Todoist vs. TaskSite: Which To-Do System Fits Your Workflow?

What Is the To Doist App and How Does It Compare to TaskSite?

If you’ve looked into productivity apps, you’ve likely heard of Todoist. Often stylized as one word, Todoist is a popular to-do list app known for its balance of power and simplicity. It has been around for over a decade and boasts millions of users. But what exactly can the Todoist app do for you, and how does it stack up against a newer tool like TaskSite? In this article, we’ll explain what the Todoist app is, highlight its main features, and then compare it to TaskSite’s unique context-aware approach. Whether you’re considering switching apps or using them together, it’s helpful to understand their differences.

What Is Todoist?

Todoist is a cross-platform task management app that helps you capture and organize tasks. Think of it as an advanced digital to-do list. It’s available on almost every device (web, Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, browser extensions, even smart watches), making it easy to keep your tasks synced. As of 2025, Todoist has a robust set of features that cater to both personal and professional task management:

• Projects and Sub-projects: You can organize tasks into projects (which are essentially lists or folders). For example, you might have projects called “Work,” “Personal,” “Fitness,” or more specific ones like “Client ABC Website Launch.” You can even nest projects (projects and sub-projects) to keep things structured.
• Tasks, Subtasks, and Sections: Within projects, you add tasks. Tasks can have subtasks (Todoist allows multi-level subtasks, though usually one level is enough for most people). You can also group tasks into sections within a project for better organization (like splitting a project into phases or categories).
• Due Dates and Recurring Tasks: Todoist excels at date handling. You can assign due dates (and specific times) to tasks. It understands natural language too – type “Pay rent every month on the 1st” and it will set a recurring task on the first of each month. Recurring tasks, deadlines, and an upcoming calendar view help you stay on top of schedule.
• Priorities: Todoist lets you mark tasks with priority levels (P1, P2, P3, P4). By default, they show up color-coded (red for highest priority P1, then blue, green, no color). This helps you differentiate the importance of tasks at a glance.
• Labels (Tags) and Filters: Beyond projects, Todoist has a powerful labeling system. You can tag tasks with custom labels (e.g., @email, @home, @urgent). Using labels, you can create filters – custom views that show tasks matching certain criteria (for instance, a filter for “@email & P1” might show high-priority tasks that involve emails). This is useful if you have a lot of tasks and want to slice the data differently than by project or date.
• Reminders: With Todoist (especially the paid version), you can get reminders via push notifications or email, either at due times or even location-based reminders (e.g., alert me to “Buy milk” when I’m near the grocery store).
• Collaboration: Todoist allows sharing projects with others. On the free plan you can share with up to 5 people per project. You can assign tasks to others, add comments on tasks (including attachments or voice notes if needed). This makes it viable for small team collaboration or family task lists.
• Karma and Gamification: A unique aspect of Todoist is its Karma system – basically a way to gamify your productivity. You earn points for completing tasks, meeting daily and weekly goals, using advanced features, etc. It’s optional, but many find it motivating to keep their streak of productivity.
• Integrations: Todoist integrates with many other services. For example, it can work with Google Calendar (syncing tasks with a calendar), has a Gmail add-on, integrations via Zapier for countless use cases, and voice assistant support (so you can add tasks via Alexa, Siri, etc.). There’s also an email-to-task feature (you can forward emails to a special address to create tasks).
• Offline and Sync: Todoist works offline and then syncs when you’re online. This is useful if you’re on the go without internet.

In summary, Todoist is like a well-organized notebook where each page is a project, and you have various ways (dates, labels, priorities) to mark and view tasks. It’s renowned for being flexible: you can use it very simply (just a few lists of tasks) or in a very advanced way (with complex filter queries and automation), depending on your needs.

