Todoist vs Reclaim AI

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.

If you're a part of a larger team and you're constantly being pulled into meetings, and you've had just about enough of never having focus time for work done or even getting your lunch break, Reclaim could help.

Reclaim is in a bit of a weird software category, as it's not a daily planner, or project management software. It's a tool you use to create rules on how you want events and tasks to show up on your calendar.

If you're working a corporate job, are in constant meetings and want to protect your time from getting pulled into meetings, then Reclaim can help you get more focus time and, well, simple things like a lunch break. Engineering, product, or marketing teams that need heads down focus time will benefit the most from Reclaim.

• Protects focus time automatically by blocking meetings and scheduling habits on your calendar
• Smart internal meeting scheduling that finds the best time for team members to meet
• Flexible recurring habits (lunch, exercise, focus blocks) that automatically adjust when your schedule changes
• Helpful for teams that live inside Google Calendar and attend lots of internal meetings
• Free plan available for individuals

• Not a true task manager or project management tool
• Auto-scheduling for tasks is very basic compared to tools like Motion
• Meeting scheduling links lack basic features like pre-meeting questions
• Requires Google Calendar (limited support for other calendar ecosystems)
• Still requires separate tools for project management and external scheduling
• No full calendar interface or robust daily planning features

Reclaim is a layer on top of your Google Calendar, but it's not a replacement for a project or task manager (you'd integrate your existing task manager or project manager in with Reclaim).

You enter in your habits into Reclaim, like "lunch" and you tell it to schedule your lunch between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Using AI, Reclaim will make sure to schedule your lunch break everyday between those hours, depending what you have to get done. If your schedule shifts, Reclaim will make sure you still get a lunch break.

If you're thinking of using Reclaim for task management, be prepared for something pretty basic. Reclaim more so wants you to integrate your project management tool. It's going to allow you to set task priority and deadline, but it won't let you manage greater projects, collaborate with your team, or get a bigger picture of all of your tasks at hand.

• Light: Free plan (limited functionality). Best for individuals experimenting with habit blocking.
• Starter: $10/mo per user. Best for small teams needing more meeting capabilities.
• Business: $15/mo per user. Best for large teams looking for unlimited access.