Todoist To Trello

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Trello vs Todoist is a battle of task management apps in a world where there are many, many such apps.

Todoist The Todoist Power-Up for Trello allows you to easily create Todoist tasks from your Trello cards with a single click. An 'Add to Todoist' button is added to each of your Trello cards. A single click adds a task for the card to your Todoist Inbox.

A task management app will allow you to organise your tasks and prioritise what needs to be done, setting deadlines along the way.

In a matter of minutes and without a single line of code, Zapier allows you to automatically send info between Todoist and Trello. Get started with workflows like: Add new Trello cards to Todoist as tasks. Or check out the rest of our guided workflows. Save time with Zapier; it's free to try. Todoist now has a Kanban board feature similar to that made popular by Trello. Kanban boards are an effective project management tool designed to make it easier to organise tasks within projects and get an overview of overall project status. While Kanban boards aren’t super fancy they are, for some, super useful. This creates a task in Todoist with the appropriate due date, or removes the task if the due date was removed from the card. When the task is completed in Todoist, IFTTT makes another webhook call to the same Google Apps script, which then goes to Trello, marking the card as completed and archiving it. Trello really delivers better value for money, unlike Todoist. Trello is the winner in this review. This is due to its rich functionality. Todoist has better pricing and is easier to use, but that is at the expense of functionality. Features Trello Features Multiple-Language Support.

The aim is to boost your productivity because you are on top of your workload. This is a crucial tool in today’s world of work – where the ability to juggle tasks is a vital skill.

However, even in the home, it could be useful. It can help you remember to buy the ingredients for your evening meal or to buy flowers for your mother.

Task management is particularly useful today if available on your smartphone or your tablet. You can set reminders and lists, and this can then synchronise with other platforms.

You would be able to tick off one of the tasks and then have this show up on your partners or your colleagues’ device too.

Therefore, a task management app is not just about managing personal workload or tasks but can also be used to control the workload of a team.

What Makes a Successful Task Management App?

There are millions of software applications and websites designed to help you with your to-do list.

Therefore, knowing which one to choose means understanding what makes a successful task management app.

Here are some essential questions that need to be answered:

  • Does the app allow you to list all you need to achieve clearly?
  • Does it give you the space to write details about the task for you or another to work from?
  • Is there a way to group the tasks in a way that allows for prioritisation?
  • Are there a clear means of indicating that the task is complete?
  • Are the tasks displayed in such a way that allows visualisation of the workload for more than one person?
  • Are there a means of tracking the changes to the task and keeping a record of progress?

Each of these questions will allow you to judge the success of the app and whether it meets your needs. Your needs will be different to others – so it might not be true that a single app is superior.

Let’s explore Trello and Todoist using these criteria.

Trello

Trello works using a system of boards, cards and lists. This is a little more than just a to-do list and something more akin to a project management system.

This Kanban Systemis popular in Agile project management, which breaks large projects down into short periods of activity marked by things to do, things being done and things are done. With the lists, you create cards, or tasks, which move along the workflow.

Sound complicated?

Well, it can be, but it doesn’t need to be. You can use the layout to organise work activities, social activities from operations in the home.

You can create a list for each member of the team or your family, or you can create a list for each step in the workflow that different items move through.

In short, the layout of boards, lists and cards is highly flexible and can be adapted to your needs.

The cards are also useful for providing all the information about the task, including a checklist, a calendar, the option to upload files and photos and a comments box.

The checklist gives a percentage progression through the activities laid out on that card – which helps to visualise what has been done and what needs to be done.

If you create lists in a traditional to do, doing, done, then you can quickly move the cards along the workflow – creating a record of all activity for all members of a team or just for yourself.

There are some added benefits in Trello, as it is meant to be a project management software as opposed to merely a task management app. You can use the power-ups to make each card in the software into its app.

In its basic form, Trello is free and is an active personal organiser. When you start adding power-ups, you begin to be charged, and the platform becomes sophisticated and capable of dealing with enterprise-level activity.

Trello is best used on a computer screen, but there is an app for a tabloid and a smartphone.

This means your activity can be updated as you go and this will automatically sync so that people viewing the board on other devices sees tasks set up, updated and completed as it happens.

Read more in Trello vs Basecamp.

Todoist

The main selling points of Todoist is that you can access tasks everywhere, collaborate on shared responsibilities and the design of the user interface does not allow for distraction.

The design is a simple list of projects, which can then be broken down into tasks and subtasks. If the project is particularly complex, you can break it into subprojects.

