TickTick vs Todoist: Honest 2026 Comparison

TickTick vs Todoist is the head-to-head most people run before committing to a serious task manager in 2026. Todoist wins on polish, filters, and integrations. TickTick wins on built-in habits, Pomodoro, and price. Neither does voice-first capture or markdown export, which leaves room for a third option.

Both apps are mature. Both will hold a few thousand tasks without breaking. The real decision is which set of trade-offs matches the way you actually work, and that is what this comparison walks through: price, features, platforms, and what happens to your data if you ever leave.

TickTick vs Todoist: which one should you pick?

Pick Todoist if you live inside filters, labels, and integrations with other tools. Pick TickTick if you want habits, a Pomodoro timer, and calendar views inside the same app for less money. That is the honest one-paragraph verdict, and the rest of this page is the reasoning behind it.

Todoist, built by Doist, has been iterating since 2007 and it shows. The parsing is fast, the filter language is genuinely powerful, and the app almost never surprises you. It is the safer default for someone who wants a task manager and nothing else.

TickTick takes the opposite bet: more features per dollar. Habit tracking, a built-in Pomodoro timer, calendar views, and an Eisenhower matrix all ship inside the app instead of through third-party integrations. The interface is busier, and power users sometimes outgrow its filtering, but the bundle is hard to argue with at its price.

If you already know you want broader options beyond these two, our Todoist alternatives roundup covers eight picks, and the free Todoist alternatives page filters that list down to no-cost tools.

Which is cheaper, TickTick or Todoist?

TickTick is usually the cheaper of the two, though both sit in the single-digit dollars per month range when billed annually as of 2026. Both offer free tiers that cover basic task lists, and both have raised prices over the years, so treat any exact number you see in a review with suspicion and check the current pricing pages.

The shape of the pricing matters more than the exact figure:

Plan detail	TickTick	Todoist
Free tier	Tasks, lists, limited habits	Tasks, projects, limited filters
Paid tier	Adds calendar, more habits, full history	Adds reminders, filters, more projects
Billing	Annual, historically a bit cheaper	Monthly or annual
Trial	Free tier instead of a trial	Free tier instead of a trial

Competitor pricing changes often. Verify current plans on the TickTick and Todoist pricing pages before deciding. quik.md pricing later in this post is exact.

One honest observation: at these prices, cost should rarely be the deciding factor. A few dollars a month is smaller than the cost of a week spent fighting the wrong tool. Decide on workflow fit, then let price break a tie.

How do TickTick and Todoist compare on features?

Todoist is deeper on task-management fundamentals, while TickTick is broader on bundled extras. Todoist's natural language parsing, filter queries, and label system are the strongest in the category. TickTick answers with features Todoist does not have at all: habit tracking, a Pomodoro timer, and calendar views built in.

Natural language parsing

Both apps parse dates from plain text, so typing "submit report every Friday at 4pm" creates a recurring task in either one. Todoist's parser is faster and handles more edge cases, including complex recurrences like "every last weekday". TickTick's parser covers the common cases well and occasionally stumbles on unusual phrasing.

Habits and Pomodoro

This is TickTick's clearest win. Habit tracking with streaks and a Pomodoro focus timer are built into the app, so tasks and routines share one home. Todoist has neither; the standard workaround is a separate habit app and a separate timer, or an integration that approximates both.

Filters, labels, and organization

This is Todoist's clearest win. Labels plus a real filter query language ("due before: friday & @work") let you build views that TickTick's smart lists only partially match. If your system depends on slicing tasks across projects in precise ways, Todoist is the stronger tool.

Integrations and offline

Todoist connects to a large catalog of calendars, email clients, and automation tools, and has been integrated into most workflow builders for years. TickTick covers the essentials, including calendar subscription, but its integration ecosystem is smaller. Both apps handle offline use in their desktop and mobile apps and sync on reconnect; the browser versions are weaker without a connection.

