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# I Tested 5 Best Todoist Alternatives for ADHD
- URL: https://adhdproductivity.org/todoist-alternatives-for-adhd/
- Published: 2026-06-25T09:44:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-19T09:45:57.000Z
- Author: Matt Elior
- Tags: alternatives

I used Todoist for years. I have the tomb of 1200 completed tasks to prove it, and also the 340 overdue ones, which I think tells you more.

Then in December 2025 Todoist raised its prices. Pro went from $4/month annually to $5, and from $5 to $7 if you pay monthly. That's a 40% jump on the monthly plan, which Todoist documented [on its own help pages](https://www.todoist.com/help/articles/todoist-pro-pricing-update-in-2025-bxBvHZuJZ?ref=adhdproductivity.org). Not a fortune. But paying more for an app I was actively avoiding made me ask the question I'd been dodging: is this thing working?

![](https://static.klipy.com/ii/71b2873e478b9d8d0482ea3ec777ba7f/bd/8f/N8kwYtv9.gif)

So I spent about six weeks moving my actual life (work tasks, the dentist, my mother's birthday, the recycling) through eight different apps to find out which ones hold up when the brain using them has ADHD.

Here's what I found.

## Quick answer: What are the best Todoist alternatives for ADHD?

If you want the short version: **TickTick** is the closest like-for-like swap and gives you a calendar and habit tracker on the free plan. **Saner.ai** is the best pick if the real problem is that your tasks live in your head and it makes you overwhelmed. **Amazing Marvin** is for people who need to rebuild the system every three weeks. **Apple Reminders** is free, underrated, and probably already on your phone.

## The 5 Todoist alternatives for ADHD people

## 1\. TickTick — the easiest swap

**Price:** Free plan; Premium $49.99/year ([ticktick.com/upgrade](https://ticktick.com/upgrade?ref=adhdproductivity.org))

![ticktick](https://storage.ghost.io/c/99/b0/99b001cf-099d-4600-ba8b-c373f317b704/content/images/2026/09/image-61.png)

TickTick is what happens if Todoist stopped gatekeeping. The free plan includes a basic calendar view and a habit tracker capped at five habits. Todoist puts its calendar layout behind Pro.

What helped me:

- Two reminders per task on free, five on Premium. One reminder is a suggestion. Three is an argument you eventually lose.
- Habits sit in the same app as tasks, so "take meds" isn't living in a separate app you forgot to install.
- Eisenhower Matrix view on Premium, which is useful when everything feels equally urgent and you need something else to make the call.

What annoyed me: the interface has a lot of buttons. If visual clutter is a trigger for you, this is not your app. Also TickTick only publishes the annual price on its upgrade page, which is mildly irritating.

**Best for:** people who like Todoist's structure and want more of it for less.

## 2\. Saner.ai — for when the tasks are hiding in your head

**Price:** Free plan; Starter $8/month; Standard $16/month ([saner.ai](https://saner.ai/?ref=adhdproductivity.org))

My tasks were never in Todoist. They were in emails I'd read on my phone at 11pm, decided to "handle tomorrow" and then never seen again. Manually copying them into a task manager is the kind of friction that kills a (my) system.

Saner.ai sits across your notes, email and calendar, and you talk to it instead of clicking through menus. You can tell it to pull the actual commitments out of a thread and turn them into tasks. 

It'll draft a plan for the day out of what's already on your plate. 

![2. Saner.ai — for when the tasks are hiding in your inbox](https://storage.ghost.io/c/99/b0/99b001cf-099d-4600-ba8b-c373f317b704/content/images/2026/09/image-62.png)

One of its founders has ADHD, and the product is explicitly built for that, which shows up in small ways - fewer decisions per screen, less setup before it's useful.

What annoyed me: the free tier goes fast if you're in a chatty mood. And if your work doesn't run through email, a lot of the value evaporates.

**Best for:** knowledge workers whose to-do list is functionally their inbox. I went deeper on this in [how to use AI for email when you have ADHD](https://adhdproductivity.org/ai-for-email-adhd/).

## 3\. Amazing Marvin — for the serial system-abandoner

**Price:** $96/year, one tier, everything included ([amazingmarvin.com](https://amazingmarvin.com/pricing?ref=adhdproductivity.org))

Marvin's tagline is "for people who think differently," and unusually for that genre, the product backs it up. It has over 100 features you switch on and off individually. Kanban, time tracking, day planning, task stacking, whatever. All optional, all toggles.

