Comparison

Apple Reminders vs Todoist: Why People Switch Both Ways

By Vyshakh Nair, Founder, Ultra Reminders · Updated May 6, 2026 · 8 min read
Part of the master guide: Apple Reminders vs Every Major To-Do App in 2026

Apple Reminders vs Todoist is free Apple-only vs $48-a-year cross-platform: Todoist wins on natural language and Windows/Android, Reminders wins on iCloud sync and Apple Intelligence.

So here is the thing nobody mentions in these comparisons. People switch both ways. Constantly. Last March, I watched a friend named Priya cancel her three-year Todoist subscription, move everything to Reminders for "the iCloud life", then six weeks later quietly re-subscribe because her Windows work laptop made her feel like she had lost a limb. The Reddit threads on r/todoist and r/macapps are full of these round trips. This is not a one-way migration story. It is a tradeoff matrix, and the tradeoffs are real on both sides. Ultra Reminders sits beside both for the AI capture layer most people end up wanting anyway, but we will get there.

We tested both apps on macOS 26.1 and iOS 26.2 in May 2026. Todoist Pro is now $48 a year if you pay annually, $5 a month if you pay monthly. Reminders is free, full stop. That price gap is real but it is not the whole story.

Quick verdict

Pick Todoist if you live across Windows, Android, or the web and you need true natural language input that strips dates from the title. Pick Apple Reminders if you live entirely in the Apple ecosystem and you want zero-config iCloud sync, Apple Intelligence, and free. Pick Ultra Reminders if you want Apple Reminders' ecosystem with Todoist's natural language and AI on top, for $35 once.

Side by side

Feature Apple Reminders Todoist
Price Free $48/year (Pro), free tier limited
Platforms Apple only (iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS) All major: iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, Linux, web
Natural language input Partial, leaves text in title Full, strips dates and times
Subtasks 1 level deep 4 levels deep
Recurring rules Daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, custom interval Every 3rd Wed, last business day, etc.
Smart lists / filters Yes, native Yes, "Filters" (Pro only)
Tags Hashtag syntax Labels (Pro for unlimited)
Kanban view Yes (sections as columns) Yes, Boards (Pro)
Calendar integration Reads via macOS Calendar 2-way Google + Outlook (Pro)
Sharing iCloud shared lists, free Up to 5 collaborators free, 25 (Pro)
AI features Apple Intelligence (15 Pro+) Todoist AI Assistant (Pro)
Sync model iCloud, eventually consistent Cloud, real-time
Email-to-task Apple Intelligence + Mail Forward to project email
Voice capture Siri Siri Shortcut + native dictation
Apple Watch Native Native
Templates Yes Yes (Pro)
Reminders (push notif) Yes Pro only for time-based
Web access iCloud.com (read-mostly) Full web app

That table is the headline. Now the texture.

Where Apple Reminders wins

  • Free. No subscription. Pre-installed on every Apple device.
  • Sub-second sync to Apple Watch. Native widget complications, glance-tap-done.
  • Apple Intelligence auto-categorization on iPhone 15 Pro and later. Drop "buy oat milk" into the inbox, it lands in Groceries automatically.
  • Tight Calendar integration. Today view shows your calendar events alongside reminders. No bridge needed.
  • iMessage integration. Share a list with family in two taps.
  • Action Button on iPhone 15 Pro and later. One-tap capture from anywhere.
  • Email-to-reminder via Writing Tools in Mail. Highlight text, "create reminder", done.
  • Geofencing for location alerts. Native, no third-party plugin.
  • No cloud account required beyond iCloud which you already have.
  • Free for shared lists with unlimited collaborators in your iCloud family.

"I cancelled Todoist when I realized 90% of what I was paying for, Reminders had quietly added in iOS 17."

  • paraphrased from r/AppleHelp, January 2026

Where Todoist wins

  • Cross-platform. Real, full-featured Windows and Android clients. This is the killer if you have a work-issued PC.
  • Natural language input that actually works. Type "submit timesheet every other Friday at 5pm p1" and Todoist strips the date, parses the recurrence, sets priority 1, all in the title field. Apple Reminders cannot do this. Read Natural Language Tasks Explained for the deep version.
  • Better recurring rules. "Every other Tuesday", "last business day of every month", "every 10 days from now". Apple Reminders refuses to do these.
  • 4-level nested subtasks. Apple Reminders caps at 1.
  • Karma gamification. Surprisingly motivating for some brains. Surprisingly annoying for others.
  • 2-way Google Calendar sync in Pro. Tasks become events.
  • Email forwarding to projects. Forward any email to a project address, becomes a task.
  • Filters are more flexible than Apple's smart lists. Boolean operators, nested logic.
  • Real-time collaboration. Comments on tasks, threaded discussion, file attachments.

"Todoist is the only app where I can type 'every 3rd Wednesday at 9am' and it just works. I tried this in Reminders and it created a task called 'every 3rd Wednesday at 9am' due today."

  • paraphrased from r/todoist, March 2026

That quote captures the natural language ceiling exactly. It is the single biggest reason people pay for Todoist. And it is the same gap Ultra Reminders closes inside the Apple ecosystem, for $35 once instead of $48 a year.

The cross-platform argument is also real and underrated. If you have an iPhone in your pocket, a MacBook on your desk, and a Windows machine your IT department issued you, Apple Reminders dies at the third device. The iCloud.com web interface is read-mostly and clunky. Forget about Android entirely. Todoist runs natively on every platform anyone has ever made, including a halfway-decent Linux client. For people whose work and personal devices straddle the platform line, this is not negotiable.

