TickTick vs Notion in 2026 A to-do list or a workspace.

Both can hold your tasks. TickTick is built as a to-do list with a calendar. Notion is a workspace where a task list is one thing you build.

Jacky Fakkeldij Building Driftto, on his own · Updated 23 October 2026

I build Driftto, an iPhone app for getting a thought into the right place without first finding the app, waiting for it to open and picking a project. TickTick and Notion are both places it writes to, and people use them for the same job: keeping track of what they have to do. So I wanted to see how far each one goes as a task app.

In October 2026 I went through Notion's help center and pricing page, TickTick's help center and upgrade page, and both US App Store listings. Everything below comes from those pages. Where a page says nothing about a feature, I say so instead of guessing.

The short answer

Pick TickTick if you want a to-do list that reads dates out of what you type, reminds you hard, repeats tasks and shows them on a calendar. Pick Notion if your tasks sit next to notes, docs and databases you shape yourself. The catch with Notion is that you build the task system, and its reminders and repeats are thinner.

What each one is built for

TickTick's App Store listing calls it a to-do list and calendar. Lists, tasks, subtasks, reminders, a calendar, a Pomodoro timer and habits are all in the one app.

Notion's App Store listing calls it notes, tasks and AI. Its help center treats a task as a row in a database. A database becomes a Task database once it has three properties: Status, Assignee and Due date. Tasks assigned to you from up to 10 of those databases show up together on a page called My tasks. You can switch My tasks to a board grouped by status, or to a calendar.

So the question is not which has more features. It is whether you want a task app that is already shaped like one, or a blank workspace where you shape it.

Getting a task in, with a date

TickTick calls this Smart Recognition. Type "Meeting at 9 tomorrow" and it sets the date and the reminder. A setting lets you choose whether the date words stay in the task name. Typing # adds a tag as you go. TickTick's upgrade page lists natural language input on the free plan.

Notion's help center doesn't describe reading a date out of a task title. In a database you set the date in a Date property. In a page you type @remind followed by a time, a date or both, and Notion makes a reminder tag.

For a quick task with a time, that is a real gap. In TickTick the date is part of the sentence. In Notion it is a second step.

Reminders and repeats

In Notion, a reminder in a database needs a Date property. You pick when to be reminded, for example 30 minutes before. The mobile app sends a push notification within five minutes of the reminder time, and if Notion isn't open, you get an email too. The reminders help page says recurring reminders aren't available and calls them a roadmap item. It doesn't mention a limit on any plan.

Notion does repeat things another way. A database template can repeat daily, weekly, monthly or yearly, or on a custom pattern like every 3 days or every Tuesday and Thursday. Each time, Notion adds a new copy of the template to the database. That makes a fresh task on a schedule. It is not one task that comes back after you check it off. I found no help page that says a due date moves forward by itself.

TickTick has recurring tasks built in. A custom repeat can run by due date, by completion date or on specific dates, and you can skip one occurrence. The help center says you can't change future occurrences until the current one is done. TickTick's App Store listing names time and location reminders and several reminders per task. Its upgrade page also lists a Constant Reminder, which keeps notifying you until you act, but doesn't say which plan has it. The upgrade page also lists a reminder limit per plan, but the figures run together on the page, so I leave the number out.

Lists versus databases

TickTick's structure is lists, tasks, subtasks and checklist items. Its help center says subtasks go five levels deep. When a task has both checklist items and subtasks, only the checklist items count toward the parent's progress. Kanban is one of the views.

Notion's structure is whatever you build. Sub-items split a task into smaller pieces, and you turn them on in the database settings. Dependencies link tasks in order, and Notion can shift dates for you, with an option to avoid weekends. Views include table, list, board, calendar, gallery and timeline. If you delete a parent task, its sub-items are deleted too.

TickTick caps what you can hold on the free plan: 9 lists and 99 tasks per list, against 299 lists and 999 tasks per list on Premium. Notion's pricing page shows unlimited blocks for one person on the Free plan, and limits file uploads to 5 MB and page history to 7 days.