![amazing marvin](https://storage.ghost.io/c/99/b0/99b001cf-099d-4600-ba8b-c373f317b704/content/images/2026/09/image-63.png)

Here's the ADHD insight: novelty is your fuel, and most productivity systems die because the novelty runs out in week three. Marvin is designed so that when you get bored, you can rebuild the whole thing on Saturday morning instead of quitting.

What annoyed me: the same thing. You can spend a very pleasant afternoon configuring Marvin and complete zero tasks. It's a productivity app with a built-in procrastination trap, and you should know that going in.

**Best for:** people who've abandoned five task managers and know they'll abandon a sixth.

## 4\. Apple Reminders — free, and better than you think

**Price:** $0 if you have an iPhone

I did not expect to put a default Apple app this high. But Reminders quietly does things Todoist charges for:

- **Location-based reminders.** "Remind me when I get home." This is the closest thing to Barkley's point-of-performance idea that exists on a phone, and it's free. Mine fires "bins" at me when I pull into the driveway, which is the only reason the bins go out.
- **Shared lists with assigned reminders**, so you can put a task on your partner and not carry it yourself.
- Tags, smart lists, subtasks, templates, grocery lists that sort themselves into aisles.

What annoyed me: it's Apple-only in any real sense, and it has no natural-language parsing worth the name. Typing "next Thursday 3pm" into Todoist just works. In Reminders you're tapping a date picker like it's 2011.

**Best for:** anyone on iPhone who wants to stop paying for a task manager immediately. Start here before you spend money. I listed a few more no-cost options in [the best free ADHD apps](https://adhdproductivity.org/best-free-adhd-apps/).

## 5\. Things 3 — for the calm-interface crowd

![Things 3 — for the calm-interface crowd](https://storage.ghost.io/c/99/b0/99b001cf-099d-4600-ba8b-c373f317b704/content/images/2026/09/image-64.png)

**Price:** One-time purchase per platform. $9.99 iPhone, $19.99 iPad, $49.99 Mac. Apple only.

Things is the prettiest task manager ever made and I kinda think so. No subscription. No AI. No notifications badgering you. Just a very quiet, very well-designed place to put things.

For some ADHD brains this is a lifesaver: visual noise is a cost, and Things has almost none. For others (me, most days) it's too quiet. It will never interrupt you, which means it will never get in your way, which means you will forget it exists.

Worth knowing before you spend $80: Things 3 shipped in 2017 and there is still no Things 4\. The app is maintained and stable, but it has not added the AI or auto-scheduling features that everything else in this list now has. That's either a feature or a dealbreaker depending entirely on your personality.

**Best for:** Apple users who find busy interfaces genuinely distressing and hate subscriptions.

### Quick comparison Table

| App             | Price              | Best feature for ADHD          | Watch out for                |
| --------------- | ------------------ | ------------------------------ | ---------------------------- |
| TickTick        | Free / $49.99 yr   | Calendar + habits on free      | Busy interface               |
| Saner.ai        | Free / $8 / $16 mo | Pulls tasks out of email       | AI limits on free tier       |
| Amazing Marvin  | $96/yr             | Endlessly reconfigurable       | Configuring instead of doing |
| Apple Reminders | Free               | Location reminders             | Apple only, clunky dates     |
| Sunsama         | $20–25/mo          | Forced daily estimation        | Priciest here                |
| Akiflow         | $19–34/mo          | Everything lands on a calendar | Monthly price is rough       |
| Things 3        | $9.99–49.99 once   | Zero visual noise              | Too quiet to nag you         |
| Motion          | From $19/seat/mo   | Decides your day for you       | Credit-based pricing         |

## How to switch from Todoist without losing everything

Migrating task managers is where most of these attempts die, usually at 11pm on a Sunday. Do it this way instead.

