Todoist Vs. TickTick (Free Tier Review)

recently, i decided that i could benefit from using a todo list in my life. after looking through a ton of different options, i ended up with only 2 left, todoist and ticktick. so because why not, i will compare them, and see what one is better. note that this is a desktop focused review, so i won’t be trying out the mobile or watch apps. also, because this is a free tier review, of course im not trying the paid plans!

terms

some terms to know now so you won’t be confused later, if you’re new to to-do list apps

• project - basically a folder
• section - a subfolder, but on the same page as a project
• label - this is really stupid sounding, but imagine tumblr tags, but for your to-do list

interface

TickTick

Todoist

i like how ticktick puts more emphasis on project colors and being compact, however, i think todoist is much more clean and easy to read. it is also much less overwhelming, especially with their recent redesign.
both platforms also have a kanban/trello view, with tasks organized by section

TickTick

Todoist

ticktick shows subtasks while in this view, while todoist only shows a count. i like to keep a lot of subtasks, so i prefer the todoist implementation, however, not everyone will like that.

organization

both platforms have:

• projects
• sections
• tags
• priority levels
• subtasks

but ticktick has its own special feature: "won't do"
this feature checks off a task, without reaping any of the benefits of checking off a task. instead, it moves it to a dedicated "won't do" page and puts a X instead of a check when viewing completed tasks. this lets you potentially reschedule tasks and whatever.

task creation

todoist is instantly much better at task creation. you can do almost any task action directly from the task creation screen. here’s an example:
say i type in

Eat Leftover Pink Sauce from the Grocery Store 5:40p every weekday p2 #Inbox /Cuz @store

this would create a task called “Eat Leftover Pink Sauce from the Grocery Store” that would be due every weekday at 5:40p, have a priority level of 2, be added to the "Cuz" section of the "Inbox", and be placed under the "store" label
ticktick only seems to support date recognition using this method, everything else has to be added manually after the task is created
adding subtasks on todoist feels much more responsive. ticktick just feels janky for some reason. subtasks are also confusing, because there are two types of "subtask":

• regular subtasks - a task directly underneath an already existing task. superior in almost every way
• checklist - these aren't tasks and don't appear in the task list, nor count towards the task count. you have to view the details of a task to see them. you cannot assign properties to them such as due dates, priority, etc. functionally, they're the same as adding a checklist to a google document, obsidian page, or note in apple notes

reminders

the free tier of neither service support any type of reminders, except for due dates

limits

filters

filters are pages that show all unchecked tasks that meet a certain requirement, set by you

• todoist - 3 free filters
• ticktick - 0 free filters

projects

• todoist - 5 active projects at a time + inbox, each project allowing a maximum of 250 unchecked tasks
• ticktick - 10 projects total + inbox, each project allowing a maximum of 99 unchecked tasks

projects can be archived on both platforms, making their tasks no longer searchable or appear in upcoming views, without completely deleting the project. the main difference is that on todoist, archived projects don't count toward your project count, while archived projects still count toward your project count on ticktick. this means todoist lets you store an unlimited amount of projects for free, you just cannot use more than 5 at once

final thoughts

todoist is the winner. having a better interface and letting me store more tasks is definitely a win for me. of course, there is much more to each platform than covered in this admittedly awful post, but i think these are the essentials.