Todoist vs Notion

Todoist has been around forever, so it's stable and does exactly what you expect a to-do list to do which is why it's our top pick.

When we tested it, the most noticeable thing was how quick it was to get things from brain to app. You type something like "submit report Friday at 5pm," hit enter, and move on. No friction, no overthinking, which is honestly what most people need. Or even better, their Ramble feature allows you to just list off everything on your mind and it uses AI to intelligently separately them into different tasks. I have Todoist on my phone and can't help but use Ramble when my brain is overloaded.

It's best for individuals managing their personal life who want a bit more structure than Apple Notes or pen and paper. Just about anyone could download Todoist and get the hang of it within 5 minutes, even your mom or grandma! But with that said, once you start expecting more, like planning your day visually or managing collaborative projects, you start to feel its limits pretty quick.

• Easy to learn
• Reliable and stable
• Lots of integrations
• Strong organization with projects, labels, and priorities
• Extremely fast task capture with natural language input via Ramble

• Basic. If you want something more proactive and handles off, it may feel too simple
• Time blocking and calendar features feel secondary

You can set due dates, reminders, and recurring tasks easily, which makes it great for routines. I’ve used it for things like weekly check-ins or simple habits, and it’s dependable.

A big part of staying organized is having a structure that doesn't overwhelm you. Being able to organize tasks into projects, add labels, set priorities, and switch between list, board, or calendar views (on paid plans) is simple enough to keep you on track without adding to your cognitive load.

Time blocking is a feature many people who are looking for a task manager love to see, and over the years, Todoist has received some pushback from its customers to build a calendar view that allows for task time blocking.

Right now, you're only able to carve out time/tasks with time blocking through the paid plans, but even if you do that, the feature is still subpar. So if you want to enjoy increased productivity, we'd recommend looking elsewhere, and we'd point you toward newer daily planner apps that do task management and time management really well.

Honestly, I love this feature. You can add tasks quickly by just speaking out things like "buy Oatly, honey, do laundry, call mom, get dress for June wedding". It separates out each task for you.

This feature helps me most before bed when my brain is still overloaded. I turn on ramble and brain dump, and then it creates tasks for me. This is the only thing that makes my brain relax (I also do this in ChatGPT at times when I'm more so circling thoughts rather than tasks).

• Beginner: Free. Best for individuals looking to manage and organize their personal lives.
• Pro: $7 monthly ($60 yearly). Best for project-oriented individuals trying to find their work-life balance within task management.
• Business: $10 monthly ($96 yearly). Best for small teams who need a dedicated workspace to assign projects and unify team billing.

‍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.