TickTick is the task manager we would point an individual or small team toward first if the job is fast personal task capture with a built-in timer, not a full project workspace with dependencies and reporting. This TickTick review compares its documented free and Premium pricing against Trello and Notion, and the pattern holds: TickTick wins on price and built-in focus tools, loses on collaborative workspace depth compared with the two broader platforms. TickTick documents a permanent free plan capped at 9 lists and 99 tasks per list, with Premium priced near $3.99 per month or $35.99 per year, a discount from a $49.99 annual list price, so verify current pricing before choosing a tier.
For this review, we compared TickTick's documented free and Premium tier limits, its calendar and board and timeline views, and its built-in Pomodoro timer against Trello's kanban-first structure and Notion's flexible database approach. We priced out typical individual and small-team usage, weighed what each platform bundles by default against what costs extra, and identified which businesses each tool fits best.
How We Compared These Project Management Tools
We compared TickTick, Trello, and Notion using publicly documented pricing pages, vendor feature lists, and consistent patterns in published customer reviews. We did not run a live task list through any of the accounts. TickTick documents a single Premium tier that unlocks calendar, board, and timeline views plus a built-in focus timer, while Trello documents a kanban-first structure with power-ups gating advanced features, and Notion documents a general-purpose workspace that teams configure into a task manager shape themselves. We weighted four factors: total cost at typical individual or small-team usage, task capture speed, view flexibility, and built-in focus or time-tracking tools.
TickTick Priced Out: Free Tier and a Single Premium Plan
TickTick documents a permanent free plan capped at 9 lists and 99 tasks per list, with limited calendar and filter features, usable for a genuinely small personal workload without ever paying. Premium is documented at $3.99 per month or $35.99 per year in the U.S. App Store, currently listed as a 28 percent discount from a $49.99 annual list price. Premium unlocks unlimited lists, tasks, and subtasks with hierarchical nesting, a calendar view that overlays tasks on a weekly or monthly grid with Google Calendar sync, a kanban-style board view, a Gantt-style timeline view for planning across time, and a built-in Pomodoro timer for focus sessions. There is no separate team tier; Premium is priced per individual account regardless of how many people share a list. Verify current App Store and web pricing directly with TickTick before committing, since regional pricing and promotional discounts shift.
The Strength: Fast Capture With a Built-In Timer
TickTick's core appeal is how quickly a task gets captured and how little friction sits between opening the app and starting a Pomodoro session, which reviewers consistently report makes it a favorite for individuals managing a personal workload alongside light project tracking. The built-in Pomodoro timer, bundled into Premium rather than sold as a separate app or integration, is documented as a standout feature competitors like Trello and Notion do not offer natively. The permanent free tier is also documented as genuinely usable for a small personal list, not a crippled trial, letting new users evaluate the product before paying.
The Weaknesses: Thin on Team Collaboration and Reporting
Three criticisms appear repeatedly in published reviews. First, TickTick's collaboration features are documented as lighter than dedicated team project tools, with no deep permission structures, workload reporting, or dependency tracking for larger teams. Second, the free tier's 9-list and 99-task caps are documented as restrictive once a user's task list grows past a personal scale, pushing most active users toward Premium fairly quickly. Third, TickTick lacks the extensive third-party power-up and integration marketplace that Trello has built up over years, limiting how deeply it plugs into other business tools. None of these are disqualifying for an individual or very small team, but they change the real fit once a business needs multi-person project oversight.
How TickTick Stacks Up Against Trello and Notion
Trello documents a kanban-first structure built for visual team collaboration, with a wide power-up marketplace extending its features, though its base experience is documented as thinner than TickTick's when it comes to personal task capture and built-in focus tools. Notion documents the most flexible database-driven approach of the three, letting a team configure a task manager to its exact shape, but requires manual setup and lacks TickTick's dedicated calendar and Pomodoro features out of the box. The table below sums up the trade-offs.
| Factor | TickTick | Trello | Notion |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free tier | 9 lists, 99 tasks per list | Documented as more generous board limits | Documented as generous for individuals |
| Premium price | About $3.99/month or $35.99/year | Documented from around $5/user/month | Documented from around $10/user/month |
| Built-in focus timer | Yes, Pomodoro included | No, needs a power-up | No, needs a template or integration |
| Team collaboration depth | Documented as lighter | Strong, kanban-first | Strong, fully customizable |
| Best fit | Individuals and small teams wanting fast capture | Visual teams wanting kanban boards | Teams wanting a fully custom workspace |
Who Should Choose TickTick Over Trello or Notion
Choose TickTick when your priority is fast personal task capture with a built-in calendar and Pomodoro timer, without configuring a workspace yourself. Choose Trello if visual kanban boards and team collaboration matter more than personal focus tools. Choose Notion if your team wants a fully custom workspace built around documents, databases, and tasks together. Our roundup of the best project management tools for teams ranks the field across use cases.
What Reviewers Consistently Praise and Pan About TickTick
Praise clusters around fast task entry, the built-in Pomodoro timer, and a genuinely usable free tier. Pans cluster around thin team collaboration features and free-tier caps that push active users toward Premium quickly. A practical pattern emerges: individuals and very small teams report strong satisfaction with TickTick's core product, while teams wanting deeper collaboration, reporting, or dependency tracking more often choose a broader project management platform instead. Buy TickTick for the personal task capture and focus tools, not team-scale project oversight.
The bottom line: TickTick remains the strongest documented choice we compared for individuals and small teams wanting fast task capture and a built-in Pomodoro timer at a low price, though its thinner team collaboration features mean growing teams should plan to graduate to a broader platform. If personal focus tools are your priority, TickTick is the strongest option we compared; if team-scale collaboration or reporting matter more, Trello or Notion will likely serve you better.
