Most task manager comparisons rank apps by feature count. That is the wrong test, because the app with the most features is usually the one you abandon in March. The only question that matters is which one you are still opening in six months.
Here is what the main options cost in 2026, what the free tiers actually restrict, and — more usefully — which kind of person each one survives with.
What they cost
| App | Free tier | Paid | Platforms |
|---|---|---|---|
| Todoist | 5 projects, 5 collaborators | $4/mo billed annually ($48/yr) | Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android, web |
| TickTick | 9 lists | $35.99/yr (~$3/mo) | All major platforms |
| Things 3 | None — paid only | One-time: $49.99 Mac, $19.99 iPad, $9.99 iPhone ($79.97 for all three) | Apple only |
| Microsoft To Do | Full app, free | — | All major platforms |
| Any.do | Limited | $2.99/mo billed annually | All major platforms |
The pricing models here are genuinely different, not just different numbers. Todoist and TickTick are subscriptions. Things 3 is a one-time purchase per device — $79.97 to cover Mac, iPad and iPhone, with no bundle discount. That is expensive on day one and free from year two, which flips the comparison depending on how long you look.
Over five years: Todoist costs $240, TickTick costs $180, Things costs $79.97 and Microsoft To Do costs nothing. If cost were the only factor this article would be one line long.
What the free tiers really restrict
This is where the marketing pages are least helpful, because the limits that are advertised are rarely the ones that bite.
Todoist free gives you 5 projects. That sounds tight and mostly is not — five is enough for a personal system. What actually pushes people to Pro is that reminders, labels and filters are paid. Reminders in particular: a task manager that cannot notify you is a list, and lists get forgotten. If you intend to use Todoist as your real system, you are going to pay the $4.
TickTick free gives you 9 lists and keeps far more functionality unlocked, including reminders. Its paid tier is about calendar view, more advanced recurring rules and higher limits. TickTick’s free tier is the most usable of the three — genuinely a working system rather than a trial.
Things 3 has no free tier at all, which is its own kind of honesty. You pay once and everything is there.
The real differences
Todoist is the best at capture. Its natural-language input genuinely works — type “email report to Sarah every Friday at 2pm p1” and it parses the recipient, the recurrence, the time and the priority. That sounds like a gimmick until you realise that the friction of adding a task is the single biggest reason task systems die. If adding something takes four taps, you stop adding things, and an incomplete system is worse than no system because you stop trusting it. Todoist has the lowest capture friction of anything here.
TickTick is the best value and the most crowded. It bundles habit tracking, a Pomodoro timer and a calendar view into the task app, which means one subscription instead of three. The cost is density — there is a lot on screen, and some people find that the app is asking them to run a productivity system rather than just do their work.
Things 3 is the best designed, and it is not close. It won an Apple Design Award and its Areas/Projects/Headings structure is the clearest expression of task hierarchy anyone has shipped. It is also Apple-only, with no web version and no Windows client. If you use a Windows machine at work, Things is not a candidate no matter how good it is.
Microsoft To Do is free, simple and integrates with Outlook. If your work already lives in Microsoft and your task list is genuinely a list, it is enough — and “enough, free, already installed” beats “better, $48 a year, needs migrating.”
Why your last three task managers failed
It probably was not the app. The three common failure modes are all behavioural, and switching apps fixes none of them.
- Capture friction. If adding a task is slower than remembering it, you stop adding. Then the list is incomplete, then you stop trusting it, then you stop opening it. Whatever app you choose, set up the fastest possible capture — a keyboard shortcut, a widget, a share sheet — on day one.
- No review. A task list nobody reviews becomes a graveyard of things you have decided not to do, and opening it starts to feel bad. Fifteen minutes a week deleting and rescheduling is what keeps the list honest.
- Building the system instead of using it. This is the specific risk with the flexible tools. Time spent designing your perfect setup feels productive and is not. TickTick and Notion-style tools are the easiest to fall into this with; Things is the hardest, because it makes almost every structural decision for you.
That last point is the strongest argument for a rigid app over a flexible one. Constraint is a feature when the alternative is spending Sunday afternoon redesigning your database schema instead of doing the tasks in it.
Which one to pick
- You capture constantly and across devices — Todoist. Pay for Pro; the free tier without reminders will not hold.
- You want one app for tasks, habits and focus time — TickTick. Best value here by a distance, and the free tier is genuinely usable.
- You are all-Apple and design matters to you — Things 3. Cheapest over five years, and the one people abandon least.
- Your work lives in Outlook — Microsoft To Do. Free, and already there.
- You have abandoned three apps already — pick the most rigid one you can tolerate, and spend your effort on capture speed and a weekly review instead of on features.
And whichever you choose, give it a month before judging it. Every task manager feels great in week one, because week one is when the list is short and the novelty is doing the work for you.
We went deeper on two of these in Todoist vs TickTick. If you are weighing a task manager against a full workspace tool instead, Notion vs Obsidian covers that side.
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