Todoist vs Today's Tasks: Which Is Better for a Daily List?

Todoist is the default recommendation in productivity circles, and there's a reason: it's a genuinely excellent product. But "default recommendation" doesn't mean "right for everyone," and a non-trivial chunk of people who ask for a Todoist alternative are doing so because the depth of the product exceeds the depth of their actual need.

I've used Todoist in stretches across the last several years and I built Today's Tasks. This article is a fair comparison, not a pitch. There are clear cases where Todoist is the better choice — I'll name them — and clear cases where it isn't.

The comparison at a glance

Where Todoist clearly wins

Recurring tasks

This is the single biggest functional gap. Todoist's natural-language input handles "every Monday at 9am," "the first Friday of every month," "every 3 days starting next week" — and gets it right almost always. If your daily life includes any meaningful set of recurring tasks (medication, bill payment, weekly reviews you don't want to remember to schedule), Todoist eliminates an entire category of cognitive overhead. Today's Tasks has nothing equivalent. You'd re-add recurring items by hand each day, which is exactly the friction Todoist eliminates.

Cross-device sync and mobile

If you work on a laptop in the morning, a phone during commute, and a different machine in the evening, Todoist holds it all together. Today's Tasks is a browser-storage tool — your list lives on the specific browser where you typed it, and switching machines means starting over. For a daily-only list this is sometimes fine, but for many people it's a deal-breaker the first time it bites them.

Mobile-first workflows

If you primarily think on your phone — capturing tasks while walking, while in line, while waiting — Todoist's iOS and Android apps are excellent. Today's Tasks works on a phone browser but isn't optimized for it the way a native app is.

Integrations

Gmail forwarding to tasks, Slack reactions creating tasks, Google Calendar two-way sync — these are real productivity multipliers if your work happens across those tools. Today's Tasks has zero integrations. By design, but it's still zero.

Where Today's Tasks wins

Speed and setup tax

The first task in Todoist takes about two minutes to add: sign up, verify, get oriented, decide what project to put it in, add it. The first task in Today's Tasks takes about five seconds: open the page, type, press add. For people who are constantly adding small items as they think of them, this matters more than it sounds — the difference between five seconds and two minutes is the difference between capturing a thought and losing it.

Daily-only focus

Todoist is a flat list app with a "Today" view layered on top. You see today's tasks because you've filtered to them, but the underlying mental model is still a giant flat collection of items. Today's Tasks has the opposite default: the view is daily by definition, and a midnight reset clears yesterday's items so you have to consciously choose what's on today's list. If your problem is that your task list is bloated with old items you keep avoiding, this is the structurally different answer.

Privacy and the no-cloud option

Todoist's data lives on their servers. That's normal and fine for most people, but if you're privacy-conscious, working with sensitive task content, or just don't want another company holding your daily routine in a database, Today's Tasks doesn't store your data anywhere except your own browser.

The free tier reality

Todoist's free tier is more limited than it appears in the marketing. You're capped at 5 active projects, no reminders, no labels, limited collaborators. The product is genuinely worth $5/month if you'll use the depth, but if you only need a daily list, you're paying for features you're not using.

Where Today's Tasks falls short — honestly

To be fair to Todoist, here are the things you'd give up by switching:

• No recurring tasks. If you have any recurring obligations, you'll either re-add them daily or use a calendar for them.
• No sync. Browser-storage means one machine, one browser. Switching = starting over.
• No reminders. Today's Tasks won't ping you. If you forget to open it, the list waits silently.
• No mobile experience to speak of. Works on a phone browser; doesn't feel native.
• Browser storage isn't permanent. Clearing cookies wipes the list.

None of these are oversights — they're the consequences of running entirely client-side with no account. If they bother you, Todoist (or Apple Reminders, if you're in that ecosystem) is the better fit.

Decision tree

The honest decision tree:

• You need recurring tasks? → Todoist.
• You work across phone + laptop + desktop? → Todoist.
• You need reminders or mobile notifications? → Todoist.
• You're going to use integrations (Gmail, Slack, Calendar)? → Todoist.
• You only need a daily list, work mostly in a browser, and dislike account flows? → Today's Tasks.

If you fall on both sides, the combination is also valid. I personally use Todoist for the small set of recurring items that genuinely benefit from it, and Today's Tasks for the daily list. The three-way comparison covers that pairing in more detail.

FAQ

Is Todoist Free enough, or do I need Pro?

Free is enough for most people who want a basic flat list. The 5-active-project cap is real but most personal use cases stay under it. You'll need Pro if you want reminders, labels, or more than five projects.

Can I export from Todoist if I switch?

Yes — Todoist exports cleanly. There's no lock-in concern.

Why doesn't Today's Tasks have sync?

Sync requires an account and a server, both of which contradict the no-signup design goal. The tradeoff was made deliberately. If sync matters to you, the right answer is Todoist, not a synced version of Today's Tasks.

Should I run both?

Lots of people do. Todoist for the cross-device + recurring use cases, Today's Tasks for the daily-focus layer. They don't conflict.

Try Today's Tasks →