To give a sense of how these features come together, imagine opening Todoist in the morning:

• You check your Today view which automatically shows all tasks due today (and any overdue). Perhaps you see tasks like “Finish design draft (Project: Work, due today, P1)” and “Buy groceries (Project: Personal, due today, P3)”.
• You might then switch to the Upcoming view to see what’s coming in the next week.
• You decide to plan your day, dragging a few tasks without due dates from various projects into today or setting them for this week.
• As you work, you complete tasks and check them off. Each completion gives a satisfying checkmark and adds to your Karma score.
• Let’s say an email comes in that you need to handle next week – you add a task to Todoist (maybe using the browser extension: highlight text from the email, hit “Add to Todoist” – it captures the snippet and a link to the email, very handy).
• By the end of the day, you look at your productivity stats (how many tasks done, etc.) and feel accomplished.

Todoist’s core appeal is that it centralizes all your tasks and gives you multiple ways to view and organize them, but you still have to check it regularly and maintain it (like any productivity system).

Todoist vs. TaskSite: Key Differences

Now that we have an overview of Todoist, let’s compare it to TaskSite. At first glance, these two might seem like apples and oranges, because TaskSite does something quite different. TaskSite is all about contextual tasks anchored to websites, whereas Todoist is about maintaining a global list of tasks with powerful organization.

Here are some major points of comparison:

1. Contextual vs. Centralized:

• Todoist: All tasks live in the Todoist app. Even if you have categories (projects, labels), ultimately you go into Todoist to see and manage them. It’s a centralized hub. If you’re on a website and think of a task related to it, you’d have to manually add that to Todoist (you can use the extension, but the task goes into your Todoist list).
• TaskSite: Tasks live on the sites themselves (through the extension overlay). The context is distributed. If you have a task for YouTube, it shows on YouTube; if it’s for Amazon, it shows on Amazon. You do have an All Tasks central view, but the primary interaction is context-driven. This means with TaskSite you might not think about your tasks until you visit the relevant site – which can be a good thing (less to mentally juggle) or a drawback (if you forget about tasks because you didn’t revisit the site).

2. Features and Complexity:

• Todoist Features: As described, Todoist offers due dates, reminders, priorities, labels, collaboration, etc. It’s a comprehensive tool. It even lets you search and filter tasks with complex queries. You can manage hundreds of tasks across dozens of projects, and use it as a team or individual. This is great if you need that power. But it can be overkill if your needs are simple.
• TaskSite Features: TaskSite intentionally keeps it simple. Each task is basically a note or to-do attached to a page or domain. You can check it off when done and it disappears (TaskSite likely has an archive or just deletes it). There’s no elaborate prioritization or scheduling within TaskSite – the schedule is basically “when you go to that site next, you’ll see it.” TaskSite does have an “All Tasks” page to view everything and maybe some basic sorting, but it’s not meant to manage long-term projects with deadlines. Also, TaskSite currently is a personal tool (no assignment to others, etc.). This simplicity can be freeing – you don’t spend time fiddling with setting dates or priorities – you just jot and go. But if you rely on those extra features, you’d miss them in TaskSite.

3. Example Workflow Comparison:

• Scenario: You’re planning a trip.
  • Using Todoist, you might create a project “Japan Trip”, add tasks like “Book flight”, “Reserve hotel”, “Buy travel insurance”, each with deadlines. You might label some @online or @phone depending on how to do them. Todoist will remind you as deadlines approach.
  • Using TaskSite, you might not have a “project” per se. Instead, when you’re on the airline website, you add a task on that site “Compare prices with other airlines and book flight”. When you browse a hotel site or Airbnb, you add a note “Decide on booking by Friday” on that site. Essentially, you leave yourself reminders at the points of execution. TaskSite might not remind you Friday unless you visit the site, but if you’re habitually visiting, you’ll see it.
  • Possibly, a hybrid approach: You keep the overall trip tasks in Todoist for date tracking, but you also use TaskSite for notes on specific sites (like a note on Japan Rail website about which pass to buy). The next time you go there, voila, the info is waiting.

