Todoist has been the default recommendation for personal task management for over a decade. It’s clean, it’s fast, it’s available everywhere. The natural language input is still one of the best in the category. Type “call dentist tomorrow at 2pm p1” and it just works.
So why are people looking for alternatives?
Three reasons keep surfacing. First, Todoist only recently added a calendar view, and it still feels like an afterthought compared to tools that were built around calendar integration from the start. For people who think in time blocks rather than task lists, that gap matters. Second, the AI features are minimal — Task Assist exists but doesn’t fundamentally change how you work. Third, power users hit a ceiling. Todoist is deliberately simple, which is a strength until you need recurring task templates, multiple views, or project-level dashboards.
The free tier is generous (five projects, basic features), and Pro at $7/month is still reasonably priced for the category. But price isn’t the issue. The issue is whether Todoist’s philosophy — simple lists, minimal friction — matches how you actually need to work.
Quick Comparison
| Alternative | Price | Best For | Key Difference from Todoist |
|---|---|---|---|
| TickTick | Free–$36/yr | Built-in calendar + habit tracking | More features per dollar, calendar-native |
| Things 3 | $50 (Mac) + $10 (iPhone) | Apple users who want beauty + speed | One-time purchase, Apple-only |
| Microsoft To-Do | Free | Windows/Microsoft 365 users | Free, deep Microsoft integration |
| Notion | Free–$10/mo | All-in-one workspace with databases | Far more powerful, far steeper learning curve |
| Any.do | Free–$5/mo | Simple tasks with calendar integration | Lightweight daily planner with built-in calendar |
TickTick
TickTick is the alternative that comes up most often, and for good reason. It does nearly everything Todoist does — natural language input, projects, tags, priorities, recurring tasks — but adds a built-in calendar view, habit tracker, Pomodoro timer, and more flexible views.
The free tier is generous: nine lists with up to 99 tasks each. Premium at roughly $36/year (about $3/month) is cheap for what you get — calendar views, task duration tracking, custom themes, and detailed statistics.
TickTick’s calendar integration is the killer feature for ex-Todoist users. You can see your tasks on a real calendar alongside your Google Calendar events. Dragging tasks to reschedule them feels natural. This is the workflow that Todoist users have been requesting for years.
The catch: TickTick’s design isn’t as refined as Todoist’s. It tries to do more, and sometimes the interface feels cluttered because of it. The mobile apps are functional but not as polished. And the collaboration features, while present, aren’t as mature as Todoist’s sharing and commenting system.
Best for: People who want Todoist’s simplicity with a built-in calendar view and don’t mind a slightly busier interface.
Things 3
Things 3 is the opposite of TickTick’s “more features” approach. It’s a one-time purchase ($49.99 for Mac, $9.99 for iPhone, $19.99 for iPad) that does fewer things but does them beautifully.
The design is stunning — arguably the most visually refined task manager on any platform. The keyboard shortcuts are fast. The “Today, Upcoming, Anytime, Someday” structure maps naturally to how most people think about tasks. Headings within projects give you lightweight organization without the overhead of sub-projects.
Things 3 syncs via its own cloud (Things Cloud), which is fast and reliable. No account creation required — just buy and use.
The catch: Apple-only. No web app. No Windows. No Android. If you exist in a cross-platform world, Things 3 eliminates itself immediately. It also has no collaboration features whatsoever — it’s a purely personal task manager. And while the one-time purchase is refreshing, you’re paying roughly $80 for the full suite across devices, with no guarantee of when (or if) Things 4 will arrive and require a new purchase.
Best for: Apple-exclusive users who value design and simplicity over features, and who prefer paying once over subscribing.
Microsoft To-Do
Microsoft To-Do is free. Completely free. It replaced Wunderlist (which Microsoft acquired and sunset), and it’s baked into the Microsoft 365 ecosystem.
If you’re already in Outlook, Teams, and the Microsoft world, To-Do integrates naturally. Flagged emails become tasks. Planner tasks appear in your To-Do list. The “My Day” feature encourages daily planning, and the smart suggestions surface tasks that might need attention.
