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Endearist vs Dextr
A fair, specific comparison — written so you'd be comfortable if a Dextr engineer read it.
Fairness pledge
Dextr is the competitor we agree with. It's local-first, it processes your data on your device, it backs up to your own iCloud rather than somebody's server, it doesn't sell anything to anyone, and it charges $1.99/month or $14.99/year for unlimited contacts — with a free tier that also has unlimited contacts. That is a better price than Endearist's proposed pricing for the first four-and-a-half years — and unlike Endearist, which is not released and cannot be bought yet, you can use it today. We're not going to bury that. If you are on an iPhone, you want your relationship data to stay yours, and you'd rather not think about it again, Dextr is a genuinely excellent answer and you should consider it seriously. The honest case for Endearist over Dextr, once it is released, is narrow and specific: you're not only on Apple hardware, you want a journal rather than a contact list, or you want a guarantee about what happens to the company that outlives the company.
Where does my data live with Dextr versus Endearist?
Dextr: on your device, backed up through your own iCloud account. Endearist: not publicly available yet. The primary copy is intended to stay on your device. End-to-end encrypted sync over storage you run yourself — a local or shared folder, or a WebDAV server — is planned for v1. Google Drive as a destination is not decided yet. Managed sync on Endearist Cloud is planned for after v1, as part of the Pro Cloud subscription only.
How does each tool access AI?
Dextr uses AI for contact organisation and its card scanner, on-device where it can be. Endearist is planned to send nothing to a model by default: if you bring your own key (OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini), the key is meant to stay on your device and only what you choose to send goes to that provider. Managed AI without your own key is proposed only as part of a Pro Cloud subscription. Neither of us is in the business of reading your notes to improve a model, which is the part that actually matters and which most of this category cannot say. AI with your own key: not publicly available yet. Status: planned for v1. Proposed plan, not purchasable yet: managed AI (planned for after v1, as part of the Pro Cloud subscription only) and Endearist Cloud (planned for after v1, as part of the Pro Cloud subscription only). Specific budgets, routing and prices require approval. Family sharing: not decided yet; no included family seat is promised.
What do Dextr and Endearist cost over three years?
Dextr: free tier with unlimited contacts; paid at $1.99/month or $14.99/year. Over 3 years on the annual plan: ~€42. Endearist cannot be bought yet; its proposed Pro Lifetime price is €69 once. Dextr is the cheaper product over three years and would stay cheaper until roughly year five, when the proposed lifetime licence would overtake the subscription — assuming Dextr never raises its price, which is exactly the assumption a subscription asks you to make and a one-time purchase doesn't. The proposed Endearist Free tier: €0, capped at 25 contacts, which is stricter than Dextr's free tier. Proposed plan, not purchasable yet: local core and data export. The proposed 25-contact limit is not a confirmed entitlement. Proposed plan, not purchasable yet: local app and AI with your own key (planned for v1). Sync over your own storage is planned for v1. Managed cloud services are not a lifetime feature. Proposed plan, not purchasable yet: managed AI (planned for after v1, as part of the Pro Cloud subscription only) and Endearist Cloud (planned for after v1, as part of the Pro Cloud subscription only). Specific budgets, routing and prices require approval. Family sharing: not decided yet; no included family seat is promised.
What doesn't Endearist do?
We don't scan business cards, we don't do Dextr's mass-text-by-tag shortcut, and we don't have its social map. The textable-contacts feature in particular is a smart piece of design that we have no answer to — if you send the same message to fifteen people at Christmas, Dextr does that in one motion and we don't. We're also not on Apple Watch.
Feature matrix
Side-by-side.
