A Todoist Alternative for Your Whole Day, Not Just a List
Todoist is a fast, mature list. If your day also lives in a calendar, a notes app and a habit tracker, here is a fair comparison and a planner that keeps it all in one place.
By Shekib AzizPublished Updated 8 min read
You picked Todoist because it is good at the one thing it does. Tasks go in fast and come back on the right day. Then your day spread out: the dentist went into a calendar, the question for the dentist into a notes app, and the walk you are trying to make a habit into a habit tracker.
Somewhere along the way you became the glue between four apps. This guide is for that moment: a fair look at what Todoist does well, why one list stops being enough, and what a Todoist alternative should do instead. Ranya is built for that: one person’s whole day, not only the list.
On the left, Send the invoice in a to-do list app, Dentist, 4:30 PM in a calendar app, Ask about the crown in a notes app, Walk 10k steps in a habit tracker app. On the right, the same four things together in one Ranya account, each marked as a task, a calendar entry, a note or a habit.
Is Todoist still worth it?
For many people, yes. Todoist has been refined for a long time, and says so: “We’ve spent over a decade refining Todoist to be an extension of your mind.” Its best part is quick add. In the words of its feature page: “Capture and organize tasks the moment they come to you with easy-flowing, natural language.” You type the task the way you would say it, and the due date comes with it.
It is “Available on phone, tablet, watch, desktop, and the web”, and its integrations mean “you can turn just about anything into a task from just about anywhere”. It even listens: with Ramble, “Just talk, and Ramble handles the rest.”
If your day fits in a list, Todoist is hard to beat, and you may not need an alternative at all.
Why look for a Todoist alternative?
Because most days do not fit in a list. A day is also the meetings around your tasks, the notes that go with them, and the goals and habits you are working on. In Todoist, notes live in a task’s description and comments. The description is there to “keep all the info and links you need to get started right inside your tasks”. Its goals are productivity goals: “Set daily and weekly goals, and visualize your productivity trends.” Habits are repeating tasks, since “Todoist’s unrivaled date recognition helps you build habits”. And on the free Beginner plan, the calendar layout is one of the things that waits for Pro.
So the rest of the day goes elsewhere: a calendar, a notes app, a habit tracker. The cost is moving between them, and remembering which one holds what.
About 1,200 a day
They found workers toggled roughly 1,200 times each day, which adds up to just under four hours each week reorienting themselves after toggling
There is a second cost. A due date says when something is due. It does not decide which few things today is for. In a series of studies by Masicampo and Baumeister, unfinished goals kept intruding on people’s thoughts until they made a specific plan for them.
What should a Todoist alternative do?
Before you try all the apps like Todoist, decide what the move is for. Most lists of Todoist alternatives compare one list with another. If it is a better list you want, look at other lists. If it is your whole day, a good alternative should:
- Keep the day in one place: tasks, calendar, notes, goals and habits, without wiring four apps together.
- Put dated tasks on your calendar by themselves, next to your meetings.
- Help you decide what today is for, not only show you what is open.
- Let you say what you need, and ask before it changes anything.
- Cost nothing to start, so you can find out whether it fits before you pay.
That is the list Ranya was built against: tasks on boards, every dated task on your calendar, notes, goals, habits, Focus and your Gmail inbox, on the web, your phone, Mac and Windows. And you can call Ranya from any page and talk your day through.
Todoist vs Ranya: how do they compare?
Todoist’s side comes from its own pages, checked on October 27, 2026, and names no price, because plans change. Ranya’s side matches the live product on the same day.
| Topic | Todoist | Ranya |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Your tasks, at work and at home | One person and their whole day |
| Adding a task | Quick Add, which reads dates and details from what you type | Quick add from any page, then Ranya suggests a board; set dates on the task, or say them on a call |
| Calendar | A calendar layout on Pro, and a Google Calendar integration | Every dated task on your calendar, beside the Google, Outlook or iCloud calendars you add (read only) |
| Notes | A description and comments inside each task | Notebooks with pages, and an Ask bar that can turn a note into tasks |
| Goals and habits | Daily and weekly productivity goals, and repeating due dates for habits | Goals with a number and a date, and habits whose strength never resets after a bad day |
| Voice | Ramble turns what you say into tasks, in 40 languages | Call Ranya to plan the day, move tasks, log habits, check a goal or take a note; she asks before changing anything |
| Free plan | Beginner, with limits on projects, filter views and Ramble | Free with no time limit and no card, with paid plans on the pricing page |
| Apps | Phone, tablet, watch, desktop and the web | The web, your phone from the Home Screen, and a desktop app for Mac and Windows |
What does Todoist do better?
