Todoist vs. Microsoft To Do Summary
Who is Todoist for?
Todoist is one of the most feature-rich to-do app currently available. Unlike other to-do apps, Todoist is entirely focused around adding, managing and completing tasks.
By contrast, other to-do apps combine task management with other features such as habit tracking or Pomodoro timers.
Thus, Todoist is primarily designed for users that want a to-do app with as many features as possible.
Who is Microsoft To Do for?
Microsoft To Do is a completely free task management apps with a decent number of features, but with the mention that Microsoft To Do wants to be used in a certain way. This can be a good or a bad thing, depending if your needs fit what Microsoft To Do can offer.
Microsoft To Do is also integrated with the Microsoft software ecosystem, but in our experience this integration isn’t as good as how Google Tasks is integrated into Google’s ecosystem.
Unfortunately, the interface isn’t as simple to use as other to-do apps. Because of this fact alone, we think only people and organizations that are deeply integrated into the Microsoft ecosystem should use this app.
Ease of use
Todoist ease of use
Todoist’s interface is clean and minimalistic, only showing you a few buttons and navigation menus.
The first screen you see when opening the app is called the “Inbox”. From there you can add, edit or complete tasks.
You can also better organize the Inbox by adding different sections to it, such as Work, Parenting or more.
What we like about Todoist’s interface is that the buttons for “View” and “Options” reveal a lot of powerful functionality such as multiple filter types, sorting options, activity logs, comments etc.
One feature we really liked was the ability to select multiple tasks at once and modify them by adding tags, labels, changing priority levels or moving them to different projects or sections.
Almost no other task management app has this, so you have to edit tasks one by one.
Overall, Todoist has a simple interface, but it elegantly places its settings options in multiple, relevant locations.
This allows you to learn Todoist at your own pace, without feeling overwhelmed by the number of settings and options available.
Microsoft To Do ease of use
The biggest problem with Microsoft To Do is its user interface. Most task apps let you see or create a task from the first screen when opening the app.
Microsoft To Do does things differently, and the first screen you see in the app shows you various subdivisions such as My Day, Important, Planned etc.
These subdivisions cause confusion whenever you open the app, since you spend a second or two each time trying to remember what each section does, or where a task is located.
Another problem with Microsoft To Do is that many common actions require extra clicks, taps or swipes compared to competing apps.
Over time, this creates frustration and makes using the app feel like work rather than as a tool to write stuff down quickly.
For example, creating a task requires two clicks in Microsoft To Do instead of a single one in most other to-do apps.
This is because you first click on a task list, and then click on the add task button.
Organization
Todoist organization
Todoist lets you organize your tasks in multiple ways:
- Inbox. Contains all tasks and sections that don’t belong to a project.
- Projects: such as Work, School, Family etc.
- Sections. These are basically lists within projects.
- Priority: from 1 to 4, where 1 is most urgent.
- Labels: custom labels you can attach to any task.
- Subtasks: divide a large task into multiple smaller tasks.
In other task management apps, this level of organization would make them very hard to navigate. This is because you would constantly have to move between different projects, sections or labels to find the tasks you want.
Todoist solves this problem through a powerful filter function that lets you combine multiple sorting options into a single filter.
For example, you can create a filter that only retrieves tasks in the Work project, have a priority of 1, and are labelled as “Reports”.
This filter function is unique to Todoist, and is incredibly useful for dedicated users that have dozens of active tasks all the time.
Finally, there’s also a search function that is buried deep within the settings of the app.
Microsoft To Do organization
Microsoft To Do has the following task organization options for tasks:
- Groups
- Lists
- My Day
Groups contain lists, and lists contains tasks. My Day is a pre-built filter that shows tasks that are due within 24-36 hours.
Microsoft To Do doesn’t have a tagging feature, which can be a valuable feature for some users since it helps them better organize and filter their tasks.
Another big missing feature is subtasks. In Microsoft To Do, you can break down a task into steps, but these steps mostly work as a simple checklist, instead of actual tasks that are subordinate to a main task.
In other to-do apps, subtasks have the same features as regular tasks: reminders, labels, priority signs, descriptions, file attachments etc.
