Todoist vs Microsoft To Do (2026): Which One Should You Use?

Choose Microsoft To Do if you want a free, straightforward daily task list, especially when Outlook already handles much of your work. Choose Todoist if you need more control over projects, custom task views, and calendar-based planning.

Microsoft To Do is a sensible starting point for keeping track of obligations and selecting today’s priorities. Todoist is worth considering when you regularly need to look across several projects and find a specific set of tasks.

You do not need a paid app just because you use it for work. The useful question is whether the extra features solve a problem you actually have.

If your missing piece is a record of time spent and decisions made, SelfManager.ai offers another approach through dated tables, task time tracking, comments, and AI review.

Todoist vs Microsoft To Do at a Glance

Features and prices were checked against official documentation in October 2026. The worked example below is fictional; this is a documentation-based comparison rather than a hands-on test.

Pricing reflects the current official product and billing pages.

For most readers, the first decision is between Microsoft To Do’s simplicity and Todoist’s flexibility.

What Microsoft To Do Already Does Well

Microsoft To Do covers the basics that many people need: lists, due dates, reminders, recurring tasks, importance markers, steps, and notes.

Steps let you break a larger task into smaller actions. Notes hold details such as a reference, an address, or a reminder about what to include.

That is enough for a useful personal work system. You could maintain a client-work list, a business-admin list, and a personal list, then choose a few tasks from those lists each morning.

My Day keeps the daily decision separate

Microsoft To Do’s My Day starts with an empty list each day. You can add tasks directly or select them from suggestions. Unfinished tasks remain saved and can be suggested again.

This makes daily planning a deliberate selection process. A task can remain in its original list without needing to occupy today’s attention.

For someone who feels overwhelmed by seeing every obligation at once, that can be a useful habit: keep the backlog, but choose the day.

Our assessment: Start with Microsoft To Do when you need a manageable daily shortlist and straightforward reminders. Upgrade your system only when you can name what is missing.

Where Todoist Becomes More Useful

Todoist becomes more attractive when organizing tasks into separate lists is no longer enough.

Its projects, labels, priorities, and custom filters let you organize work and then view it from different angles. Filters can select tasks by criteria such as date, project, label, and priority.

For example, a freelancer might want to see important client tasks scheduled for this week, rather than opening each client project separately.

The value is retrieval: you can keep a wider task system while creating a smaller view for a particular decision.

More flexibility also means more decisions

You need to choose a workable structure. Too many projects, labels, and filters can make maintaining the app a task of its own.

A small setup is usually a better starting point:

• One project for each active area of work.
• Dates for tasks you intend to work on.
• Priorities for meaningful differences in urgency.
• A custom filter only when you repeatedly need the same view.

Our assessment: Choose Todoist when you need a specific organizational capability. “I need to see priority client work across several projects” is a better reason than “the app has more features.”

Daily Planning: My Day Versus Today

Both apps can show a daily task list, but they encourage different habits.

Microsoft To Do’s My Day is a selected focus list. You choose what to include for the current day.

Todoist’s Today view brings together tasks scheduled for today across projects. Its Upcoming view helps you look ahead.

The practical difference appears when a task has a deadline later in the week but deserves attention today.

Planning before the deadline

Imagine a proposal that must be delivered Friday.

In Microsoft To Do, you can give it a Friday due date and add it to Tuesday’s My Day when you want to work on it.

Todoist Pro and Business have separate date and deadline fields. You can schedule work for Tuesday while keeping Friday as the fixed deadline.

Both approaches can support starting early. Todoist’s dedicated deadline field becomes useful when you regularly need to distinguish the planned work date from the final cutoff.

The mistake to avoid in either app is waiting until the due date to see important work.

A Fictional Example: One Week of Client Work

Imagine a freelance consultant handling three clients while also running their own business.

This week includes:

• Preparing a proposal due Friday.
• Following up on two client emails.
• Reviewing a draft presentation.
• Renewing a business subscription.
• Booking a personal appointment.

This is a fictional scenario to illustrate the workflows.

Using Microsoft To Do

Create lists for the clients, business administration, and personal tasks. Add steps to the proposal, set the Friday due date, and add the proposal to My Day early in the week to work on its first step.

