Todoist vs Microsoft To Do for Small Business: Which Task Manager Is Actually Worth It?
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Same Problem, Very Different Tools
Client deadlines, supplier follow-ups, invoices to chase, admin that never ends. Todoist and Microsoft To Do both promise to hold all of it, and on the surface they look alike: create a task, set a date, tick it off.
They are built for different people. This is a straight answer on what each does well, where each runs out, and the specific points at which paying for Todoist beats using the Microsoft To Do that is probably already inside your Microsoft 365 subscription.
What Each One Is
Todoist is a dedicated task manager from Doist, available on web, iOS, Android, Mac, Windows and as browser extensions. Its whole focus is task management, with a free plan, a Pro plan and a Business plan.
Microsoft To Do is Microsoft’s free task app, the successor to Wunderlist. It works standalone with a Microsoft account and is included in Microsoft 365, syncing with Outlook so that anything you flag in your inbox appears as a task.
Feature by Feature
Task Capture
Todoist’s natural language input is a genuine advantage. Type “send proposal to Dave every Friday at 9am” and it parses the date, time and recurrence in one go.
Microsoft To Do is more manual: create the task, then set the date, then set the recurrence. It works, but it feels like a digital list rather than a system.
Todoist.
Projects and Structure
Todoist’s free plan covers a handful of personal projects, reported as five, which suits a sole trader with focused work and runs out quickly with several clients. Pro lifts that substantially and adds sections, filters, labels and priorities.
Microsoft To Do uses lists rather than projects, with no hard cap but a flat structure. Lists can be grouped, but there are no sections, no nested subtasks of any depth, and no project-level comments. Fine for personal organisation, cramped across several client workstreams.
Todoist, on the paid tiers.
Reminders
This is where most comparisons go wrong. Todoist’s free Beginner plan does include reminders. Older guidance saying reminders are Pro-only is out of date.
Microsoft To Do also has reminders on its free tier.
So reminders are no longer a reason to choose one over the other. Tie.
Collaboration
Todoist Pro shares projects with a small number of collaborators, and Business adds shared team inboxes, admin controls, team billing and role management.
Microsoft To Do shares lists with other Microsoft account holders and allows assignment between them. There is no team inbox, no admin view, no workload visibility and no comparable task commenting.
If it is just you, To Do’s sharing is adequate. At two or three people, it thins out fast.
Todoist.
Integrations
Todoist connects to dozens of third-party tools including Google Calendar, Gmail, Slack, Zapier and Clockify.
Microsoft To Do integrates tightly with Outlook, Teams, OneNote and Planner, and My Day pulls from your Outlook calendar. Outside Microsoft, integrations thin out quickly.
Depends on your stack. Microsoft shops: To Do. Google or mixed: Todoist.
Mobile
Both are good. Todoist’s app is more polished, with widgets, quick add and voice input. To Do is simpler and stays out of the way. Tie.
Pricing
Microsoft To Do is free, standalone or as part of Microsoft 365. If you are buying Microsoft 365 anyway, Business Basic is £5.40 per user per month with Teams included, or £4.20 without Teams, and Business Standard is £18.10 with Teams or £15.60 without. Check the VAT treatment at checkout.
Todoist bills in pounds, not dollars, so there is no exchange rate to allow for:
| Plan | Annual | Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| Beginner | £0 | £0 |
| Pro | £5 | £7 |
| Business | £8 | £10 |
Both Todoist tiers are per user per month. The gap between annual and monthly is 40% on Pro, so the headline £5 assumes a year’s commitment.
Who Should Stick With Microsoft To Do
Be honest about which of these describes you:
- You already pay for Microsoft 365 and your day runs through Outlook
- You work alone, or with one other person who also has a Microsoft account
- Your needs are daily lists, flagged emails and meeting follow-ups
- You need nothing outside the Microsoft ecosystem
- Budget is tight
In that situation, paying for Todoist is hard to justify. To Do will not dazzle anyone, but it works and it is already paid for.
When Todoist Earns the Money
You run several client projects at once. Five or more active clients and the free project limit disappears immediately, while To Do’s flat lists give you nowhere to put the structure. Todoist Pro at £5 is the answer here.
Your stack is not Microsoft. Slack, Google Workspace, Trello, Zapier automations: Todoist connects, To Do largely does not.
You are delegating to two or more people. Once you need visibility on who is doing what, To Do’s list sharing runs out. Todoist Business at £8 a user gives you oversight without moving to heavier project management software.
Capture speed matters to you. If you want to fire tasks in without clicking through menus, natural language parsing is a real daily gain.
Note what is no longer on this list: reminders. Both free tiers have them.
Admin, Deadlines and Making Tax Digital
For UK sole traders, the to-do list is full of tax dates. Neither app connects to accounting software or to HMRC, so neither replaces FreeAgent, QuickBooks or Xero. What they are good for is holding the dates.
If you are inside Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, which has applied since April 2026 to qualifying income above £50,000 and drops to £30,000 in April 2027, the recurring dates worth putting in whichever app you choose are 7 August, 7 November, 7 February and 7 May for quarterly updates, and 31 January for the Final Declaration.
If you are VAT-registered, your return and payment are due one calendar month and seven days after each VAT period ends. Todoist’s recurring tasks handle both patterns cleanly, and To Do’s recurrence will do it with more clicks.
FAQ
Is Microsoft To Do really free?
Yes, standalone and within Microsoft 365. There is no premium tier. The limits are in the feature set rather than behind a paywall.
Does Todoist’s free plan include reminders?
Yes. This changed, and a lot of published comparisons still say otherwise. If reminders were the reason you ruled out free Todoist, reconsider.
Can I run a small team on Todoist Pro?
Pro shares projects with a limited number of collaborators, which covers many small teams. Business is the step up when you need admin controls, team billing or a shared inbox. For two or three people, Pro is usually enough.
Do they work offline?
Both do. Tasks save locally and sync on reconnection.
Which suits a sole trader?
If you are on Microsoft 365, start with To Do, since it costs nothing extra. Move when you hit the structural limits: flat lists, weak integrations outside Microsoft, no real delegation. If you are not a Microsoft 365 user, Todoist’s free plan is a stronger starting point than it used to be, reminders included.
Todoist vs Microsoft To Do: The Verdict
For small business owners already paying for Microsoft 365, start with Microsoft To Do. It is free, it is already installed, and for an Outlook-centred sole trader it may be all you ever need.
Move to Todoist Pro at £5 a user per month when you hit the real friction points: multiple client projects, a stack that lives outside Microsoft, or a genuine need for faster capture and better structure. Move to Business at £8 when you are delegating to a team and need oversight.
The rule is unchanged: do not pay for features you have not yet needed. What has changed is the reminder question, which used to push people toward To Do and no longer should.
Pricing and features correct at time of writing. Plans and capabilities are subject to change, so always confirm current details on the provider’s website before purchasing, and check VAT treatment at checkout.