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There's nothing wrong with a paper to-do list, but going digital has benefits. You can organize your tasks more efficiently and attach files, links, and notes. You can also share your task list with others and assign them items. PCMag has been reviewing task management software for more than a decade. We look for apps that are easy to use, enable you to work more productively, offer good value, and support all major platforms. We also consider which are best for different users, such as business teams and individuals who follow specific productivity methods (including the Getting Things Done method and the Pomodoro Technique). Our Editors' Choice winners are the full-featured Todoist and the exceptionally flexible Asana, but you should explore all of our top picks below to find the one that works best for you.
Our Top Tested Picks
- Cross-platform support with effortless, reliable syncing
- Excellent features, such as natural language input and productivity reports
- Efficient interface
- Supports collaboration
- Works offline
- A few important features aren't available to free users
Todoist is a rare five-star Editors' Choice winner because it's simply the best to-do list app on the market. It has a superb design with all the features you could ever need, including collaboration options, custom views, natural language input, and more.
Todoist Pro is ideal for individuals who need to manage all the varied aspects of their lives, from grocery shopping lists to work tasks. The Business version is also excellent for small teams that want to coordinate ongoing work or lightweight projects.
- Intuitive, modern interface
- Robust free version
- Numerous, versatile work management features
- Convenient automations and integrations
- In-depth progress tracking
- AI add-ons can get expensive
Asana is hands-down one of the best apps for managing to-do lists for teams and businesses. It borders on being a full project management app but works equally well, if not better, for groups that need to pass tasks along from one person to another. You can even try out its free version before committing. Finally, Asana feels very responsive and looks quite modern.
Asana is for teams. Individuals can use it to manage their lists, projects, and tasks, but it excels as a collaborative app for managing work.
- Designed for a specific productivity method
- Extremely customizable
- Plentiful features
- Can add a lot of detail to tasks
- Perpetual license and subscription both available
- No collaboration
- Relatively expensive with no free version
- No Windows, Linux, or Android versions
- Web app requires separate subscription
OmniFocus is an excellent to-do list app with a long list of features. It lets you add a tremendous amount of detail to tasks, is powerful, and works reliably. We also like that you can buy the current version for a one-time fee or pay for a subscription to get continuous updates.
Choose OmniFocus if you follow the Getting Things Done (GTD) productivity method and use Apple devices. GTD is a trademarked method by David Allen, who wrote a book by the same name. OmniFocus has tools and features that accommodate the GTD method specifically, such as ways to indicate the context of a task. The app doesn't support collaboration, so it's suitable only if you plan to manage your tasks solo.
- Collaborative
- Rich with features
- Cross-platform support
- Includes features useful for GTD
- Restrictions on both free and paid accounts
- No free trial
- Some features don't work as expected
TickTick is a powerful to-do list app with a reasonable price. It's available anywhere you might want to use it, too. The best part about TickTick is that it supports both the GTD method and the Pomodoro Technique. It also offers collaboration features.
Try TickTick if you don't want to choose between the GTD method and the Pomodoro Technique for managing your to-do lists. The latter is a strategy for focusing on important tasks without procrastinating or wasting time. It involves using a timer, and Tick Tick offers a specialty one.
- Clean and beautiful interface
- Easy to add and manage tasks
- One-time cost
- Available for Apple devices only, and no web app
- Awkward to navigate at times
- No collaboration features, location-based reminders, or natural language input
Things 3 is a worthwhile to-do list app with a top-notch interface. It's available only for Apple devices and a little light on features, but its uncluttered nature might appeal to you.
This app has been a niche hit among iPad, iPhone, and Mac enthusiasts for years. It's ideal if you work solo since it doesn't support collaboration. Power users should likely look elsewhere, however.
- Plentiful features
- Includes features for GTD followers
- Supports notes, lists, outlines, and habits separately from tasks
- Paid plans don't offer great value
- Dated and sometimes counterintuitive interface
- No apps for Windows or macOS
Toodledo is a fantastic to-do list app that goes the extra mile to not only help you cross all the items off your list but also adopt new habits and organize your thoughts. The app has an exhaustive list of features and provides an excess of information at every turn.