- **Don't export everything.** Your Todoist archive is 90% dead tasks. Exporting all of it into the new app recreates the exact overwhelm you're trying to escape.
- **Take the 15 tasks you'd do this week.** Type them in by hand. Typing them is a triage pass, and it takes fifteen minutes.
- **Keep Todoist installed for two weeks.** Don't delete, don't cancel. You'll remember something on day nine.
- **Set up one alarm, not a system.** Pick a single daily reminder ("check the list, 9:15am") and nothing else. Add rules only when you feel the absence of one.
- **Give it three weeks before judging.** Week one is novelty, week two is the honeymoon ending, week three is real data.
- **Write down the one thing that broke Todoist for you.** Mine was "I never opened it." If the new app doesn't fix that specific thing by week three, it's not the app for you, and no amount of configuration will change it.

## FAQ

**Is Todoist good for ADHD?**  
It can be, if your problem is capture rather than recall. Its natural-language input is the fastest in the category and it's free. But it's passive by design — it waits for you to open it. If the thing that breaks your systems is forgetting they exist, Todoist won't fix that, and no amount of setting up projects will.

**What's the best free Todoist alternative for ADHD?**  
TickTick's free plan, or Saner.AI if you're overwhelmed with tasks. TickTick gives you a calendar view and habit tracking that Todoist charges for. Saner.AI gives you a hand in hard days

**Why did Todoist raise its prices?**  
Todoist's own [pricing update article](https://www.todoist.com/help/articles/todoist-pro-pricing-update-in-2025-bxBvHZuJZ?ref=adhdproductivity.org) cites new AI features and calendar planning. The change took effect 10 December 2025, applying at each subscriber's first renewal after that date.

**Do I need an AI task manager?**  
No. AI helps with two specific jobs: pulling commitments out of messy input like email, and breaking a vague task into steps you can actually start. If neither is your bottleneck, you're paying for features you won't touch. I compared the options in [the best AI task manager for ADHD](https://adhdproductivity.org/best-ai-task-manager-for-adhd/).

**Should I use one app or several?**  
One for tasks, one for calendar, and that's it. Every extra app is another place a task can hide. I've broken this rule roughly forty times and regretted it forty times.

## What to do this week

- **Name the failure.** Write one sentence about what specifically went wrong with Todoist. Not "it didn't work." Something like "I stopped opening it after the second week."
- **Pick one app from this list that targets that failure.** Not three. One.
- **Start with the free option first.** Apple Reminders or TickTick free. If a free app fixes it, you've saved yourself $60 a year and a migration.
- **Move 15 tasks by hand. Today.** Not the archive.
- **Set one recurring reminder to check it.** Then leave the settings alone for three weeks.
- **Re-read your failure sentence at the end of week three.** If it's still true, switch again without guilt. Six weeks of testing taught me that the app you abandon is data, not a verdict on you.

My Todoist archive still has those 340 overdue tasks in it. I haven't deleted the account. Some of them, honestly, were never going to happen in any app.

---

### Sources

- Alderson, R.M., et al. (2013). *Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and working memory in adults: a meta-analytic review.* Neuropsychology. [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23688211/](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23688211/?ref=adhdproductivity.org)
- Altgassen, M., Scheres, A., & Edel, M.-A. (2019). *Prospective memory (partially) mediates the link between ADHD symptoms and procrastination.* ADHD Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorders. [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30927231/](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30927231/?ref=adhdproductivity.org)
- Barkley, R.A. *The Important Role of Executive Functioning and Self-Regulation in ADHD* (fact sheet). [https://www.russellbarkley.org/factsheets/ADHD\_EF\_and\_SR.pdf](https://www.russellbarkley.org/factsheets/ADHD%5FEF%5Fand%5FSR.pdf?ref=adhdproductivity.org)
- Marx, I., et al. (2021). *ADHD and the Choice of Small Immediate Over Larger Delayed Rewards: A Comparative Meta-Analysis.* Journal of Attention Disorders. [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1087054718772138](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1087054718772138?ref=adhdproductivity.org)
- Solanto, M.V., et al. (2010). *Efficacy of Meta-Cognitive Therapy for Adult ADHD.* American Journal of Psychiatry. [https://psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.ajp.2009.09081123](https://psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.ajp.2009.09081123?ref=adhdproductivity.org)
- Zheng, Q., et al. (2022). *Time Perception Deficits in Children and Adolescents with ADHD: A Meta-analysis.* Journal of Attention Disorders. [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33302769/](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33302769/?ref=adhdproductivity.org)

*This article is for information only and isn't medical advice. See my* [*medical disclaimer*](https://adhdproductivity.org/medical-disclaimer/)*.*