dates and recurring tasks

A due date makes a task stand out from the rest. Version 0.5.0 added recurring tasks, with a simple recurrence model, and a filter that hides tasks scheduled in the future.

KMail, KOrganizer and KRunner

A task can be created from an email in KMail, overdue and upcoming tasks appear in KOrganizer's calendar view, and typing "todo:" in KRunner adds a task even when Zanshin is closed.

Running task overlay and attachments

One task can be marked as currently running, which puts an overlay at the top of the screen as a reminder of what to focus on. Tasks can also carry attachments.

Super Productivity

• Free$0

  All features on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS and the web, released as open source under the MIT license.

Zanshin

• Free$0

  The complete desktop app, installed from Linux distribution repositories or AppStream app stores such as Discover.