Then, these projects, subprojects, tasks and sub-tasks can be colour coded to offer a simple prioritisation system.

As the app is available on pretty every platform Download telesec driver. you can imagine – including attached to an email and through Safari – you can share projects and delegate tasks.

You can also organise for notifications for yourself or team members using emails or push notifications.

There is real-time data synchronisation which means people will see tasks and updates as they happen – across all devices.

There is the option to set dates easily, just by typing in the time and date. Equally easily is the option to set up recurring dates, to save time in the app typing in tasks that need to be done every day, week or month.
All the features mentioned so far are free.

It is possible to get a more sophisticated app by upgrading to the premium package.

In this package, you can get reminders via email, push notifications or text message. You can also receive location-based alerts when you are on the go.

There is also the option to add comments to tasks, attach pdfs, spreadsheets or photos. This then allows for the details of the task to be available to all, rather than just a bullet pointed task with sub-task.

Finally, the premium app allows for labels and filters. This helps you to put tasks into context and help with the organisation and filtering of activities.

This helps for a visualisation of the project in a way that can be understood by all.

Todoist Business can also handle multi-phase projects. This allows a manager to create a project, add tasks, set due dates and assign responsibilities.

This syncs in real-time across all platforms and users. You can increase the level of collaboration with the sharing of files and comments on details and progress related to the project.

The added bonus of Todoist Business is that you can see your team’s activity stream by project or by the team member – so you can see what needs to be done or has been done in a way that suits you.

You can save your custom views – including views of upcoming or overdue tasks.

The power of Todoist is its simplicity, which means an individual can use it or a team can start collaborating immediately.

Trello vs Todoist

Both Trello and Todoist fair well when moving through the questions for evaluation work productivity apps.

Trello Alternatives

Indeed, both applications are worth considering as project management tools – though here Trello arguably has more featuresand more flexibility.

Both Trello and Todoist have a simple but effective way of displaying tasks. A list in Todoist is simple and avoids the potential distraction of an over complicated Trello board.

However, you could argue that Trello is more adaptive to the needs of the individual, as you can set up activity in a way that suits you. The click and drag of activity across a workflow is also an effective visualisation of the progress of the project.

However, the activity stream in Todoist is a great counter argument here – especially considering you can customise views.

Both apps allow for synchronisation across platforms. Todoist works better on smartphones than Trello – where is was clearly envisioned it would be used.

The push notifications in Todoist also give it a distinct advantage – especially as you can get reminders via text message as well as email.

Trello will email reminders of upcoming dates and will link to Slack, which allows for instant message reminders.

However, the simple push notification is straightforward and effective.

What is worth remembering however is that all the really great features in Todoist are only available once you subscribe to the premium package.

As a free app Todoist is most suited to an individual looking to organise life and work.

Trello’s best features are available for free – with price kicking in for some of the more extensive features needed by enterprises.

Overall

When balancing Trello Vs Todoist, it is a close call.

Todoist wins out as a task management app to use on the phone.

However, if you want your task management app to grow up to be a project management app, you would want to commit to using Trello from the start.

Read more about Project Management Software.

Todoist vs. Trello, which is better? Both offer great task management, but in radically different ways. In this article I look at the key differences for you, the user.

Todoist vs. Trello Introduction

If you happen to stumble upon this article the chances are you are in the market for a new task manager and you have heard good things about two heavy weight task manager apps, Todoist and Trello. But which is better for you, Todoist or Trello? Which would best suit your style of getting things done, your budget and even help you get stuff done on the go? All reasonable questions to ponder upon with your favorite tipple in hand. Well, dear reader you have stumbled upon the right place. In this article I will outline the pros and cons in the Todoist vs. Trello debate to help you decide what is best for you. So, without further ado, let’s crack on with the Todoist vs. Trello review, beginning with the user interface for both.

Todoist vs. Trello User Interface

The first thing to notice between Todoist and Trello for any potential user is the striking difference in the user interfaces. Trello uses a Kanban board style method to manage tasks. This task management style allows you to organize your tasks in vertical columns. Traditionally these columns had been titled, Pending, In Progress and Done or something of that ilk. So, one would work on the tasks in the “In Progress”, column and when complete they would be moved across to the Complete column. Then another task would be moved from the Pending column to become the new “In Progress”, task. It was a simple but effective way of not only having visibility on the current tasks but also limiting the tasks for any given stage. Normally the approach would have been implemented on a physical notice board such as the one shown below.

