Todoist, TickTick, Things 3 and Microsoft To Do are all good at holding a list. Do. is built for what happens next — deciding what to start, splitting what is too big, and knowing how long any of it takes. Here is the comparison, including where the others are genuinely stronger.
The rows below are the capabilities that separate a task list from a planner. Everything is marked from the shipping apps, and Do. is marked on what it does today — its cloud AI tier is not out yet, so the AI rows describe the bring-your-own-key mode that is.
| Capability | Do. | Todoist | TickTick | Things 3 | Microsoft To Do | Notion |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Builds your daily plan Picks a main focus and sequences the day, rather than showing an unordered list. | Yes | Partly | No | No | No | No |
| Breaks big tasks into steps Turns "redo the website" into steps small enough to actually start. | Yes | Partly | Partly | No | No | Partly |
| Estimates how long tasks take Puts a time estimate on each task, as a counter to time blindness. | Yes | No | Partly | No | No | No |
| Sorts your inbox for you Files new items into the right project without manual triage. | Yes | Partly | No | No | No | No |
| Turns pasted text into tasks Paste an email, meeting notes, or a recipe and get structured, actionable tasks. | Yes | Partly | No | No | No | Partly |
| Natural-language task entry "Call mum friday 3pm" parsed into a dated task. | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partly | Partly |
| Full offline use Create, edit, and organise with no connection, then sync on reconnect. | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partly |
| Use your own AI key Bring an OpenAI, Anthropic, or Gemini key so task content goes to your provider, not ours. | Yes | No | No | No | No | No |
| On iPhone and Android Both major mobile platforms, not one. | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Import from other task apps Move an existing list across without retyping it. | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partly | Partly | Partly |
Capability marks reflect what each app ships as of August 2026, checked against the apps themselves. Features move — if you spot something out of date, tell us at [email protected] and we'll correct it.
Todoist, TickTick, Things, Microsoft To Do and Notion are trademarks of their respective owners. Do. is an independent product and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any of them. Comparisons are our own assessment for the purpose of helping readers choose.
None of these are bad apps. Several are better than Do. at things Do. does not try to do. Picking well means knowing which problem you are solving.
The most polished pure task manager there is. Natural-language entry, reliable sync, and a huge integration library built up over more than a decade.
Its newer AI assistant can break tasks down and suggest scheduling on paid tiers, but that stays an opt-in helper — by default you still open it each morning to an undifferentiated list rather than a made plan.
Enormous range for the price — calendar, habits, and a Pomodoro timer all in one app, with a generous free tier.
The breadth cuts both ways: more surfaces to maintain, and no layer that turns any of it into a plan for today.
Arguably the best-designed task app ever made. The interaction detail is exceptional, and a one-time purchase means no recurring bill.
Apple platforms only, and deliberately conservative — it is a place to keep your intentions, not something that acts on them.
Free, no upsell, and tightly wired into Outlook and Microsoft 365 — the path of least resistance inside a Microsoft workplace.
Intentionally minimal. Little structure for larger projects and no planning assistance of any kind.
Endlessly flexible. If you want to design your own system, few tools let you model it as precisely.
That flexibility is the cost: you maintain the system. For daily task capture it is heavier and slower than a purpose-built app.
Do. imports from Todoist, TickTick, Things 3 and Microsoft To Do, so trying it does not mean retyping your list or abandoning your projects. Keep your current app running alongside it for a week and see which one you actually open in the morning.
It depends on what you want the AI to do. Most task apps that advertise AI use it for text parsing — reading "call mum friday" and setting a date. Do. uses it to make decisions: choosing your main focus for the day, breaking large tasks into startable steps, estimating durations, and filing new items into the right project. If you want an app that plans rather than one that only records, that is the distinction to test for.
Apps built around capture — Todoist, Things 3, Microsoft To Do — assume that once a task is written down you can start it, which is exactly the assumption that breaks with ADHD. Look instead for time estimates that counter time blindness, automatic task breakdown so nothing sits too large to begin, a single named next action rather than a full list, and no streak mechanics to feel guilty about. Do. was designed around those four.
Do. is a good Todoist alternative if your problem is deciding what to work on rather than storing what you have to do. Todoist is more mature at capture, integrations, and collaboration, and its AI assistant can help with breakdown and scheduling on request. Do. makes the planning layer the default rather than an add-on: daily planning, automatic task breakdown, and time estimates built in. You can import your Todoist tasks into Do. in a couple of minutes and keep both while you decide.
Do. is free to download with a free tier that stays free, and its AI runs on your own OpenAI, Anthropic, or Gemini key, which for typical task-planning use costs a very small amount per month billed by that provider. Todoist and TickTick both run on subscriptions. Paid tiers for Do. are planned but not yet available, so compare against the free tier as it stands today.