The catch: Microsoft To-Do is basic. The interface is clean but rigid. There’s no natural language input like Todoist has. No calendar view. No advanced filtering. No API worth mentioning. Recurring tasks exist but the options are limited. It feels like a tool that Microsoft maintains but doesn’t invest in heavily — it gets the job done at the most fundamental level and doesn’t aspire to more.
Best for: People already deep in the Microsoft ecosystem who want a free, no-friction task list that lives next to their email and calendar without adding another subscription.
Notion
Notion is the “build your own” answer to task management. You can create a Todoist-like task database in Notion with custom properties, views, filters, formulas, and relations. People have built entire project management systems in Notion that rival dedicated tools.
The free tier works for individuals. Plus at $10/user/month adds unlimited file uploads, longer version history, and (with an add-on) AI features. The flexibility is genuinely unmatched.
The catch: Notion’s task management requires setup. You’re not getting a ready-made task list — you’re building one from database templates. This is thrilling for some people and paralyzing for others. The mobile app is also notably slower than Todoist’s, which matters when you need to capture a task quickly. And Notion tries to be everything (docs, wikis, databases, project management), which means the task management piece never gets the focused attention that Todoist gives it.
Best for: People who want their task system integrated with their notes, docs, and project planning, and who enjoy (or at least tolerate) building custom systems.
Any.do
Any.do sits in an interesting middle ground — simpler than Todoist, with a built-in calendar that Todoist only recently matched. The daily planner view shows your tasks alongside calendar events, which is the exact workflow many Todoist users are chasing.
The free tier covers basic tasks and lists. Premium at roughly $5/month (annual) adds recurring tasks, color tags, location-based reminders, and the AI assistant.
The catch: Any.do is lightweight. Power users will find it limiting quickly — no advanced filters, no robust project structures, no API flexibility. The AI features are improving but aren’t at the level of dedicated AI tools. And the company has pivoted multiple times over the years, which creates uncertainty about long-term direction. It’s a solid daily planner, not a robust task management system.
Best for: People who want a simple daily planner with calendar integration and don’t need the power features that Todoist’s Pro plan offers.
Who Should Switch — and Who Shouldn’t
Stay with Todoist if: You’ve built a system that works. Todoist’s strength is its reliability and its ecosystem — integrations, natural language input, cross-platform availability. If your workflow is “capture tasks quickly, process them later,” Todoist is still hard to beat. The Pro plan at $7/month is solid value.
Switch if: You keep wishing your tasks lived on a calendar. Or if you’ve been cobbling together Todoist + Google Calendar + a habit tracker + a Pomodoro app and realized you’re maintaining four tools to do what one could do. The dread of opening your task list and seeing 40 undated items with no sense of when they’ll actually happen — that’s a sign Todoist’s list-first philosophy isn’t matching your time-first reality.
FAQ
Can I import my Todoist tasks into another app? Todoist supports CSV export, and most alternatives support CSV import. TickTick has a direct Todoist import feature. Notion can import from CSV with some manual mapping. The transition is usually straightforward — the real cost is reconfiguring your projects and filters, not moving the data.
Is TickTick better than Todoist? Different. TickTick offers more features per dollar and a better calendar view. Todoist offers a more refined, focused experience with better natural language input. If you’ve felt limited by Todoist, TickTick is probably worth trying. If Todoist feels right but you just want one more feature, it might not be worth the switch.
What about Apple Reminders as a Todoist alternative? Apple Reminders has gotten significantly better — smart lists, tags, natural language, Siri integration. If you’re Apple-only and your needs are basic, it’s a legitimate free option. But it lacks Todoist’s cross-platform reach, the natural language parser isn’t as capable, and collaboration features are limited to Apple users.
Should I use Notion for task management? Only if you’re already using Notion for other things. Adopting Notion solely as a task manager is like buying a Swiss Army knife to open one envelope. The setup cost is high, the mobile experience is slower, and you’ll spend more time configuring your system than using it. But if your notes, docs, and projects already live in Notion, building your task system there avoids yet another tool in the spiral.