Old school Kanban

However, this technique translates very well to the electronic domain – see the Trello interface for comparison to the old school post it notes. If you prefer a visual style of task management or if your tasks usually have a visual aspect to them, such as some picture, then definitely Trello is a good choice.

In contrast to Trello’s imagery, Todoist takes a more traditional approach. As with many other task managers, there is a left side of the screen containing the “Projects”, listing and the right side contains the list of tasks within each project. The tasks and projects can be nested, or in hierarchical form. The format in Todoist is simple and elegant, but make no mistake, for a myriad of clever tools are concealed behind the simple interface – as we will discover shortly!

Todoist vs. Trello Features

Both Todoist and Trello are established task management apps and so as expected, both tick many of the basic and more advanced features. These include file uploads, reminders, sharing of task lists, task comments, filters/search, task labels (colors for Trello), list templates, reminders, activity logs of list changes, keyboard shortcuts, task change notifications, SMS/email reminders and the ability to email tasks to your lists. This is by no means a complete list of the common features but at least you can see that many of the expected features are available in both Todoist and Trello.

There are a few differentiating features between them though. Let’s start off with features that Todoist has and Trello does not. It has location-based reminders, subtasks (proper subtasks, not an in-card checklist), basic intrinsic reporting – Trello has external options available for this, and smart date recognition. The smart date recognition means that if you type “Doctor appointment on Thursday”, Todoist will recognize “Thursday”, and set a reminder on that day accordingly for you.

Sample Trello Boards

Trello has the edge on Todoist with third-party support in the form of “Power-ups”, which can really boost Trello functionality. I will describe this in more detail later.

Todoist To Trello

Todoist & Trello Filtering and Search

Filtering and search is also a bit different between Todoist and Trello. Let’s consider Trello first. Trello has a search field at the top of the window which enables any search terms to be entered. As you type the corresponding task cards that fulfill that search term will be shown. It is a little bit like when you start typing in Google and a list of possible solutions start appearing.

Todoist, on the other hand, takes a different approach in their use of filtering. For large lists, filtering of some sort is a must. The premium version supports this with a comprehensive set of options. The basic filter commands follow natural language. So, for example you can enter “no due dates”, and it will show all tasks with no due dates. Check out the video below for some examples of how it can be used.

Task Organization

Do you have a flat task list or a nested or hierarchical task list? A flat task list will be a simple grocery style list like this,

Task A

Task B

Task C

Whereas, a nested task list will be like this,

Trello

Task A

Subtask 1

Subtask 2

Task B

In the latter case, Task A is broken down into smaller, more digestible work packages. This is important when dealing with larger projects which will need some element of Work Breakdown.

How you organize your tasks will influence the choice between Todoist and Trello. Todoist, by far is the better choice if you need to breakdown your tasks into smaller, actionable steps. Both projects and tasks can be nested, so you have multiple levels of nesting.

Trello, on the other hand really only supports one level of task cards. Checklists can be listed within the task cards but this is not really equivalent to proper task nesting.

Trello and Todoist Supported Platforms

Todoist support of platforms is one of the widest available for any task manager. At the time of writing it stands at 12 platforms, including the usual suspects – Windows, iOS, Android and various browsers.

Trello is primarily browser based but also has apps for Android and iOS.

Both Trello and Todoist can be used offline with the changes being synced when you are back online. I had the experience though with Trello that this offline access does not include embedded images in the task cards. So, if you need offline access to images then Trello would not be appropriate. Instead, have a look at some of the note based productivity solutions such as Evernote or OneNote.

Todoist vs. Trello Mobile Functionality

There was a time, in the not too distant past that I weighed up the differences between Todoist and Wunderlist. In terms of mobile operation, I considered Todoist to be the superior of the two, and for good reason.

Two key things to consider for small screen mobile operation is,

– Quick navigation to find the tasks that can be done given your particular context

– Quick addition of new tasks while on the go

Todoist To Trello

The Todoist mobile apps have the same simple, elegant interface as the desktop equivalent so Projects and Tasks can be easily browsed through. Even browsing through lists or entering new tasks can be too laborious on a small screen while on the go, so anything that can speed this up speed is useful. I have been using Todoist for some months now and I find a couple of Todoist features really helps with this. The first is the smart date recognition, which I described earlier. This works particularly well when you combine it with voice input. So, just say “Doctor appointment on Thursday”, to your phone and the task will be entered and a reminder set. The next mobile friendly feature is that project and date icons are immediately available at the point of task entry so can be quickly selected.

Todoist vs. Trello third party Integration

Both Trello and Todoist support third part integration but the ways and means that each do it differ dramatically.

