Short answer: For most people, Todoist is the best to-do list app in 2026. It is the fastest to capture a task, it runs on every platform including Linux, and its free plan is genuinely usable. If you want the most features for your money, pick TickTick — it folds a calendar, habit tracker, and Pomodoro timer into one app for $49.99 a year, which is $10 less than Todoist Pro. If you refuse to pay anything, Microsoft To Do is the best completely free option, with no paid tier at all. And if you only use Apple devices and hate subscriptions, Things 3 costs $79.97 once for all three devices and then nothing, ever.
Key Takeaways
- Best overall: Todoist — fastest capture, every platform, free plan covers 5 projects.
- Best value: TickTick Premium at $49.99/year — calendar, habits, and focus timer included.
- Best free: Microsoft To Do — the whole app is free, with Outlook sync built in.
- Best Apple-only, no subscription: Things 3 — one-time purchase, $49.99 Mac + $19.99 iPad + $9.99 iPhone.
- Watch out for stale prices: Todoist raised Pro from $48 to $60 a year in December 2025, and many ranking pages still show the old $4-a-month figure. Every price in this guide was checked on the vendors’ own pages in October 2026.
The 7 Best To-Do List Apps at a Glance
| App | Best for | Platforms | Free plan | Paid price | Standout feature |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Todoist | Most people | iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, Linux, web | Yes — 5 projects, 3 filters | Pro $60/year ($5/mo billed yearly) or $7/month | Natural-language capture |
| TickTick | All-in-one value | iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, web | Yes — 9 lists, 99 tasks per list | Premium $49.99/year | Calendar, habits, Pomodoro in one app |
| Microsoft To Do | Free, Outlook users | iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, web | The whole app is free | None | My Day planning, Outlook sync |
| Things 3 | Apple users who hate subscriptions | iOS, iPad, Mac | No free tier (trial on Mac) | One-time: $49.99 Mac, $19.99 iPad, $9.99 iPhone | Beautiful design, no subscription |
| Any.do | Shared family lists | iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, web | Yes, limited | Premium $4.99/mo billed yearly | WhatsApp reminders, daily planner |
| Google Tasks | Gmail users | iOS, Android, web | Free | None | Lives inside Gmail and Calendar |
| Apple Reminders | iPhone and Mac users | iOS, iPad, Mac, web (iCloud) | Free | None | Built in, location reminders |
What 3 Years Actually Costs
Monthly prices hide the real cost. Here is what one person actually pays over three years, using the annual-billing prices from each vendor’s own pricing page (checked October 2026):
| App | Year 1 | 3-year total |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft To Do | $0 | $0 |
| Google Tasks | $0 | $0 |
| Apple Reminders | $0 | $0 |
| Things 3 (all three devices) | $79.97 once | $79.97 |
| TickTick Premium | $49.99 | $149.97 |
| Any.do Premium | $59.88 | $179.64 |
| Todoist Pro | $60 | $180 |
Two things jump out. First, Things 3 looks expensive until you do the maths: $79.97 once beats $180 for Todoist Pro over three years, and the gap only grows after that. Second, Todoist’s December 2025 price rise matters — Pro went from $48 to $60 a year, a 25% jump, and plenty of pages ranking for “best to-do list apps” still quote the old $4 a month. If a roundup tells you Todoist Pro is $4 a month, it has not been updated since the rise.
Todoist — Best Overall
Todoist wins on speed. Its Quick Add understands plain language: type “Call the plumber every Tuesday at 6pm #house” and it creates a recurring task, dated, filed in the right project, in one line. No other app in this list captures tasks that fast, and that matters more than it sounds — the app you open is the app that works, and the app that takes three taps to add a task is the app you stop opening.
It runs everywhere: iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, Linux, and the web, with browser extensions and integrations for Gmail, Outlook, Slack, and Google Calendar. The free Beginner plan covers 5 personal projects, 3 filter views, and a week of activity history, which is enough for a personal list and a shopping list. Pro ($60 a year, or $7 month to month) lifts you to 300 projects, 150 filters, a calendar layout, task durations, and AI task assistance.