If the client follow-ups arrive in a supported Outlook mailbox, flagged emails can appear in To Do. Add the relevant follow-up to My Day when you intend to handle it.

This approach can work well when the tasks are straightforward and a daily selection is enough to keep things moving.

Using Todoist

Create client projects and organize the proposal into smaller tasks. Use dates to spread the work across the week, and a deadline if your plan includes that feature.

A custom filter can help you review important work across the client projects. If you use Pro’s calendar layout, you can allocate time for the presentation review and proposal work.

This approach becomes useful when you need to coordinate several streams of work and regularly check what deserves attention across them.

When an urgent request arrives

Do the same thing in either app: choose what will move.

A new task should replace some planned work or fit into genuine spare capacity. Adding it without reconsidering the day creates a longer list, not a more realistic plan.

For this fictional consultant, Microsoft To Do is sufficient if daily selection keeps the work manageable. Todoist becomes more useful when cross-project views and scheduling solve a repeated difficulty.

If Neither Fits: Plan, Track, and Review with SelfManager.ai

A task list can tell you what remains. You may also need to explain what happened: the time spent, the client decision, or why a task stalled.

SelfManager.ai combines dated tables, tasks, a time tracker on each task, and comments. You can organize client work within a day and retain context alongside the work.

For example, a presentation-review task could record the time spent and a comment explaining that the client approved the structure but requested new examples. That detail helps tomorrow’s planning and the next progress review.

AI builds on the record: AI Plan covers up to 31 days, Instant AI Review covers up to 90 days, and voice notes can be up to 30 minutes per recording.

SelfManager is an installable web app. It fits people who want planning and a reviewable work record together. It is less suitable when calendar sync or automatic scheduling is the main requirement.

Individual costs $8/month, or $6/month paid yearly at $72/year. Team costs $30/month, or $25/month paid yearly at $300/year, with unlimited collaborators.

Try SelfManager.ai for 7 days, with no card required, if tasks, time spent, and decisions need to stay connected.

Outlook Integration: Email Tasks and Calendar Events Are Different

Microsoft To Do has a clear advantage for straightforward Outlook follow-ups. With a supported Microsoft-hosted account, flagged emails can appear as tasks, with a route back to the original message.

There are limits: Microsoft’s documentation says flagged email sync applies to the primary mailbox. Shared mailboxes and shared folders are not supported by this feature.

That matters if your work mainly arrives through a shared support or sales inbox.

Todoist also connects with Outlook Calendar

Todoist’s current Calendar integration supports Google Calendar and Outlook Calendar. You can see events alongside tasks and sync your scheduled tasks to the connected calendar.

The integration is available on the free Beginner plan as well as Pro and Business. The visual calendar layout, used for time blocking inside Todoist, requires Pro or Business.

Calendar events shown in Todoist are read-only; editing an original event takes you to the calendar provider.

These are different jobs:

• Email follow-up: Turn a flagged Outlook message into a task.
• Calendar planning: See meetings alongside planned work and allocate available time.

Being an Outlook user does not automatically settle the comparison. Decide which of those workflows you need.

Sharing: Check Who You Need to Work with

Microsoft To Do supports shared lists. Its documentation describes sharing between personal Microsoft accounts, or between accounts within the same workplace or education organization.

That can be enough for a household list or colleagues within one organization. Check the account arrangement before relying on it for external client collaboration.

Todoist supports shared projects and task assignment. Its Business plan adds a shared team workspace and administrative features beyond personal project sharing.

For a freelancer, the practical test is small: can the person you need to work with access the project, understand their task, and keep the discussion in the right place?

A tool that works well for your personal tasks may still be a poor place to ask a client to collaborate. Choose the sharing setup around the people who will actually use it.

Pricing: When is Todoist Pro Worth Paying For?

Microsoft To Do: free

Microsoft To Do is free to use. You do not need to buy Microsoft 365 simply to use the standalone task app with a personal account.

Work-account access and connected Microsoft services can depend on your organization’s setup, but that does not make the personal app a paid product.

