Full disclosure before anything else: I built one of the apps on this list. Taskaro is mine. I'm a solo founder, not a review site, and there are no affiliate links here.
That's exactly why I wrote this. Most "best free task manager" lists are written by people who spent ten minutes in each app and get paid when you click. I've spent years inside these apps. Some of them I used daily before building my own. So here's the honest version, including the places where my app is not the right answer.
The focus is what the free tier actually gives you, because "free" means six different things across these six apps.
The Free Tiers at a Glance
| App | Free task limit | Board view free? | Timer free? | Paid from | Platforms |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Todoist | Unlimited tasks, 5 projects | No (Pro) | No timer | $4/mo | Everything |
| TickTick | 9 lists, 99 tasks each | No (Premium) | Yes | $3.99/mo | Everything |
| Google Tasks | Unlimited, no paid tier | No board at all | No timer | Free forever | Web, iOS, Android |
| Microsoft To Do | Unlimited, no paid tier | No board at all | No timer | Free forever | Everything |
| Any.do | Unlimited tasks, with ads | No board at all | No timer | About $3/mo | Everything |
| Taskaro | 3 tasks/day, 3 notes | Yes | Yes (2 sessions/day) | $3.49/mo | Android, web |
1. Todoist: Best Free Tier for List Lovers
Todoist's free plan gives you five personal projects, natural language input, and apps on every platform that exists. The polish is real. Type "submit report every Friday at 4pm" and it just works.
The catch: five projects fills up faster than you'd think, and the features that make Todoist feel complete, reminders, filters, the calendar and board layouts, sit behind Pro at around $4 per month.
Pick Todoist if you think in lists, want natural language input, and need iOS or desktop apps. It's the safest all-round choice on this list. I wrote a longer Todoist vs Taskaro comparison if you're deciding between those two, and a wider roundup of Todoist alternatives if you've already decided to leave.
2. TickTick: Best Free Tier for Feature Depth
TickTick's free tier is arguably the most generous on raw features: tasks, a habit tracker, and a working Pomodoro timer, all before paying. Premium is around $3.99 a month and adds the calendar view, the kanban view, and far higher list limits.
The catch: the free caps are structural rather than obvious. Nine lists, 99 tasks per list, two reminders per task. And all of it is always on screen. TickTick is a power tool, and the free tier hands you every dial and switch on day one. Some people love that. Others spend six months configuring it and then quietly stop opening the app. I was the second kind of person, and I wrote about it in TickTick vs Taskaro.
Pick TickTick if you genuinely want habits, Pomodoro, and tasks in one app and you enjoy tuning your setup.
3. Google Tasks: Most Free, Least App
Google Tasks has no paid tier at all. Everything it does, it does free, forever. It lives inside Gmail and Google Calendar, which makes capture effortless if you live in Google's world.
The catch: it does very little. Flat lists, subtasks, dates. No board view, no notes, no stats, no export. It's a shopping list with sync. That's not an insult, it's a design choice, and for errands it's the right one. I covered where it runs out in the Google Tasks alternatives roundup.
Pick Google Tasks if your tasks are simple, personal, and mostly come from email.
4. Microsoft To Do: The Other Genuinely Free One
Microsoft To Do is also completely free with no task limits, and its "My Day" view is the best thing on it: a scratch list that empties itself every morning so yesterday's guilt doesn't carry over. It pulls in flagged Outlook email the way Google Tasks pulls from Gmail.
The catch: same ceiling as Google Tasks. Flat lists, no board, no notes section, no stats, no export. Free with no limits is a real advantage, right up until the structure is the thing you needed. Microsoft To Do vs Taskaro goes deeper on that trade.
Pick Microsoft To Do if you want unlimited and free, and your email is Outlook.
5. Any.do: Best Free Tier for a Daily Planning Ritual
Any.do's signature feature is the daily "Plan my Day" review, which walks you through your list each morning. The free tier covers basic tasks, lists, and reminders across mobile and web. Premium runs roughly $3 a month.
The catch: ads on the free tier, and a lot of the interesting features, recurring reminders, color tags, integrations, are paid. There's no board at any tier. The daily review is genuinely nice, but it's a habit you could replicate in any app.
Pick Any.do if the guided morning planning ritual is the thing that keeps you consistent.
6. Taskaro: Best Free Tier for Kanban Thinkers
Mine, so judge accordingly. Taskaro's free tier gives you 3 tasks per day, 3 notes, 2 focus sessions a day, the kanban board, the calendar week view, Google sign-in, and sync between Android and web. Pro is $3.49 per month or $26.99 per year and removes the limits, plus adds the contribution graph, meeting tracking, and PDF export.
The catch, stated plainly: 3 tasks per day is the tightest task limit on this list by a wide margin. It's designed for you to test the workflow, not to run a business on for free. There's no iOS app yet, and the kanban board is web only. If you need iOS or unlimited free tasks, pick Todoist or TickTick above and don't think twice about it.
Pick Taskaro if you think in columns instead of lists, want a personal kanban board as the default view rather than a paid upgrade, and want the focus timer attached to the task instead of living in a seventh app.
The Comparison, Compressed
- Most polished lists: Todoist
- Most free features: TickTick
- Most free, period: Google Tasks and Microsoft To Do
- Best planning ritual: Any.do
- Only free kanban board plus timer: Taskaro
What "Free" Actually Costs You
Worth naming the pattern across all six: the free tier is never the product, it's the shape of the paid one. Todoist limits projects because projects are how teams grow. TickTick limits views because views are the upsell. Google and Microsoft give it all away because your attention is already paid for elsewhere. Taskaro limits volume because volume is what Pro sells. None of that is a scandal, but read any free tier as a preview, not a permanent home.
How to Actually Choose
Don't read more comparisons. Pick the two that sound closest to how your brain works, and give each one three real days with your actual tasks. Not test tasks. Real ones.
The right task manager is the one you open on a bad day without thinking about it. Every app on this list is free enough to find out which one that is.