The honest drawback is the price. At $60 a year it is the most expensive subscription in this list, and the free plan’s 5-project cap is the tightest here — TickTick gives you 9 lists free, Microsoft To Do gives you everything free. If your lists are simple, you are paying $60 a year mostly for speed.
TickTick — Best Value All-in-One
TickTick is the app for people who want one app instead of three. Tasks, a full calendar view, a habit tracker, and a Pomodoro focus timer all live in the same place, so you can plan the day, track the habit, and time the work without switching apps. It also has an Eisenhower Matrix view that Todoist does not offer at all.
The free plan is generous: 9 lists with up to 99 tasks per list, calendar view, and habit tracking. Premium is $49.99 a year (or $4.99 a month through the app stores) and raises the caps to 299 lists and 999 tasks per list, adds 5 reminders per task, and unlocks the full habit and calendar features. That is $10 a year less than Todoist Pro for considerably more built-in functionality.
The trade-off is polish. TickTick’s interface is busier than Todoist’s, and its natural-language input is good but not quite as fluid. If you love a clean, minimal list, Todoist still feels better. If you want the most features per dollar, TickTick is the clear winner.
Microsoft To Do — Best Completely Free
Microsoft To Do is the only app in this list with no paid tier, no caps, and no upsell screen. It is free with a Microsoft account, it syncs across iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, and the web, and it ties directly into Outlook tasks and flagged emails — flag an email in Outlook and it appears as a task, with no setup.
Its signature feature is My Day: each morning you pick the tasks you intend to do today, and the rest stay out of sight. It is a small idea that solves the most common to-do problem, which is a list so long you stop reading it. Shared lists work well for households, and there are no limits on how many lists or tasks you can create.
What you give up is depth. There is no calendar view, no habit tracker, no Pomodoro timer, no natural-language input, and no location reminders beyond the basics. If your system is “a list I check every morning,” that is all you need, and it costs nothing. If you run projects with deadlines and collaborators, you will outgrow it.
Things 3 — Best for Apple Users Who Hate Subscriptions
Things 3 is the most beautiful app in this list and the only paid one with no subscription. You buy it once per device: $49.99 for Mac, $19.99 for iPad, $9.99 for iPhone — $79.97 for all three — and then it costs $0 forever. There is no account, no cloud fee, and no feature held back for a higher tier. It syncs through Things Cloud, which is free.
It is also Apple-only. There is no Windows, Android, or web version, so if you ever switch platforms, your system does not come with you. And there is no free tier, only a trial on Mac, so you are paying before you know whether you love it.
For someone who lives entirely inside Apple devices and is tired of paying rent on their own task list, that trade is worth it. Five years of Things 3 costs $79.97. Five years of Todoist Pro costs $300. That is the whole argument.
The Other Three Worth Knowing
Any.do
Any.do’s best idea is the Moment: a daily review that walks you through today’s tasks each morning and asks what actually matters. It is the closest thing in this list to a paper planner, and people who plan their day the night before tend to love it. Premium is $4.99 a month billed yearly and adds location reminders, WhatsApp reminders, and a family plan at $8.33 a month for four people. The free plan is thinner than TickTick’s, and the app’s calendar features trail TickTick’s.
Google Tasks
Google Tasks is the quietest app here, and that is the point. It lives inside Gmail and Google Calendar, so a task is one click from the email that created it, and it appears on your calendar without syncing anything. It is completely free, with no paid tier. It is also the simplest: no collaboration beyond sharing a list, no location reminders, no calendar view of its own. If you live in Gmail, it is the lowest-friction option that exists. If you do not, there is no reason to choose it.
Apple Reminders
Apple Reminders has improved quietly into a genuinely good app: smart lists, tags, location-based reminders, and shared lists for households, all built into every iPhone, iPad, and Mac at no cost. If you are Apple-only and your needs are simple, it does everything Microsoft To Do does, inside the ecosystem you already use. Its limits are the same as Things 3’s — Apple-only, no Windows or Android — but at a price of $0, that is much easier to forgive.
