Looking for a Todoist alternative? Start with the job you're hiring it for
The right replacement depends on what Todoist stopped doing for you. Here are the honest options by the job you actually need done — including the one the roundups leave out.
Most people don't go looking for a Todoist alternative because Todoist is bad. They go looking because something shifted: a price change, a list that quietly grew longer than any real day, or a slow sense that the app is either more than they need or less than they wanted. So the question "what's the best Todoist alternative" has no single answer. It has a job underneath it, and the right pick depends on the job.
The short answer
- The closest switch: TickTick, the most like-for-like, with extras Todoist skips.
- The minimalist pick: Things 3, beautiful and Apple-only, bought once instead of rented.
- The calendar-first pick: Sunsama, for planning against your calendar hour by hour.
- The free option: Microsoft To Do, clean and genuinely free.
- The one the roundups miss: planning by the parts of your day, with VuCalendar.
Now the honest detail on each, including who should simply stay put.
Why people leave Todoist
It's worth naming the reason before choosing a replacement, because the reason picks the tool. If you're leaving over cost, a one-time-purchase or free app matters most. If you're leaving because the list never told you what today was actually for, no other list will fix that. And if you wanted your habits and calendar in the same place, you're after breadth, not a leaner list. Match the exit reason to the door, and the choice gets simple.
The closest switch: TickTick
If you basically like how Todoist works and just want a bit more, TickTick is the smallest leap. Quick natural-language capture, a clean list, and then some things Todoist leaves out: a built-in calendar view, a habit tracker, a Pomodoro timer. It's the answer to "I want Todoist, plus a few more tools in one place." For a full head-to-head, we wrote TickTick vs Todoist separately.
The minimalist pick: Things 3
Things 3 is the one people reach for when they want less, done beautifully. It's Apple-only, and you buy it once rather than subscribing, which for a lot of people is the entire appeal. The design is quietly excellent. If you're on an iPhone and a Mac and you're tired of renting your to-do list, this is the calm choice.
The calendar-first pick: Sunsama
Sunsama is built for people who plan against the clock deliberately. It pulls your tasks in and walks you through placing them onto your calendar, hour by hour, so you can see exactly how many hours the day's work will take. If your trouble with Todoist was that a list never touched your actual calendar, Sunsama closes that gap by tying the two tightly together.
It's worth being clear about what that is, though, because it sets up the last option. Sunsama plans by the clock — real hours, real blocks. That suits some people exactly. For others, pinning work to specific hours is the thing that keeps breaking, since one overrun slides every block after it.
The free option
If the reason you're leaving is cost, two honest answers. Microsoft To Do is fully free, clean, and deeply tied into Outlook and Windows, so if your work already lives there it fits without friction. And VuCalendar's core is free as well: tasks, all the time-of-day lanes, the tracking modes, groups, and the weather backgrounds, with paid tiers reserved only for the deeper reflective and power features. Neither one charges you to keep a plan.
The one the roundups miss: planning by part of the day
Every list above answers the same underlying question — which list or grid should hold my tasks? There's a different question the roundups rarely reach: what if the work shouldn't sit in a list or a clock grid at all, but in the parts of your day?
That's the job VuCalendar is built for. Instead of a due date or an exact hour, you give a task a part of the day — the top of the day, the afternoon, the evening. The day comes back to you as a single view you act from. Work you don't reach carries forward instead of piling up as an overdue count, still sitting in its part. A part that's full says so before you live it. It's not a tidier list or a stricter calendar; it's planning by the shape of the day rather than the clock. If that's the itch no other alternative scratched, it's because most of them are variations on the same list Todoist already gave you.
Who should stay on Todoist
Plenty of people should not switch at all. If Todoist reliably catches what's in your head, if you already know when you'll do the work, and if the price sits fine with you, you have the thing most of these alternatives are chasing. Switching tools is its own small tax, paid in setup and relearning. Only spend it if the job actually changed.
What is the best Todoist alternative?
There isn't one best alternative — it depends on the job you need done. For the closest like-for-like switch, TickTick. For a minimalist Apple-only app you buy once, Things 3. For calendar-based time-blocking, Sunsama. For a free option, Microsoft To Do. And if the real problem was planning the work by the parts of your day rather than by lists and due dates, VuCalendar.
Why are people leaving Todoist?
Usually not for a missing feature. The common reasons are subscription cost, a list that grows longer than any real day, and wanting either less app or more app than Todoist is. Some want a single hub with a calendar and habits; others want to plan around the shape of the day rather than a stack of due dates.
Is there a free alternative to Todoist?
Yes. Microsoft To Do is fully free and integrates tightly with Outlook and Windows. VuCalendar's core is also free: tasks, all the time-of-day lanes, tracking modes, groups, and the weather backgrounds, with paid tiers only for the deeper reflective and power features.
Does VuCalendar import from Todoist?
There is no one-click bulk import from Todoist. You bring your work over deliberately as you set it into the parts of your day. For a planner built around authoring a structure rather than storing a flat list, that first placement is part of the point, not a missing feature.