# NotchOwl vs Todoist: Which To-Do App Fits Your Mac? > Todoist is free, or $5 a month billed yearly for Pro, on every platform. NotchOwl costs $9 once and keeps tasks, a focus timer and reminders in the notch. By Aditya Jaiswal, founder of NotchOwl. Published 2026-11-09, updated 2026-11-09. Canonical URL: https://www.notchowl.com/blog/notchowl-vs-todoist Todoist and NotchOwl both read a task the way you type it, so “call mom tomorrow at 5pm” lands on the right day either way. Past that, they are built for different people. Todoist is a cross-platform task manager with a free plan, apps for nearly every device, shared projects and team plans. NotchOwl is a Mac-only planner in the MacBook notch that you pay for once. I make NotchOwl, so I have a stake in this comparison; I’ve tried to be fair about where Todoist is the better pick. Everything below was compared from Todoist’s website, pricing page, help center and App Store listing and from NotchOwl’s own documentation in November 2026. Prices are US prices as of November 2026. ## The short verdict Choose Todoist if you need your list on Windows, Android, Linux or the web, if you share projects with family or a team, or if you want a capable free plan. Choose NotchOwl if you plan on your own on a Mac, want today’s tasks, a focus timer, reminders and a notepad one hover away in the notch, and would rather pay $9 once for up to 3 Macs than subscribe. If you want Todoist without a subscription, the free Beginner plan is real, but it is capped at 5 personal projects and 10 Ramble sessions a month. > Todoist is a cross-platform task manager with a free plan and Pro at $5 a month billed yearly, while NotchOwl is a $9 one-time Mac planner that keeps today’s tasks, a focus timer and reminders in the MacBook notch. ## NotchOwl vs Todoist at a glance Table: NotchOwl and Todoist compared on price, platforms and features, November 2026 | | NotchOwl | Todoist | | --- | --- | --- | | Price | $9 once (early-bird, normally $29) | Beginner free; Pro $5/month billed yearly ($60) or $7 monthly; Business $8/user/month billed yearly or $10 monthly | | Subscription | None; lifetime updates | Pro and Business are subscriptions | | Trial and refund | No trial; 14-day money-back guarantee | Free plan | | Platforms | Apple silicon Macs only | Mac, Windows, Linux, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Android, Wear OS, web | | Mac requirements | macOS 14 Sonoma or later, Apple silicon | macOS 12 or later (Mac App Store version) | | Account | None; a license key | Todoist account | | Where your tasks live | On your Mac; optional sync to Apple Reminders | Todoist’s cloud | | On the Mac screen | Notch, menu bar and a dashboard window | App window, Quick Add, menu bar icon for Ramble | | Global shortcut | Option–N opens the notch | Option–Space opens Quick Add | | Natural language | Dates, times, repeats, deadlines, priority, projects, time limits | Dates, times, repeats, projects, sections, labels, priority, reminders, deadlines | | Voice | Dictation recognized on your Mac | Ramble, online only; 10 sessions a month on the free plan | | Views | Today, future days, Week with an Inbox, Overdue | List and board; calendar and table layouts on Pro | | Reminders | Open the notch with a chime; Snooze 5 min or Done | Custom reminders on Pro | | Calendar | Today’s Apple Calendar events, read-only | Google Calendar and Outlook events in Today and Upcoming | | Focus timer | Countdown or stopwatch | None | | Progress | Insights: completed tasks, focus time, streak, peak hours | Productivity view with Karma goals and streaks | | Notes | Autosaving daily notepad | Task descriptions and comments | | Sharing | No | Shared projects; team workspaces on Business | | AI agents | Built-in MCP server on your Mac | Official MCP server hosted by Doist | ## What each app is built around Todoist is built around capture and projects. Quick Add reads a line like “Submit report every Friday at 4pm #Work” and sets the date, repeat and project, and Ramble turns spoken sentences into several tasks at once. Projects hold sections and sub-tasks, labels and filters cut across projects, and every project can be a