All three manage tasks. All three have free plans. But they're built for fundamentally different ways of working — and using the wrong one for your style wastes more time than it saves. Here's the honest comparison.
The Core Difference
- Trello: Visual board — tasks are cards on columns (To Do → Doing → Done)
- Notion: Flexible workspace — tasks are database entries that can be viewed as a table, board, calendar, or list
- Todoist: Pure task list — clean, fast, built for getting tasks in and checked off quickly
Trello: Best for Visual Thinkers and Teams
Free plan: Unlimited cards, 10 boards, unlimited users
Trello's kanban board is intuitive to anyone who's ever used sticky notes on a whiteboard. You create columns (stages) and cards (tasks), drag them across as they progress.
Strengths:
- Zero learning curve — anyone can use it in 5 minutes
- Visual progress at a glance — see the whole project on one screen
- Excellent for team projects where everyone needs visibility
- Butler automation (free) for repetitive actions: "When a card is moved to Done, send an email"
Weaknesses:
- No good date/calendar view on the free plan
- Gets messy with more than 30–40 active cards
- No subtasks without Power-Ups (add-ons, many of which are paid)
- Tasks can contain rich notes, linked documents, and sub-pages
- Multiple views of the same data: table, board, calendar, list, gallery
- Notes and documentation live in the same place as tasks — great for knowledge workers
- Highly customisable for any workflow
- Steeper learning curve — takes a few hours to set up properly
- Can become overwhelming ("Notion overwhelm" is a real phenomenon)
- Mobile app is slower than Trello or Todoist
- Overkill for simple to-do lists
- Natural language input: type "Meeting with Sarah every Monday at 9am" — it creates a recurring task automatically
- The fastest mobile app for adding tasks (one tap, type, done)
- Karma system gamifies productivity — daily and weekly streaks
- Excellent recurring task support
- No note-keeping — just tasks
- Limited to 5 projects on the free plan
- No kanban view on free plan
Notion: Best for Complex Projects and Note-Keeping
Free plan: Unlimited pages and blocks for one person
Notion is the most powerful of the three but requires the most setup. A task in Notion is a database entry — which means it can have custom properties: status, due date, priority, assigned person, related projects, notes, and more.
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Todoist: Best for Personal Task Management
Free plan: Up to 5 projects, 5 collaborators
Todoist is the fastest app to add a task to and the cleanest to review. It's optimised for one thing: capturing tasks quickly and getting through them.
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Which Should You Choose?
| If you... | Use |
|---|---|
| Want to see tasks as a visual board | Trello |
| Work with a team on a project | Trello or Notion |
| Want tasks integrated with notes | Notion |
| Just want a clean personal to-do list | Todoist |
| Manage multiple complex projects | Notion |
| Want the simplest possible start | Todoist or Trello |