TickTick vs Notion

With someone like MKBHD using it, you'd think it would be top-tier, but my dad also uses it, and we feel like that's a better representation of this task management tool. It's a reliable basic to-do list where you can add tasks, set deadlines, organize things with tags, and move on.

It's 100% a step up from Apple Notes or Google Keep, and great for repeatable habits. Matter of fact, Alex still gets notifications from TickTick to take his supplements daily 😄

TickTick works best when you don't want to think about your system too much. They did a great job of leveraging NLP to help you capture tasks fast, but beyond that, it doesn't really evolve with you. The interface feels dated and has a cluttered feel. Plus, their calendar sync only works every 15 minutes.

The upside is that it’s free and dependable. If you compare it to Todoist, Todoist feels more polished and intentional. When you put it next to Superlist, TickTick is far less enjoyable to use but more practical if you want a useable free option. Overall it's a good reliable option, but not something we'd go out of our way to recommend first.

• Fast and frictionless task capture
• Easy to organize with tags and lists
• Simple and reliable for everyday personal tasks
• Very generous free tier (you can use it long-term without paying)

• Collaboration features are weak
• Calendar sync is slow and can lag
• Interface feels dated compared to newer tools
• Doesn’t scale beyond basic personal task management
• Lacks depth for planning, workflows, or meaningful organization

TickTick makes it easy to organize your life into simple buckets making it a great contender for personal management like small admin task or home projects. The tagging system is useful for people who want have some level of organization without having to overthink structure. This makes it flexible enough for day-to-day life, but not built for anything more complex than that.

While it is table stakes at this point, TickTick did nail NLP. It's always nice to have the ability to type in a quick, "schedule grocery delivery for 5pm" and go on about your day knowing it's automatically been tracked. It makes task management frictionless, which makes it easier to stick with.

It's straightforward, and it works. There's not really any level of intelligence or optimization here, just reliable repetition. It is nice to have the ability to create tasks on quick reminder.

• Free: Best for individuals who want a reliable, no-cost task manager for personal use.
• Premium: ~$3/month ($35.99 yearly). Best for individuals who want to prioritize their day and enjoy advanced features like added integrations or multiple calendar syncing.

‍Notion positions itself as an "all-in-one" workspace tool, but that doesn't mean it's ideal for "everything."

At its core, Notion is a knowledge base or wiki, designed for documenting company processes and notes. Over time, Notion has expanded its capabilities, allowing users to link notes, create databases with formulas, and more.

• Good for knowledge bases and documentation.
• Strong ecosystem of templates, integrations, and third-party tools built around Notion.
• Good API and database structure, which makes it appealing for more technical teams.
• Free tier makes it easy to experiment and test ideas.

• Steep learning curve. Most teams underestimate how much setup is required.
• Requires building systems from scratch, which takes significant time and ongoing maintenance.
• Poor team adoption in many cases because the structure only makes sense to the person who built it.
• Easy to turn into a productivity distraction, where teams spend more time designing workflows than doing work.

Notion's versatility allows you to customize it into almost anything you need. This flexibility has led teams to use Notion as a CRM, project management tool, task manager, knowledge base, and more.

However, just because Notion can be adapted for various purposes doesn't always mean it should be. We often receive feedback from teams who've tried using "Notion for everything", only to find it becoming overwhelming and messy.

We regularly get emails like this.

If you want to use Notion, use it as a knowledge base/company wiki.  For specific business functions like project and task management or CRM, it's usually better to opt for dedicated tools built for the job. You can find what we've listed as the best project management software and best CRM software instead.

Notion is expanding into these core parts of your workflow, but the reality is they didn’t actually build either of these products from scratch. Notion Calendar comes from Cron, and Notion Mail an email client originally called Skiff, so instead of being deeply integrated into one system, they are more so separate tools with light Notion integrations.

On the other hand, Notion Calendar is our top pick for the best calendar apps category since they've maintained a lot of the integrity from Cron, which was a calendar we loved (just don't use it as a daily planner app).

• Free: $0 per user per month. Best for individuals organizing personal projects and life.
• Plus: $10/mo per user ($96/yr with annual billing). Best for small teams and professionals who want unlimited blocks, file uploads, and collaboration features.
• Business: $20/mo per user ($192/yr with annual billing). Best for growing teams that need advanced collaboration, permissions, and AI-powered workspace tools.
• Enterprise: Custom pricing. Includes advanced security, compliance, admin controls, and dedicated support for large organizations.