4. Overwhelm vs. Focus:

• Some Todoist users end up with lots of tasks and projects, which can become overwhelming (if not managed well). It’s easy to dump everything in because the app can handle it. Todoist does provide views like Today or filters to narrow focus, but discipline is required on the user’s part.
• TaskSite inherently limits focus because you see tasks in slices (contextually). You’re never looking at 100 tasks at once; you’re looking at maybe the 3 relevant to the site you’re on. This can reduce cognitive load. However, the flip side is you might not have a single clear overview of all your responsibilities unless you open the All Tasks view. If you like seeing the big picture, Todoist provides that better; if you prefer seeing just what’s needed now, TaskSite’s approach is refreshing.

5. Platforms and Accessibility:

• Todoist works on mobile, desktop, voice, you name it. If you need to access tasks on the go, it’s got you covered.
• TaskSite is primarily for desktop (Chrome extension). If you’re away from your computer, you won’t easily see your TaskSite tasks (unless you use a laptop or some workaround). TaskSite is awesome for people who “work in the browser” most of the day on a computer. But if a lot of your tasks involve, say, errands outside or you manage tasks mostly on your phone, Todoist (or any mobile to-do app) is more accessible.

6. Pricing:

• Todoist has a free tier and a premium tier (around $4/month) unlocking reminders, labels, larger collaboration, etc. Many find the free tier sufficient for personal use (it allows 5 active projects and some other limits).
• TaskSite is currently free with limits (up to 10 tasks per site on the free plan) and a forthcoming Pro at a low cost (as per TaskSite’s site, Pro is ~$2.9/month). TaskSite doesn’t restrict features behind paywall as much as quantity of usage (like number of tasks, maybe dark mode in Pro, etc.). Both are affordable for individuals; the choice wouldn’t be about money but about function.

7. Use Cases They Shine In:

• Todoist shines for structured planning, multi-step projects, and when you need a reliable reminder system and central hub. If you’re managing a project with deadlines or just like the GTD methodology (capture, organize, review), Todoist supports it.
• TaskSite shines for contextual reminders, research tasks, learning, and preventing “out of sight, out of mind” on the web. It’s great for those “remember to do X on this site” or “note to self next time I’m here” scenarios that traditional to-do apps don’t handle gracefully. Also, if you dislike maintaining a big list and prefer to be reminded organically, TaskSite’s your friend.

Can Todoist and TaskSite Work Together?

Yes! In fact, they might complement each other:

• Use Todoist for your big-picture and dated tasks. For example, “Submit project proposal by April 30” lives in Todoist with that deadline and you get reminded.
• Use TaskSite for the in-context micro-reminders. While working on the proposal, if you visit your company’s CRM site and need to pull some data later, leave a TaskSite note there. When you return, it jogs your memory. Or while browsing a competitor’s site, leave a task on that site “include this point in proposal.” It’ll be there when you check back.
• After finishing those, mark them off (TaskSite tasks you’d check off in the moment; Todoist tasks you’d complete when done).

There’s no direct integration between them (they don’t sync or talk to each other), but your brain can integrate the two streams. It’s somewhat akin to having sticky notes on specific files while still keeping a main to-do list on your desk.

Conclusion

Effective task management isn’t about using the most powerful tool — it’s about choosing one that fits the way your brain works. Some people benefit from seeing the big picture with carefully scheduled deadlines and detailed lists. Others thrive with lightweight systems that gently nudge them when and where they’re needed.

If your current to-do system feels like a burden instead of a helper, it may be time to rethink your approach. Whether that means simplifying your workflow, changing how you interact with tasks, or even breaking your list into contexts — clarity and focus should always be the goal.

There’s no one-size-fits-all productivity method. The best system is the one that works with your habits, reduces stress, and helps you move forward with intention. Reflect on what supports you best — and let your task list serve you, not the other way around.