Todoist is a great place to keep tasks you remember to add. If your tasks keep arriving by email, or you want a calendar plan, projects that build themselves, or a score that pulls you forward, here are the strongest alternatives, with Pidgy for the inbox-native angle.
The best Todoist alternative depends on your bottleneck. For tasks that write themselves from your inbox across Outlook and Gmail, Pidgy is the strongest pick. For a cheap all-in-one with a calendar, habits and Pomodoro, TickTick. For AI that auto-schedules your day, Motion. For a calm daily planning ritual across many tools, Sunsama. For a free, simple list, Microsoft To Do. For elegant Apple-only minimalism, Things 3.
Todoist is a fast, reliable task manager. The common reasons people go looking elsewhere:
Todoist starts the moment you add a task. The work hiding in your inbox, including the promises you made in a reply, is still yours to find and enter.
Email Assist and the Gmail and Outlook add-ons need you to forward or click. Nothing reads your inbox for you.
The calendar layout and Google Calendar sync on Pro are handy, but reviewers note it stops short of real time-blocking.
Pro rose at the end of 2025, prompting some long-time users to reassess what they get for it.
Four questions that decide whether a switch is worth it.
If most arrive by email, a tool that reads your inbox saves the most time. If they come from your own head, a classic list is fine.
A list stacks tasks. A plan puts them in your week with durations, so you know the day is realistic before it starts.
A score or a streak can be the difference between a system you keep and one you abandon in a fortnight.
Watch for per-seat costs, no free tier, and AI features metered by credits.
Ranked by how much work they take off your plate, with honest notes on where each falls short.
Reads every email in Outlook and Gmail and turns the action items, including the commitments you made in a reply, into a ranked list. Groups email, docs and tasks into projects with a live progress percentage, lays them into calendar blocks with Plan mode, drafts the reply in your voice, chases stalled follow-ups, and rolls it all into one Inbox Health score. EU-hosted and never trains on your mail.
Trade-off: email-first, so it is not a general manager for tasks that never touch your inbox, and access is invite-only while it rolls out in waves.
Tasks, a built-in calendar view, habit tracking, a Pomodoro timer, the Eisenhower matrix and a gamified achievement score, on every platform, for about $36 a year.
Trade-off: you still feed it by hand, and the design feels dated next to Todoist.
Enter tasks with deadlines and durations and Motion's AI blocks them onto your calendar and reshuffles dynamically, with full project management on top. Around $29 per user per month.
Trade-off: expensive, a steep learning curve, and it does not read your inbox.
Pull tasks from 20-plus tools into one view, estimate how long each takes, drag them onto your calendar, and run a guided evening shutdown. Around $20 a month.
Trade-off: manual by design, a weak mobile app, and no free plan.
Free, clean, and tied into Microsoft 365, with flagged Outlook emails appearing as tasks and a My Day view for daily focus.
Trade-off: Microsoft mailboxes only, the flagged-email list is capped at 100 items and 30 days, and there are no projects or calendar plan.
A beautifully designed, one-time-purchase task manager for Mac, iPhone and iPad, with a calm, focused interface that many people find a joy to use.
Trade-off: Apple-only, paid per platform, with no AI and no email reading.
Four things happen on their own, from the moment an email lands. This is what makes Pidgy different from a list you fill by hand.
| Tool | Best for | Where tasks come from |
|---|---|---|
| Pidgy | Inbox tasks, projects, plan, drafting | Auto from Outlook + Gmail |
| TickTick | Cheap all-in-one suite | You type or forward |
| Motion | AI auto-scheduling | You enter them |
| Sunsama | Calm daily ritual | You pull from tools |
| Microsoft To Do | Free simple list | You type or flag |
| Things 3 | Apple minimalism | You type |
The one built to close the loop, across Outlook and Gmail.
Request accessMore ways Pidgy stacks up.
Pidgy reads your Outlook and Gmail, writes the tasks for you, plans them into your week, and chases what stalls. Request early access below.
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