Quite a lot. Todoist is the better choice if:
- You add tasks by typing and want the date read from the text. In Ranya, typed quick add saves the task as you wrote it; you pick the date with quick add’s date button or on the task, or say it on a call.
- You rely on integrations to turn email, chat and other tools into tasks.
- You want an app on your watch.
- You want to say a jumble of tasks and have the project, date and priority picked out of your words, in any of the 40 languages Ramble understands.
Ranya is not trying to be a better list. It is built for you, not a company: your list, and the rest of your day around it. Weighing an AI planner too? See how Ranya compares with Motion.
How to move from Todoist to Ranya
Bring over only what is live
There is no importer. You may not miss it: bring over this week and leave the archive. On any page in Ranya, press Command J, type one task and press Enter. On a phone, tap More, then Task. It lands in your Inbox. If your head is fuller than your old list, brain dump everything first and sort it after.
Add to Inbox: Book the car service
⌘JExample taskQuick add, from any page. The task waits in your Inbox until you move it. Let Ranya suggest a board for each
Make two boards, Home and Work. Then open the Inbox (on a phone, tap More, then Inbox) and tap the sparkle beside + (Suggest boards). Each task gets a board and list you can accept with a tick. Move all to their boards, in the Inbox’s menu, moves the lot at once, with Undo.
Give dates to the things that have one
Open a task and give it a date and time, or on a call say “Move the dentist to Thursday at 4:30.” Every dated task shows on your calendar by itself, beside the Google, Outlook or iCloud calendar you add. When you sit down to work, Plan today gathers what is overdue, due today, pinned, in your Inbox and the habits today still owes, so you pick a few things and start.
Thursday
Team check-in
10 to 10:30, from another calendar, read only
Send the invoice
9 to 9:45
Walk after lunch
12:30 to 12:50
Dentist
4:30 to 5:15
Example dayDated tasks on the calendar with a meeting from an added calendar, which shows fainter with a dashed edge because it is read only. Add a goal and the habits behind it
Open Goals (on a phone, tap More, then Goals) and set one goal with a number and a date, then the habit that moves it. Log a habit with one tap, or say it. Its strength grows every day you show up, fades slowly when you miss, and never resets to zero. To start small, see a simple habit tracker you will keep using.
55%10k steps a day
Walk 10k steps a day · by Oct 31
Steps: 11k
≥ 10k steps
Example goalA goal with its number and date, and the habit that moves it, in the same app as your tasks. Or just say it
Tap the Ranya button at the bottom right of any page, or press Command Shift Comma. On a phone, tap the Ranya button just above the tab bar, or Call in More. Then say what you need. She reads each change back and waits for your yes, or a tap on Confirm. To plan a whole morning out loud, see how to plan your day by voice.
Example callOn a call, she reads the change back and waits for your yes.
Which should you pick?
Pick Todoist if a list is what you need: fast typed capture, integrations, an app on every device. Pick Ranya if you want the list, the calendar, notes, goals and habits in one place, and to call it and talk. See how Ranya organizes your work, or check the plans.
A note on fairness: Ranya is built by one person, who also wrote this post. Every Todoist fact comes from Todoist’s own pages, so you can check it.
Frequently asked questions
Is Todoist free?
Yes. Todoist has a free plan called Beginner. Some things wait for its Pro plan, such as the calendar layout. Todoist’s pricing page lists what each plan includes.
What is a good Todoist alternative?
It depends on why you are moving. If you want a different list, try other list apps. If you want your tasks, calendar, notes, goals and habits in one place, and to plan your day by talking, Ranya is built for that.
Can I import my Todoist tasks into Ranya?
Not with an importer. Bring over what is live this week: press Cmd+J (Ctrl+J on Windows) to capture each task into your Inbox, or say them on a call. In the Inbox, Ranya suggests a board for each one before you move them.
Does Ranya read dates from what I type, like Todoist?
Not in typed quick add: the task is saved as you wrote it, and you pick the date with quick add’s date button or on the task. On a call, say it the way you would to a person, such as “move the dentist to Thursday at 4:30”, and Ranya reads the change back before it is made.
Is there a free Todoist alternative?
Ranya has a free plan with no time limit and no card needed, and it includes voice calls, tasks, calendar, notes, goals, habits and focus. See the pricing page for what the paid plans add.
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