Todoist vs Notion: Which Should You Use for Planning, Notes, and Tasks?

Todoist vs Notion — two powerful tools with very different takes on productivity. While Todoist is built for pure task management, Notion offers a flexible all-in-one workspace. If you’re torn between the two, this breakdown will help you figure out which one fits your workflow, whether you’re organizing your day, managing a team, or just trying to stay focused.

🔍 What Is Todoist?

Todoist is a streamlined task management app focused on creating, organizing, and completing tasks efficiently. Loved for its minimal UI and strong cross-platform support, it’s a go-to for to-do list lovers and productivity purists.

Best for

• Individuals and teams needing simple but powerful task workflows
• Those who prioritize recurring tasks, reminders, and prioritization
• Productivity minimalists and GTD fans

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📘 What Is Notion?

Notion is an all-in-one productivity workspace offering notes, wikis, task boards, databases, and team collaboration tools. It’s known for its flexibility and deep customization, used by students, startups, and content creators. It has lots of widgets and integrations (including Notion time tracking integration) for more flexibility.

Best for

• Creators, planners (e.g., Notion weekly planner), and organizers building dashboards and systems
• Teams that need a workspace for notes, tasks, and docs
• People who prefer visual planning tools and aesthetic templates

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📊 Todoist vs Notion: Quick Comparison Table

Feature	Todoist	Notion
Task Management	✅ Strong	✅ Moderate
Notes & Wikis	❌ Basic only	✅ Advanced
Recurring Tasks	✅ Yes	❌ No native option
Templates	✅ Task-oriented	✅ Wide-ranging (notes, CRMs, wikis)
Offline Access	✅ Excellent	⚠️ Limited
Collaboration	✅ Task sharing	✅ Pages, comments, mentions
Integrations	Zapier, Calendar, Everhour	Slack, GitHub, Zapier, API
Calendar View	✅ Native	✅ Database view only
Focus Mode	✅ Todoist Karma + Labels	❌ No built-in focus tool
Pricing	Free + Paid	Free + Paid
Mobile UX	✅ Lightweight & efficient	⚠️ Feature-rich but heavier

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🧠 Key Differences in Use Cases

Use Case	Best Tool
📝 Daily task list	Todoist
📊 Project dashboard	Notion
🎓 Academic planner	Notion
📌 GTD system	Todoist
🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Collaborative content hub	Notion
🔁 Recurring chores or goals	Todoist

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🛠️ Task Management Features

Todoist

• Natural language input (“Submit report every Friday”)
• Labels, filters, priority levels
• Subtasks and sections
• Reminders + recurring due dates

Notion

• Tasks built inside databases
• Views: Kanban, table, list, calendar
• Custom properties, filters, and relations
• Lacks reminders or recurring tasks natively

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🗂️ Project & Content Organization

• Todoist is linear — tasks organized by projects and sections. Ideal for action-based users. Has loads of Todoist templates and integrations (and our own Todoist time tracking integration for tracking time in Todoist)
• Notion is hierarchical — you build dashboards, nested pages, databases, and create structure as needed.

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🔁 Recurring Tasks & Reminders

• Todoist has industry-leading recurring task features.
• Notion needs third-party automation like Zapier for recurring tasks and has no built-in reminders.

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📅 Calendar Integration & Views

• Todoist: Syncs with Google Calendar bi-directionally.
• Notion: Calendar is a view inside databases; no native sync (only through API/3rd-party).

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🎯 Productivity Tools & Focus Modes

Todoist

• Karma gamification
• Streaks, productivity trends
• Task prioritization

Notion

• ❌ No gamification
• ✅ Visual dashboards for habit tracking or goals (manual setup)

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🔄 Automation & Workflows

Todoist

Limited native automations, but integrates with:

• Everhour for time tracking
• Zapier
• Make
• IFTTT

Notion

No native automation builder, but Notion integrations include:

• Everhour for Notion time tracking
• Make
• Zapier
• Notion API tools (Automate.io, Bardeen, etc.)

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🧩 Templates & Customization

• Notion: Full dashboard and template ecosystem — from job apps to habit trackers.
• Todoist: Mostly templates for task lists, goal planning, OKRs, GTD.

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🔌 Integrations & Extensions

Todoist

• Google Calendar, Outlook, Slack, Everhour (✅ time tracker), Alexa, and more

Notion

• Everhour (✅ time tracker), Slack, GitHub, Google Drive, Zoom, plus 2000+ tools via Zapier

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📱 Mobile App Performance

Feature	Todoist	Notion
Speed	✅ Fast	⚠️ Slower to load
Task Management	✅ Optimized	✅ Fully functional
Editing Docs	❌ Basic notes only	✅ Full blocks editing
Widgets	✅ Android & iOS	✅ iOS widgets available

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🌐 Offline Access & Syncing

• Todoist: Seamless offline mode + real-time sync
• Notion: Offline use improving, but must preload pages

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🔐 Security & Data Privacy

Notion and Todoist prioritize user data security and privacy, offering several key features:

• 2FA: Both platforms support 2FA to add an extra layer of account protection. ​
• Encrypted storage: User data is encrypted during transmission and while at rest, ensuring information remains secure. ​
• Role-based access:
  • Notion: Offers granular permission settings, allowing detailed control over who can view or edit content. ​
  • Todoist: Provides standard sharing permissions suitable for individual and team use.

