Task & GTD Apps

The personal-todo / GTD layer. For team / project-management tools see project-management-ops; for self-hostable task tools (Vikunja, TaskWarrior) see selfhost-personal.

Mac / iOS classics

• ★ Things 3 — paid one-time per platform (Mac + iPad + iPhone all separate); arguably the most beautiful task app on Apple. No web, no Android. The default if you live in the Apple ecosystem.
• OmniFocus 4 — paid (subscription or one-time); deep GTD power-user features (perspectives, custom views, OmniAutomation). Worth it if you do "real" GTD with contexts and reviews.
• Apple Reminders — free, built-in, surprisingly capable since iOS 17; smart lists, tags, location triggers, shared lists.
• NotePlan 3 — paid + free trial; markdown-based daily planner + tasks; bridges Obsidian-vault note-taking with calendar and tasks.

Cross-platform free + paid

• ★ Todoist — generous free tier; paid for reminders / labels / longer history. Web + every platform; the cross-platform default in 2026.
• ★ TickTick — free + paid (Premium); arguably more featureful than Todoist (built-in pomodoro, calendar view, habits) at a lower price.
• Microsoft To Do — free; tightly integrated with Outlook tasks and Microsoft 365.
• Google Tasks — free; bare-bones; lives inside Gmail / Calendar.
• Any.do — free + paid; clean UI; calendar + tasks.
• Amplenote — paid + free tier; tasks + notes hybrid with task-score and "jot" capture.
• Workflowy — paid + free; outliner that doubles as a todo list.

Daily-planner / time-blocking

• ★ Sunsama — paid only (no free tier); daily-planning ritual that pulls in tasks from Todoist / Asana / Linear / Trello and lets you time-block them onto the calendar. Cult favorite among knowledge workers.
• Akiflow — paid; similar to Sunsama; faster keyboard-driven UX.
• Routine — paid + free tier; calendar + tasks + notes; iOS / Mac / Web.
• Amie — paid + free; calendar-first with task drag-to-block.

AI auto-scheduling (the 2024–26 wave)

• ★ Reclaim — paid + free tier; AI auto-schedules tasks, habits, breaks around your meetings; the best for "just put my deep-work blocks somewhere this week."
• Motion — paid only; the most aggressive AI auto-scheduler — re-plans your day every time something changes. Polarising but loved by ADHD users.
• Trevor AI — paid + free; lightweight time-blocking with AI nudges.
• SkedPal — paid; older AI scheduler.

Outliners that double as task systems

• Workflowy — paid + free.
• Dynalist — paid + free.
• Logseq (link to selfhost-notes-wiki) — outliner with TODO / DOING / DONE markers.
• Obsidian + Tasks plugin — see notes-wiki link above.

Self-host options (for completeness)

• Vikunja, TaskWarrior, Plane — see selfhost-personal.
• Tracks — old GTD-shape Rails app.

Pricing reality check

• Things 3 is one-time but you pay 3× to cover Mac/iPad/iPhone (~$80 total). No subscription — once is once.
• Todoist Pro ~$5/mo; TickTick Premium ~$3/mo (often the better value).
• Sunsama / Motion / Reclaim all $10–$35/mo. Try the free trial seriously — they only earn their price if you actually run the daily ritual.
• OmniFocus 4 subscription ~$10/mo or one-time ~$75/platform.

Pick this if…

• Apple-only and you want the prettiest app: Things 3.
• Cross-platform default with a free tier: Todoist or TickTick (TickTick wins on features-per-dollar).
• You actually do GTD with reviews + perspectives: OmniFocus 4.
• You want a daily-planning ritual: Sunsama (or Akiflow if keyboard-driven).
• AI to auto-schedule deep work around meetings: Reclaim, or Motion if you want it aggressive.
• Markdown / Obsidian-flavored: NotePlan or Obsidian + Tasks.
• You want to self-host: Vikunja — see selfhost-personal.