Notion vs Todoist vs TickTick: Which Task App Fits You?
By Sidra Salman · October 27, 2026
Picking a task app should take ten minutes. In practice, it takes weeks, because Notion, Todoist, and TickTick all look good in a demo. I have spent real time in all three, and here is the honest truth: none of them is the best app. Each one suits a particular kind of person. Your job is to figure out which person you are, then pick the app that matches.
This comparison sticks to facts you can check: current prices, free-plan limits, and what each app does well or poorly. Prices change, so check the official pricing page before you pay.
The Short Answer
- Choose Notion if your tasks live inside notes, docs, and project pages, and you want one workspace for all of it.
- Choose Todoist if you want the fastest, simplest way to capture tasks and see what is due today, with nothing in the way.
- Choose TickTick if you want tasks, a calendar, habits, and a focus timer in a single app, for the lowest annual price of the three.
Still torn? Use the 5-question picker below.
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Notion | Todoist | TickTick | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paid price (annual) | Plus $10/user/month; Business $20/user/month | Pro $5/month ($60/year); Business $8/user/month | Premium $49.99/year (about $4.17/month) |
| Paid price (monthly) | Plus $12; Business $24/user/month | Pro $7/month; Business $10/user/month | $4.99/month via the App Store |
| Free plan | $0; unlimited blocks for one member, 5 MB uploads, 7-day history, 10 guests | Beginner: 5 projects, 3 filters, 5 collaborators/project, 7-day history | $0; 9 lists, 99 tasks/list, 5 habits, basic reminders |
| Best for | Notes, docs, wikis, databases holding tasks | Fast capture and a clean daily list | Tasks plus calendar, habits, focus sessions |
| Biggest weakness | You build your own system; capture and reminders are weaker | No habits, Gantt charts, or dependencies | Denser interface; lighter team features |
Notion: The Workspace That Happens to Hold Tasks
Notion is not really a to-do app. It is a workspace for pages, docs, wikis, and databases, and tasks are one thing you can put inside them. That flexibility is its whole appeal, and its whole problem.
What it does best. If a task needs context — meeting notes, a project brief, reference links — Notion keeps the task and the context together. You can design database views (table, board, calendar, timeline) to match how you think, and templates make repeatable setups easy to reuse. For students and educators, Plus is free for a single member with a school email.
What frustrates people. You have to build your task system before you can use it. Reminders, recurring tasks, and quick capture are weaker here than in Todoist or TickTick, and many people fall into redesigning their setup instead of doing the work. The free plan is generous for one person but tight for teams: 5 MB file uploads, 7-day page history, 10 guests. Full Notion AI now sits on the Business plan, while Free and Plus get only a limited trial.
Pick Notion if: your work is document-heavy, you already keep notes in Notion, and you can spend an afternoon setting up a system for months.
Todoist: The Fastest Way to Capture a Task
Todoist is the app I recommend to people who say, "I just want a list that works." Its natural-language input is the best of the three: type "Call the dentist every Friday at 10am #health" and Todoist parses the date, time, and label in one stroke. It feels the same on web, phone, and desktop, and stays fast even with hundreds of active tasks.
What it does best. Speed and simplicity. Capture takes seconds, the interface stays out of your way, and priorities, filters, boards, and the Karma streak system keep momentum going. It also has the strongest integration story of the three, with 80 or more native integrations including Google Calendar and Slack, plus Zapier. Note that Todoist raised prices in December 2025: Pro moved from $48 to $60 per year on annual billing.
What frustrates people. Todoist is deliberately narrow. There is no habit tracker, no Gantt chart, no timeline view, and no way to set task dependencies. Team features are basic: no approval workflows, no shared dashboards, no role-based permissions on personal plans. The free Beginner plan caps you at 5 projects, and reminders beyond the basics need Pro. If you stop paying, nothing is deleted, but extra projects become view-only until you archive or delete some.
Pick Todoist if: you want to open the app, see what is due, and get on with your day. If your main struggle is staying on one thing at a time, my guide on how to single-task with science-backed steps pairs well with a simple Todoist setup.
TickTick: The All-in-One for the Lowest Annual Price
TickTick starts as a to-do list and keeps going: it adds a calendar, a habit tracker, a Pomodoro focus timer with white noise, an Eisenhower Matrix view, and smart lists. If Todoist is a sharp knife, TickTick is a full toolkit.