Consider Toodledo if you follow the Getting Things Done method of productivity. It's also worth a look if you feel strongly about customizing every last detail of your to-do list app.
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The Best Task Management Apps for 2025 Compare Specs
How We Choose the Best Task Management Apps
To-do list apps exist in great numbers, and only a few stand out. For example, plenty of excellent apps are available for only Android or iOS, but they do you no good if you need to jot down a thought quickly while you're working on your PC.
That's why we include only apps that work on both desktops and mobile devices. After evaluating dozens of possible contenders, we selected the highest-scoring apps to list here.
A major consideration when testing and scoring is how well these apps help you organize and stay on top of your tasks. We also consider collaboration, meaning the ability to share a task list with other people. However, this is not a prerequisite of the category, like it is for collaboration apps.
We also looked for apps that fit different user profiles. For example, if you follow the Getting Things Done (GTD) method of organization, OmniFocus and Toodledo are good choices.
What to Look for in a Task Management App
You should consider several aspects of task management apps, but the top three are:
Design
Tools for managing and organizing your tasks
Collaboration options
Design is extra important in this category of apps because you end up looking at your to-do list app often. How will you get anything done if you can't stand looking at an ugly app? Good design is intuitive, so it should enable you to quickly write down things that come to mind.
Every to-do list app comes with tools and features for organizing your tasks and lists, and in an ideal world, these features match up with the way you think. For example, if you are a highly visual person, you might find that color-coding your lists or tasks to show priority is important. If you are deadline-oriented, choose an app that sorts your tasks by due date and or shows them in a calendar view. If you're forgetful, you might want an app that sends you reminders on different devices.
As for collaboration, it's always handy to have the option to share a to-do list. For home use, a collaborative to-do list means you can assign chores to other people or track when someone purchases items off a shared shopping list. In business settings, collaborative task management makes working together easier and more transparent.
What Is the Best App for To-Do Lists?
Todoist is the best to-do list app you can get. It works on every platform. You can use it for free or pay a reasonable fee for all its features. It provides plenty of customization options, too.
What Is the Best Free Task Management App?
Several of the best task management apps have a robust free service tier. Our favorites are Asana and Todoist. Asana may be too free-form for some people's tastes, but Todoist has a more inherent structure.
Another good free app is Remember the Milk, which scored a little too low to make this list. Although it looks old-school compared with the best to-do list apps, it's capable, intuitive, and reliable. You can figure out how it works in minutes.
What Is the Best Task Management App for Teams?
It should come as no surprise that our top picks for teams are also the Editors' Choice winners: Asana's Premium, Business, or Enterprise plan (starting at $10.99 per person per month, billed annually) and Todoist (the Business subscription goes for $6 per person per month, billed annually).
Todoist works best for small groups of people who need to organize relatively uncomplicated tasks. Asana is better for managing more in-depth teamwork, the kind that passes through many hands and takes a lot of steps to complete.
Task Management Apps vs. Project Management Apps
An ongoing challenge for productivity software is differentiating project management apps from those for task and work management.
We believe project management apps must offer Gantt charts and be able to manage complex, project-based work. Project-based work means a series of tasks with a start date, end date, and deliverables. Building a house is a project. Sending a rocket to the moon is a project. Answering support emails, however, is a series of ongoing tasks and not a project.
We occasionally encounter an app that straddles more than one category. Here, Asana is that app. It now includes tools for traditional project management, but it also works perfectly well as a to-do list app.
Overall, project management and collaborative task management apps serve the same general purpose but at different scales. Both keep track of what needs to happen and who needs to do it. They help users manage time more efficiently and regulate how many tasks each team member is responsible for. Project management apps help large groups of people juggle budgets, resources, and schedules in a way that to-do list apps can't. To-do apps are simpler and cost less than project management software. For many types of work, to-do apps are a better fit.
