Can Apple Reminders Cut It Against Todoist?

The main way that Reminders falls down big time, however, is that it's only available on Apple devices. Todoist, however, is a true cross-platform app... yes, it's even available natively (as a Snap) on the Linux desktop. 🙂

You certainly can select several items and drag them in Reminders on desktop. Maybe that's new, but this video is incorrect on that point.

Nice comparison. The biggest drawback of apple reminders is email integration. I think many of us get tasks via email. In Todoist I love being able to forward an email to a specific list. Then I can open the task (and the critical info the email contains) for doing the work. Last I checked you could drag an email to a reminder on iOS (for example on an iPad) but that link would not then open the email on a different device, like a laptop or your iPhone, effectively making it useless IMO.

I was intrigued by your comment that you can't multiselect on Reminders on MacOS. You're not correct: just select, and press <Command>. Then you can move them between lists.

A lot of feature which you mentioned on Todoist are a paid feature however on Reminders it's free. Yeah $5 might not seem much but it is still an expense. Specially if you are planning to use Todoist for rest of your life it does adds up.
I agree to your conclusion that whatever works for you is the best todo manager and ToDoist is a great team who are constantly evolving and more completion is only better.

I don't really agree with you
For organise: Apple Reminders can also organise on desktop, simply with by command-clicking on a task, so i think both win for organise
And saying that you're not switching because you're using your laptop is not really a reason, just because Todoist has shortcuts ? But Reminders has shortcuts too, it's cmd+N to add a new task.
I think that the app choice just depends on how you feel when you use the app, it's very personally. So maybe you prefer Todoist over Apple Reminders because you feel more comfortable, better, and not for little reasons like shortcuts or multi-select.

List sharing does not seem to work at all though. Googling revealed it being quite a big problem. What a strange major bug to have and remain. Such a simple feature that haven’t been fixed.

Sonoma pronounced Suh-NO-ma.

Useful comparison!

First of all determine
1) the needs (personal life, business, education etc.)
2) environment (Mac, Win, Linux)
3) and eventually - tools

IMHO
Apple Reminders - for simple personal tasks (buy bread, pay rent etc.)
Todoist - for complex projects (business, work, education, self-gorwth etc.)

I've tried a lot of productivity apps (Google Calendar/Tasks/Keep/Sheets/Docs, Microsoft To-Do, TickTick, Todoist, Apple Reminders/Notes, Any Do, Remember the milk etc.)

Apple Reminders
+ life time free
+ super quick access on the go ("Hey Siri...")
+ full ecosystem support (Phone, Watch, Mac)
+ UI/UX design
- ecosystem (no cross platform)
- insufficient functionality (filters, views)

Todoist
+ cross-platforming (full access from any device around the world)
+ functionality (projects, sub projects, lists, tasks with 5 level subtasks!, file attachment, comments, filters, labels, integration with top platforms (Google, Microsoft, Jira etc.))
+ super quick access from PC/Mac (keyboard shortcuts)
- paid subscription (free version - no reminders, limited amount of projects)
- separate issues with UI logic (showing completed tasks, no way to set recurring reminders without natural language input etc.)

I use Todoist for work (with small team) and personal projects (PC in office). It has powerful project structure. I literally able to write down the whole project in one task (with 5 level subtasks), attach all work files/links/comments.
And that all in free version.

After iOS17 update I tried Reminders (it's polished, simple, attractive and free) for project purposes. But (in my case) - not. For full-fledged work I need full-fledged tool )

For me Apple reminders since I use a Mac at work, have an iPhone and watch… yes I prefer Apple’s to todoist

Just checked, reminders DOES allow to move several tasks to a folder on desktop. Select one and select another one with shift. Using Ventura.

Nice work :) I am actually currently deciding whether I should stick to Todoist or just use Reminders, as it is free and included in all my devices... But there'sa few things that drag me back to Todoist.

1. It's everywhere: operating systems, mobile devices, extensions.... everywhere. I have no plans to leave the Apple ecosystem anytime soon, but it gives me peace of mind knowing that I can just pick up where I left with any new device I may have in the future.