What it does best. Value per dollar. Premium at $49.99 per year is cheaper than Todoist Pro, and it covers tools that would otherwise be three separate subscriptions: tasks, habits, and a focus timer. The calendar view shows tasks across projects (Todoist's paid calendar covers one project at a time), and Premium reminders are strong, including persistent "nagging" reminders. The free plan is the most generous of the three for a solo user: 9 lists and 99 tasks per list, versus Todoist's 5 projects.
What frustrates people. The interface is denser. All those extra tools add visual weight, and some users say TickTick tempted them to fiddle with settings instead of working. Notes are limited to the task description, so it is not a notes app. Team features (shared lists with assignment and comments) are lighter than Todoist's Business workspaces.
Pick TickTick if: you want one app for tasks, habits, and focus time, you time-block on a calendar, and you would rather pay $49.99 a year than juggle three apps. Its built-in focus timer also works nicely with a batching routine — see how batching grouped tasks can save hours every week.
What About Teams?
For a small team, the ranking shifts a bit. Notion wins when the work is document-centered: shared wikis and databases several people edit together. Todoist Business ($8 per user/month billed annually) wins when the team just needs shared task lists with assignments and a workspace for up to 1,000 members. TickTick suits lightweight shared lists, but its permissions are basic. None of the three replaces a full project tool if you need Gantt charts or dependencies — for that, compare the best project management tools for small teams first.
The 5-Question Picker
Answer honestly — the pattern points you to one app.
- Do your tasks need notes or reference material attached? Yes most of the time points to Notion. Rarely or never points to Todoist or TickTick.
- Do you want habits and a focus timer with your tasks? Yes points strongly to TickTick. No points to Todoist or Notion.
- Do you plan your day by blocking time on a calendar? Yes points to TickTick, which shows all your tasks on one calendar. If you just need a list, Todoist is enough.
- Do too many features and settings derail you? Yes points to Todoist, the simplest of the three. No points to TickTick or Notion.
- What is your budget? Free forever points to Notion for a solo user or TickTick's free plan. Under $55 a year points to TickTick Premium. Around $60 a year points to Todoist Pro. Over $100 a year per person only makes sense for Notion Plus or Business, and only if you use the docs and databases too.
Worked Example: Meet Maya
Maya works full-time in marketing and runs a small side shop in the evenings. She wants her morning routine, client deadlines, and focus sessions in one place, without paying for three apps. She answers: (1) her tasks rarely need long notes, (2) yes, she wants habits and a focus timer, (3) yes, she time-blocks her evenings, (4) no, a fuller interface does not bother her, and (5) her budget is under $55 a year.
Four of her five answers point to TickTick. She starts on the free plan — 9 lists is plenty for work, shop, and home — and upgrades to Premium ($49.99/year) only when she wants multiple calendar views and full focus statistics. If Maya had answered yes to question 1 and no to question 2, the same picker would have sent her to Notion instead. The right app follows your answers, not a reviewer's ranking.
How to Switch Without Regret
Do not migrate your whole life on day one. Run a one-week trial with a slice of your work: move this week's tasks only, use the app daily, and judge it on Friday. Watch three things: how fast you can add a task in a hurry, whether you open the app in the morning, and whether the free plan covers you. If it does, stay on it, and confirm the checkout total for your region and platform before you pay, since app-store prices can differ from website prices.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use Notion, Todoist, or TickTick for free forever?
Yes, all three have permanent free plans, not trials. Notion's free plan suits a solo user who mainly needs pages and blocks, though it caps file uploads at 5 MB and page history at 7 days. Todoist's free Beginner plan limits you to 5 projects, and TickTick's free plan gives you 9 lists with 99 tasks each.
Which app is best for students?
Notion is hard to beat for students because Plus is free for a single member with a school email, and it handles class notes and assignments in one workspace. If you only need a task list and habit tracking, TickTick's free plan is a strong second choice.
Can I use two of these apps together?
Yes, and many people do. A common pairing is Notion for planning and reference material with Todoist or TickTick for daily execution, since tasks can sync between apps through tools like Zapier. If you only open one of them each day, drop the other.
Which app should a small team pick?
It depends on the work. Choose Notion if the team shares docs and wikis, Todoist Business if the team mainly needs shared task lists, and TickTick only for lightweight shared lists. If you need Gantt charts or task dependencies, none of the three is the right tool.
About the Author
Sidra Salman is the founder of Productivity Pro, where she writes practical, research-backed guides on productivity. Every guide is tested and written in plain English for a US audience.
Browse the latest articles on Productivity Pro for more.
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