TickTick: Things To Do List & Daily Task Checklist for iPhone

TickTick is an attractive and useful to-do and task manager that helps you track your personal and team tasks and lists across platforms. While the free version offers simple tools to manage your lists and tasks, you need to pay for an annual subscription to unlock the full power of the manager.

Pros

Easy to create tasks: Tap the plus button in the lower-right corner of the app to enter a task and then set a time to be reminded, and TickTick will alert you when your task is due. You can set tasks to repeat anywhere from daily to yearly or create a customized repeat schedule if you want an unusual remind time. If you are someone who tends to skip over alerts, you can set multiple reminders to help keep your attention on the task at hand. You can view your tasks by tapping the Task tab at the bottom of the app. You can also view your completed tasks. You first need to turn on the Completed list by tapping Manage List in the hamburger menu and selecting Completed from the Smart List. Then when you tap the hamburger menu, you can see completed tasks.

Reminders by location: You even create reminders based on location to receive alerts when you arrive at a place you designate. Tap the option menu in the upper-right corner and then tap Location. Type an address at the top of the app and decide whether you want to be reminded when you are arriving or leaving the location. The app will use your iPhone's location services to detect when you reach your location and trigger the reminder.

Can also create lists: To create a list, tap the hamburger menu in the top-left corner of the app and then select Add List. Enter a name for the list and assign it a color. You can assign the list to an existing folder or create a new folder to hold the list. With a paid subscription, you can create smart lists that let you set advanced parameters for the list including by tag, date, priority, and assignee.

Share lists: With the free version of the app, you can share lists with one other member of your team. You can share items either as text or as an image by choosing share from the top-right menu and entering the email for the person you'd like to share with.

Store attachments: With the free version of TickTick, you can upload one attachment a day to the TickTick cloud to share with teammates. You can upload Microsoft Word and Excel, photos, and voice recordings.

Visually appealing: If you tire of the look of the app, you can change it by applying a new theme, ranging from different colors to photography. The app comes with seven free themes when you begin, and you can unlock three more through achievement points or pick from nearly 18 others through a paid subscription. The app is also tuned for a touch screen, and you can manage tasks with swipes and gestures. For example, you can swipe a task to the left to set a due date or move a task to another list. Swiping right will mark a task as completed or set a priority for a task.

Calendar view: Tab the Calendar tab at the bottom of the app to see a traditional calendar view of your tasks. You can switch between grid and list views through the option menu in the top-right corner of the app. With a paid subscription, you can view upcoming events in day, 3-day, week, and month views.

Sync your lists across devices: In addition to the iPhone app, TickTick is available for Android, on the Apple Watch and Google Wear devices, via the web, a Chrome extension, and a Firefox plug-in.

Go Pro: For $27.99 a year, you can subscribe to the pro edition to see to-do lists and calendars in one view (instead of the two separate ones that the free version offers) as well as include other calendars -- such as Google Calendar -- in your calendar view. The paid edition gives you a monthly view of tasks in a traditional calendar view, a daily calendar view of your events, and the ability to add calendar widgets to your home screen.

The paid version lets you keep nearly 300 lists (instead of the nine you get for free) and nearly a thousand tasks (versus 99 for free). You can also collaborate with as many as 19 people per list, instead of just one for free, and write task descriptions. You can also add up to five reminders for subtasks and set a duration time for specific tasks. Finally, you can upload as many as 99 attachments a day to the TickTick cloud and share lists with up to 19 teammates. If you decide the paid version is not for you, you have 14 days to cancel your subscription. TickTick's annual subscription is priced competitively and is more affordable than some other task managers such as Remember The Milk, which is $39.99 a year.

SEE: Best to-do list apps of 2018 for managing tasks on any platform

Cons

Limited usefulness with free version: The free version of TickTick offers a nice starter kit of tools for managing individual to-do lists and tasks. You quickly run up against the limits that TickTick puts on the free version. If you are part of a group or tracking more complex tasks, you'll want to pay for the premium version of the app, which offers a rich collection of tools for managing group tasks and lists.

Bottom Line

The TickTick to-do and task manager offers a rich collection of tools to help you manage personal and team tasks and lists across platforms. A free version of the to-do app gives you basic tools to manage your personal tasks and lists. If you work in a group or are part of a family, you may want to look at paying for an annual subscription that gives you solid team scheduling and project-management tools.