Todoist has quietly become the default to-do list app for millions of people. It syncs everywhere, it parses natural language like a champ, and its clean design makes it easy to recommend. But defaults have a way of going stale, and 2026 is shaping up to be the year a lot of long-time Todoist users start looking around.
Part of it is pricing. Todoist Pro now sits at roughly $5 per month, and once you stack it alongside a note app, a calendar tool, and a habit tracker, you're paying for four subscriptions to do what feels like one job. Part of it is fatigue. A survey by task-management vendor Any.do found that the average knowledge worker abandons a productivity app within 76 days of installing it. That's not a tool problem so much as a fit problem, and finding fit means actually trying alternatives.
This guide walks through the best to-do list apps in 2026, how they compare on the criteria that matter, and how to migrate without losing a single task. I've used every app here for at least two weeks of real work, not a five-minute demo. Expect honest tradeoffs, a side-by-side table, and a step-by-step migration plan you can follow tonight.
Key Takeaways
- Todoist is still excellent, but you're likely overpaying if you only use basic tasks and reminders.
- TickTick is the strongest all-round alternative, bundling tasks, calendar, habits, and a Pomodoro timer for less than Todoist Pro.
- Things 3 is the best pick for Apple-only users who prefer a one-time purchase over subscriptions.
- Microsoft To Do and Google Tasks are genuinely good and completely free if you live in those ecosystems.
- Obsidian Tasks and Notion suit people who want their tasks living inside a bigger knowledge system.
- Migration takes about 20 minutes if you export cleanly. Do it before you cancel your old subscription.
What Makes a Great To-Do List App in 2026
Before naming winners, it helps to agree on what "good" means. A to-do list app is deceptively simple. The hard part isn't storing tasks, it's making capture frictionless and review painless. Here's what I weighted heavily during testing.
- Capture speed. How fast can you go from thought to logged task? Global hotkeys and quick-add windows matter more than any feature list.
- Natural language parsing. Typing
Pay rent every 1st at 9amand having it just work saves real time. - Cross-platform sync. If it doesn't sync reliably across your phone, laptop, and browser, nothing else matters.
- Views and flexibility. List, board, and calendar views cover most workflows. Some people also want a today-focused view that hides everything else.
- Pricing and lock-in. One-time versus subscription, and how easy it is to export your data if you leave.
- Integrations. Calendar, email, and automation tools like Zapier or native APIs.
If you obsess over software the way we do, you'll enjoy browsing our full software marketplace where we apply the same criteria across dozens of categories. But for now, let's rank the contenders.
The Best Todoist Alternatives Compared
Here's the shortlist, ordered roughly by how broadly I'd recommend them. Each has a clear audience, and the "wrong" pick is usually just a mismatch with how you actually work.
1. TickTick — the best all-rounder
TickTick is what most people leaving Todoist should try first. It matches Todoist on natural language parsing and beats it on bundled features. You get a built-in calendar, habit tracking, a Pomodoro timer, and an Eisenhower matrix view, all under one $35.99 per year subscription. That's cheaper than Todoist Pro and replaces two or three other apps.
The mobile widget on both iOS and Android is genuinely best in class. My one complaint is that the desktop app can feel slightly cramped when you have dozens of nested subtasks, but that's a minor gripe for a tool this complete.
2. Things 3 — the Apple purist's choice
If you're all-in on Apple, Things 3 is a joy. It's a one-time purchase (around $9.99 iPhone, $19.99 iPad, $49.99 Mac), which means no subscription anxiety. The design is calm and deliberate, and the "Today" view is the best I've used for actually deciding what to do next.
The catch is obvious: there's no Windows, Android, or web version. If you switch phones or work on a PC, Things 3 is a dead end. For a locked-in Apple household, though, nothing feels better.
3. Microsoft To Do — the free workhorse
Microsoft To Do is free, syncs across every platform, and integrates deeply with Outlook and Microsoft 365. The "My Day" feature nudges you to plan each morning, and flagged Outlook emails show up automatically. For anyone already living in Teams and Outlook, this is a no-brainer starting point.
