Todoist is a task manager that has been shipping since 2007, when Doist founder Amir Salihefendic first released it; Wikipedia’s entry on the app puts registered users past 30 million as of 2024. Its shape is familiar by now: projects, lists, due dates, and a quick-add box that turns typed sentences into scheduled tasks. Doist, a remote company, has kept the app deliberately narrow through every redesign. This review covers what the app does well, what each plan costs as of mid-2026, and where the plan limits push users toward paying.
The basics
Todoist organizes work into projects, sections, sub-tasks, labels, and four priority levels. Dates are its strongest feature. Typing “pay rent every first friday at 9am” into the quick-add field produces a properly recurring task with no date picker involved, and that parser is the main reason the app feels fast in daily use.
Two layouts ship on every plan: a list and a board. A calendar layout, task durations, and deadlines sit behind the Pro plan. There are apps for iOS, Android, macOS, and Windows, plus a web app and browser extensions, and sync between them is quick enough that phone-to-desktop handoffs don’t cause duplicate entries. A Karma score tracks streaks and daily completion trends, which some users like and others ignore completely. Collaboration runs through shared projects: anyone on the free plan can share a project, assign tasks, and comment inside it.
What it costs
Three plans, checked against Todoist’s pricing page in mid-2026. Beginner is free and covers up to 5 active personal projects and 3 custom filter views, with activity history kept 7 days and file uploads capped at 5 MB. Tasks with a date and time get automatic reminders on any plan. Custom, location-based, and recurring reminders are Pro-only.
Pro runs $7/month, or $60/year which works out to $5/month. That tier lifts the caps to 300 projects and 150 filter views and adds the calendar layout, task durations, deadlines, full activity history, daily backups, and Todoist’s AI helpers (Assist, Email Assist, unlimited Ramble capture sessions). The trial is 7 days. Business is $10/user/month, or $8/user/month billed yearly at $96/user/year plus local tax, and it adds the shared team workspace: up to 500 team projects, roles and permissions, restricted projects, team folders, and centralized billing. Its trial runs 14 days. Two billing quirks worth knowing. A Pro subscription belongs to a single account, so Todoist supports neither Apple Family Sharing nor Google Play Family Library. And the sticker has already moved once: in December 2025 Pro went from $5 to $7/month and Business from $8 to $10/month.
Where it works
For one person juggling errands and job tasks, the free tier covers a small life without complaint. Five lists fit home, work, bills, shopping, and a hobby. Recurring dates are free and reliable, which makes Todoist decent for maintenance routines: monthly backups, quarterly invoices, weekly reviews. Shared projects work well for two or three people splitting chores or a small backlog, and the free plan allows that.
The $60/year Pro tier is the plan this review keeps landing on. Reminders and deadlines close the gap where an undated task sits unnoticed until its day has passed, and the calendar layout turns Todoist into a light planning tool without pulling in a second app. For teams, Business earns its $8 seat with roles, restricted projects, and one bill instead of a pile of individual subscriptions.
Where it comes up short
The five-project cap bites households first, since six lists means paying or merging lists until they stop making sense. Karma points reward streaks and add nothing to planning. Todoist stays list-first: there’s no timeline or Gantt view as of mid-2026, and task durations only draw blocks on the Pro calendar. Nothing records hours actually spent, so real time tracking needs a third-party integration. The per-account Pro price means a couple sharing one household setup both pay $60/year for reminders and deadlines. Monthly plans aren’t refundable at all, so the sensible order is a free month, the 7-day Pro trial, then the yearly rate once the app has clearly stuck.
Anyone with fewer than six lists should stay on free and lose little besides custom reminders. Past that point, Pro at $60/year is a fair trade for deadlines and the calendar view. Teams past three or four people will want Business for roles and centralized billing, and should spend the 14-day trial checking the shared workspace first. The app’s value is fast capture plus limits you can see in advance, which is more than most task managers in this price range deliver.