list or a board, or a calendar or table on Pro. Shared projects and the Business plan make Todoist a team tool as well as a personal one. NotchOwl is built around the day. Hover the notch or press Option–N, and NotchOwl opens today’s tasks, a focus timer, a daily notepad and today’s Calendar events in one place over whatever app you’re using. You can plan any future day, see the week beside an Inbox, carry unfinished tasks forward, and run a focus session on the task in front of you. Your planner data stays on your Mac unless you turn on Reminders sync, which shares open tasks with Apple Reminders through iCloud. ## The biggest differences ### Price, and the subscription question As of November 2026, Todoist’s Beginner plan is free, with 5 personal projects, 3 filter views, one week of activity history and 10 Ramble sessions a month. Todoist Pro costs $5 a month billed yearly ($60 a year) or $7 billed monthly, and adds 300 personal projects, the calendar and table layouts, unlimited Ramble, Task Assist and Email Assist, task durations, custom reminders and automatic backups. Todoist Business costs $8 per user a month billed yearly ($96) or $10 monthly, and adds a shared team workspace with roles and permissions. NotchOwl costs $9 once for up to 3 Macs, shown as an early-bird price (normally $29), with lifetime updates and no subscription. There is no free tier or trial: the installer is free to download, but NotchOwl needs a license to run, and a 14-day money-back guarantee covers you if it isn’t right. Over three years, Todoist Pro billed yearly costs $180. The details of NotchOwl’s license are in [the pricing section](/#pricing), and other pay-once apps are in [Mac productivity apps with no subscription](/blog/mac-productivity-apps-no-subscription). The fair comparison isn’t only the price. Todoist’s subscription comes with cloud sync across many platforms and AI features such as Ramble, which runs online. NotchOwl keeps data on your Mac and reaches iPhone through Apple Reminders and iCloud, not through a NotchOwl server. ### Platforms and sync Todoist runs on Mac, Windows, Linux, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Android, Wear OS and the web, with browser extensions and email add-ons. Your account syncs everything, so a task added on an Android phone shows up on a Windows PC a moment later. NotchOwl runs only on Apple silicon Macs with macOS 14 Sonoma or later, with no Intel, Windows, Android, iPhone, iPad or web app. Its optional two-way Apple Reminders sync keeps a NotchOwl list in Reminders in step with your tasks, so they reach your iPhone and Apple Watch through iCloud, and reminders with a time ring there too. If any device you use isn’t made by Apple, Todoist is the better fit. ### Capture: Quick Add and Ramble, or the notch Both apps parse the whole line. Todoist’s Quick Add opens anywhere with Option–Space while the desktop app is running, even minimized, and reads `#` for projects, `/` for sections, `%` for labels, `p1` to `p3` for priority, `!` for reminders and curly braces for deadlines. Ramble, Todoist’s voice capture, starts from the Todoist menu bar icon or the Option–Shift–R shortcut, understands more than 40 languages, and turns rambling speech into separate tasks. Ramble needs an internet connection. NotchOwl’s composer reads “call mom tomorrow at 5pm !high #family” as a task on tomorrow with a 5 PM reminder, high priority and the family project. Repeats (“every monday”), deadlines (“due friday”) and time limits (“for 30 min”) work too, Todoist-style `p1` and `p2` set priority, and several tasks can go in one line separated by semicolons. NotchOwl’s dictation recognizes speech on your Mac. NotchOwl opens with Option–N by default, so it doesn’t collide with Todoist’s Option–Space. ### Seeing your list without switching windows Todoist’s Mac app is a window. Quick Add and Ramble capture from anywhere, and the menu bar icon starts Ramble, but Todoist’s help pages don’t describe a task list in the menu bar. NotchOwl’s list is at the top of the screen. Hover the notch and today drops down over your current app, and a running focus timer stays visible in the notch. NotchOwl’s menu