Todoist vs Apple Reminders One comes with the phone. One goes everywhere.

Both turn a typed line into a dated task. They split on what you pay, where your list has to live, and which alerts you get without paying.

Jacky Fakkeldij Building Driftto, on his own · Updated 20 October 2026

I build Driftto, an iPhone app that puts a thought into the right list without first hunting for the app, waiting for it to load and choosing a project. It writes to both Todoist and Apple Reminders. That gave me a reason to read the fine print of each.

In October 2026 I went through Todoist's help center and its US App Store page, and Apple's iPhone User Guide for iOS 27 plus the Apple Watch guide. Everything below comes from those pages. Where a page says nothing, I say so instead of guessing.

The short answer

Apple Reminders suits people whose devices are all Apple and whose shared lists are with other iPhone owners. It comes with iOS, costs nothing extra, and Siri, the Apple Watch, location alerts and early alerts all work out of the box.

Todoist suits people who also use Android, Windows or Linux, or who want to type a full task, project and repeat included, into one line on any phone. Its free plan is tight, though. The alerts most people expect from a reminder app sit in Pro, which the App Store sells for $6.99 a month or $59.99 a year.

What you pay, and what the free plan leaves out

Reminders has no plan and no upgrade. To get every feature in Apple's guide you need an Apple Account with Reminders stored in iCloud; with other accounts, Apple notes, some features are missing.

Todoist's free tier is called Beginner. Its usage limits page gives it 5 active personal projects and 3 filters, against 300 and 150 on Pro. Recurring dates work on every plan. The part that surprised me is reminders. Beginner gets automatic reminders, which fire when a task has a date and a time. Custom reminders, such as an alert 30 minutes before, are marked as not available on Beginner. Location reminders are listed for Pro and Business only.

So the honest comparison is Reminders against Todoist Pro. If you plan to stay on Todoist's free plan, count on alerts only at the exact time you set.

Typing a whole task in one line

This is where Todoist has the edge. Its Quick Add reads the line as you type. A date like "every other Tuesday" needs no symbol. A # picks the project, / picks a section inside it, % adds a label, p1 to p3 sets priority, and + assigns someone in a shared project. A line such as "Renew passport next Friday #Admin p2" becomes a dated, filed task in one go, on any plan and any device.

Reminders can do something similar, with a condition. With Apple Intelligence you type a plain description and Reminders fills in the timing itself. Apple lists that for the iPhone 15 Pro, 15 Pro Max and iPhone 16 or later, in supported languages and regions. On other iPhones you set date, list and tags by tapping. Tags go in with a #, one word each.

Siri and Apple Watch

Siri writes into Reminders with no setup, and new items land in the default list you choose in Settings. On the Apple Watch, Reminders is built in: you can open a list and tap Add Reminder, edit dates, tags and places, and everything syncs back through iCloud.

Todoist works with Siri too, but you name the app in the sentence: "Add buy stamps in Todoist." Without a project the task goes to your Inbox. To file it, you say the project name followed by "list", because classic Siri doesn't understand the word "project." Todoist's help is clear about one gap: there is no Siri with Todoist on the Apple Watch, the Mac or CarPlay. The Todoist Watch app takes a task by dictation or keyboard instead, and it needs your iPhone in range.

Alerts by time and by place

Apple's guide lists a lot of ways for a reminder to reach you. An Early Reminder, such as 2 days before. Urgent, which rings as an alarm when the item is due. A place: arriving home, or getting into a car with a Bluetooth connection to your iPhone. And When Messaging, which shows the reminder the next time you chat with a chosen person in Messages. Location alerts need Precise Location turned on for Reminders.

Todoist Pro covers the core of that. You can add several custom reminders to one task, set them relative to the due time, and set a location reminder for arriving at or leaving a place, with a radius you drag on a map. Location alerts only reach a phone, iPhone or Android. I found no equivalent of Urgent's alarm or When Messaging in Todoist's help.

Sharing a list and handing out tasks

In Reminders you share a whole list through iCloud. Everyone invited can add, edit and complete items, and you can assign an item to anyone on the list with an @ mention. The Assigned to Me Smart List collects yours. The limit: each person needs an Apple Account with Reminders on in iCloud, which in practice means everyone owns Apple devices.

Todoist shares projects, on the free plan too, with up to 5 people per personal project. Collaborators can add, assign and complete tasks, comment and upload files, from whatever phone or computer they use. A task takes one assignee. One detail matters for mixed households: each person's features follow their own plan, so a free collaborator in your project doesn't get your Pro features.

Everything else, side by side

The rest, from the same help pages, checked in October 2026.

Which one I'd pick

If every device in your life and in your household has an Apple logo, pick Reminders. You get location alerts, early alerts, the Watch and Siri without a subscription, and Smart Lists cover the everyday filtering.

If you work on a Windows laptop, share projects with someone on Android, or think in projects and sections more than in lists, pick Todoist, and budget for Pro if you rely on alerts. If you are also weighing Google's list, I compared it with Reminders in Google Tasks vs Apple Reminders.

Either way, a list only helps with what gets into it, and that first step is where things get lost.

Capture into the one you picked, in one step

Into Reminders: ask Siri, add the Reminders control to Control Center, or on iPhones with an Action button, assign Reminders to it and hold it to add an item over whatever app is open.

Into Todoist: say "Add call the plumber in Todoist", or open the app and type the line with its # project and date so Quick Add files it.

With Driftto, it opens to a field with the keyboard up. You type or speak the thought, tap Todoist or Reminders, and it lands in the project or list you set once. One capture can go to both. In Todoist and Reminders the whole note becomes the task's title, and nothing goes into the description or notes. Or say "Hey Siri, new capture in Driftto." Here is how Driftto writes to Todoist.

Questions

Driftto is in the App Store now.