TickTick is very good software, which makes leaving it a strange decision to explain. I used it for a long time before building my own app. The reasons people go looking for an alternative are usually not about quality at all: the free tier turned out to be tighter than it looked, the calendar and kanban views are behind Premium, or, most often, there is simply too much on screen and you have stopped knowing which list is the real one.
Here is what to switch to, depending on which of those it is. Taskaro is mine, so weigh that section accordingly.
First, Know What You Will Miss
TickTick bundles four things most apps do not have together: tasks, a habit tracker, a Pomodoro timer and a calendar with real event overlay. Almost nothing replaces all four. So before switching, work out which ones you actually used, as opposed to which ones you set up once.
When I left, I discovered I had used the timer daily, the calendar weekly, and the habit tracker not for four months despite having fourteen habits configured in it. That made the decision much easier.
The Options, Compared
| App | Price | Timer | Habits | Calendar | Board |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Todoist | Free or $4/mo | No | No | Pro | Pro |
| Microsoft To Do | Free | No | No | No | No |
| Google Tasks | Free | No | No | Via Calendar | No |
| Habitica | Free or about $5/mo | No | Yes, gamified | No | No |
| Any list app plus Forest | Varies | Yes, separate | No | Varies | Varies |
| Taskaro | Free or $3.49/mo | Yes, free | No, activity graph | Week view, free | Yes, free |
1. Todoist: If You Want Polish Over Breadth
The mainstream swap. Better natural-language input than TickTick, cleaner interface, and the best ecosystem of integrations in the category. The free tier allows unlimited tasks across five projects, which beats TickTick's 99-tasks-per-list ceiling for most people.
What you lose: the timer and the habit tracker, entirely. The calendar and board layouts are Pro at about $4 a month, so if those were the TickTick features you were paying for, you are paying again and getting slightly less. The Todoist roundup covers the reverse direction.
2. Microsoft To Do or Google Tasks: If It Is About the Money
Both free, both unlimited, both very basic. If your TickTick usage was really just a list with dates, and Premium felt like paying for features you never opened, either of these ends the subscription today with no functional loss.
What you lose: everything structural. No timer, no habits, no board, no stats. Microsoft To Do's My Day view is the one genuine idea here and it is a good one.
3. Keep the Timer Separate: A List App Plus Forest
Worth naming because it is what a lot of people actually do. Use any list app you like and run Forest or Focus To-Do next to it for sessions. If the TickTick feature you cared about was the Pomodoro timer, a dedicated timer app is better at it than TickTick is, with more interval control and real blocking.
What you lose: the connection. The timer does not know what is on your list, so you retype the task every session, which is the exact friction that made me stop doing it. Two apps, two records of the same work.
4. Habitica: If Habits Were the Point
If the thing you will miss is the habit tracker, go somewhere that treats habits as the product rather than a side panel. Habitica gamifies them properly, and the habit app roundup covers Streaks and Loop as simpler options.
What you lose: serious task management. None of these are a real replacement for TickTick's task side.
5. Taskaro: If There Was Just Too Much
Mine, and it only answers one of the reasons above: the screen is too busy and you do not know which list is real. The answer is that there is only one, a kanban board, no Inbox versus Today split, no smart lists, no tags, no filters. Plus flat notes with no folders, a calendar week view, a contribution graph of your whole year, and Focus Mode, a timer that starts from a task on the board. The board and the timer are both on the free tier, which is the one place the comparison with TickTick genuinely flatters me.
The catch, plainly: no habit tracker at all, and the activity graph is not a substitute if you want per-habit streaks. The timer is much simpler than TickTick's, with no interval system, no configurable long breaks and no session statistics. No calendar event overlay. No iOS app. Free tier is 3 tasks a day, 3 notes and 2 focus sessions, tighter than TickTick's. Pro is $3.49 a month or $26.99 a year. The head-to-head is more detailed.
Pick by Your Actual Reason
- Hit the 9-list or 99-task limit: Todoist, or Microsoft To Do for free.
- Did not want to pay for Premium views: Taskaro, where the board and calendar are free.
- Too much on screen: Taskaro or Microsoft To Do.
- Only used the timer: a dedicated timer app, or Taskaro if you want it attached to the task.
- Only used habits: Habitica, Streaks or Loop.
- Want the same breadth, done differently: honestly, stay. Nothing else bundles all four things as well.
The Honest Advice
TickTick is one of the few apps where "use fewer of its features" is a real alternative to switching. Hide the habit panel, delete your smart lists, use one list and the timer. If that fixes it, you have kept the best task app in the category and lost nothing.
Switch when the problem is structural rather than cosmetic: you are paying for views that should be standard, you want a board without a subscription, or a flat list with four competing views is never going to be the thing you open on a bad day.