Todoist vs TickTick in 2026: The Best Simple Task Manager

If ClickUp and Monday are the project management tanks, Todoist and TickTick are the sports cars. They’re built for personal productivity — fast, focused, and designed to get out of your way.

The quick answer: TickTick gives you more features for free (calendar, habit tracker, Pomodoro timer, built-in). Todoist is cleaner, faster, and has the best natural language input of any task app. If you want an all-in-one productivity system, go TickTick. If you want the purest, fastest task capture experience, go Todoist.

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	Todoist	TickTick
Best for	Minimalists, speed freaks	People who want everything in one app
Free plan	5 projects, 5 collaborators	9 lists, 2 reminders/task
Paid price	$5/mo (Pro)	$3/mo (Premium)
Natural language input	Best in class	Good, not as smart
Calendar view	Pro only	Free
Habit tracking	No	Built in
Pomodoro timer	No	Built in
Kanban boards	Pro only	Free
Integrations	70+	30+
Platforms	All major platforms	All major platforms

Todoist: What It Does Well

Todoist’s superpower is speed. Type “Call dentist tomorrow at 3pm #errands p1” and it instantly creates a high-priority task in your Errands project, due tomorrow at 3pm. The natural language parsing is so good it feels like magic. No clicking through date pickers, no dropdown menus — just type and go.

The design is minimal and clean. No clutter, no unnecessary features staring at you. This matters more than people think — when your task manager feels lightweight, you actually use it. When it feels heavy, you avoid it.

The integration ecosystem is massive. Todoist connects to everything: Google Calendar, Slack, Zapier, IFTTT, Alexa, you name it. If you want your task manager wired into your existing workflow, Todoist makes that easier than any competitor.

Karma points and streaks add a light gamification layer that keeps you motivated without being annoying.

Where Todoist Falls Short

The free plan is tight. Five projects sounds fine until you realize you need one for work, one for personal, one for shopping, one for a side project, and you’re already at the limit. You’ll probably end up on Pro.

No built-in calendar view on free (you get it on Pro). No habit tracking at all. No Pomodoro timer. If you want those things, you need separate apps, which means more subscriptions and more context switching.

Subtasks exist but they’re not as powerful as TickTick’s. Todoist treats them more like indented notes than actual hierarchical tasks.

TickTick: What It Does Well

TickTick is the Swiss Army knife of personal productivity. Task manager, calendar, habit tracker, Pomodoro timer, and eisenhower matrix — all built into one app. And most of it is available on the free plan.

The calendar integration is where TickTick really shines. You see your tasks and your calendar events in one view, which makes time-blocking dead simple. This is a Pro-only feature in Todoist but free in TickTick.

Habit tracking is surprisingly good for something built into a task manager. Set up daily habits like “Read 30 minutes” or “Exercise” and track your streaks right alongside your tasks. No need for a separate app like Habitica or Streaks.

The Pomodoro timer is built right in. Start a focus session on any task, and TickTick tracks how much time you’ve spent. Simple, effective, no third-party app needed.

Pricing is also friendlier — $35.99/year vs Todoist’s $48/year for premium features.

Where TickTick Falls Short

The natural language input works but it’s not as smart as Todoist’s. You’ll find yourself manually setting dates and tags more often.

The design is functional but not as refined as Todoist’s. It’s not ugly — it’s just busier. More buttons, more options visible at all times. If you’re the kind of person who gets overwhelmed by interface elements, this matters.

Integrations are more limited. TickTick works with the basics (Google Calendar, Siri, some Zapier triggers) but it’s not as deeply wired into the productivity ecosystem as Todoist.

The free tier is generous with features but caps you at 9 lists and limits reminders. If you need lots of projects and location-based reminders, you’ll need Premium.

Pricing Comparison

	Todoist	TickTick
Free	5 projects, basic features	9 lists, calendar, habits, Pomodoro
Paid	$5/mo or $48/yr (Pro)	$3/mo or $35.99/yr (Premium)
What paid unlocks	Reminders, calendar, filters, labels, 300 projects	Unlimited lists, more reminders, calendar subscription

TickTick is cheaper and gives you more on the free plan. Todoist costs more but has a stronger integration ecosystem.

Who Should Pick Which?

Choose Todoist if:

• Fast task capture is your top priority
• You live in the Google/Apple ecosystem and want deep integrations
• You prefer a clean, minimal interface
• You use Zapier or IFTTT for automation
• You value design and polish

Choose TickTick if:

• You want calendar, habits, and Pomodoro in one app
• Budget matters and you want more for free
• You like seeing your tasks and schedule in one view
• You want a built-in Eisenhower matrix for prioritization
• You don’t need dozens of integrations

The Verdict

For most people in 2026, TickTick is the better overall value. You get calendar views, habit tracking, and a Pomodoro timer for free — features that Todoist either charges for or doesn’t offer at all. At $36/year vs $48/year for the premium versions, TickTick also wins on price.

But Todoist is still the king of task capture. If the most important thing to you is getting tasks out of your head and into a system as fast as humanly possible, nothing beats typing a natural language sentence and having it just work. If you’re a GTD purist or integration power user, Todoist is your tool.

Both have free plans. Try both for a week with your actual tasks — not hypothetical ones. The right choice is whichever one you actually open every morning.