These two apps are usually compared feature by feature, which makes them look similar. They are not. They gate their paid tiers on opposite principles, and once you see that, the choice mostly makes itself.
TickTick gates quantity. You get every feature on the free plan, just less of it — fewer lists, fewer reminders, fewer habits. Todoist gates capability. Some things simply do not exist until you pay: the calendar view, custom reminders, backups.
What they cost in 2026
| Plan | Monthly | Annual |
|---|---|---|
| Todoist Beginner | Free | Free |
| Todoist Pro | $7 | $60 ($5/mo) |
| Todoist Business | $10/user | $96/user ($8/mo) |
| TickTick free | Free | Free |
| TickTick Premium | $4.99 | $49.99 |
Todoist raised prices on 10 December 2025 — Pro from $5 to $7 monthly and $48 to $60 annually, Business from $8 to $10 per user. If you subscribed through the App Store you were grandfathered onto a “Pro Legacy” plan at the old price; Google Play subscribers were not. That is a 17–25% increase, and it is the single biggest change in this comparison.
What Todoist free actually withholds
| Beginner | Pro | Business | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Active personal projects | 5 | 300 | 300 per member |
| Filters | 3 | 150 | 150 per member |
| Activity history | 1 week | Full | Full |
| Calendar layout | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Custom and location reminders | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Task duration / time blocking | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Automatic backups | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Ramble (voice AI) | 10 sessions/mo | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Hard caps apply on every Todoist plan, paid included: 300 active tasks per project, 20 sections per project, 500 active projects, 500 labels.
What TickTick Premium raises
- 299 lists, 999 tasks per list, 199 subtasks per task
- Up to 5 reminders per task
- Share a list with up to 29 people
- Up to 99 attachments a day
- Month grid calendar view and third-party calendar subscriptions
- Custom smart lists (advanced filters)
- More than 5 habits and more than 5 countdowns
These are TickTick’s own published figures. The matching free limits — commonly quoted as 9 lists, 99 tasks, 1 reminder — are repeated everywhere but we could not confirm them on a vendor page, so treat them as unverified.
The features only one of them has
| Feature | Todoist | TickTick |
|---|---|---|
| Habit tracking | None | Built in |
| Pomodoro / focus timer | None | Built in |
| Eisenhower matrix | None | Built in |
| Countdowns | None | Built in |
| Calendar view | Pro only | Yes; month grid is Premium |
If you want one app that holds tasks, habits and a focus timer, TickTick does it natively and Todoist does not do it at all. If you want a task manager that does one thing and stays out of the way, that absence is a feature rather than a gap. Neither position is wrong; they are different products wearing similar clothes.
What changed in 2026
- Todoist Ramble launched 21 January 2026 — speak freely and it turns the recording into structured tasks. Ten sessions a month on free, unlimited on paid.
- Todoist shipped calendar layouts and deadlines ahead of the December 2025 price rise and cited them as the reason for it.
- TickTick added an AI section to its help centre, so something shipped — but its documentation is rendered client-side and we could not read what those features are or whether they are free. We are not going to guess.
- Neither vendor removed features in this period.
Which one to pick
- You want to stay free: TickTick, comfortably. Five projects and no reminders is a hard ceiling in Todoist.
- You want habits and a timer in the same app: TickTick. Todoist has no answer here.
- You want a team plan: Todoist. TickTick has one paid tier and no business product.
- You want the least app possible: Todoist Pro. It does tasks, quickly, and nothing else.
One caveat worth stating: neither app fixes a system that is not being reviewed. If lists go stale by Wednesday, the app is not the problem — that is a review problem.
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