Microsoft To Do Alternatives: 8 Task Apps for 2026
Microsoft To Do is free, fast, and tied into Outlook in a way nothing else matches. People still leave it, and the reasons are consistent: no labels or filters, thin collaboration, no natural language capture, and a structure ceiling you hit and can’t raise.
Here are eight alternatives, sorted by the reason you’d switch rather than by a score.
1. Todoist
The usual destination for people who outgrew To Do’s structure. Projects, sections, labels, priorities, and a filter query language that lets you save views like “overdue and labelled waiting, across everything.” Natural language capture is the standout: typing the task, the date, the project, and the priority in one line is materially faster than filling in fields.
Best for: People who want structure and fast capture.
2. TickTick
Todoist’s closest competitor, with a wider surface. Tasks, a built-in calendar view, habit tracking, and a Pomodoro timer in one app. Natural language capture is good. The calendar view in particular covers something To Do doesn’t attempt, which is seeing tasks and time in the same place.
Best for: People who want tasks, calendar, and habits without stitching three apps together.
3. Apple Reminders
Underrated and free if you’re already on Apple hardware. It has grown real capability: smart lists with filters, tags, subtasks, location and time reminders, and sharing that actually works across families and small teams. The system integration is the draw, in the same way Outlook integration is To Do’s.
Best for: People fully inside the Apple ecosystem who want the same “already there” advantage To Do has in Microsoft’s.
4. Google Tasks
The direct counterpart to To Do on the other side. Minimal, free, and embedded in Gmail and Google Calendar the way To Do is embedded in Outlook. It is genuinely less capable than To Do, with no equivalent of My Day and much thinner list handling, so this is a move you make for ecosystem fit rather than features.
Best for: Google Workspace users who want tasks beside their mail and calendar.
5. Things
A paid, Apple-only task manager with a strong opinion about how planning should work: Today, This Evening, Upcoming, Anytime, Someday, plus projects and areas. No collaboration at all, which is deliberate. People who like it tend to like it for years.
Best for: Individuals on Apple devices who want a considered personal system and don’t need to share anything.
6. Notion
Not a task app, a database you can shape into one. That’s the trade in both directions: you get exactly the fields, views, and relations you want, and you get the maintenance burden of a system you designed. Good when tasks need to live next to notes, docs, and project records.
Best for: Teams already running Notion who want tasks joined to everything else.
7. Asana or Trello
The step up when the real problem is that the work is shared. Boards, assignment, due dates, and progress visibility, all built around several people rather than one. Reaching for these to manage a personal list is overkill, and reaching for them when three people keep asking about status is correct.
Best for: Teams that need to see who is doing what.
8. Microsoft Planner
Worth naming because it’s the alternative already included with Microsoft 365. It’s the team-facing counterpart to To Do: plans, buckets, boards, assignment, and progress views. Tasks assigned to you in Planner flow into To Do’s “Assigned to me” list, so the two are designed to be used together rather than instead of each other. We compared them in detail in Microsoft Planner vs To Do.
Best for: Microsoft 365 teams whose issue is coordination rather than personal organization.
Automating capture, whichever app you land on
Worth separating from the choice above, because it applies to all of them.
Switching apps fixes structure problems. It does not fix capture. Tasks that never get entered don’t get done, and the moment you notice a task is usually the moment you can’t stop and type it. Every app on this list waits for you.
Carly works on that layer rather than replacing your task app. Its event-triggered workflows fire when something actually happens, such as an email arriving or a meeting ending, and an AI agent can read the content and work out what the task is rather than matching a keyword. Workflow steps are free, and AI agents start at $35/month.
On connections, the current state is worth stating plainly: there’s no native Microsoft To Do connector today. To Do is reachable through the Microsoft Graph API with your own credentials on the integrations page, and Composio is a third route. Todoist, TickTick, and Google Tasks are native. If a To Do connector would matter to you, it’s worth raising on a call with the team.
How to choose
You hit a structure ceiling. Todoist or TickTick. Labels and filters are the specific things To Do lacks.
You want tasks and time together. TickTick, or Notion if tasks need to sit beside documents.
You left Microsoft’s ecosystem. Apple Reminders or Google Tasks, for the same “already integrated” reason you used To Do.
Other people are involved. Planner if you’re on Microsoft 365, Asana or Trello otherwise. A personal list app with sharing bolted on is not a substitute.
Nothing is wrong with the app. If tasks are getting done but the wrong ones, or things keep slipping through, switching apps won’t help. That’s a capture problem.
FAQ
What is the best free alternative to Microsoft To Do?
Google Tasks and Apple Reminders are both free and both trade on ecosystem integration. Todoist and TickTick have free tiers with limits that change over time, so check the current ones against how you’d actually use them.
Why do people switch away from Microsoft To Do?
Most often for labels and filters, which To Do has no equivalent of, and for natural language capture. Weak collaboration is the third reason, though that usually means the person needed Planner or a project tool rather than a different personal list.
Is Microsoft To Do being discontinued?
There’s no indication of that. It remains free with a Microsoft account and stays tied into Outlook tasks, flagged email, and Planner assignments.
Can I import my Microsoft To Do tasks elsewhere?
There’s no universal export, so migrations usually go through a third-party migration tool or a script against Microsoft Graph, which is where the task data actually lives.
Should I use Microsoft To Do or Planner?
To Do for your own tasks, Planner when several people share the work and someone needs visibility. They’re designed to work together, with Planner assignments appearing in your To Do list.
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