The calendar

TickTick has a calendar in the app. The free plan gets a basic version, and multiple calendar views and task duration are Premium. The App Store listing mentions integration with the calendar app on your device.

In Notion, any database with a date can show as a calendar view. For your real calendar, Notion has a separate app, Notion Calendar. It runs on web, Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android, and connects Google, Outlook and iCloud calendars. On the phone it shows one, two or three days at a time, and you can edit an event only if you created it on iOS and you are the organizer.

Offline and widgets on the iPhone

Notion works offline, but page by page. You open a page, tap the ••• menu and turn on Available offline. Edits you make offline sync when you reconnect. On Plus, Business and Enterprise, Notion downloads recent and favorite pages for you. A database saves only the first 50 rows of its first view. Forms, buttons, AI blocks and embeds need a connection. The setting is per device.

Notion's iPhone widgets are Page, Favorites, Recents and AI shortcuts. None of the four is described as adding a task. TickTick's upgrade page lists widgets, with a basic version free and unlimited ones on Premium. I found no TickTick help page on offline use, so I don't say how it behaves with no signal.

Price and where each one runs

Both apps are free to download with in-app purchases. Notion has a Free plan. In the US App Store, Notion Plus is $11.99 a month or $119.99 a year. Notion's own pricing page showed euros when I checked, with Plus at €9.50 and Business at €19.50, and didn't say whether that is a monthly or a yearly rate. Business is $23.99 and $239.99 in the App Store, which doesn't label the periods.

TickTick Premium is $4.99 a month or $49.99 a year in the US App Store. So in the App Store, a year of TickTick Premium costs less than half of a year of Notion Plus. The two plans buy different things. Per Notion's pricing page, Plus adds unlimited file uploads, 30 days of page history and unlimited guests. Per TickTick's upgrade page, Premium raises the list and task limits and adds calendar views.

On devices, Notion's iPhone app needs iOS 18 and also runs on iPad and Apple Vision. The listing doesn't name a Mac or Watch app, though the description says it syncs with Mac and Windows apps. TickTick's App Store listing shows iPhone (iOS 15.5 or later), iPad, Apple Watch and Apple Vision, and its download page lists Android, Windows, macOS, Linux and a browser extension.

Everything else, side by side

The rest, checked against Notion's and TickTick's help pages, pricing pages and App Store listings in October 2026.

Which one I'd pick

If what you need is a list of things to do, each with a date and a nudge, pick TickTick. It is shaped for that. Dates come out of the sentence, repeats are built in, and the calendar, a focus timer and habits sit in the same app. It costs less in the App Store, too.

If your tasks belong with project notes, meeting pages and databases you already keep, pick Notion. You shape the views any way you like. Plan on setting it up first, and on weaker reminders and repeats than a to-do app gives you.

If you are still choosing a list app, I compared the other pair people ask about in Todoist vs TickTick, and the wider field in the best to-do list apps for iPhone.

Capture into the one you picked, in one step

Into TickTick: long press the + button and speak, or type the task in one line with the date in it. Or turn on Add tasks via Siri under Settings, Import & Integration, Siri, then add a task by voice.

Into Notion: open the app, find the database and add a row there. Notion's help center lists no widget for adding a task.

With Driftto, you open it to a capture field with the keyboard already up, type or say the thought and tap where it goes. It writes to both TickTick and Notion, and one capture can go to both at once, each with its own arrival status. In TickTick a one-line note becomes the title, and a longer note keeps its first line as the title and lands whole in the description. In Notion the whole note becomes the page title in the database you picked, with an optional date. A photo goes in as an image in the page, and no text goes into the page body. You can also say "Hey Siri, new capture in Driftto" and it goes to the destination you picked for Siri. There is more about the Notion side in the best Notion integrations.

Questions

Driftto is in the App Store now.