If its lists, My Day, reminders, and Outlook connection meet your needs, there is no subscription to justify.

Todoist: free or paid

Todoist’s free Beginner plan includes 5 personal projects, 3 filter views, task reminders, and list and board layouts.

Pro costs $7/month, or $60/year, equivalent to $5/month paid yearly. Pro adds higher limits and features such as calendar layout, task duration, custom reminders, and deadlines.

The annual option is paid as a yearly charge, not as twelve $5 payments.

Pro is worth considering when you can identify the feature you will use regularly. Needing a visual calendar layout or separate deadlines is a clearer reason to pay than simply wanting a “professional” task app.

Prices checked October 2026. Regional prices, taxes, and app store offers can differ.

Does Microsoft Planner Replace Microsoft To Do?

The Planner changes are easy to misread because the former Tasks by Planner and To Do app in Microsoft Teams was renamed Planner.

That is different from retiring the standalone Microsoft To Do app.

Microsoft’s official Planner FAQ states that the changes do not affect existing To Do scenarios or functionality. It also explains that capabilities such as My Day and Flagged email are available within Planner in Teams.

Microsoft’s broader work-management direction brings Planner and Copilot together, but that is not a reason to claim To Do is being retired.

Choose based on the task app and workflow available to you today, rather than a predicted shutdown.

Which One Should You Choose?

Choose Microsoft To Do if…

• You want a free personal task system.
• A daily shortlist is more useful to you than custom task views.
• You mainly need reminders, recurring tasks, steps, and notes.
• Supported Outlook email follow-ups are central to your work.
• Your sharing needs fit Microsoft’s supported account arrangements.

Choose Todoist if…

• You manage several projects and want views across them.
• Labels, priorities, and custom filters solve a real organizational problem.
• You want calendar events alongside your tasks.
• You need a visual calendar layout and are willing to pay for it.
• Separating a planned work date from a fixed deadline would help.

Keep the switch small

Before moving your whole task history, put one ordinary week into the app you are considering.

Include a recurring task, a deadline, an email follow-up, and something you might postpone. If collaboration matters, include one shared task.

Check whether the app makes the next action clearer and unfinished work easier to find. A successful switch should reduce friction in your routine, not just give you a new interface.

Verdict: Start Simple, Pay for a Specific Need

Microsoft To Do is our first recommendation for a free, straightforward daily list, particularly with Outlook. Todoist is our recommendation when you need more control over projects, filters, and calendar planning.

Start with Microsoft To Do if it already covers your routine. Choose Todoist when its additional structure solves a repeated problem, and consider Pro when you need a paid feature.

Choose SelfManager.ai when your priority is connecting daily tasks with time spent, decisions, and later review.

Start the 7-day SelfManager.ai trial, with no card required, if you want your planner to produce a useful work record as well.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Microsoft To Do completely free?

The standalone Microsoft To Do app is free. You can use it with a personal Microsoft account without buying Microsoft 365. Work-account availability and connected services depend on the organization’s setup.

Is Todoist better than Microsoft To Do?

Todoist is the stronger choice for custom filters, project organization, and more detailed planning. Microsoft To Do is often sufficient for a free daily shortlist, reminders, and Outlook follow-ups. The better choice depends on the features you will use.

Does Todoist work with Outlook Calendar?

Yes. Todoist supports Outlook Calendar integration, including viewing events alongside tasks. The connection is available on the free plan, while Todoist’s visual calendar layout requires Pro or Business.

Is Microsoft To Do being retired?

Microsoft continues to offer To Do, and its official Planner FAQ says the Planner changes do not affect existing To Do functionality. Renaming the task app inside Microsoft Teams to Planner should not be confused with retiring standalone To Do.

Can I share lists in Microsoft To Do?

Yes. Microsoft documents sharing between personal Microsoft accounts and between accounts within the same workplace or education organization. Check those account requirements before using shared lists with an external client.

When should I consider SelfManager.ai instead?

Consider SelfManager.ai when you want dated task tables, task time tracking, comments, and AI review together. It is an installable web app, with a 7-day trial and no card required. It is less suitable when calendar sync or automatic scheduling is your main requirement.