Todoist is the task app we would point a small team toward first if it wants a fast, personal-style task manager that still scales to shared projects, because its documented three-tier structure keeps individual use nearly free while adding team features only when a business actually needs them. This Todoist review compares its documented pricing after the December 2025 price increase and its project-scaling features against Asana and Trello, and the pattern holds: Todoist wins on speed and personal-to-team scaling, loses on reporting depth and visual project views compared with the two larger platforms. Todoist documents a free Beginner tier capped at 5 personal projects, a Pro tier near $5 per month billed annually, and a Business tier near $8 per user per month billed annually, so verify current pricing given the plan's recent increase.
For this review, we compared Todoist's documented free, Pro, and Business tiers and its recent price changes against Asana and Trello. We priced out typical small-team task management needs, weighed the value of Todoist's simplicity against each competitor's deeper views and reporting, and identified which businesses each tool fits best.
How We Compared These Project Management Tools
We compared Todoist, Asana, and Trello using publicly documented pricing pages, vendor feature lists, and consistent patterns in published customer reviews. We did not run a live team project through any of the accounts. Todoist began as a personal task manager and documents team features as an extension of that core rather than a separate product, which changes the comparison against Asana, a team-first platform with deeper reporting and multiple project views built in from its free tier, and Trello, a kanban-first board tool with a large power-up marketplace for extending functionality. We weighted four factors: total cost at typical small-team usage, project view variety, reporting and tracking depth, and speed of daily task entry.
Todoist Priced Out: Free Beginner, Then Pro and Business
Todoist documents a free Beginner tier with no trial expiry but a cap of 5 personal projects and a handful of held-back features. Pro is documented near $5 per month billed annually, or about $7 per month billed monthly, unlocking reminders, file attachments, up to 300 active projects, 25 collaborators per project, advanced filters, and automatic backups. Business is documented near $8 per user per month billed annually, or about $10 per user per month billed monthly, adding a shared team workspace, up to 500 team projects, up to 1,000 team members and guests, activity logs, shared templates, team roles, centralized billing, and SOC 2 Type II compliance. Todoist raised prices across all paid plans in December 2025 for the first time since 2022, with Pro increasing roughly 25 to 40 percent depending on billing cycle and Business increasing roughly 25 to 33 percent. Verify current pricing before budgeting for a team rollout.
The Strength: Fast Entry and a Genuine Free Tier for Individuals
Todoist's core appeal is speed: reviewers consistently report that natural-language task entry and a minimal interface make it the fastest tool of the three for simply capturing and completing tasks without navigating a heavier project structure. Its free Beginner tier remains usable indefinitely for an individual with modest project needs, a contrast to tools that push free users toward an upgrade quickly. For a small team that starts with individuals managing their own task lists before formalizing shared projects, Todoist's upgrade path from personal to Business tier is documented as a natural progression rather than a rebuild.
The Weaknesses: Thinner Views and Reporting Than a Team-First Tool
Three criticisms appear repeatedly in published reviews. First, Todoist's project views are documented as narrower than Asana's, lacking the timeline, workload, and portfolio views that team-first platforms build in for tracking dependencies across multiple projects. Second, Todoist's reporting is documented as simpler, tracking personal productivity trends rather than team-wide project health. Third, the December 2025 price increase is reported by users as eroding some of Todoist's prior value advantage, particularly on the Business tier where the per-user cost now sits closer to team-first competitors. None of these are disqualifying for a small team prioritizing speed, but they matter for businesses that need dependency tracking across projects.
How Todoist Stacks Up Against Asana and Trello
Asana documents the deepest reporting and the widest variety of project views of the three, including timeline and workload views, but at a steeper learning curve and typically higher cost at team scale. Trello documents a kanban-first board interface with a large power-up marketplace for extending functionality, which suits visual workflows but is reported as less suited to task lists with many subtasks and due dates than Todoist's list-first approach. The table below sums up the trade-offs.
| Factor | Todoist | Asana | Trello |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free tier | Free, capped at 5 projects | Free, capped at basic features | Free, capped at 10 boards |
| Entry paid price | About $5/month annual, verify current | Documented from around $11/user/month | Documented from around $5/user/month |
| Project views | List-first, documented as narrower | Widest documented variety | Kanban-first with power-ups |
| Reporting depth | Personal productivity trends | Deepest documented team reporting | Basic, power-up dependent |
| Best fit | Individuals and small teams wanting speed | Teams needing dependency tracking | Visual, kanban-first workflows |
Who Should Choose Todoist Over Asana or Trello
Choose Todoist when your priority is fast personal task capture that scales gradually into a small shared team workspace, without needing timeline or workload views on day one. Choose Asana if your team needs deeper reporting and dependency tracking across multiple concurrent projects. Choose Trello if your workflow is naturally visual and kanban-first with room for power-up extensions. Our roundup of the best project management tools for teams ranks the field across use cases.
What Reviewers Consistently Praise and Pan About Todoist
Praise clusters around fast task entry, a genuinely usable free tier, and a natural upgrade path from personal to team use. Pans cluster around narrower project views than a team-first tool and the December 2025 price increase eroding some prior value. A practical pattern emerges: individuals and small teams prioritizing speed report strong satisfaction, while teams needing dependency tracking across multiple projects more often choose a team-first platform. Buy Todoist for the speed, not the reporting depth.
The bottom line: Todoist remains the strongest documented choice we compared for individuals and small teams wanting fast task capture with a natural path into shared team use, though its narrower project views and the December 2025 price increase mean teams needing deeper reporting should weigh the alternatives. If speed and simplicity are your priority, Todoist is the strongest option we compared; if dependency tracking or team-wide reporting matter more, Asana or Trello will likely serve you better.