| Feature | Endearist | Dextr |
|---|---|---|
| Local-first data storage | Designed so the primary copy lives on your device, not on a server. Local-first vault, fully offline: not publicly available yet. Status: planned for v1. | Yes — on-device processing, encrypted iCloud backup. Same answer as ours. |
| Mobile native apps (iOS / Android) | Flutter apps in development; nothing to install yet. Native Android app: planned for v1. The first release is intended for Android and Windows. Native Windows app: planned for v1. The first release is intended for Android and Windows. Native iPhone and iPad app: planned for later. The first release is intended for Android and Windows only. Native macOS app: planned for later. The first release is intended for Android and Windows only. Native Linux app: planned for later. The first release is intended for Android and Windows only. | Source check for Dextr (2026-09-30): Listed platforms: iOS, macOS. Native availability for Android, Windows, Web, Linux is unverified. The vendor now lists iPad and Mac as well as iPhone; check OS requirements before installing. Check current availability and account/region limits with the vendor. We have not tested the apps ourselves. |
| Desktop native apps | Native desktop apps in development; nothing to install yet. Native Android app: planned for v1. The first release is intended for Android and Windows. Native Windows app: planned for v1. The first release is intended for Android and Windows. Native iPhone and iPad app: planned for later. The first release is intended for Android and Windows only. Native macOS app: planned for later. The first release is intended for Android and Windows only. Native Linux app: planned for later. The first release is intended for Android and Windows only. | Source check for Dextr (2026-09-30): Listed platforms: iOS, macOS. Native availability for Android, Windows, Web, Linux is unverified. The vendor now lists iPad and Mac as well as iPhone; check OS requirements before installing. Check current availability and account/region limits with the vendor. We have not tested the apps ourselves. |
| Backup independent of one vendor | Designed not to depend on one vendor: sync over storage you choose. End-to-end encrypted sync over storage you run yourself — a local or shared folder, or a WebDAV server — is planned for v1. Google Drive as a destination is not decided yet. Managed sync on Endearist Cloud is planned for after v1, as part of the Pro Cloud subscription only. | iCloud. Fine if you're staying on Apple; a lock-in if you ever aren't. |
| Business-card scanning | No — not planned. | Yes — built in. |
| Mass message by tag | No — message drafting is designed for one person at a time. | Yes — textable contacts, personalised, by tag or relationship type. Smart feature. |
| Relationship map / network visual | No — circles and cadence lists are planned, not a graph view. | Yes — a visual social map of your network. |
| Cadence reminders | Planned — per person, set by you; gentle, no streaks. System reminders: not publicly available yet. Status: planned for v1. | Smart interval reminders. Comparable. |
| Journal / reflection | Journal, weekly ritual, and appreciation prompts are meant to be built in, not built by you. Local-first vault, fully offline: not publicly available yet. Status: planned for v1. | Interaction logs per contact — a record of what happened, not a place to reflect. |
| Relationship depth (how-we-met, pets) | Designed with ready-made fields: how-we-met, pets, custom pronouns, life events, debts, attachments. Local-first vault, fully offline: not publicly available yet. Status: planned for v1. | Tags, events, and relationship types — broader than an address book, shallower than ours. |
| Plain-Markdown export | Planned — plain Markdown you can read without any app. Markdown, CSV and vCard export: not publicly available yet. Status: planned for v1. The documented implementation has a separate readable ZIP export with media and a report of omissions; legacy exports remain partial. This is not device or release acceptance. | Export available; not Markdown. Verify the format before you rely on it. |
| Pricing | Proposed, not purchasable yet: free up to 25 contacts; Pro Lifetime €69 once, Pro Cloud Light €4.99/mo, or Pro Cloud €9.99/mo. Proposed plan, not purchasable yet: local core and data export. The proposed 25-contact limit is not a confirmed entitlement. Proposed plan, not purchasable yet: local app and AI with your own key (planned for v1). Sync over your own storage is planned for v1. Managed cloud services are not a lifetime feature. Proposed plan, not purchasable yet: managed AI (planned for after v1, as part of the Pro Cloud subscription only) and Endearist Cloud (planned for after v1, as part of the Pro Cloud subscription only). Specific budgets, routing and prices require approval. Family sharing: not decided yet; no included family seat is promised. | Unlimited contacts free. Paid $1.99/mo or $14.99/yr — cheaper than us for ~4.5 years. |
| Open source code | Pledged source release if we ever shut down or get acquired. | No — proprietary, no published shutdown pledge. |
When to pick Dextr
When is Dextr the better choice?
Pick Dextr if your digital life is entirely Apple and you want the local-first promise without paying much for it. It is cheaper than Endearist's proposed prices over any realistic horizon shorter than five years, its free tier is more generous than the one we propose, the card scanner and the mass-text-by-tag shortcut are features we don't plan, its privacy story is one we'd sign — and it exists today, which Endearist does not yet. For a lot of people reading this, that combination ends the search, and we'd rather you found the right tool than the one that pays us. Endearist is being built for three cases instead: you own hardware that isn't Apple, and want the same data on all of it; you want a journal — somewhere to write about the relationship, not just log that it happened; or you want a written commitment about what becomes of your data if the company is acquired or shuts down. Dextr hasn't published one. After Clay was bought and rebranded, we stopped treating that as a hypothetical.
Switching
How do I switch from Dextr to Endearist?
Keep a copy of your Dextr export and check which interaction history it contains before deleting anything. Endearist is not publicly available yet, so neither a Dextr import nor cross-device sync can be compared in a live migration today. Keep Dextr on your iPhone until a released build can be tested on the devices you use.
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Prices and positioning verified 2026-08-06.
Platform information updated 2026-09-30; source-check dates are shown in the table.
Sources for the platform review
Endearist is in development.
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