TickTick vs Todoist: Which To-Do App Is Worth It?

Short answer: Todoist is the better to-do app for most people. Its natural-language input is the best in the business, the interface stays out of your way, and the $60/year Pro plan now includes genuinely useful AI tools like Task Assist and Ramble voice-to-task. TickTick is the better value pick: at $49.99/year it bundles a Pomodoro timer, habit tracker, Eisenhower Matrix, and a full calendar view that Todoist either paywalls or simply does not offer.

I spent a week running the same daily workflow through both apps — capture, planning, reminders, and review — and re-verified every price below against the official pricing pages and current documentation. One warning before we start: a lot of comparison articles still show outdated prices. Several still list TickTick at $35.99/year and Todoist at $48/year. Both numbers are stale. The current prices are $49.99 and $60.

TickTick vs Todoist: quick comparison

How much do TickTick and Todoist cost?

This is where the two apps diverge most, and where most articles get it wrong. Todoist raised Pro pricing in December 2025 from $48 to $60 per year ($5/month billed annually, or $7/month billed monthly) — a 25% jump. TickTick Premium currently costs $49.99 per year on the web, or $4.99/month through the App Store. That makes TickTick about 17% cheaper on annual billing, roughly $10 a year less.

Two pricing traps to avoid: first, many comparison pages still show TickTick at $35.99/year — that was the old price, and it no longer applies. Second, Todoist’s monthly billing ($7/month) costs $84 a year, so always choose annual billing if you commit. For teams, Todoist Business runs $96 per user per year; TickTick has no real team tier, which tells you who each app is built for.

Which free plan is better, TickTick or Todoist?

TickTick’s free plan is the more generous of the two. You get 9 lists with up to 99 tasks per list — enough for most people’s actual lives. Todoist’s Beginner plan caps you at 5 personal projects, 3 filter views, and just one week of activity history. Five projects sounds fine until your work, side project, home renovation, and reading list eat four of them in the first week.

That said, Todoist’s free tier is not a trial — it never expires, and the core capture experience is fully intact. If you run a simple system with few projects, the limits may never bite. But on free-tier depth alone, TickTick wins clearly.

Which app has better natural-language input?

Todoist, and it is not close. Type “Follow up with David re: proposal every Monday at 9am starting next week in the Client Projects section” and Todoist parses the date, the recurrence, and the project in one shot. TickTick handles basics like “tomorrow at 3pm” fine, but anything involving project assignment or multi-part details needs extra manual clicks. If you capture 10–20 tasks a day, that friction compounds fast — this single feature is the strongest reason to choose Todoist.

Does Todoist have a Pomodoro timer?

No. Todoist has no built-in Pomodoro timer, habit tracker, or Eisenhower Matrix — it deliberately stays a task app, and anything beyond that comes through third-party integrations. TickTick ships all three natively: a focus timer with Pomodoro and stopwatch modes, white noise, a floating focus window, and full focus statistics on Premium.

If timed focus sessions are central to how you work, TickTick replaces two apps at once. I tested dedicated time trackers separately — my comparison of Clockify, Toggl Track, and MyHours covers the cases where you need client billing and reporting that TickTick’s built-in timer does not provide.

Which has the better calendar?

TickTick. It shows a full calendar view across all your lists at once, which is how most people actually plan their week. Todoist’s calendar layout is a Pro-only feature and shows one project at a time — fine for reviewing a single project, awkward for weekly planning. TickTick also pairs the calendar with its habit tracker and Eisenhower Matrix, so planning, doing, and reviewing live in one place.

TickTick vs Todoist: which AI features are actually useful?

Todoist wins the AI round decisively. Pro includes the Todoist Assist suite: Task Assist breaks a vague task like “Prepare for client workshop” into concrete subtasks, Ramble turns a spoken ramble into a structured task with project and date assigned (unlimited on Pro, limited sessions on free), plus Email Assist and Filter Assist. These are practical, everyday features — not demos.

TickTick’s AI story is thinner: voice input that converts speech to text, basic date parsing, and (in the 2026 app versions) AI-assisted voice input with audio transcription. Useful, but nothing that plans for you. If AI assistance matters to your workflow, this category alone justifies Todoist’s higher price.

Which integrates with more apps?

Todoist, by a wide margin. Todoist lists 90+ native integrations on its own pricing page — Gmail, Slack, Google Calendar, and the rest — plus thousands more through Zapier. TickTick’s native integrations are sparse (Gmail, Google Calendar, Alexa get the most reviewer mentions), though Zapier bridges the gap for automation. G2 reviewers cite integrations as a clear Todoist differentiator. If your task app needs to talk to your CRM, calendar, and team chat, Todoist is the safer bet.

What do real users say?

On G2 (comparison page updated August 2026), both apps score 4.5 out of 5 — Todoist across 825 reviews, TickTick across 113. Reviewers rate TickTick higher for value and praise its generous free plan; some mention occasional glitches and a dated interface. Todoist earns its marks for ease of use, natural-language input, and clean design; reviewers note that advanced features sit behind the paywall and team pricing can feel steep. TickTick also scores slightly higher on quality of support.

TickTick vs Todoist: which should you choose?

Choose Todoist if: you capture tasks constantly and want the fastest, smartest input; you rely on integrations with Slack, Gmail, or your calendar; you want AI help breaking down vague tasks; or you run a small team that needs shared workspaces. The $60/year Pro plan earns its premium for heavy users.

Choose TickTick if: you want Pomodoro sessions, habit tracking, and a real calendar in the same app as your tasks; you are price-sensitive; or you work solo and do not need deep integrations. At $49.99/year with the more generous free tier, it is the best value in to-do apps right now.

A note on method: I verified all pricing and plan limits above against the official TickTick and Todoist pages and current documentation rather than re-quoting older comparison articles — several of which still show pre-2026 prices. Feature behavior (NLP parsing depth, calendar scope, AI capabilities) is documented from official sources and current third-party testing; I did not run signed-in sessions inside either app for this comparison. Review scores are from G2’s TickTick vs Todoist comparison, last updated August 2026.

If your work starts as visual planning before it becomes a task list, my tested roundup of mind mapping tools pairs well with either app. And if your projects live inside documents rather than task lists, my Notion vs Obsidian comparison covers that side of the productivity stack.

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