Trayzero vs Super Productivity: Phone-First or Desktop-First Local GTD?

Trayzero and Super Productivity look alike on paper. Both are free. Both are open source. Neither makes you create an account, and both keep your tasks on your own device by default. So if you've narrowed a privacy-first GTD setup down to these two, price and license won't settle it.

Where your day happens will. Trayzero is built for the phone. It runs on Android and iOS only, and it guides you through the GTD method one decision at a time. Super Productivity leans toward the working day at a computer: time tracking, focus sessions, timesheets, and issues pulled in from Jira or GitHub, with apps on desktop, mobile and the web. Here's where each one wins, and where each one will frustrate you.

The short answer

	Trayzero	Super Productivity
Platforms	Android, iOS	Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, web
Price	Free	Free, no premium tiers
License	GPLv3	MIT
Account	None	None required
Where tasks live	SQLite database in the app's private storage	On your device by default
Sync	None. Plain-JSON backup and restore	Optional: SuperSync, Dropbox or WebDAV
Inbox processing	Guided card-stack Process Inbox	Work through the backlog in place
Weekly review	7-step Weekly Review wizard	Project views plus last week's worklog
Time tracking and focus	None	Time tracking, timesheets, Pomodoro, Flowtime, countdown
Issue trackers	None	Jira, GitHub, GitLab, Gitea, Trello, OpenProject and more

Where each app runs

Trayzero is a phone app, full stop. It's on Google Play and the App Store, and signed Android builds are also published on GitHub for people who skip Google Play. There's no Windows, Mac or web version. If you sit at a laptop all day and want your task list in a window next to your work, Trayzero won't give you that.

Super Productivity covers the whole spread. Its site lists Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS and the web, and the web version runs in a browser with nothing to install. If you move between a work computer and a phone, that reach matters more than any single feature.

You can see the split in what each app is tuned for. Trayzero's capture tools are phone tools: a floating capture button on every screen, intake from any other app's share sheet, voice-to-text, and a home-screen widget that drops an item into the inbox in one tap. Super Productivity's strengths are desk tools: global keyboard shortcuts for capture, a timer running against the task you're on, and time sheets you can export to your company's time tracking system.

Neither design is wrong. They answer different questions about where your attention lives.

Where your data lives

Both apps keep your tasks on your device unless you decide otherwise, and neither needs an account to start. The difference is what "unless you decide otherwise" means.

Trayzero gives you no decision to make. Every task sits in a local SQLite database in the app's private storage. There is no Trayzero server and no cloud sync, so there's nothing to switch on and nothing sitting on someone else's machine. Moving data is a manual job: you export a plain-JSON backup and import it where you want it.

That's the right trade if you want the strongest possible answer to "who else can see my lists?" It's the wrong one if you expect a new phone to pick up where the old one left off without you lifting a finger. Make the export a habit. The end of your weekly review is a natural moment for it.

Super Productivity starts local too. Its site says tasks stay on your device by default, and sync is something you connect when you choose. There are three routes: SuperSync, Dropbox or WebDAV. SuperSync is the project's own end-to-end encrypted service, and the README says you can host it yourself. So you can keep Super Productivity on one machine forever, or link a laptop and a phone through a server you control.

Calendars split the same way. Super Productivity has basic CalDAV integration and lets you bring your calendar in to timebox tasks. Trayzero offers opt-in two-way sync with the phone's own system calendar, so dated items sit next to the appointments you already have.

For the bigger picture on that architecture, see local-first vs cloud task managers.

How each one handles GTD

This is where the two apps differ most. It's also the part that matters most if you're following David Allen's method rather than keeping a list.

Trayzero is GTD-shaped from the first screen. It ships the canonical lists out of the box: Inbox, Next Actions, Projects, Waiting For, Someday/Maybe, Calendar and Reference. The Process Inbox flow turns clarifying into a stack of cards, and each item gets the decision tree in order. Is it actionable? Does the two-minute rule apply? Should you delegate it? Is it really a project? You make one call, the card goes where it belongs, and the next one comes up. If a full inbox makes you freeze, that's the whole point. Guided inbox processing walks through it in detail.

Reviewing gets the same treatment. A 7-step Weekly Review wizard takes you through every bucket in a fixed order, so nothing rots at the bottom of a list. There's a daily review too. When it's time to do the work, you filter next actions by context, energy and the time you have.

Super Productivity treats GTD as one way to use it. Its own GTD guide maps the method onto general features. The backlog is your inbox: collect open loops, then work through each one by defining the next action, assigning a project, or trashing it. Tags become contexts like @deep-work or @errands. Someday/maybe items get parked in the backlog. For the weekly review, you look over your projects and their next actions, check the worklog for the past week, and process anything new. The site puts it plainly: use as much or as little GTD structure as you want.

That flexibility is worth a lot if you already know the method and want a tool that stays out of your way. It helps less if you're still building the habit, because nothing walks you through the review on the week you'd rather skip it. Super Productivity's GTD page describes no guided clarify step or review wizard.

What Super Productivity does that Trayzero doesn't

Here's the list Trayzero doesn't try to match:

• Time tracking and timesheets. Start a task, track the time, then turn it into time sheets and work summaries for export.
• Focus sessions. Focus mode offers Pomodoro, Flowtime and countdown sessions, and a break reminder tells you when to step away.
• Issue trackers. It integrates with Jira, Trello, GitHub, GitLab, Gitea, OpenProject, Linear, ClickUp, Redmine, Nextcloud Deck and Azure DevOps. If your work arrives as tickets, they land in the same list you track time against.
• Desktop and web. A full computer app plus a browser version.
• Sync on your terms. SuperSync, Dropbox or WebDAV, including a SuperSync server you run yourself.

For a developer working through assigned issues all day, that's a strong package. Trayzero isn't competing for that job.

Limits worth knowing before you commit

Super Productivity: sub-tasks only go one level deep, as How-To Geek noted in a June 2026 review. If you like breaking big projects into nested layers, you'll flatten them or keep deep planning somewhere else. And since GTD is optional, the system is only as good as the structure you set up yourself.

Trayzero: it's one phone and nothing else. No desktop app, no web app, no sync between devices. Backup is a JSON file you export yourself. There's no time tracking and no issue-tracker integration. It's a personal GTD system, not a work log.

Which one should you pick?

Pick Trayzero if:

• your phone is where you capture, decide and review;
• you want the app to walk you through clarifying and the weekly review;
• you'd rather have no sync at all than trust any sync, even an encrypted one;
• you want a free GPLv3 app with no account and nothing to configure.

Pick Super Productivity if:

• you spend most of your day at a computer and want your list there;
• you track time, run Pomodoro sessions or owe someone a timesheet;
• your tasks come from Jira, GitHub, GitLab or another tracker;
• you need the same list on a laptop and a phone, synced through a service you pick.

Still weighing other no-account options? The best GTD apps that don't require an account puts both of these next to Mindwtr and a few others, and open-source GTD tools vs proprietary local-first apps covers the licensing side.