Recurring Tasks & Household Automation

Most household-task tools fail at recurring: "every other Sunday," "first of the month," "every 90 days from last completion." This page is the recurrence-engine review across the major task apps and self-hosted options. For chore-specific scheduling see Chore & Cleaning Task Tracking; for maintenance-specific (HVAC, water heater) see Home Maintenance Scheduling; for the broader self-hosted task layer see Self-Hosted Personal Apps; for family calendars see Family Calendars.

Native / OS

• ★ ★ Apple Reminders — free; strong recurrence (daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, custom intervals, "every 3 weeks on Tuesday"). Shared lists for the family. Recurrence-after-completion (reschedule from completion date, not original) added in iOS 17. The pragmatic default for Apple-house households.
• ★ Google Tasks — free; recurrence weak vs. Apple but acceptable; sync with Google Calendar. The Android / Workspace default.
• Microsoft To Do — free; recurring tasks; integrates with Outlook.

Power-user paid task apps

• ★ Things 3 — paid (~$50 one-time per platform); macOS / iOS only; the cleanest recurrence + project UX in the category. No subscription. Beloved.
• ★ Todoist — paid + free; natural-language recurrence ("every Monday at 9am"); cross-platform; widely loved. Free tier is usable; paid (~$48/yr) unlocks reminders, comments, more projects.
• OmniFocus — paid; macOS / iOS; GTD-strict; rich recurrence + perspectives.
• TickTick — paid + free; recurring tasks + Pomodoro + habit-tracker in one. Cross-platform; Asia-popular.
• Reminders Pro / Sorted³ — paid; iOS-leaning; less popular.

Habit / RPG-shape

• ★ Habitica — free OSS; dailies (per-day repeating tasks) + habits (free-form trackers) + todos. RPG framing optional. Self-hostable. See Self-Hosted Personal Apps.
• Streaks — paid iOS; habit-grid with recurrence.
• Habitify — paid + free; cross-platform.
• Loop Habit Tracker — free Android.

Self-host / OSS

• ★ Vikunja — OSS task / Kanban; recurrence; CalDAV sync (iOS / Android Calendar can read it). The default OSS replacement for Todoist. See Self-Hosted Personal Apps.
• Tasks.org — free OSS Android; CalDAV / EteSync; rich recurrence.
• TaskWarrior + TaskServer — free OSS terminal-native; powerful recurrence; for the CLI types.
• Nextcloud Tasks — free OSS if you already run Nextcloud. CalDAV + Tasks.org-compatible.

Database-shape (Notion / Obsidian)

• ★ Notion — free + paid; databases with date properties + repeat templates (button to create next occurrence). Recurrence is manual-ish unless you wire automations. Works great if you'll actually open the page.
• Obsidian + Tasks plugin — free; plain-text recurrence in Markdown ("every Monday"); strong if you live in Obsidian. See Self-Hosted Notes & Wiki.
• TriliumNext — OSS notes with scripting; recurring-task patterns are DIY.

Automation layer (when "remind me" isn't enough)

• ★ Apple Shortcuts — free; trigger off arrival, time, focus mode; great for "when I get home, add 'unload car' to Reminders." iOS / macOS.
• Home Assistant automations — for sensor-driven tasks ("if HVAC filter delta-P high, add 'change filter' to my list"). See Smart Home Hubs.
• n8n / Activepieces / Windmill — full self-hosted automation; the "I want recurring tasks fan-out across HA + Vikunja + a Notion DB + an iCal entry" answer. See Self-Hosted Automation.
• IFTTT, Zapier, Make — paid; cloud SaaS; for non-self-hosters.

Recurrence patterns most apps get wrong

• "Recur from completion, not from due date" — ask "do you change the filter every 90 days regardless, or 90 days after you last did it?" Most apps default to the wrong one. Apple Reminders + Todoist + Things + Vikunja support both modes.
• "First Monday of the month" — Things, Todoist, Vikunja, Apple Reminders.
• "Every other Tuesday" — Apple Reminders ("every 2 weeks on Tuesday"); Todoist natural language.
• "Last day of the month" — Todoist, Things; not all support it.

License / pricing

• Apple Reminders, Google Tasks, Microsoft To Do: free.
• Things 3: paid one-time per platform.
• Todoist, TickTick, Habitify: paid + free.
• OmniFocus: paid; subscription or one-time.
• Habitica, Vikunja, Tasks.org, TaskWarrior, Nextcloud Tasks: OSS, free.
• Notion, Obsidian: free + paid.

Pick this if…

• Apple-house, free, "good enough recurrence": Apple Reminders.
• Cross-platform, natural-language, willing to pay: Todoist.
• macOS / iOS only, premium, no subscription: Things 3.
• GTD-strict: OmniFocus.
• Habit-as-RPG: Habitica.
• Self-host, OSS, modern: Vikunja.
• Plain-text-in-Markdown: Obsidian + Tasks plugin.
• Sensor-driven recurring (filter delta-P → add task): Home Assistant + a task webhook.