9 Todoist Alternatives in 2026 (5 With Real Free Tiers)

Todoist alternatives matter more in 2026 than they did a year ago, because Todoist has raised prices over the years while free and AI-native rivals caught up. This guide ranks 9 Todoist alternatives by the friction each one solves, with 5 that are usable at $0 indefinitely and a full pricing table below.

If your Todoist renewal just went up and you are deciding whether to stay, the answer comes down to one question: which friction do you actually hit? Typed-only capture, proprietary export, or a UI built before AI routing existed. The ranked list below pairs each of those frictions with the app that actually solves it: quik.md for voice-first capture, Motion for calendar-dense days, Obsidian Tasks for markdown purists, Things 3 for iOS minimalists.

For the wider view of where AI task managers sit in the productivity stack, our pillar on AI task managers covers the category.

How much does Todoist cost in 2026?

Todoist still has a free tier, and its paid Pro plan sits in the mid-single-digit dollars per month, with a discount for annual billing. Todoist has raised prices over the years, and each increase restarts the same search for alternatives. Prices change often enough that you should check todoist.com/pricing before deciding anything.

Who should switch after a price increase: anyone whose renewal pays for features they never open. Who should stay: anyone whose filters, labels, and project history would take weeks to rebuild elsewhere. The table below compares every tool on this list on the two things that matter after a price hike: whether a real free tier exists, and what the cheapest paid tier costs.

Todoist vs alternatives: pricing compared

Every pick on this list, side by side. Free tier means usable indefinitely at $0, not a trial.

Tool	Free tier?	Lowest paid price (as of mid-2026)
Todoist	Yes	Pro around $5/mo, less on annual
quik.md	Yes, unlimited capture with a daily AI-organize cap	$14.99/mo, $69.99/yr, or $99.99 lifetime
Motion	7-day trial only	Around $19/mo billed annually
Sunsama	14-day trial only	Around $16/mo billed annually
Things 3	No	One-time, around $10 iPhone to $50 Mac
TickTick	Yes	Premium around $36/yr
Reflect	2-week trial only	Around $10/mo billed annually
Obsidian Tasks	Free for personal use	Optional paid sync
Apple Reminders	Fully free	Free
Super Productivity	Fully free, open source	Free

Competitor prices are approximate as of mid-2026 and change often; check each vendor's pricing page before deciding. quik.md prices are current list prices.

Why are people looking for Todoist alternatives in 2026?

People are looking for Todoist alternatives in 2026 because the category shifted under it. Voice-first capture, AI routing, and markdown-native exports all became table stakes in apps shipped after 2023, and Todoist is retrofitting those instead of building them in. The app is still excellent, but if your capture habit is voice-first or your workflow lives in markdown, the gap is real and growing.

Three specific frictions drive most switches, plus one new one:

• Price drift. Todoist has raised prices over the years. Each increase sends a wave of users to check whether a free tier or a one-time purchase now covers what they actually use.
• Typed-only capture. Todoist's voice support is minimal. In a voice-first workflow, that is an immediate blocker.
• Proprietary export. Todoist exports as CSV or a proprietary JSON template. You can leave, but you cannot leave gracefully into a plain text editor.
• No routing layer. Todoist's AI Assistant suggests subtasks and rewrites titles. It does not decide which project a new thought belongs to. Apps that start with routing as a primitive feel different from day one.

What is the best AI Todoist alternative?

The best AI Todoist alternative in 2026 is quik.md for voice-first capture with routing, Motion for calendar-packed schedules, and Reflect for note-plus-task hybrid workflows. All three start from a 2023-or-later codebase, which means the AI layer is native rather than bolted on.

The distinction that matters most is where the AI sits in the stack. In Todoist, the AI Assistant is a panel you open. In quik, Motion, and Reflect, the AI is under every capture surface from the first keystroke. You never decide "should I invoke AI" because it is already running. That shift is the reason people describe the switch as "calmer", even when the feature list is similar.

Which Todoist alternatives are truly free?

Five Todoist alternatives on this list are usable at $0 indefinitely, not as a trial. Apple Reminders and Super Productivity are fully free. Obsidian Tasks is free for personal use. TickTick's free tier covers tasks, lists, and basic reminders. quik.md's free tier gives unlimited voice capture with a daily cap on AI organize runs.

The tradeoff pattern is consistent: free tiers cap either the AI (quik.md, TickTick), the polish (Super Productivity), or the portability (Apple Reminders has no real export to speak of). Pick the cap you can live with. If free is the whole brief, we ranked the no-cost picks separately with migration steps in our guide to free Todoist alternatives.

How do I choose between Todoist and its alternatives?

Choose between Todoist and its alternatives by identifying the one friction you hit most often. If you can name it in a sentence, the alternative that fixes it is the right switch. If you cannot, you probably do not need to switch.

Use this table as a starting point. Each row maps a specific Todoist limitation to the alternative that solves it.