4. Notion / Obsidian — for the systems thinkers
Some people don't want a to-do app, they want a second brain that happens to hold tasks. Notion databases and the Obsidian Tasks plugin both let you embed tasks inside notes, projects, and wikis. The tradeoff is setup time. You'll spend an afternoon building your system, but the payoff is everything living in one place.
5. Google Tasks — the invisible option you already have
Google Tasks is baked into Gmail and Google Calendar. It's spartan, but if your life runs on Google Workspace, you can create tasks from emails and see them on your calendar without installing anything. It won't win awards, but it's free and always present.
Side-by-Side: Todoist vs the Top 5 Alternatives
Here's how the leading options stack up on the criteria that decide most switching decisions. Prices are annual and reflect early-2026 rates.
| App | Price (Paid Tier) | Platforms | Natural Language | Built-in Calendar | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Todoist Pro | $48/yr | All | Excellent | Add-on only | Balanced power users |
| TickTick | $35.99/yr | All | Excellent | Yes, native | All-rounders |
| Things 3 | ~$80 one-time | Apple only | Good | Calendar events shown | Apple loyalists |
| Microsoft To Do | Free | All | Basic | Via Outlook | Microsoft 365 users |
| Notion | Free / $96/yr | All | Limited | Via databases | Systems thinkers |
Read the table this way: if you want maximum features for minimum spend, TickTick wins. If you never leave Apple devices and hate subscriptions, Things 3 pays for itself in about 18 months versus Todoist. If you want free and good enough, Microsoft To Do is the pragmatic answer.
A Worked Example: What Switching Actually Saves You
Abstract comparisons only go so far, so let's run real numbers. Say you're a freelance designer currently paying for three tools:
- Todoist Pro for tasks: $48/year
- A dedicated habit tracker app: $30/year
- A separate Pomodoro timer app: $12/year
That's $90 per year across three subscriptions and three apps to manage. TickTick bundles all three functions into one $35.99 subscription. Switching saves you $54.01 per year and consolidates three logins into one.
Now stretch that over five years. You'd spend $450 on the fragmented setup versus roughly $180 on TickTick, a difference of $270. That's not life-changing money, but it's a nice dinner out every year for doing something you'd want to do anyway: simplify. The same "audit what you actually use" logic applies to your whole software stack, which is exactly the mindset behind our guide to cutting your cloud bill in 2026.
How to Migrate From Todoist Without Losing a Task
The biggest fear people have about switching is losing years of tasks, projects, and history. That fear is mostly unfounded if you export cleanly. Here's the exact process I use, which takes about 20 minutes.
- Export your Todoist data first. Open Todoist on the web, go to
Settings → Backups, and download the latest backup as a ZIP. This is your safety net. Never cancel your subscription before this step. - Export active projects as CSV. For each important project, open it, click the three-dot menu, and choose
Export as a template → Export as CSV. This gives you a clean spreadsheet of tasks, due dates, and priorities. - Choose your target app and create matching projects. In TickTick or your new app, recreate your top-level lists first. Don't over-engineer the structure yet. Match what you had.
- Import the CSV. TickTick supports direct Todoist import under
Settings → Import from other apps. If your app lacks native import, most support a generic CSV upload that maps columns to task name, due date, and priority. - Verify due dates and recurring tasks. Recurring rules are where imports most often break. Spot-check any task with a repeat pattern and re-enter it manually if the date looks wrong.
- Rebuild your capture habit. Set the global hotkey and install the mobile widget on day one. If capture isn't instant, you'll drift back to your old app.
- Run both apps in parallel for one week. Keep Todoist read-only as a reference while you trust the new setup. Cancel only after a clean week.
One more tip: whatever app you land on, treat your task data like any other important file. If you keep a local backup of your exports, you're insulated from a vendor shutdown or a botched account. Our overview of a sensible local plus cloud backup strategy applies just as well to productivity data as it does
Cover image: Software value feedback loop by jakuza, licensed under BY-SA 2.0 via Openverse.