Feature-by-feature comparison

Feature	TickTick	Todoist
Natural language parsing	Good for common phrasing	Best in class, handles edge cases
Habit tracking	Built in with streaks	Not available
Pomodoro timer	Built in	Not available
Filters and labels	Smart lists, simpler	Full query language
Calendar view	Built in	Via integration
Integrations	Covers essentials	Large catalog
Offline mode	Desktop and mobile apps	Desktop and mobile apps
Export	Backup and CSV options	CSV per project
Collaboration	Shared lists	Shared projects, more mature

Which platforms do TickTick and Todoist support?

Both cover the same ground: web, macOS, Windows, iOS, and Android, plus browser extensions and smartwatch apps. Platform coverage is not a reason to pick one over the other in 2026.

The small differences live at the edges. Todoist has historically invested more in its browser extensions and email add-ons. TickTick's mobile apps pack more of the feature set, including habits and the timer, without needing companion apps. If you work mostly in a browser, test both web apps specifically, because that is where the feel differs most.

How do exports and data portability compare?

Both apps let you leave, but neither lets you leave gracefully into plain text. Todoist exports projects as CSV. TickTick offers backup and CSV-style export. Neither exports markdown, which means your tasks land in a spreadsheet format that loses structure on the way out.

What typically survives an export: task titles, due dates, project names, priorities, and completion status. What typically does not: recurring rules in their original form, comments, attachments, and label mappings.

What if you want voice capture and markdown instead?

quik.md is the third option for people whose real problem is capture, not task management. You speak a thought out loud, AI files it into the right project with the next step already written, and every project exports as markdown. It is a PWA, so it runs in any browser, and the free tier uses browser speech recognition with a daily AI-organize cap.

The honest framing: quik.md is not a Todoist replacement or a TickTick replacement. It has no habit tracker, no filter query language, and a smaller feature surface than either. It exists for the moment both apps handle poorly, which is the thirty seconds when a thought arrives and typing it into a structured field is too slow. If that moment is your bottleneck, the feature tables above are solving the wrong problem for you.

Pricing is simple: free with a daily AI-organize cap, $14.99 monthly, $69.99 yearly, or $99.99 once for lifetime. Pro comes with a 7-day trial. For the detailed head-to-heads, see quik.md vs TickTick and quik.md vs Todoist.

Many people land on a split: quik.md as the capture inbox upstream, Todoist or TickTick as the structured planner downstream. Markdown export makes that handoff clean, because the tasks you capture by voice arrive in a format any tool can read.

FAQ

Is TickTick better than Todoist?

Neither is strictly better. Todoist is stronger on filters, labels, integrations, and overall polish. TickTick is stronger on built-in extras like habit tracking, a Pomodoro timer, and calendar views, usually at a lower price. Pick based on which set of gaps you can live with.

Which is cheaper, TickTick or Todoist?

TickTick's premium plan has historically cost less than Todoist's paid plan, and both sit in the single-digit dollars per month range when billed annually as of 2026. Both also have usable free tiers. Check each vendor's current pricing page before deciding, since both have raised prices in the past.

Can I migrate from Todoist to TickTick, or back?

Yes. Todoist exports projects as CSV, and TickTick can import from Todoist directly. Titles, dates, and projects transfer cleanly. Recurring rules, labels, comments, and attachments usually need manual cleanup, so export a backup and run both apps in parallel before deleting anything.

Do TickTick and Todoist work offline?

Both work offline in their desktop and mobile apps and sync changes when you reconnect. The web versions are less reliable without a connection. If offline capture is critical, test the specific platform you use most before committing.

What is a good alternative to both TickTick and Todoist?

If your friction is capture speed rather than task management features, quik.md is a voice-first alternative. You speak a thought, AI files it into the right project with a next step, and everything exports as markdown. It is a different interaction model, not another feature bundle.

Related reads

• Todoist alternatives: 8 honest picks
• Free Todoist alternatives
• quik.md vs TickTick
• quik.md vs Todoist