Best todo apps: one list vs filters you maintain

TL;DR: The best todo apps are Things, Todoist, TickTick, Microsoft To Do, Apple Reminders, and Notion as tasks, plus Done Bear. Best depends on the list: a toolkit you maintain (filters, karma, habits), or one list that already holds personal, work, and family. If the stay line is true, stay. Done Bear is for the second group.

“Best todo apps” is a shortlist. The list either already holds personal, work, and family, or you spend the week joining projects and filters back together.

We make Done Bear. Each pick names who should stay. The vs table is on compare.

How we judged

Three constraints settle most of it:

1. Devices: A missing Windows or Android app ends the comparison for some people. A web app is the fallback when the native one is missing.
2. How the list is shaped: Built-in GTD views (Inbox through Someday) versus filters, boards, or a database you maintain.
3. Who else touches it: Shared projects with assignees, a household checklist, or an agent on the same list. An assistant that keeps its own todos is a second pile.

Price is in the sources, not a score.

The five-question version of this decision is how to choose a task manager.

The shortlist

Things

Cultured Code sells Things separately for Mac, iPad, iPhone, and Vision. The Watch app comes with the iPhone app. Sync is Things Cloud between those Apple devices, not a site you can open on a PC.

The five GTD lists are the product. Cultured Code’s own lists article is the map.

Stay: Every device you care about is Apple, nobody else touches the list, and you would rather pay once per platform than maintain a system. It is still the most polished personal task manager anyone has shipped.

Leave: A Windows laptop or a shared browser is part of the week. You need shared lists. You need Android.

Platforms: Things 3 for Windows covers the PC gap. The longer comparison is Things 3 alternatives.

Todoist

Todoist ships apps including Windows. The gap is how the list is shaped, not a missing installer.

GTD is saved filters and labels, not built-in views. Personal, work, and family sit in separate projects until you join them.

The Beginner plan is free with 5 personal projects, 3 filter views, and one week of activity history. Pro raises those caps. Todoist’s usage limits also cap every plan at 300 active tasks per project, 20 sections, and 5 people per personal project.

Todoist also hosts MCP at https://ai.todoist.net/mcp. Todoist’s setup guide is for people who already keep the list in Todoist.

Stay: You need Android this week, the integration catalog, natural-language quick add, karma, shared projects with assignees, or the MCP connector you already connected.

Leave: Personal, work, and family keep splitting across projects, and the filters that join them are extra work.

Platforms: Use Todoist if Android is a hard requirement. Done Bear’s waitlist is on /android. The longer comparison is Todoist alternatives.

TickTick

TickTick wraps a calendar, a habit tracker, and a Pomodoro timer around the list. Their features page is the catalog: lists and kanban, a calendar, habits, Pomodoro, an Eisenhower matrix, location reminders on iOS, and list sharing.

You can do GTD with smart lists and tags. You assemble those views.

Stay: You use the habit tracker, built-in calendar, and Pomodoro timer as one bundle, or Android is a hard requirement.

Leave: You only wanted a trusted list, and the rest of the suite is work you did not ask for.

Platforms: Backup is a web-app path; the phone apps cannot generate one. The longer comparison is TickTick alternatives.

Microsoft To Do

Microsoft’s own setup article describes To Do as a personal task app. Lists sync through the Microsoft Tasks API. Data lives in Exchange and shows up next to Outlook Tasks. A work or school account needs Exchange Online.

My Day is a daily checklist. That is enough when the pile is small and you do not need parked work or a Someday list.

Stay: A free Microsoft-account list next to Outlook is what you wanted. You do not want GTD structure.

Leave: Flat lists stopped holding the work. You do not want the list tied to a Microsoft account. You want an agent that is not Microsoft’s.

Platforms: The longer comparison is Microsoft To Do alternatives.

Apple Reminders

Reminders is the system list on Apple devices. Siri, location alerts, grocery lists, and the Watch are why it exists. Apple’s Reminders guide is the feature map. Sharing is Apple-to-Apple.

iCloud.com is a cut-down fallback, not a work PC client.

Stay: Groceries, a few dated reminders, and whatever you say to Siri. It is free and already on the phone.

Leave: The lists became a workload, or the work PC is part of the day and capture splits across two apps.

Platforms: The longer comparison is Apple Reminders alternatives.

Notion as tasks

Notion is a workspace. Tasks sit beside docs, wikis, and databases. Notion’s task-database guide is clear about the cost: a Task database needs Status, Assignee, and Due date. My Tasks then pulls assigned work from up to 10 of those databases.

You can do GTD in Notion. The maintenance is the product: properties, relations, filtered views, and a schema an agent has to be taught.

Stay: The writing already lives in Notion. A light task list beside the docs is enough.

Leave: You wanted a list that stays a list. You did not want to design a database to see what to do next.

Platforms: The list arrives with the wiki attached. The longer comparison is Notion alternatives.

Done Bear

Done Bear is a local-first GTD task manager: Inbox through Someday as the app navigation, plus a Logbook. Personal, work, and family sit in one list. The same account opens on the Windows app, the web app, macOS, Linux, and iOS.

Agents can read and add on the same list you do. It is not a chatbot with a second pile of todos. Setup is the hosted MCP server at https://mcp.donebear.com/mcp. The MCP docs have the rest.

Stay: You want one list for personal, work, and family, with GTD views built in, on a PC and a phone. You want an agent on that list, not a second inbox.

Leave: You are all-Apple, single-player, and happy with Things. You need Android this week. You need Todoist’s integration catalog, TickTick’s habits and Pomodoro, Outlook lists, Siri, or the Notion wiki.

Platforms: There is no Android app yet. The waitlist is on /android.

Start free. No card. Free up to 250 tasks. Current limits are on the pricing page.

One list. Every device.

Sources

• Cultured Code: Getting Things for supported devices, separate purchases, no Windows or browser, and no real-time list sharing.
• Cultured Code: An In-Depth Look at Today, Upcoming, Anytime, and Someday for the default lists.
• Todoist: Download Todoist for Linux, Mac, Windows, iPhone, iPad, Android, Apple Watch, WearOS, browser, and email add-ons.
• Todoist: Plans and pricing for Beginner limits: 5 personal projects, 3 filter views, and one week of activity history.
• Todoist: Usage limits in Todoist for 300 active tasks and 20 sections per project, and 5 people per personal project.
• Todoist: Connect Todoist to an AI assistant for hosted MCP at https://ai.todoist.net/mcp.
• TickTick: Download TickTick for desktop, mobile, and the web app.
• TickTick: Features for calendar, habits, Pomodoro, list sharing, and iOS location reminders.
• TickTick: Backup and Import for the web-only backup path.
• Microsoft Support: Set up Microsoft To Do for Android, iOS, Mac, Windows 10, the web, Exchange, and Outlook Tasks.
• Apple: Reminders User Guide for Mac for the system Reminders app on Apple devices.
• Notion: Give your to-dos a home with Task databases for Task databases (Status, Assignee, Due date) and My Tasks (up to 10 databases).
• Done Bear: Compare for the vs table this page does not duplicate.
• Done Bear: How to add an MCP server in ChatGPT for agents on the list you already keep.