bar item can show today’s progress or the task you’re focusing on. External monitors get a drawn notch that NotchOwl follows your pointer to, and Macs without a notch open NotchOwl at the top center of the screen. For more apps that keep tasks in view, see [the best menu bar to-do apps for Mac](/blog/best-menu-bar-to-do-apps-mac). ### Focus timer, reminders and progress Todoist has no focus timer. Todoist’s Productivity view tracks Karma points, daily and weekly goals and streaks for completed tasks. NotchOwl has a focus timer as a countdown or stopwatch, on a task or on its own, with 25, 45 and 60 minutes or a custom length on the Focus card. You can pause, resume or add 5 minutes, and the timer pauses when your Mac sleeps. NotchOwl isn’t a full Pomodoro app: there is no break timer or round counting. When a reminder comes due, the notch opens with a chime and Snooze and Done buttons. Insights shows completed tasks, active focus time, your streak, the last 7 days against the 7 before, and your peak hours. ### Calendar Todoist connects Google Calendar and Outlook on every plan: events appear read-only in Today and Upcoming, and scheduled tasks can appear in a Todoist calendar. Todoist can’t connect iCloud Calendar directly; its help center suggests subscribing to it through Google or Outlook. NotchOwl shows today’s events in the notch, read-only, from calendars already added to Apple Calendar on your Mac, and opens a live activity just before and as a timed event starts. NotchOwl never creates, edits or deletes events. ### Sharing and teams Todoist shares personal projects with up to 5 people on its free and Pro plans, and you can assign tasks to people in a shared project. Business adds team workspaces for up to 1,000 members and guests. NotchOwl has no shared or team lists. If anyone else needs to see your tasks, choose Todoist. ### AI agents: a cloud MCP server or a local one Both apps have an official MCP server, which lets Claude and other AI apps work with your tasks. Todoist’s server is hosted by Doist at `https://ai.todoist.net/mcp`: you add it as a connector in Claude, or with `claude mcp add --transport http todoist https://ai.todoist.net/mcp` in Claude Code, and sign in with OAuth. Doist also publishes it as an npm package you can run on your own computer, but either way the tasks live in your Todoist account in the cloud. Todoist Pro adds its own AI features, Task Assist and Email Assist. NotchOwl’s MCP server is built into the Mac app. In Settings › AI agents, click Connect next to Claude Code, the Claude app or Cursor; there is no account and no API key. The server runs on your Mac, and agents can add, move, rename and snooze tasks, complete today’s tasks, write in the notepad, read Insights and run the focus timer, with no access to your Calendar or settings. The setup is in [how to connect Claude to your Mac to-do list](/blog/claude-mcp-to-do-list-mac). ## Where Todoist is better - **Every platform.** Windows, Linux, Android, Wear OS and the web, not just Apple devices. - **A free plan.** Beginner costs nothing and includes 5 personal projects. - **Sharing.** Shared projects with task assignment, and team workspaces on Business. - **Project views.** Lists, boards, and calendar and table layouts on Pro, with sections, labels and filters. - **Voice capture in 40+ languages.** Ramble turns a spoken ramble into several tasks. - **Calendars.** Google Calendar and Outlook connect on every plan. - **Maturity.** Years of development and a large help center. ## Where NotchOwl is better - **No subscription.** $9 once for up to 3 Macs, with lifetime updates. - **Always in view.** Today’s tasks in the notch, and progress or your focus task in the menu bar. - **Focus timer.** Built in, as a countdown or stopwatch, on a task or on its own. - **Reminders you notice.** The notch opens with a chime, with Snooze and Done. - **Daily notepad.** Autosaving notes, where Command–Return turns a line into a task. - **Local data.** Tasks stay on your Mac, there is no account to create, and dictation runs on your Mac. Anonymous usage stats can be turned off in Settings. - **A local MCP server.