To-do list apps are a dime a dozen in the App Store – every app developer worth his salt has built ‘the ultimate app for getting things done’, and it makes you wonder why there’s so much fuss about a basic list management tool.
As it turns out, there are many opinions on what makes a perfect to-do app, and after going through scores of them, our key finding was that there really isn’t any one app to rule them all. Planning your day, prioritizing tasks and taking action are all very personal processes, and there isn’t a one-size-fits-all app out there.
So how did we go about this roundup of the best to-do apps? We’re not looking for the most features or the prettiest UI, but instead we wanted to see the different approaches to tackling tasks and which apps made it easiest for users to follow their chosen approach.
For example, several apps implement gestures to allow users to quickly mark tasks as done or to remove them — but the whole purpose of these get-in-get-out apps is lost when task input itself is cumbersome and time-consuming. Similarly, a few apps are marketed as capable of handling to-dos but are really full-fledged note-taking apps that aren’t as well suited to task management as dedicated apps.
The apps we liked best were quick to capture tasks, allowed for easy item organization and prioritization and presented tasks clearly — making for less time spent in the app and more time actually acting on to-do items. Here are our favorites:
Wunderlist
Striking a perfect balance between simplicity and functionality, Wunderlist packs in several useful features without bogging down the user experience. Task input is simple enough when you want to add a bunch of them at once into a list and get on with your life, but it’s also easy to add notes, files, sub-tasks and due dates to them when you need more detail to aid your workflow. You can also add reminders and create recurring tasks (like watering the plants daily), and sort tasks by due date for quick prioritization.
Wunderlist is flexible, easy to use, packed with features and gorgeous to boot
Wunderlist also lets you publish lists to the web for public viewing, and has a great system for collaborating on tasks with others, supporting comments to boot. What’s great about this app is that it’s flexible enough for you to use it the way you like: all guns blazing with organized lists and tasks assigned to your minions, or quiet and stealthy with all your tasks in the default Inbox list with stars to indicate high-priority tasks.
Add sub-tasks, notes, reminders and comments easily in Wunderlist
Wunderlist also won us over with its wide support for various platforms — you can access your tasks on the web, Mac, PC, and iOS/Android phones and tablets. I personally do most of my planning at my desk, so the PC version is just what I need to get organized. Plus, Wunderlist has a neat browser extension that lets you add email messages from Gmail and IMDb movies to special task lists. As for Wunderlist Pro — $5/month unlocks file size restrictions, more sub-tasks and more collaborators, which I haven’t yet felt the need for. For the low price of free, this app offers more than most folks would know to ask for — and looks good doing it.
➤ Free – Download now
Todoist
Similar to Wunderlist with its presence across desktop, web and mobile platforms, collab and flexible task input and management functions, Todoist certainly brings a lot to the table. Besides the ability to create tasks, set priorities and add labels, you can also search through tasks, attach notes and files, and even receive location-based reminders so you complete to-dos when you’re in the area (perfect for picking up your dry cleaning). The app even handles basic language parsing when setting due dates (terms like ‘tomorrow’ and ‘every day’ are understood correctly).
Todoist features a squeaky-clean interface
However, while Todoist matches up closely to Wunderlist, it loses a few points for the cumbersome task input process. It’s worth noting that many of its advanced features are only available with a Premium plan ($29/year). That isn’t unreasonable at all, but you do get more of Wunderlist for free, i.e. without shelling out for its $60/year Pro service.
Use the Quick Menu to schedule tasks in Todoist
Still, Todoist is a solid app that offers plenty of functionality, flexibility and cross-platform support that power users will appreciate, at a low price for all its features.
➤ Free – Download now
Gneo
While Gneo gets solid points for looks alone, there’s a lot to appreciate beyond its beautiful interface: the app aims to help you prioritize tasks as you add them. When you enter a new task, you can toggle switches to mark it as important and/or urgent. This comes in handy when you switch from the list view to Gneo’s Work Canvas, which displays tasks on a quadrant overview so you know which tasks need handling first (hint: look in the Important + Urgent quadrant), and which ones you can take on later.
Gneo features 3 views for you to assess your day’s schedule, including this Forecast view
Gneo also has a neat agenda-like Forecast view, integrates with your calendar so tasks can be added as events, and syncs with Evernote so it’s easier to add notes to tasks from your desktop. The UI is simple, easy to learn and a delight to use, from entering tasks to using gestures to act on items. At $5, it’s pricier than other iOS-only apps, but it’s well worth it for a fuss-free experience and usable visualizations of the tasks at hand.
