You have two tabs open. One is Todoist, calm and almost empty, the kind of app that makes a long list feel manageable. The other is TickTick, busy and generous, with a calendar down one side and a habit tracker tucked in the corner. Both are excellent. Both have loyal fans who will tell you the other one is a mistake. So which task manager actually fits the way you live?
This is a full, side by side comparison for 2026: pricing, free plans, features, and the one question most reviews skip, which is what happens when your tasks are only a small part of what you are trying to keep track of.
The short answer
If you want a clean, fast, distraction free list that gets out of your way, pick Todoist. If you want one app that also holds your calendar, habits, and a focus timer without paying for four separate tools, pick TickTick.
TickTick is the better value and the more complete toolkit. Todoist is the more refined single job app with a bigger integration ecosystem and stronger natural language input. Neither is wrong. The rest of this guide is about matching one to your actual routine.
Pricing, without the marketing spin
Price is where these two clearly split. In December 2025 Todoist raised its prices by about 25 percent, and Todoist Pro now costs 60 dollars a year, or 5 dollars a month billed monthly. TickTick Premium sits at 35.99 dollars a year. Over three years that gap is more than 70 dollars, which is real money for a personal productivity tool.
The free tiers tell a similar story. Todoist Free gives you 5 active projects and a limited set of reminders. TickTick Free is more generous, with 9 lists that hold up to 99 tasks each, plus access to the calendar and habit features that Todoist reserves for paid plans or does not offer at all.
For teams the picture flips in TickTick's favour even harder. TickTick charges a flat rate for shared use, while Todoist bills per person, so a five person group pays roughly 20 dollars a month on Todoist against a few dollars on TickTick.
Where Todoist wins
Todoist has spent years sanding down every rough edge, and it shows. Three things stand out.
Natural language input. Type "pay rent every 1st at 9am p1" and Todoist parses the date, the recurrence, and the priority without you touching a single menu. TickTick does this too, but Todoist is still the smoothest in the category, and if you capture tasks in a hurry all day, that speed adds up.
A calmer interface. Todoist is deliberately minimal. There is no calendar column, no timer, no habit grid competing for attention. For people who find TickTick busy, that restraint is the entire point. You open it, you see your list, you get on with it.
The ecosystem. Todoist connects to more than 80 integrations, roughly double TickTick's count, and its newer assistant features help draft and break down tasks. If your work already runs through other tools, Todoist tends to plug in more cleanly.
Where TickTick wins
TickTick's pitch is simple: why pay for four apps when one will do?
It replaces your habit tracker. TickTick has a built in habit feature, so your "meditate daily" and "drink water" streaks live right next to your tasks. That alone lets some people delete a separate app.
It replaces your focus timer. A Pomodoro timer is built in, so you can start a focus session on the task you are looking at, no context switch required.
It replaces your planning calendar. TickTick shows your tasks in a real calendar view and includes an Eisenhower matrix for sorting by urgency and importance. Todoist leans on third party calendars for the same effect.
Add the lower price, and TickTick is the stronger choice for anyone who wants breadth without a stack of subscriptions.
The question both apps quietly dodge
Here is the thing neither Todoist nor TickTick will tell you. A finished task list is not the same as a life that is going well.
You can close every task and still be sleeping badly. You can keep a perfect habit streak and still overspend all month. You can plan your calendar to the minute and still feel scattered, because the parts of your life do not actually talk to each other. Task managers are built to answer one question, "what do I need to do next," and they answer it well. They were never designed to answer "why do my good weeks feel good?"
That is a different kind of tool.
Where KeepMeWise fits
KeepMeWise starts from the opposite end. Instead of perfecting the to do list, it keeps your tasks, habits, health, money, calendar, journal, and relationships in one private place, and then looks for the connections between them.
That means your tasks are still there, with recurring rules and reminders. But they sit next to the rest of your life, and an assistant named Iris reads across all of it to surface patterns a single purpose app cannot see, like the fact that you overspend on the weeks you sleep poorly, or that your best focus days follow a morning walk. A task manager can tell you what is due. KeepMeWise can tell you what is actually working.
If Todoist or TickTick already covers everything you need, keep using it, they are genuinely good. But if you have quietly collected a task app, a habit app, a budgeting spreadsheet, and a mood tracker, and none of them talk to each other, that is the exact gap KeepMeWise was built to close.
See how it connects the dots. Explore the features or start free, keep your last 30 days at no cost, and upgrade only when you want the full picture.
Todoist vs TickTick: how to choose in one minute
- Choose Todoist if you want the cleanest possible list, the best natural language input, and a wide integration ecosystem, and you do not mind paying more.
- Choose TickTick if you want a calendar, habit tracker, and focus timer in one app, at a noticeably lower price.
- Choose an all in one life tracker like KeepMeWise if the problem was never the list, it was that your tasks, habits, health, and money live in separate apps that never compare notes.
Frequently asked questions
Is TickTick or Todoist better in 2026? For most people who want the most features for the lowest price, TickTick is the better pick because it bundles a calendar, habit tracker, and Pomodoro timer into one app. Todoist is better if you value a clean, minimal interface, the strongest natural language input, and a larger set of integrations, and you are willing to pay more for that polish.
Is TickTick cheaper than Todoist? Yes. TickTick Premium costs about 35.99 dollars a year, while Todoist Pro costs about 60 dollars a year after its late 2025 price increase. TickTick is also more generous on its free plan and cheaper for teams.
Does Todoist have a habit tracker? No, Todoist does not include a built in habit tracker. You can approximate one with recurring tasks or a third party integration, but TickTick has a dedicated habit feature built in, and dedicated life trackers like KeepMeWise track habits alongside your health, money, and mood.
Can one app replace Todoist, my habit app, and my budget spreadsheet? That is exactly the idea behind all in one life trackers. TickTick combines tasks, a calendar, and habits, while KeepMeWise goes further and keeps habits, health, finance, and journaling in one place, then surfaces the patterns between them so your tools finally compare notes.
Which should I pick if I mostly want focus and simplicity? Todoist. Its restraint is the feature. There is no calendar column or timer competing for your attention, just your list and a fast way to add to it.
Sources: Morgen, The Digital Project Manager, 2sync, and the official Todoist and TickTick pricing pages. Prices verified for 2026 and subject to change.