Friction	Todoist behavior	Alternative that fixes it
Slow voice capture	Minimal voice input	quik.md, Reflect
No project routing	Manual filing	quik.md, Motion
Proprietary export	CSV only	quik.md, Obsidian Tasks, Logseq
Calendar is separate	Integrations only	Motion, Reclaim, Sunsama
Team planning	Shared projects	Sunsama, Asana, Linear
Minimalist look	Dense UI	Things 3, Apple Reminders
Habit tracking	Recurring tasks only	TickTick
Email-driven tasks	Gmail plugin	Superhuman, Shortwave

The 9 best Todoist alternatives in 2026

Ranked by the specific friction each one solves. For a broader ranking of AI task managers, see our guide to the best AI task managers. For the markdown-first case specifically, see markdown task management.

1. quik.md: for voice-first AI capture

quik replaces Todoist's typing-first model with voice-first, AI-routed capture and a markdown export of every project. Best for knowledge workers with more thoughts than they can type. Pricing: free tier with unlimited capture and a daily AI-organize cap; Pro is $14.99/mo, $69.99/yr, or $99.99 lifetime, with a 7-day Pro trial. For a side-by-side breakdown, see the full quik.md vs Todoist comparison.

2. Motion: for calendar-dense schedules

Motion treats tasks and calendar as the same thing. It auto-packs tasks around meetings and reflows when your day changes. Heavier and more expensive than Todoist, but the integration is real. Best for people with four or more meetings per day. Pricing: from around $19/mo billed annually as of mid-2026, 7-day trial; check their site.

3. Sunsama: for daily planning rituals

Sunsama is slower by design. It asks you to commit to a plan, pulls tasks in from Asana, Linear, email, and Slack, and refuses to let you pack the day too tight. Best for planners who want a ritual, not a background process. Pricing: around $16/mo billed annually as of mid-2026, 14-day trial.

4. Things 3: for iOS-native minimalism

Things 3 is the other direction from Todoist: fewer features, more restraint, native on macOS and iOS only. No AI layer. No web app. Best for Apple users who want a beautiful one-way list. Pricing: one-time purchase per platform, around $10 on iPhone and $50 on Mac as of mid-2026.

5. TickTick: for habits plus tasks

TickTick stacks habit tracking, Pomodoro, calendar, and tasks into one app. Less polished than Things, more features than Todoist, and a reasonable AI assistant. Best for users who want habits and tasks without opening two apps. Pricing: usable free tier; Premium around $36/yr as of mid-2026. For the closest head-to-head we get asked about, see TickTick vs Todoist.

6. Reflect: for note-plus-task hybrid workflows

Reflect pairs a backlinked note graph with a task layer and voice input. The AI is narrower than Motion's, but notes and tasks share the same primitive, which suits researchers and writers. Best for people who want Roam with less ceremony. Pricing: around $10/mo billed annually as of mid-2026, 2-week trial.

7. Obsidian Tasks: for markdown purists

Obsidian with the Tasks plugin turns your vault into a task manager where every task is a plain markdown line. Zero lock-in, slow to set up, requires plugin maintenance. Best for writers who already live in Obsidian. Pricing: free for personal use.

8. Apple Reminders: for the "free and good enough" path

Apple Reminders shipped a surprisingly capable update in 2024. Natural language date parsing, location reminders, shared lists, and native Siri capture. No AI routing, no markdown export, but it is free and ships on every Apple device. Best for users whose task list is short enough to not need more. Pricing: free.

9. Super Productivity: for open-source and offline-first

Super Productivity is a free, open-source task manager with time tracking, a built-in Pomodoro, and Jira and GitHub integrations. The UI is denser than Todoist and there is no AI layer, but it runs offline and costs nothing. Best for developers and anyone who wants a Todoist-shaped app with no subscription. Pricing: free.

What is the best Todoist alternative for iPhone?

The best Todoist alternative for iPhone depends on budget. Apple Reminders is free, native, and captures by voice through Siri. Things 3 is the best-designed paid option at a one-time price. quik.md is the pick for voice-first capture with AI routing on iOS. TickTick is the right call if you also live on Windows or Android.

Todoist's iOS app is genuinely good, so on iPhone the switching case rests on price or capture model, not app quality. If neither bothers you, staying put is the rational move.

Can I move my Todoist data to another app?

Yes. Every app on this list accepts a CSV import, though the fidelity varies. Here is what actually transfers cleanly and what needs manual cleanup.

Transfers cleanly: task titles, project names, due dates, priorities, completion status, comments as plain text.

Needs cleanup: recurring rules (format differs per app), labels (mapping to tags is manual in most apps), attachments (often do not survive CSV at all), subtask depth beyond two levels.

Should I stay with Todoist in 2026?

Stay with Todoist if capture is not a bottleneck for you, if your task list lives entirely in one ecosystem, and if the AI Assistant plus Filters covers what you need. Todoist is mature, reliable, and cheap. Switching apps costs two weeks of reduced throughput and a small ongoing tax of re-learning muscle memory. Unless you have a specific friction you can name, that cost is real and often underestimated.

The fastest way to know is the parallel test in the ProTip above. If after two weeks you have not opened Todoist in a full workday without noticing, the migration is real. If you keep drifting back, stay.

References

• Todoist, Doist, 2007 to present.
• Motion, Motion, 2020 to present.
• Things 3, Cultured Code.
• Asana Anatomy of Work Index, 2024.
• Obsidian Tasks plugin documentation.
• Super Productivity, open-source task manager.