Todoist has earned its reputation as one of the most capable task managers available. It works everywhere - iPhone, Android, Mac, Windows, web, browser extensions - and keeps everything in sync reliably. For teams and individuals who need consistent task management across every platform and device, Todoist is one of the safest choices you can make.
The natural language input alone is impressive. Type “Submit report every Friday at 3pm” and Todoist understands. Labels, filters, priorities, sub-tasks, comments, file attachments, collaboration - it’s a mature product that covers the task management space thoroughly.
So why would you look for an alternative?
Todoist’s strength is that it’s a complete, reliable task management system that works the same way no matter which device you pick up.
Here’s the tension: Todoist is excellent at tracking what needs to be done. It’s less helpful at capturing why something needs to be done, or the information you need to actually do it.
A task like “Write blog post about Q3 results” is clear enough. But where are the notes from the meeting where this was discussed? Where’s the research you’ve been collecting? The voice memo where your manager explained the angle they want? The three web articles with competitor data you need to reference?
In Todoist, a task has a title, a description field, some comments, and file attachments. This covers simple context. But for knowledge work - where tasks live inside larger projects with notes, recordings, references, and research - the context often ends up scattered across multiple apps.
You might have:
Everything connects to the same project, but the connections exist only in your memory. This works until a project gets complex enough that you can’t hold all the connections in your head.
The main reason to leave Todoist for something else on iOS is wanting tasks and their context in one place. Look for apps where to-do items can sit alongside notes, voice recordings, web clippings, and files - not as separate features, but interleaved within the same workspace.
If you’re switching from Todoist on iPhone specifically, consider whether native iOS performance matters to you. Todoist’s iPhone app is good, but it’s a cross-platform app - the same core experience adapted for iOS. Native iOS apps built specifically for iPhone tend to feel faster and more responsive, with better gesture support and offline reliability.
Todoist organizes by projects, labels, and filters. Whatever you switch to needs organizational tools that are at least as capable. Consider whether you want folders, nested notes, tags, color coding, or some combination.
Todoist works offline but syncs when connectivity returns. This is table stakes - don’t accept an alternative that requires internet to function on your phone.
Be honest about this. Todoist’s cross-platform coverage is exceptional. Its collaboration features are mature. Its recurring task engine is powerful. If any of these are critical to your workflow, make sure your alternative handles them - or accept the tradeoff knowingly.
Unit Notes is built around a different idea: instead of keeping tasks in one app and notes in another, everything lives in one block-based canvas on your iPhone.
In Unit, a project isn’t just a list of tasks. It’s a note that can contain text blocks, to-do items, voice recordings, images, saved web pages, and file attachments - all mixed together in whatever structure makes sense. To-do items live right next to the meeting notes they came from. A voice recording sits below the tasks it relates to. A saved web article sits alongside your notes about it.
You can nest notes inside notes, creating hierarchical structures. A “Q3 Blog Post” project might contain sub-notes for research, drafts, and tasks - each with their own blocks of mixed content.
The honest tradeoff: Unit is not Todoist. It doesn’t have natural language date parsing, recurring tasks, cross-platform sync (it’s iOS only), team collaboration, or Todoist’s powerful filter system. If those features are essential, Unit isn’t the right replacement.
But if your primary frustration with Todoist is that your tasks feel disconnected from the notes, recordings, and references that give them meaning - and you primarily use your iPhone - Unit solves that specific problem.
Things 3 is the most refined task manager on iOS. It doesn’t solve the context problem (tasks and notes are still separate), but if you want a better pure task experience on iPhone, it’s worth considering. Beautiful design, excellent scheduling model, fully native.
Notion can handle tasks and notes together with databases, kanban boards, and rich pages. It’s the most flexible option but comes with tradeoffs on iPhone: slower than native, limited offline support.
Apple Reminders + Apple Notes together give you free, native task management and note-taking. They’re separate apps, but both are fast, reliable, and well-integrated with iOS. For many people, this combination is enough.
TickTick offers task management with some note-taking capabilities, a calendar view, habit tracking, and a Pomodoro timer. More feature-rich than Todoist in some areas, with decent iPhone support.
Stay with Todoist if:
Consider Things 3 if:
Consider Notion if:
Consider Unit Notes if:
The honest take: Todoist is excellent at what it does. If your frustration is with task management itself - features, views, scheduling - there are alternatives that do task management differently. But if your frustration is that tasks live in one world and everything else lives in another, the answer isn’t a better task manager. It’s an app that doesn’t draw that line.
For more on how tasks and notes are converging, see Love Things 3? Here’s an App That Does Tasks and Notes Together.