** Claude works with your planner without a cloud account. ## Can you use both? Yes. NotchOwl has no Todoist integration, so they stay two separate lists, but they split work sensibly. - **Todoist for shared and long-term projects, NotchOwl for your day.** Keep shared family or team projects in Todoist, where others can see them. Put the tasks you’ll do today into NotchOwl and work from the notch with the focus timer. - **NotchOwl only for focus.** NotchOwl’s focus timer runs without a task, so you can keep every task in Todoist and use NotchOwl for timed sessions, the notepad and calendar heads-ups. - **Keep the shortcuts apart.** NotchOwl lets you open it with Option–N, Option–P or Option–Space. Leave it on Option–N so Todoist keeps Option–Space for Quick Add. - **Let Claude carry tasks across.** With Todoist’s MCP server and NotchOwl’s both connected, you can ask Claude to read today’s Todoist tasks and add them to NotchOwl. That is two servers working through Claude, not an integration between the apps. ## How to switch from Todoist to NotchOwl 1. [Download NotchOwl](/download), move it to Applications and activate your license. 2. In Todoist, open a project, click the three-dots menu and choose Import & export, then Export to CSV. Repeat for each project you want to bring over. 3. Open the CSV in Numbers or another spreadsheet app and copy the task names. Paste them into NotchOwl’s notepad and press Command–Return on each line to turn it into a task. Or skip the CSV: connect both MCP servers to Claude and ask it to copy this week’s Todoist tasks into NotchOwl on the same days. 4. Recreate repeating tasks with phrases like “every monday”. NotchOwl’s repeats work like Todoist’s: the next one appears when you finish this one. 5. Use `#project` for projects. NotchOwl has no sections, labels or filters, so fold those into project names or notes. 6. Turn on Reminders sync in Settings if you want the tasks on your iPhone and Apple Watch. 7. Keep your Todoist account while you try NotchOwl. NotchOwl’s 14-day refund window covers you if it isn’t right. ## Verdict Todoist is the better choice for most people who use more than Apple devices, share projects, or want a free plan that grows into a team tool. NotchOwl is the better choice if you work alone on a Mac, want your day and a focus timer where you already look, and would rather pay $9 once than $60 a year. If you are also weighing Things 3, TickTick or OmniFocus, see [the best Things 3 alternatives for Mac](/blog/things-3-alternatives-mac). Todoist is at [todoist.com](https://www.todoist.com). ## Frequently asked questions ### Can I use Todoist without a subscription? Yes, on the free Beginner plan, which allows 5 personal projects, 3 filter views and 10 Ramble voice sessions a month. Todoist Pro and Business are sold only as monthly or yearly subscriptions; there is no lifetime license, as of November 2026. ### Is NotchOwl a good Todoist alternative for Mac? Yes, if you plan on your own and only need your tasks on Apple silicon Macs, plus iPhone and Apple Watch through Apple Reminders. NotchOwl costs $9 once for up to 3 Macs and adds a focus timer and notch reminders, but it has no Windows, Android or iPhone app and no shared projects. ### Does Todoist have a focus timer? No. Todoist lists no focus or Pomodoro timer; its Productivity view tracks completed tasks, daily and weekly goals and streaks with Karma. NotchOwl has a countdown or stopwatch focus timer in the notch. ### How is Todoist’s MCP server different from NotchOwl’s? Todoist’s official MCP server is hosted by Doist at ai.todoist.net/mcp and signs in to your Todoist account, because your tasks live in Todoist’s cloud. NotchOwl’s MCP server is built into the Mac app, runs on your Mac and needs no account. ### Does Todoist Ramble work offline? No. Todoist’s help center says Ramble only works with an internet connection. NotchOwl’s dictation recognizes speech on your Mac. ### Can NotchOwl import my tasks from Todoist? Not directly; NotchOwl has no Todoist importer. You can export a Todoist project as a CSV file and paste the tasks into NotchOwl, or connect both apps’ MCP servers to Claude and ask it to copy your tasks into NotchOwl.