In today’s day and age, distractions are ever present and prevent us from staying focused – that’s why managing your time efficiently is crucial. One of the best time-management tools is a to-do app! Whether you’re working in a big team or striking out solo, a To-Do App can do wonders for your productivity. Deciding on the right app in an oversaturated market, however, is a painstaking task in itself. So, to make this easier for you, we found three of the best to-do apps, Asana, Todoist, and Wunderlist, and compared them for your convenience.
Asana vs Wunderlist vs Todoist: Similarities
All three apps – Asana, Wunderlist, and Todoist share a common goal – help people stay on top of their daily tasks by keeping track of “to-dos.” They also support collaboration with others to certain degrees. Here’s a complete list of their basic functionalities:
- You can organize your tasks in folder or projects, or just in order of priority and time.
- Each app lets you share your tasks with other people so that everyone on your team is on the same page about tasks and lists that need to be completed or have been completed.
- All of these apps are compatible with iOS and Android.
- You can set due dates and get reminders for all of your tasks.
- Asana, Wunderlist, and Todoist all sync to the cloud making it easy to access your most current material from any device.
- Quite possibly the most exciting similarity is that Asana, Wunderlist, and Todoist can all be used free of cost.
Beyond those core features, however, each to-do app offers several unique functionalities.
Asana
Asana’s Pros
- Intuitive and visually-pleasing UI
- File storage
- Integrations
- Project templates
- Advanced task search
- Goal tracking on dashboard
Asana’s Cons
- Steep learning curve
- Cannot manage multiple workspaces
- Does not allow you to create multi-day assignments
Asana Feature Review
Asana is not your simple to-do list application. The thing that sets Asana aside from the other two apps is that Asana is very team and project oriented. Since the first moment you log-in to Asana, you are prompted to add your company name and your collaborators or colleagues.
The thing I personally prefer most about Asana is the flexibility it gives you in terms of structure. Tasks can be divided amongst projects or sections. When creating a new project you can specify its layout or use an existing template. This can come in extremely handy when you want to organize tasks in one project as a list and in another as sticky notes on a board.
For example, it would be more efficient to use a List layout for listing items that need to be purchased for the office before the end of the year. On the other hand, it is probably best to use a Board layout to manage the tasks for a new product development since each task might contain a longer description.
Another cool thing about Asana is that it allows you to set the privacy for a project. You can make the project either public or private. In order to make it private only to the project members however, you would need to upgrade to the paid version of the product.
Tasks can be assigned to different members, they can have subtasks, tags, due date and due time. Asana also allows you to add attachments to a task and provides a comments sections for the task. Attachments can be added from most of the popular cloud storages and from your local repository. While working with Asana, I also found very useful the fact that you can add dependencies to the tasks. It makes quite clear what specific tasks are waiting on other tasks and can help you out when making your workflow analysis.
The next feature that I found many users are fond of is the advanced task search. Unlike other project management apps like Basecamp, Asana allows you to specify certain fields to easily find the task you are looking for. Combined with the multitude of keyboard shortcuts it offers (30-40) and the ability to integrate with platforms like Google Sheets, Slack, and Github, Asana definitely stands out among task management software.
Asana’s Pricing
Who is Asana for?
Asana is a great project management software for teams of any size. However, it provides a free tier only for teams up to 15 members. For bigger teams, you must update to Asana Premium which also provides additional features and benefits. If you plan to use this app as an individual to-do list, it is probably an overkill.
Wunderlist
Wunderlist’s Pros
- Compatible with all devices
- Eye-catching design
- One-Click Print
- Push notifications
- Integrations
Wunderlist’s Cons
- Lack of an intelligent keyboard
- No tracking or analytics
Wunderlist Feature Review
You can run Wunderlist anywhere– Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, Kindle, Chrome, and Web app.
The elaborate background photos and colorful UX/UI make Wunderlist more pleasant to work with. Wunderlist also gives you the freedom to customize your design.