Gneo’s Work Canvas gives you a clear overview of what needs to get done first (top left quadrant)
➤ $10 – Buy now
Clear
Having been the crowd favorite for a long while and landing over 2 million users, Clear was the first app on our radar and I’m happy to report that it lives up to the hype: other apps try to implement gestures with a stripped-down interface, but none of them feel as natural as Clear. I found myself adding tasks most frequently to Clear than to any of the other task managers I tried, because of how quick and easy it was to do so.
Clear has nailed it with its simple gesture-based interface
Clear makes use of gestures for everything from adding a new task to marking items as done, to revealing the Settings menu and returning to your lists — and this system works so very well. It’s also easy to get used to prioritizing tasks by rearranging them so important ones are at the top, with the color gradient background helping to identify those that need action (as opposed to adding flags/stars). By reducing visual clutter, Clear lets you focus on your tasks without thinking about the interface — and that’s really what this game is all about.
➤ $5 – Buy now
Any.Do
Any.Do features a simple interface with a couple of interesting features that make it fun to use: automatic suggestions for tasks and contacts as you type, and gestures to add and mark tasks as done. But what makes this really special is Any.Do Moment: specify a time for each day when you have a free minute, say before you leave for work, and Any.Do will prompt you to schedule your tasks based on when you’ll have time for them (like today, tomorrow, or next week).
Any.Do’s interface looks sparse, but is actually quite flexible and great for organizing tasks
This way, your tasks don’t just sit idly by in lists, but rather show up in the main view under Today, Tomorrow and Someday. Any.Do also features a handy organization mode which you activate by flipping your device into landscape mode; you can then drag and drop tasks into folders or schedule them the same way. The app integrates with Cal, one of our favorite calendar apps from our recent roundup, and is also available in your browser. Easy task organization for free? Sign us up!
Any.Do’s Moment feature prompts you to schedule tasks so you actually get to them later
➤ Free – Download now
What about the rest?
There are lots of good to-do apps out there, and you might find you really like one that’s not in our list of favorites. GTD fans might well find a home in Todo ($5), a comprehensive task manager with several features for creating and organizing tasks and projects, with neat touches like a drop-down calendar, customizable quick pop-up menu to add attributes like due date, context and tags, and of course a focus list and stars for priority tasks.
Todo is great for GTD fans
CARROT is clever and fun, but sometimes you need a real tool to get things done
We also liked DOOO ($3), which has a refreshing interface that’s perfect for quick input in the form of text, images, sketches, voice recordings or locations, and I quite enjoyed using this lesser-known app for snappy lists. There’s a neat 3-column view that automatically moves tasks into an ‘Unsolved’ column when they’re past a specified time. Unfortunately it’s not available on other platforms, but if that’s not a worry, DOOO is well worth its asking price.
DOOO is as fun to use as it looks
Some of the apps we didn’t like as much tended to complicate basic task input and offer unnecessary options. Cross-platform player Doit.im costs just $20/year and has a lot to offer, but could use a bit of streamlining: how many users really need both a Trash can for tasks and a list of Completed tasks on the main menu? Meanwhile, Task ($1) tries to take on Clear with a bare-bones gesture-only interface, but doesn’t feel nearly as simple to use and forces you to get used to its odd list view (today’s tasks at the bottom, future tasks above – I don’t even…).
Task keeps things simple, but its gesture-based interface is a bit clunky
Pendo and Awesome Note ($4) showed up frequently in our App Store crawls for to-do apps, but feel more like catch-all note-taking apps that also happen to handle tasks. They’re not bad apps by means, but don’t have a focused approach to helping you enter and wrap up tasks quickly. Still, that might work for some folks, and if that’s what you’re into, Awesome Note is definitely worth looking into: a vibrant UI, cloud storage and sync and plenty of flexibility to jot down notes the way you want.
Awesome Note is a powerful note-taking app but can handle to-dos with a little setting up
And we’re done! I had a lot of fun working on this roundup because I love lists! Although I’m a Wunderlist loyalist because it’s flexible enough to use for everything from daily tasks to recipes, I must admit that I loved the speed and simplicity of Clear for quick checklists. Did we miss your favorite to-do app? And what do you need from an app to help you get things done? Let us know in the comments.
