Todoist

Todoist is the personal task manager that has defined the category for nearly two decades, founded in 2007 by Amir Salihefendić as a side project that grew into a global productivity standard. Now serving 30M+ users across 150 countries, Todoist's positioning hasn't changed: a fast, beautiful, cross-platform to-do app that just works. While ClickUp and Asana fight for the team market and Monday chases enterprise, Todoist owns the 'serious individual + small team' space. What makes Todoist endure is craft. The keyboard shortcuts are perfect. The natural language input ('Lunch with Sarah Friday 1pm @cafe #personal') parses dates, tags, projects, priority all in one line. The UI is the same minimal-but-powerful interface on every platform — web, Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android, Apple Watch, even your terminal via the CLI. The product feels finished in a way most software doesn't. The core feature set: • **Natural language parsing** — type tasks the way you think; Todoist parses dates ('next Tuesday'), priorities ('p1'), labels ('@home'), projects ('#work') • **Projects + sub-projects + sections** — hierarchical organisation up to 4 levels deep • **Filters + smart lists** — saved views like 'Today + overdue', 'This week + work', '@phone' tasks • **Recurring tasks** — flexible recurrence ('every weekday', 'every other Monday', 'last day of month') • **Labels + priority + reminders** — multi-dimensional task properties • **Karma + streaks** — gamified productivity scoring (loved by some, ignored by others) • **Comments + file attachments** — discuss tasks with collaborators • **Calendar feeds + sync** — bidirectional sync with Google Calendar, Outlook, Apple Calendar • **Templates** — pre-built project templates for common workflows • **Boards (kanban view)** — alternative to list view, useful for some workflows • **AI features (Todoist AI)** — suggest next actions, break down complex tasks, summarise project status • **Integrations** — Slack, Gmail, Outlook, Zapier, IFTTT, plus a deep API for custom workflows For founders + busy professionals the use cases: • **Personal task management** — the canonical 'serious solo task tracker', perfect for founders juggling 50 things • **GTD (Getting Things Done) practitioners** — Todoist is the de facto GTD app with project + context + priority + review workflow • **Small team task tracking (2-10 people)** — Pro Business tier handles collaborative task assignment without full PM tool complexity • **Personal + work integration** — single inbox for personal errands + work tasks (use labels to separate contexts) • **Project lists for indie maker side projects** — track features + bugs + ideas across multiple side projects • **Meeting follow-up + action items** — Slack/Gmail integrations create tasks from messages The pricing is fair and aligned with the product's positioning. Free tier covers 5 active projects, basic features, calendar sync — actually usable for casual users. Pro at $4/month (annual) unlocks unlimited projects + filters + reminders + labels + AI features — the standard upgrade for serious users. Business at $6/user/month adds team workspaces + admin + role-based permissions — solid for small teams under 10. Where Todoist wins clearly: craft and polish — the product feels more finished than virtually any other productivity tool; cross-platform parity is genuinely unique (most apps degrade on some platforms); natural language parsing is fastest in the category; the calendar sync is bidirectional which Asana/Trello still don't do properly; price is honest. Where it loses: not a project management tool (no Gantt, no dependencies, no resource planning, no real reporting); team features are intentionally minimal — for cross-functional work past 10 people, switch to Asana/Linear; the gamification (Karma) feels childish for some serious users. My take: Todoist is the best personal task manager in the world, period. For founders managing personal todo lists + small team task assignments + GTD workflows, nothing beats it. For team project management, look elsewhere — Todoist isn't trying to be that. The classic pattern: Todoist for personal + light team task tracking, Linear/Asana for project management, Notion for docs. Pro tier at $48/year is the cheapest meaningful productivity tool subscription you'll buy; for most knowledge workers, it pays for itself in 5 minutes.