For finding tasks, Microsoft To Do has a built in search where you can quickly navigate to tasks or lists. We like this feature, it’s very handy and surprisingly rare among task management apps.
Each task list also has a sorting feature for organizing tasks based on the following criteria: importance, due date, tasks in My Day section, alphabetically or by task creation date.
A minor criticism here is that Microsoft To Do doesn’t have a unified task list that contains all of your tasks from every group or list.
This would have been nice so you could see all your active tasks in one place, without constantly switching from one task list to another.
Scheduling and reminders
Todoist scheduling and reminders
Todoist lets you schedule tasks that are one time only, or tasks that repeat themselves at regular intervals.
For repeating tasks, you can schedule them in lots of different configurations:
- Repeats every week, but only on Fridays and Saturdays.
- Repeats once every 3 months.
- Repeats every month on the same day (10th for example).
- Repeat every 2 months.
- Repeats every 3 weeks.
- Etc.
The paid version of Todoist adds other very useful reminder features:
- Extra reminders for a task (free version only allows 1 reminder per task)
- Deadline feature.
- Task duration for calendar view.
- Location reminder.
Microsoft To Do scheduling and reminders
In Microsoft To Do, tasks can have both a reminder and a due date. The Due Date feature is mostly used to organize tasks based on urgency and when they must be completed.
The reminder feature lets you create single use or repeat tasks.
Reminders for tasks that repeat daily or weekly work great. However, repeating reminders for monthly and yearly tasks is a bit more limited.
Here are some of the configurations you can schedule a task in Microsoft To Do:
- Repeat every week, but only on certain days such as Wednesday or Tuesday.
- Repeat every 5 weeks, but only on certain days.
- Repeat every month, but only on a certain calendar day (the 3rd for example).
Monthly reminders could be better. For example, Google Tasks or Todoist lets you customize a monthly reminder to receive a notification on the first Monday of the month, or the last Tuesday of the month, or a certain day of the month, etc.
Finally, it would have been nice if Microsoft To Do let you attach multiple reminders to a single task, like 3 hours before, 2 hours before, on time of task etc.
Calendar and other integrations
Todoist calendar and other integrations
Currently, Todoist integrates with Google Calendar and Outlook Calendar, but no Apple Calendar unfortunately.
This is a pain point for iOS users, but there are certain workarounds for this. For example, you can synchronize Google Calendar with Apple Calendar.
Afterwards Todoist tasks added to Google Calendar are automatically pushed to Apple Calendar as well. While not 100% perfect, it should be good enough in most situations.
However, Todoist has a big advantage over competitors because it has 80+ integrations with many other productivity programs.
For example, Todoist can integrate with:
- Note taking apps: Evernote, Capacities, Fireflies etc.
- Time tracking: 2Day, Toggl, Flowmo etc.
- Email: Gmail, Outlook, Spark, Airmail etc.
- Messaging: Slack, MS Teams.
- And many other integrations.
Todoist has so many integrations, it’s almost guaranteed you will find at least one that will fit your needs.
Microsoft To Do calendar and other integrations
One reason to use Microsoft To Do is its integration with the Microsoft ecosystem, in particular with Outlook and Microsoft Teams.
Problem is that this integration isn’t automatic. Creating a task in Microsoft To Do and adding a due date and reminder to it doesn’t automatically add it to Outlook Calendar.
We’ve investigated this a bit more and it turns out that you must manually copy/paste tasks from the Microsoft To Do app to the Outlook Calendar as if it’s the year 2000.
Integrating with other calendars such as Google Calendar or iCal also isn’t possible directly, but requires complex workarounds.
Overall, we’ve found Microsoft To Do to poorly integrate with calendars, including Microsoft’s own Outlook Calendar.
AI Features and Integrations
Todoist AI Features and Integrations
The free version of Todoist doesn’t have any integration with AI/LLMs such as ChatGPT or Gemini.
To get an AI integration you’ll need a paid subscription, and even the AI feature will only work on the desktop version of Todoist (so not available on Android/iOS).
However, Todoist has an excellent system of natural language processing, which makes the need for an AI integration mostly obsolete.
Natural language processing allows a user to type a single, coherent line of text that the app intelligently understands and then sets the task title, but also its due date, project, labels, and priority level.