2. Constant updates: the release frequency of new features or improvements is just way higher than the yearly cycle Apple has for significant new features in Reminders.

3. Offers an easy way to sync with my calendar (Google and iCal) and, more importantly, link the calendar back to the task in the Todoist app on any device I am using. I know this is not for everyone, but I like it and it helps me jump back quickly to the info I need when I need them. Maybe this can be achieved with shortcuts+reminders too, but it's definitely not as easy and smooth.

4. I can add emails as tasks to Todoist just by forwarding them.

Hello Carl ... your videos seem great and incredibly useful to me ... I want to say that if you press the CMD + [Each item in the list] you can select them as you do with TodoIst and drag them to other lists ... and also keep in mind that you must click on the left side of each item.

Again, thank you very much and you are great.

I really appreciate what you have done for so many people. Personally, I think COD is the best system ever created. But sometimes, like all of us, you also make mistakes and this movie is not as good as it could be, it is also a bit misleading. Firstly, you can select multiple tasks just like in Todoist and it is very simple. The difficulty is to learn how to select tasks correctly and then it will have the same functionality as Todoist. For me it's very simple. Secondly, you also have Siri on your Macbook, making collecting stuff just as easy as on your mobile device. I think it's worth considering switching from Todoist to Reminders because the simplicity of the COD system doesn't require a tool as powerful as Todoist. This is my opinion, don't be offended. I get the feeling you're considering switching to Reminders, but it's a hard decision. Am i wrong? ;) If not i can prepare shortcut for you with same functionality like quick add task with Todoist. In collecting it's all about saving stuffs to Inbox, so it's just text variable with input alert and then passing it to add ... to ... list action. You can add keyboard shortcut and that's it. Works great. Have a nice day.

The one big advantage that Todoist has over Apple reminders is its natural language processing. It can be such a pain to input recurring tasks on specific days (e.g., every 14th of the month) on the reminders app.

The one feature that I’m missing in Todoist is notification reminders but that alone isn’t worth upgrading from the free tier for me.

I’ve been able to improve my Todoist/Siri compatibility by asking Siri to “Add [task] to Todoist.” That seems to work, although I don’t know if that’s an improvement in Siri or me training the program by brute force.

You failed to mention a HUGE difference - Apple reminders (assuming you're in the Apple ecosystem) is FREE; Todoist charges around $38/year for the premium version. I have used Todoist for years and love it, but not renewing on my next expiration date as Reminders is 'close enough' to warrant the change and cost savings.

It really shows Apple doesn't care much about improving Reminders. It's not something that sells, nobody buys Apple stuff for Reminders. So they do the bare minimum to have some market share of task managers, and that's it.

Apple reminders is free though that does it for me

Raycast works great for creating reminders with a keyboard shortcut, even has priority, date with natural language processing, list selection all in a very simple format. Also you can select multiple tasks and drag and drop on Mac, it works fine. The biggest issue I have with reminders is the power of the smart lists for multiple criteria, but I've found workarounds which give me what I need using folders containing smart lists which in some respects is better than Todoist cause I can shift items between lists and they get auto tagged etc when working in there. Todoist has been great, but the inconsistency between platforms, especially with Siri at home, watch and iPhone makes it painful. Also bugs with widgets among other things continue to frustrate. I'm in the process of switching to reminders now.

The biggest limitation for Apple Reminder actually lies on it's smart list function. Smart list does not support including multiple conditions under the same "option". For example, we cannot set a smart list with multiple "date" and "time" limits.
Interestingly, Apple did not place any limit on Apple Notes and you can add any options on a Apple Note smart folder.

Although Todoist sort of has a quick entry, it still does not have full apple shortcuts support on iOS and none support on macOS. With Apple Shortcut and Alfred, I can simply type and record any task with ease, with no need to remember any keyboard shortcut.

Reminders may be better at collecting, on the mobile, but only if you have an Apple device. Unlike Todoist, however, which is truly cross-platform.