Let’s start with Todoist which offers a more traditional third part integration support. There is a wide variety of apps that integrate with Todoist but this integration usually takes the form of information exchanged between the apps. For example you can send tasks to Todoist from other apps and vice versa or link to cloud storage and so on. However, the intrinsic functionality of the Todoist app is not changing in the process.

Trello on the other hand does not treat integration as an extrinsic extension. Third party plugins are available which intrinsically alter and enhance the features available in Trello. Trello Power Ups, and this is really an accurate description, as they really do enhance the core functionality of Trello.

If there was a single reason that one would contemplate Trello over any other task manager, it would be this integration. No ifs, no buts, it’s the integration. For many task management apps, integration usually means the transfer of information between the apps. So you can send a task from one app to another or you can sync them in some way.

Trello integration, on the other hand, not only exchanges data but actually modifies the user interface depending on which app you choose to integrate with. These power ups have a very simple one touch switch to activate them – see the screen shot below. Simply enable them and they will then connect with Trello and offer additional functionality. This can radically alter ones workflow. So Trello integration is not only about data exchange but also adding diverse additional features and changing your actual working style. That is profound.

Trello power up selection

The range and features of the power ups are radically different between the mobile and Web apps. The power ups for the iOS version is limited to only two, Calendar and user voting. This means all of that stuff I mentioned earlier, including the extensive use of “profound”, is limited to the web version.

Trello Project Management Example

The screenshot below shows the integration of the Trello Kanban boards with the Planyway calendar looks like. So you can drag your tasks between the boards and calendar to schedule your tasks. This integration between calendar and task lists is great for people who like to block off time for their tasks.

Integration between Trello and Planyway

If you want to go a bit further in the project management direction you can even add a Gantt chart to the mix as you can see from the video below. Download starlight xpress usb devices driver. It is not a heavy duty PM tool like MS Project but can assist in getting an overview of the task sequencing for your task cards.

There is a huge list of power ups available. But, sorry folks I am not going to be covering all of them in this article. For that I would have to write a book! I can only recommend to check out this list of Trello Power Ups, to see what could fit your needs.

Todoist vs. Trello Price

Both Todoist and Trello offer paid and free versions of their product. Let me start off with the free version for both.

Free Todoist is but a taster of the full product as if you really want to use it seriously the limitations placed on the free version will really hamper your usage. The free version prohibits fairly essential features such as task comments, labels and reminders. So, if you are looking to use Todoist for the long term, expect to pay for it.

Trello in contrast offers a fairly fully featured free version. Paying for either the Gold or business versions will essentially get you more of what you have in the free version whether that be upload size, the number of power-ups or whatever. For most people, the free Trello is perfectly usable.

Now onto the paid versions. Todoist Premium costs $29 and in my opinion this is a pretty reasonable price for what you get. It is a fully featured, well supported task manager and certainly one of the best offerings out there. The extra $29 will get you the aforementioned labels, reminders and comments. Additionally you can upload files and increase the number of active projects and the number of people who work on them.

Migrate Todoist To Trello

Send todoist to trello

Trello Gold for individual users comes in at $45 per year. This allows uploads up to 250Mb, up to three power-ups per board and custom backgrounds.

Todoist vs. Trello Summary

Finally we have made it to the Trello vs. Todoist wrap-up. I am not even going to summarize the last two thousand words in a couple of sentences so instead I will give some examples where I think it would make sense to choose Trello as your task manager and likewise for Todoist.

Trello works well when you have fairly simple projects that consist of tasks that require roughly equal efforts. You will get the best Trello experience on a desktop and so it is useful for office or home productivity where you have access to a fully featured browser and reasonable sized monitor. It also does well in sharing these lists with others in small, collaborative teams.

I think Todoist has the edge over Trello in two key areas. The first is mobile productivity. The interface is quick and easy to navigate on small screens, has location based reminders and the smart date recognition works well so you can avoid unnecessary prodding of small screen buttons for calendar dates.

The other advantage I see is that Todoist is better suited for larger tasks and projects that need to be broken down into smaller, more digestible chunks. Todoist’s subtasks make it inherently more suited to breaking down tasks in this way.

Trello Competitors

If you want to know more about either Todoist or Trello you can read my full Todoist for Windows Review, Todoist for Android review and Trello review 2017.

Todoist Trello Integration

I hope you have found this article useful in your choice of Todoist vs. Trello and if so, make sure to share it on your choice of social networks using the little buttons on the left side of the screen.