Wunderlist has tons of professional tools including list folders, comments, subtasks, and reminders. You can also turn emails into tasks instantly.
Wunderlist also makes collaboration fast and easy. You can share lists with other people in just one click, and continue to add users as you go. Wunderlist uses “Activities” (notifications that a task has been added to/edited) and “Conversations” (tasks you have commented on) to keep everyone in the loop.
However, you are limited to the number of shared tasks you can create with the free version of Wunderlist.
Wunderlist integrates with tons of useful apps such as Outlook, Zapier, Slack, HipChat, and Dropbox. It does not, however, have integrations with Google Suite, which can be a problem if your company is heavily dependant on it.
Wunderlist’s Pricing
Wunderlist stopped charging for its Pro features as of April 2018. As a result, anyone that uses Wunderlist can now simply log-in to their Wunderlist account and start using its Pro features without extra payment.
This change happened mainly due to Wunderlist’s aquisition by Microsoft. The product was turned into what is now known as Microsoft To-do. However, users that prefer to use the older Wunderlist interface, can still do so.
Who is Wunderlist for?
Wunderlist at its core is built as a task management software and as such, it is not meant to serve a big sized team. It is best suited for individual task management. However, differently from most basic to-do apps, it allows to easily share tasks among collaborators and add members to different lists so they can contribute in completing tasks. For example, you could share a shopping list with your wife or husband.
Todoist
Todoist’s Pros
- Clean and easy-to-use UX/UI
- Access from any device
- Can be used offline
- Reminders by geographic location
- Seamless integration
Todoist’s Cons
- Lack of advanced features- steep price tag for advanced version
- Cannot be personalized
- No push notifications
- Cannot automatically sort tasks
- Cannot attach files/images
Todoist Feature Review
Todoist is by far the simplest of the three apps discussed. It is the easiest to use, but it also lacks in some key features when it comes to the free version. The list of cons above refers to the free version.
Todoist works well on all devices, making it a great option for on-the-go to-dos.
Like Wunderlist and Asana, Todoist lets you share lists/projects with others to make collaboration easier.
One of the features that makes Todoist stand out is its location-based reminders. You can set up a trigger so that every time you are at your local grocery store, you get a reminder to pick up eggs.
Todoist easily integrates with hundreds of apps including Google Drive, Dropbox, Slack, and Zapier.
With the expensive paid version, you get access to advanced reports and analytics. Todoist calls it Karma- a small report showing your productivity. You also get access to the majority of the features that the free version lacks.
Thus, you either get a very basic to-do app without paying or one of the most advanced apps our of all three by paying a lot.
Todoist’s Pricing
Who is Todoist for?
Todoist has solidified its seat as one of the most popular time management apps on the market, especially when it comes to individual use. With millions of downloads and over 100 million total completed tasks, Todoist is equipped with a sleek interface allowing its users to create multiple tasks with intuitive dates and track them with productivity charts.
However, there’s a catch:
Unfortunately, Todoist offers very little functionality if you aren’t on the premium plan, which is $29 per year, or roughly $3 a month. Therefore, I would recommend the free version of Todoist to individuals with simple task management needs.
Asana vs. Wunderlist vs. Todoist: The Final Verdict
Asana, Wunderlist, and Todoist are probably some of the best task management applications available at the moment. However, as we discussed above, they offer different features while serving similar purposes. When deciding on the most suitable task management app, one must consider different factors such as the number of users, pricing, features required, etc…
Below we have summarized some of the main differences:
Why Pick Asana
Why Pick Wunderlist
Why Pick Todoist
- Ultimately, if you need advanced features and effective collaboration in a team, then Asana is probably the way to go.
- If you are looking for a task management app for individual use while requiring other people to stick their nose in your tasks and help from time to time, then probably Wunderlist is the best fit for you.
- On the other hand, if all you need is a dedicated app for managing your individual tasks and time, then Todoist might be the right choice.
