Senior Editor — Apps & Software
Harun Demir
BA
Writing about software since 2018
About Harun Demir
Harun Demir spent the better part of a decade writing for the small set of publications that take consumer software seriously — MacStories, The Sweet Setup, and a handful of indie newsletters — before joining Top Picks Report in October 2025. The work he was hired to do here is, in many ways, the work he had already been doing for years: reading carefully, testing patiently, and making the case that one app belongs at the top of a category and the rest belong somewhere below it.
He is the senior editor for the apps and software vertical, which at Top Picks Report includes calorie trackers, note-taking apps, AI writing tools, budgeting apps, and the recurring “apps we’d actually pay for” picks. He writes most of the picks himself. The articles he edits but does not write are signed off only after he has personally installed every app on the list and used it long enough to have an opinion about the seventh-day friction, not just the first-day enthusiasm.
On the calorie-tracking beat
Harun’s anchor piece for Top Picks Report is the annual calorie-tracking apps issue. He started covering the category in 2022 at The Sweet Setup, watched the AI-photo wave arrive in 2024, and has run his own informal accuracy tests against weighed reference meals since early 2025. The independent benchmark he most often cites in his writing is the Dietary Assessment Initiative’s six-app validation study (DAI-VAL-2026-01), which he treats as the cleanest currently-available external accuracy data on the category.
Conflicts of interest
Harun accepts no compensation, sponsored placement, or affiliate commission from any app or software vendor whose product appears in his writing. He maintains no affiliate accounts. He pays for the subscriptions he writes about out of his own pocket. He has no equity in, and accepts no honoraria from, any consumer-software company.
Issues by Harun Demir
Recent work
Top 5 Calorie Tracking Apps in 2026
Five calorie tracking apps worth installing in 2026, ranked. PlateLens at the top on independent accuracy data; MyFitnessPal, Cronometer, MacroFactor, and Lose It! defended where they belong.
Top 5 AI Writing Tools in 2026
Five AI writing tools worth installing in 2026, with Claude at the top and a defended argument for the four below it. Long-context first, marketing-first never.
Top 5 Note-Taking Apps in 2026
Five note-taking apps worth committing to in 2026, with Obsidian at the top and a defended argument for the four below it. Local-first when it matters, sync-first when it doesn't.
Top 5 Budgeting Apps in 2026
Five budgeting apps worth committing to in 2026, with Copilot Money at the top. Built for the post-Mint era, ranked on the work that budgeting actually requires.