Google Tasks is the to-do app most people already have. It is free, it sits in the Gmail sidebar, and it syncs with the account you already use for everything else. I ran it for months. Then I went looking for something else, and so do a lot of people, for the same three reasons every time: no board view, no notes, and no record of whether you actually showed up this week.
Here are the alternatives worth trying in 2026, what each one does better than Google Tasks, and where each one is a worse deal. I build one of the apps on this list, Taskaro, so read that section with the appropriate suspicion.
First, Be Honest About What Google Tasks Gets Right
Google Tasks is genuinely free. Not freemium, not trial-based, free. Adding a task while reading an email takes two clicks. Tasks with dates land on Google Calendar automatically. The mobile app is fast and uncluttered.
If your list is "buy milk, call dentist, renew passport," you do not need any app on this page. Stay where you are. The reason to leave is specific: Google Tasks gives you lists and subtasks and nothing else. No kanban board, so a task you started yesterday looks identical to one you have been avoiding for three weeks. No notes section, so anything not attached to a task needs a second app. No stats, so completed tasks just vanish. No export, so when someone asks what you got done this week, you have no answer.
The Alternatives, Compared
| App | Free tier | Paid from | Board view | Built-in timer | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google Tasks | Everything, unlimited | Free | No | No | Errands inside Gmail |
| Todoist | 5 projects, 5 collaborators | $4/mo | Yes (board view) | No | Natural-language capture |
| TickTick | 9 lists, 99 tasks each, 2 reminders | $3.99/mo | Yes (Pro only) | Yes (Pomodoro) | One app for everything |
| Microsoft To Do | Everything, unlimited | Free | No | No | Outlook and Microsoft 365 users |
| Any.do | Unlimited tasks, with ads | About $3/mo | No | No | A guided daily planning ritual |
| Notion | Unlimited blocks, solo use | $10/mo | Yes | No | Building your own system |
| Taskaro | 3 tasks/day, 3 notes, 2 focus sessions/day | $3.49/mo | Yes (free) | Yes (free) | Board plus notes plus a timer, nothing else |
1. Todoist: The Safe Upgrade
Todoist is what most people switch to, and it is a reasonable default. Type "report every Monday at 9am" and it parses the date, the time and the recurrence without you touching a date picker. That alone is worth the move for a lot of people.
Better than Google Tasks at: capture speed, recurring rules, labels and filters, a real board view, integrations with basically everything.
Worse at: the free tier caps you at five projects, and the things people assume are standard, reminders, task-level comments, filters, sit behind the $4/mo Pro plan. There is no timer, so focus still happens in a different app. I wrote a longer breakdown in Todoist vs Taskaro.
2. TickTick: The Most Features Per Dollar
TickTick is the closest thing to a do-everything app on this list: tasks, a calendar, habits, a Pomodoro timer, and a solid widget set, all in one install. If you want to consolidate four apps into one, start here.
Better than Google Tasks at: nearly everything, including a built-in Pomodoro timer that actually connects to your tasks.
Worse at: the free tier is tighter than it looks, 9 lists, 99 tasks each, 2 reminders per task, and the calendar and kanban views are Pro-only at $3.99/mo. All those features also mean more surface area to learn. See TickTick vs Taskaro for where that tips over.
3. Microsoft To Do: The Other Free One
If you are leaving Google Tasks because of Google rather than because of the features, Microsoft To Do is the straight swap. It is fully free, it has a genuinely nice "My Day" view that resets each morning, and it hooks into Outlook flagged email the way Tasks hooks into Gmail.
Worse at: it has the same structural ceiling. Flat lists, no board, no notes app, no stats, no export. You are trading one flat list for a slightly nicer flat list. Microsoft To Do vs Taskaro covers that in detail.
4. Any.do: Best If You Want to Be Walked Through Your Day
Any.do's "Plan My Day" ritual pushes you through every open task each morning and makes you decide: today, tomorrow, or later. For people whose real problem is that they never actually plan, that is a feature and not a gimmick.
Worse at: the free tier shows ads, there is no board at any tier, and no timer. Premium runs around $3/mo.
5. Notion: Only If You Enjoy Building the Tool
Notion can be a better task manager than any app here, but only after you build it. Databases, views, relations, filters, it is all there, and the free personal plan is generous.
Worse at: starting. You will spend an evening on a system before you track a single task, it is slow to open on mobile, and there is nothing to keep you from redesigning your setup instead of working. Notion vs Taskaro is the longer version.
6. Taskaro: A Board, Notes, and a Timer, Nothing Else
This is mine, so here is the plain version. Taskaro was built for the exact gap I hit with Google Tasks: a kanban board so the state of the work is visible, a notes section with no folders to maintain, a calendar week view, a contribution graph covering the whole year, PDF export, and a focus timer that pulls the task straight off the board instead of making you retype it into a second app. Same Google sign-in, so there is no new password.
Worse at: the free tier is the tightest on this list, 3 tasks a day, 3 notes, 2 focus sessions a day. There is no iOS app yet, Android and web only. No email integration, no natural-language date parsing, no collaboration. Pro is $3.49/mo or $26.99/yr.
Which One to Actually Pick
- Stay on Google Tasks if your list is errands and it lives in Gmail. Nothing here beats free and already installed.
- Pick Todoist if you want the mainstream upgrade and type your dates in plain English.
- Pick TickTick if you want one app to replace your task list, calendar, habit tracker and timer.
- Pick Microsoft To Do if you want free and you live in Outlook.
- Pick Any.do if the morning planning ritual is what you are missing.
- Pick Notion if building the system is part of the fun.
- Pick Taskaro if you want a board, notes and a timer in one calm app and nothing else competing for attention.
Switching Takes About Five Minutes
None of these have a real Google Tasks importer, and you do not need one. Open your Google Tasks list, retype the five or six things that genuinely matter, and let the rest go. Most of what is sitting in there has been sitting in there for a reason. A migration is a good excuse to stop pretending you are going to do it.
The question was never which app is better. It is whether your tasks have outgrown a flat list. If they have, you already know, because you feel it every time you open the sidebar and a pile of undifferentiated tasks stares back.