Todoist vs TickTick
Two of the best to-do apps, with different strengths: one is the cleanest capture tool, one packs in a calendar, habits and a timer. Here's how to choose.
| Todoist | TickTick | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Free, then ~$5/mo | Free, then ~$49.99/yr |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Task capture | Best in class | Very good |
| Calendar view | Pro only | Yes |
| Habits / Pomodoro | No | Yes |
| Auto-schedules your day | No | No |
| Best fit | Pure, fast task capture | Features in one cheap app |
The short version
Todoist and TickTick are both excellent, and they’re aimed at slightly different people. Todoist is the purist’s to-do list: the fastest, cleanest capture and the most refined interface, with everything extra stripped away. TickTick is the all-rounder: it does tasks well too, but folds in a calendar view, habit tracking, and a built-in Pomodoro timer for roughly the same money.
Neither, though, plans your day. That’s the gap worth knowing about before you pick.
Capture and organization
This is Todoist’s home turf. Natural-language input (“email Sam Friday 9am”) is best-in-class, projects and labels are clean, and it’s fast everywhere, web, mobile, widgets, integrations. If your main need is getting things out of your head reliably, Todoist is hard to beat.
TickTick’s capture is very good too, just not quite as polished. What it adds instead is breadth.
Features for the price
TickTick wins on sheer value. For about $49.99/year you get tasks, a calendar view, habit tracking, and a Pomodoro timer in one app, things you’d otherwise stitch together from several tools. Todoist Pro ($5/month billed annually) is more focused: more projects, filters, reminders, and the calendar layout, but no habits or timer.
If you like consolidating, TickTick. If you prefer one tool that does one job impeccably, Todoist.
The thing neither does
Both show you tasks. Neither decides when you’ll do them. Todoist holds the list; TickTick shows it beside a calendar, but you still place every task into your day yourself, and re-plan by hand when the day moves.
That manual scheduling is the step that quietly breaks for a lot of people. It’s also exactly the gap an auto-scheduler fills.
Where to go next
Both apps stop at the list, and the step they leave you is fitting each task into a real day. If that is the part you want handled, compare directly in ClaroCal vs Todoist and ClaroCal vs TickTick.
The verdict
If you want the best pure to-do list and a tidy interface, Todoist wins.
If you want the most in one cheap app, tasks, a calendar view, habits, and a Pomodoro timer, TickTick is the better value.
But both leave the scheduling to you. If the hard part isn't listing tasks but deciding when to do them, neither app closes that gap on its own.
Frequently asked questions
Is Todoist or TickTick better?
Is TickTick cheaper than Todoist?
Does Todoist or TickTick schedule my day automatically?
Which has the better free plan, Todoist or TickTick?
Ready to clear your mind?
Connect Google Calendar (and iCloud, if you use it), add your tasks, and let Claro draft your day. Every plan starts with a 14-day free trial.
Last reviewed June 2026.