Compliance certifications

Notion

• SOC 2 Type 2: Demonstrates adherence to high standards for data security and privacy. ​
• ISO 27001, ISO 27701, ISO 27017, ISO 27018: International standards for information security and privacy management.
• HIPAA: Compliant with U.S. health information regulations, suitable for handling protected health information. ​

Todoist

• While specific certifications aren’t publicly listed, Todoist employs industry-standard security measures, including data encryption and regular security assessments.​

For the most current information on compliance, refer to the official security pages of both platforms.

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🎨 User Interface & Experience

• Todoist: Clean, distraction-free, task-first
• Notion: Highly visual, flexible, aesthetic

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💰 Pricing Comparison

Plan	Todoist	Notion
Beginner / Free	✅ 5 Projects	✅ Unlimited Pages
Pro / Plus	$4/month	$10/month
Business	$6/user/month	$15/user/month
Enterprise	❌	Custom

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🧠 Ease of Use & Learning Curve

• Todoist: Extremely easy to use out-of-the-box
• Notion: Takes effort to customize and build workflows, but very rewarding

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👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Best for Teams vs Individuals

User Type	Best Tool
👤 Solo users	Todoist
🎨 Creative teams	Notion
🌍 Remote collaboration	Notion
📱 Personal productivity	Todoist
📊 Project tracking	Notion

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🌟 Real User Feedback

Todoist reviews

“I use Todoist every single day to plan out all of my tasks for my business and my personal life. I put every task into Todoist then use it as a way of tracking what I have to do each day.” [Capterra review]

“Extremely easy to use for all levels of technological understanding. I use Todoist several times a day and we have integrated this across our whole team. We’ve experienced far less chance of tasks being lost or forgotten and people stay accountable because of the notifications received upon completion. Our communication within the team has improved significantly and everyone seems to be managing their time better.” [G2 review]

Notion reviews

“I can confidently say Notion has been a great tool! There’s a bit of a learning curve process to go through at first since there are so many options available for customizing your dashboard, but after you get there, you’ll be able to plan efficiently! I love that I can have shared dashboards with other team members as well as my own. Another plus is the fact that I can link external documents so that everything is in one place and has easy access.” [Capterra review]

“I LOVE how my entire life is integrated into one place. I’m a small business owner so I started using this to better project manage between my teammates and I and WOW! It’s been lifechanging. We can easily share files, links, etc and have everything in one place. It’s the best app I’ve used.” [G2 review]

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🆚 Todoist vs Notion: Pros & Cons

✅ Todoist pros

• Lightning-fast task input
• Best recurring task support
• Gamified productivity (Karma)
• Excellent mobile experience

❌ Todoist cons

• No notes/wikis
• Limited collaboration
• Not ideal for managing complex projects

✅ Notion pros

• All-in-one solution
• Best for notes, databases, wikis
• Customizable dashboards
• Strong collaboration tools

❌ Notion cons

• No native recurring tasks or reminders
• Slower mobile UI
• More complex onboarding

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❓ FAQs: Todoist vs Notion

Does Notion have recurring tasks?

No, you’ll need Zapier or templates to simulate recurrence.

Which tool is better for teams?

Notion is more versatile for collaboration and team wikis.

Can Todoist replace Notion?

Not really. Todoist lacks document and note features.

Is Todoist free?

✅ Yes, with project limits. Paid plans unlock full functionality.

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🏁 Final Verdict: Best Tool in 2025

Choose Todoist if you need fast, structured task lists, recurring reminders, and clear prioritization.

Choose Notion if you want to build a custom productivity system that combines tasks, notes, projects, and collaboration.

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🌟 Pro Tip: Use Notion for planning + context, and Todoist for daily execution. They pair beautifully with tools like Everhour‘s time tracker for time tracking and billing.

🔎 Discover what real users have to say about Everhour:

“We solved not knowing how much time we were spending on each project, and which clients were profitable or unprofitable. I’ve used it to determine our cost to provide services and further optimize pricing for our digital agency’s services.” [David, Capterra]

“We’re pretty new to the platform, but so far we like it! Like any software, there are a few missing functionalities, but overall it’s great. Way better than Clockify and Hubstaff 🙂” [Robin, Capterra]

“I like the great visualization tools including Gantt charts which make it easy to represent information and invoicing.” [Njeru, Capterra]

Check out our Craft vs Notion and Notion AI vs ChatGPT articles for more insights!