You can use Siri on the desktop

Suh-No-Muh. :)

You can select and move on reminders as well, so they got the same score.

Your comparison is completely ridiculous and non sense... basically you made todoist win under the only assumption that you cannot move multiple tasks into reminders, thing that is wrong because you can select holding shift or command like in finder or any other macos app, so multiselect is much more intuitive as it mimics the whole damn OS..., the whole video point is based on a mistake and ignorance from your side... great

Man, learn to use reminders before comparing, how can you say is not possible to drag multiple tasks in reminders???

I was asking you about this just last week! Going to comment hoping I will benefit the users here. I always had struggle why not use apple apps which are more stable, enough and free however they always had something missing for me. I used Todoist for work and reminders personal but now I’m trying Todoist for both. Reminders was created to be a reminders app for ios not task manager which is really annoying the alerts system although they never go away which is a plus. Reminders lacks the calendar integration and that’s my main reason I’m using Todoist plus the universal shortcut. It’s the best thing. I just hate the UI of all third party apps but what can I do. Reminders you cannot add easily or edit future times/lists..etc. I even tried TickTick this week for calendar but I ran away back to my system which doesn’t need learning. The downside of Todoist of the need to pay for reminders and duration, which are extras honestly. No app has everything which is annoying. The struggle of paradox of choice will continue.

I have a universal keyboard shortcut for Reminders. It activates a shortcut I made in Apple Shortcuts. Apple Reminders works better for capturing tasks on the Apple Watch through Siri, which is my primary way of capturing at work.

Multiple select works on reminder

hi, can you please tell me which video you have that shows organizing within Apple system completely? Like repeating tasks, having your reminders in your calendar, just an organized to do list that merges with calendar, and a place to collect all your ideas & organize your ideas into different respective topics too? Do you have a video like that? Can you please link it if you do? thanks.

All valid points 👍 - although it should be mentioned, Reminders is free while Todoist with all the filters etc., is a paid product, which may be a valid factor to consider for some people for the sake of some minor advantages.

Reminders is getting better. If they add a comments-like feature then collaboration will be better. (Unless i missed that feature). So for now i use Reminders for personal use and Todoist for my business because of the great collaboration features within Todoist. I do though think Todoist is getting close to becoming too complicated and too heavy with all the features being added. I want something simple and fast and easy to use - don’t make me think too much!

Since years I am looking for a task app which lets you choose day and time very fast. In case of a new task or If a reminder occurs I want simple press "Remind me in:" h 1 or D 1 h 3. I don't know what this click click click and 3 times more click and scrolling crap is about. Outlook 1996 at Windows had a simple way to do that. Starting with Outlook 2000 it was gone and never appears again on any other app. Anyone got an idea?

Are you comparing the free version of Todoist with Reminders?

CARL: Regardless of whether Reminders may not have every bell and whistle of Todoist ... The SECURITY ADVANTAGE and "convenience" of staying in the apple eco-system IMO outweighs everything else 😊

I can’t stand the way Reminders handles dates on SmartList or filters. Try to create a smartlist for Tomorrow Focus and it’ll include tasks from today. It’s frustrating for me

Definitely no. I hate the lack of shortcuts and predictability from apple reminders. Horrible.

I have used both and personally now prefer Apple Reminders. The Siri integration is so much better and also the location-based reminders work better for me in Reminders (I could never get them to reliably work in ToDoist). I think Todoist is great, especially if you have to work on non-Apple devices, but otherwise Reminders is really powerful now and can do everything I need it to do.

Is Apple Reminders now cross platform? Then no. I work on all systems throughout the day. I need cross platform functionality in most all applications I use.

Thanks Carl! Learning how to use smart filters in Reminders has got me to where I need to be for my work flow. Powerful app and links well with the other Apple apps (Mail,Notes,Messages and Folders).

For me, Apple reminders, calendars & notes now does everything I need. I learned a few good tips from your new apple course. Glad I purchased it a few years ago.

First.