There is also the speed of natural language refinement. Apple's parser was last meaningfully upgraded in iOS 16. Todoist ships parser improvements every 2-3 months. As of May 2026, Todoist's natural language correctly handles things like "next Tuesday at 3pm but not if it's a holiday", "every weekday after 5pm except Friday", and "in 2 weeks at noon". Apple Reminders gets the basic ones right. Apple is conservative in this area, which is good for stability and bad for power.

Pricing

Todoist Pro is $48 a year. Or $5 a month. The free tier exists but caps you at 5 active projects, no reminders (the push notifications, ironically), no filters, no labels beyond a small allowance. Most people on Todoist are paying.

Apple Reminders is free. Forever. No tiers.

Total cost of ownership over 3 years: Todoist Pro is $144. Apple Reminders is $0. Ultra Reminders is $35 once, no subscription, ever.

For people who want Todoist's natural language and recurring rules but live in the Apple ecosystem, Ultra Reminders is the cheaper and more aligned answer. For people who genuinely need Windows or Android, Todoist is unmatched. We covered the case for moving from Todoist back to native in How to Migrate from Todoist to Apple Reminders, if you are mid-pivot.

The hidden cost in Todoist is feature churn. New features get added regularly to justify the subscription. Some are useful (Boards, AI Assistant). Some are noise (achievement badges, color themes). The maintenance load creeps up because there is always a new view or filter to learn. Apple Reminders is intentionally boring. It does not change much between iOS releases. For some brains, that calm is worth more than $48 a year all by itself.

Honestly, the truest comparison is total time spent. We tested both apps across a working week in April 2026. Apple Reminders required about 4 minutes of "tinkering" per week (adjusting smart lists, tagging things). Todoist required closer to 25 minutes (setting up filters, managing labels, trying new AI features, browsing the templates gallery). Neither time is huge, but the difference compounds. Over a year that is 10 hours of life. Pick whichever app's tinkering you find genuinely enjoyable, because you will do it.

The Todoist free tier deserves a separate note. It caps you at 5 active projects, no time-based push reminders (the actual notification feature, ironically named for an app called Todoist), no filters, no labels beyond a tiny allowance, no Boards view. If you are serious about Todoist, you are paying for Pro within a week. So when comparing free Apple Reminders to "free" Todoist, you are really comparing fully-featured Reminders against crippled Todoist. Pro is the meaningful comparison and Pro is $48 a year.

Who should pick which

  1. You are 100% in the Apple ecosystem and you want free. Apple Reminders. Add Ultra Reminders if you hit the natural language or recurring rules ceiling.
  2. You have a work-issued Windows laptop or an Android phone. Todoist. The cross-platform parity is genuinely unmatched.
  3. You need true natural language input but want to stay native. Ultra Reminders + Apple Reminders. Read the Ultra Reminders vs Todoist comparison for the head-to-head.
  4. You collaborate with people on multiple platforms in real time. Todoist. The comments and threading are better than iCloud shared lists.
  5. You have ADHD and capture speed is everything. Apple Reminders Action Button + Ultra Reminders quick-capture hotkey. The capture-to-store time is sub-second on both, faster than Todoist's 2-3 seconds.
  6. You only use Apple Reminders for grocery lists and quick reminders. Apple Reminders. Save the $48.
  7. You run real GTD with contexts, areas, and weekly reviews. Either works. Todoist's filters give you more horsepower. Apple Reminders' smart lists are easier to set up. Read The 2026 GTD Setup with Apple Reminders for the native version.

If you want a wider angle on Apple Reminders alternatives in general, 7 Best Apple Reminders Alternatives in 2026 ranks all the major contenders.

"I switched from Todoist to Reminders. Six months later I switched back. Now I just use both. Todoist for work, Reminders for personal. Stop trying to find one app."

  • paraphrased from r/productivity, February 2026

For the full comparison of Apple Reminders against every major to-do app in 2026, see Apple Reminders vs Every Major To-Do App in 2026.

FAQ

Q: Is Todoist worth $48 a year over Apple Reminders?

A: If you live across multiple platforms (Windows, Android, web), yes. If you are 100% Apple, probably not. Apple Reminders has closed most of the feature gap since iOS 17.

Q: Can I import Todoist projects into Apple Reminders?

A: Not directly. There is no native import. You can export Todoist as CSV, then use Shortcuts or AppleScript to recreate the structure. Read How to Migrate from Todoist to Apple Reminders for the full walkthrough.

Q: Does Todoist have Apple Watch support?

A: Yes, native Apple Watch app with complications. Functionally similar to Reminders on watchOS.

Q: Why does Apple Reminders leave "tomorrow 5pm" in the task title?

A: Apple Reminders parses dates partially but does not strip the parsed text. This is the single biggest natural language complaint. Ultra Reminders fixes this by stripping parsed entities cleanly. See Apple Reminders vs Ticktick for how TickTick handles the same problem differently.

Q: Can Todoist and Apple Reminders sync to each other?

A: No native bridge. Some third-party Shortcuts attempt this. None are reliable as of May 2026. Pick one as primary or accept the duplication tax. Capture-speed-wise, Apple Reminders with the Action Button on iPhone 15 Pro is hardware-fast (one physical button), faster than Todoist's quick-add which still routes through the app.

Ultra Reminders solves true natural language and recurrence without a $48-a-year subscription. Free 14-day trial at ultrareminders.com.