Disclosure: I make Zympl, one of the apps below. Every other fact comes from the vendors’ own pricing pages, help centers and App Store listings as of September 2026. Prices are in USD.
Todoist earned its reputation. Its natural-language entry (“pay rent every 1st”) is still the one others copy. It runs on every platform, and it has kept adding calendar layouts, deadlines, and AI features like Ramble voice capture. People usually leave for one of four reasons:
- The free plan is tight. Five projects, three filters, one week of activity history. The calendar layout and task durations are Pro only.
- The price went up. Pro went from $48 to $60 a year (or $7 a month) for renewals from December 10, 2025.
- It only knows tasks. Todoist has no native time tracking. The Toggl integration works only in the web app. There are no habits beyond an extension that writes streaks into the task description, and no notes or journal.
- A list isn’t a day. Todoist is excellent at holding everything. It’s less opinionated about choosing today’s three things, and the Today view can quietly become a backlog.
Todoist alternatives compared
| Price | Platforms | Time tracking | Habits | Notes / journal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Todoist | Free; Pro $60/yr | All | Toggl add-on (web only) | Extension | No |
| TickTick | Free; $49.99/yr | All | Pomodoro & stopwatch with stats | Yes | Note lists |
| Zympl | $29.99/yr | Web (mobile in development) | One-tap timers, reports | Yes | Notes + daily journal |
| Things 3 | $49.99 Mac + $9.99 iPhone + $19.99 iPad, one-time | Apple only | No | No | Task notes |
| Microsoft To Do | Free | All | No | No | Task notes |
| Any.do | Free; Premium from $4.99/mo | All | Teams plan only | No | No |
| Google Tasks | Free | Mobile + inside Google apps | No | No | No |
1. TickTick: Todoist plus habits and a timer
Best for: Todoist users who want more in one app without giving up cross-platform apps or a free plan.
TickTick covers nearly everything Todoist does: lists, tags, subtasks, natural-language dates and calendar sync. It adds what Todoist lacks. There’s a full habit tracker with streaks and heat maps, a Pomodoro and stopwatch timer whose stats break time down by list, tag or task, an Eisenhower matrix, and countdowns. Its free plan includes 5 habits and more lists than Todoist’s 5 projects. The trade-off is a busier interface.
- Price: free; Premium $49.99/year ($4.99/month in the App Store).
- Platforms: web, Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, watches.
See Zympl vs. TickTick for how it compares with a calmer alternative.
2. Zympl: from a task list to a planned day
Best for: people who don’t need a bigger list, but a calmer way to plan today, and to see where the time went.
Zympl is a daily planner, not a task database. It opens on today. Tasks get projects (tag with @), repeat rules and reminders, and you can start a timer on any of them with one tap. Timers build a day timeline and weekly and monthly reports by project and task: the time tracking Todoist sends you to Toggl for. Habits (check-off, count, timed), daily-to-lifetime time goals, markdown notes with folders, and a daily journal all live in the same app.
- Price: $3.99/month or $29.99/year, half of Todoist Pro’s annual price; 14-day trial.
- Platforms: web; iOS and Android in development (included).
- Trade-off: no free plan, no calendar sync, no collaboration, and Todoist’s natural-language parsing and integration library are deeper.
3. Things 3: the beautiful Apple-only list
Best for: people who live entirely on Apple devices and hate subscriptions.
Things is the design benchmark for task managers, with Areas, Projects with headings, a Today list with a “This Evening” section, and deadlines. It won two Apple Design Awards and is still actively updated: repeating to-dos were refined in August 2026, and Siri AI support arrived in September 2026. It has no time tracking, habits, collaboration, web app, Windows or Android.
- Price: one-time purchases: Mac $49.99, iPhone $9.99, iPad $19.99.
- Platforms: Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Vision Pro.
4. Microsoft To Do: free, simple, Outlook-friendly
Best for: Microsoft 365 users who want a free list with a daily focus view.
Its “My Day” view is a small, good idea: it empties every night, so you choose today’s tasks fresh each morning. It syncs flagged Outlook emails as tasks. There’s no calendar view, time tracking or habits. Microsoft’s recent investment has gone into Planner rather than To Do, so expect slow development.
- Price: free.
- Platforms: web, Windows, Mac, iOS, Android.
5. Any.do: for households and shared lists
Best for: families and couples sharing groceries and chores.
Any.do has a daily planner, a calendar, and a family plan for four people with a shared grocery list. It also offers WhatsApp reminders. Recurring tasks are Premium only, which catches people out, and some reviewers complain about renewal and refund handling.
- Price: free; Premium $4.99/month billed annually on the web (App Store prices are higher); Family $9.99/month.
- Platforms: web, Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, watches.
6. Google Tasks: the minimum
Best for: Gmail and Google Calendar users who want a checklist and nothing more.
Google Tasks is free and lives inside Gmail and Calendar. Since late 2025 you can block time for a task directly in Google Calendar. It has no desktop app, no tags, no formatting and no stats, and that simplicity is the whole appeal.
- Price: free.
- Platforms: iOS, Android, and a side panel in Google’s web apps.
How to choose
- You want Todoist, but with more in it: TickTick.
- You want to plan days, track time and keep habits, calmly: Zympl.
- You’re all-Apple and anti-subscription: Things 3.
- You want free and simple: Microsoft To Do or Google Tasks.
- You’re sharing with a household: Any.do.
Whichever you pick, the app matters less than the habit of choosing a few things each morning. My ten-minute daily planning routine works in any of them.