Todoist vs TickTick: which task app fits how you work?

Todoist and TickTick solve the same everyday problem: getting tasks out of your head and into a list you trust. The difference is in how much else each one does around that list.

The core list

Todoist keeps its focus on tasks, projects, filters and labels. The free Beginner plan gives you 5 personal projects and 3 filter views. That is enough to try the app properly, but most people who stay end up on Pro, which raises the project limit to 300 and adds a calendar layout, task durations and custom reminders.

TickTick’s free plan gives you 9 lists with up to 99 tasks each and 2 reminders per task. Premium raises that to 299 lists, 999 tasks per list and 5 reminders per task, and unlocks the full calendar views.

Calendar and time

If your day is shaped by meetings, the calendar link matters more than the list. Todoist’s Google Calendar integration shows your events read-only inside Todoist and puts tasks with a date and time on your Google Calendar. Todoist’s help center notes that it does not turn calendar events into tasks.

TickTick has its own calendar inside the app, with yearly, monthly, weekly, daily and agenda views, and it supports calendar subscriptions. If you want to see tasks and time together without leaving the app, TickTick does more of that out of the box.

Habits and focus

This is the clearest split. TickTick includes a habit tracker and a Pomodoro timer in the same app as your tasks. Todoist does not list either on its pricing page, so people who want them usually pair Todoist with a separate app. Neither approach is wrong. One app means fewer places to check. Two focused apps can each stay simpler.

Price

Todoist Pro is $7 a month, or $5 a month billed yearly. TickTick Premium is $49.99 a year. Both prices come from the companies’ own pages as of this check. Prices and limits change, so look again before you subscribe.

How to decide in ten minutes

1. Write down the three things you open a task app for most often.
2. If one of them is habits or timed focus, try TickTick first.
3. If one of them is “see my tasks on Google Calendar”, try Todoist first.
4. Use the free plan of your first pick for one real week before you pay.

Where Thendoo fits

Thendoo is a different kind of tool. It is a web app that puts tasks, Habits, a calendar, a focus timer and money on one Today view, with an ADHD mode that shows fewer things at once. Missed tasks show as Carried over, with no red warnings. It has no phone app yet, though it can import a Todoist or TickTick export file, so if you need a phone app today, one of these two is the better fit. If you want a calm daily plan more than a long list, see how Thendoo compares with Todoist and with TickTick.