What Happens to Your Lists If the App Shuts Down?
This is the question most roundups never ask, and it matters more than any feature list. Apps get shut down, acquired, or redesigned out from under their users — and a to-do list is the worst thing to lose, because it is the record of everything you promised to do.
Before you commit hundreds of tasks to any app, check three things. First, can you export your data? Todoist Pro includes project export and automatic backups; on the free plan, your export options are thinner, so export before you upgrade or downgrade. TickTick offers backup and export in its settings — use it monthly. Microsoft To Do stores tasks in your Microsoft account, so they travel with Outlook. Google Tasks data can be taken out with Google Takeout. Things 3 keeps your data on your devices and syncs through its free cloud, but there is no one-click export — plan for that.
Second, how much of your system lives inside one app’s special features? A list of plain tasks with dates moves anywhere in minutes. A system built on TickTick’s habits, Pomodoro history, and Eisenhower views does not. The more of your workflow depends on one app’s extras, the more it costs to leave.
Third, run a small exit test now, while switching is cheap: export your lists, open the file, and check that your tasks, dates, and notes are actually in it. If the export is empty or unreadable, that is your answer about the app’s lock-in, and it is better to learn it with 40 tasks than with 400.
How to Choose in 10 Minutes
Do not read twenty reviews. Install two apps — your best guess and the free alternative — and run this test with your real tasks:
- Add 10 real tasks, including one recurring task and one task with a date and a reminder. Time how long it takes.
- Share one list with someone in your household and see whether they can add to it without a tutorial.
- Set up tomorrow’s plan using the app’s daily view (My Day, the Moment, or the calendar view).
- Export your data and open the file. If you cannot find the export, that counts as a fail.
- Delete the app you liked less. Keeping both is how you end up with two half-systems and no system at all.
The best to-do app is the one you still open in a month. A 10-minute test with your real tasks tells you more than any feature table, including this one.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best to-do list app in 2026?
For most people, Todoist: fastest task capture, apps on every platform, and a free plan that covers personal use. TickTick is the best value, Microsoft To Do is the best free option, and Things 3 is the best choice for Apple-only users who refuse subscriptions.
Is there a completely free to-do list app with no paid plan?
Yes — Microsoft To Do, Google Tasks, and Apple Reminders are all completely free with no paid tier. Microsoft To Do is the best of the three if you use Windows or Outlook; Apple Reminders is best on iPhone and Mac; Google Tasks is best if you live in Gmail.
Is Todoist worth $60 a year?
It is worth it if you capture tasks constantly and live on more than five projects, because its natural-language input and cross-platform sync are the fastest in this list. If your lists are simple, Microsoft To Do or TickTick’s free plan will do the same job for $0.
Is TickTick better than Todoist?
TickTick is better value: Premium costs $49.99 a year against Todoist Pro’s $60, and it adds a calendar view, habit tracker, and Pomodoro timer that Todoist does not have. Todoist is better at pure task capture and feels cleaner. Choose TickTick if you want one app for tasks, habits, and focus; choose Todoist if you want the fastest list.
What is the best to-do app without a subscription?
Things 3. It costs $49.99 for Mac, $19.99 for iPad, and $9.99 for iPhone — $79.97 once — and then nothing, ever. The catch is that it only works on Apple devices, with no Windows, Android, or web version.
Bottom Line
Start with the free option that matches the devices you already own: Microsoft To Do on Windows, Apple Reminders on iPhone and Mac, Google Tasks in Gmail. If the free app starts feeling small — too few projects, no calendar view, no habits — move to TickTick Premium at $49.99 a year, which is the most app for the least money. Pay for Todoist Pro only if you capture tasks all day and its one-line input saves you real time, and buy Things 3 only if you are Apple-only and never want to pay a subscription again. Whatever you choose, export your lists this week: the app you trust with your promises should be able to give them back.