Microsoft To Do AI Features and Integrations
Microsoft To Do doesn’t have any AI features built into the app.
However, Microsoft does offer some basic natural language processing features on the Windows and iOS versions of the app, but is only available in English.
This natural language feature recognizes certain words such as “tomorrow”, “Friday” or “11 PM” and automatically transforms them into reminders.
Special or unique features
Todoist special or unique features
Todoist has many interesting features built into the app. Here are the ones we think are most noteworthy:
- Natural Language Processing. This allows you to create and schedule tasks simply by writing what you need instead of pressing buttons and navigating menus.
- Powerful filtering functions. Todoist has the most powerful filtering and sorting function of any task management app we’ve tested. This can greatly help users who tend to have dozens or hundreds of active tasks.
- Karma score. Todoist’s Karma transforms productivity into a game. Users gain points when completing tasks, but lose points when tasks are overdue. As users accumulate points, they advance through eight distinct Karma levels, starting at “Beginner” (0-499 points) and progressing all the way to “Enlightened” (50,000+ points).
Microsoft To Do special or unique features
Microsoft To Do feels distinct in comparison to its competitors, with a very particular philosophy on how tasks should be done.
Below are the features that make it stand out:
- The “My Day” list. We like this feature, it automatically lets you view tasks that are due today or a bit later than that. It’s simple and clean.
- Integration with the Microsoft ecosystem. We wish the integration with Outlook Calendar would have been better, but overall this is a big advantage of Microsoft To Do.
- Flagged email. If you use Outlook as your main email client, this feature allows you to flag an email and it automatically appears in Microsoft To Do as a task. It’s a great feature that helps organize your tasks and declutters your emails.
Cross-platform compatibility
Todoist cross-platform compatibility
Todoist can be downloaded on the following platforms:
- Desktop/laptops: Windows and macOS.
- Mobile: Android and iOS.
- Other: Android and iOS smartwatches.
Todoist also has web versions for both mobile and desktop.
Microsoft To Do cross-platform compatibility
Microsoft To Do can be downloaded on the following platforms:
- Desktop/laptops: Windows and macOS.
- Mobile: Android and iOS.
Microsoft To Do also has web versions for both mobile and desktop.
Collaboration and sharing
Todoist collaboration and sharing
Todoist comes with many collaboration features, even in the free version.
To collaborate with someone, you create a project, such as “Work” and then invite someone else to edit that project.
The free version allows you to create 5 projects, and for each project you can invite up to 5 collaborators.
Todoist Business offers many common project management features such as: team projects, task comments, notes, file uploads etc.
That being said, Todoist Business cannot fully replace project management tools such as Trello or Asana because it doesn’t have many essential features such as: work boards, Kanban views, Gantt charts, workload views etc.
Todoist also doesn’t have many powerful automation features such as:
- Sending notifications to certain people, but only on certain channels.
- Real time collaboration on certain documents or projects.
- Deep integrations with CRMs such as HubSpot or Salesforce etc.
In general, the collaboration features found in Todoist should be sufficient for small teams and families, but anything larger than that requires a dedicated project management tool.
Microsoft To Do collaboration and sharing
Microsoft To Do lets you collaborate with others by sharing task lists, but only to other users who have a Microsoft account.
The feature is also quite limited however since you cannot leave comments or assign tasks to different people.
We’ve found the feature to mostly be useful for families, or small projects with 2-3 people.
Microsoft To Do is only worth using for collaboration if your organization or company uses Microsoft for day-to-day operations. Apps such as Planner, Teams, Sharepoint or Outlook work well with Microsoft To Do, and allow users to send, assign or share tasks directly to the users todo app.
Pricing
Todoist pricing
The paid version of Todoist has two different subscription plans:
- Pro: $5 per month / $48 yearly ($4 per month).
- Business (per user): $8 per month / $72 per year ($6 monthly).
The paid version of Todoist unlocks numerous features:
- 300 personal projects (free version has 5).
- AI assistant.
- Deadlines feature.
- Custom reminders. Ability to add more reminders for each task.
- Deadlines.
- Task duration.
- Team collaboration (for business users).
Microsoft To Do pricing
Microsoft To Do is completely free.