If you've been managing tasks from your inbox, you've probably looked at Todoist. It's one of the most popular task managers in the world — and for good reason. But if your primary workflow is turning emails into tasks, the experience can feel like it was bolted on rather than built in.

This comparison breaks down where each tool shines, where each falls short, and which one makes more sense depending on how you actually work.

The Core Difference

Todoist is a general-purpose task manager that happens to have email integration. You can forward emails to a Todoist inbox or use plugins to create tasks from Gmail and Outlook. The workflow requires you to manually decide which emails become tasks, write the task title, set the priority, and assign a due date.

TidySync is built from the ground up for email-to-task conversion. When an email arrives, AI reads it, extracts the action items, assigns priority and due dates based on the email content, and creates the task automatically. You review and adjust rather than create from scratch.

This isn't a small difference — it changes how much time you spend processing your inbox every day.

Email Integration

Todoist's Approach

Todoist offers email forwarding (each project has a unique email address), a Gmail plugin, and an Outlook add-in. The Gmail plugin lets you turn an email into a task with a click, but you still need to write the task title, choose a project, and set the priority manually. The Outlook add-in works similarly.

For teams on the Business plan, there's also an email notification system, but it's for task updates — not for processing incoming emails.

TidySync's Approach

TidySync connects directly to Gmail and Outlook via OAuth. Once connected, every incoming email is analyzed by AI in real time. The system extracts who's asking for what, when it's due, and how urgent it is. Tasks appear in your dashboard already titled, prioritized, and dated — ready for you to review or act on.

You can set filters to exclude newsletters, automated notifications, and calendar invites so only actionable emails become tasks.

Bottom line: If you receive 50+ emails a day and need to extract tasks from most of them, TidySync saves significantly more time. If you only create 5–10 tasks a day from select emails, Todoist's manual approach may be sufficient.

AI and Automation

Todoist

Todoist uses natural language processing for task input — you can type "Submit report by Friday p1" and it understands the due date and priority. That's useful for manual entry. However, there's no AI that reads your emails and creates tasks for you. Automations are limited to recurring tasks, templates, and basic integrations via IFTTT or Zapier.

TidySync

TidySync's AI is the core product. It reads email content, identifies action items, detects urgency signals ("ASAP," "by end of day," "before the board meeting"), and creates structured tasks. The AI Agent feature lets you set rules — for example, "if an email is from a VIP client, mark as high priority and notify me on Slack." You can also build visual workflows with AND/OR conditions that trigger automatic actions.

Bottom line: Todoist is smart at parsing your manual input. TidySync is smart at reading your emails so you don't have to.

Task Management Features

This is where Todoist has a clear advantage in breadth. Todoist offers sub-tasks, sections, labels, filters, kanban boards, comments, file attachments, recurring tasks, and a karma/productivity scoring system. It's been refined over a decade and covers nearly every personal and team task management need.

TidySync focuses on the email-to-task pipeline and the workflows around it: AI triage, smart filtering, auto-prioritization, calendar sync, and team assignment. It has a task board, status tracking, notes, and action tabs — but it's not trying to be a full-featured project management tool.

Bottom line: If you need a comprehensive task manager for projects unrelated to email, Todoist has more features. If your tasks primarily come from email, TidySync's focused approach is more efficient for that specific workflow.

Calendar Integration

Todoist

Todoist has two-way sync with Google Calendar. Tasks with due dates show up as calendar events, and calendar events can create tasks. It works well for basic scheduling.

TidySync

TidySync offers two-way Google Calendar sync with an AI layer on top. The AI detects meetings and deadlines mentioned in emails and can automatically create calendar events. When you schedule a task, it appears in your calendar with full context from the original email.

Bottom line: Both integrate with Google Calendar. TidySync adds AI-driven event creation from email content, which Todoist doesn't offer.

Pricing

Todoist's free tier is generous — up to 5 projects and 5 collaborators. The Pro plan costs $5/month (billed annually) for unlimited projects. The Business plan is $8/user/month with team features.

TidySync offers a 14-day free trial with full features. After that, pricing is seat-based with individual and team plans that include AI processing, email sync, and calendar integration.

Bottom line: Todoist is cheaper for general task management. TidySync's pricing reflects the AI processing that automates the email-to-task workflow — you're paying for time saved, not just task storage.

Who Should Choose What

Choose Todoist if:

• You use a task manager for many things beyond email
• You create fewer than 10 tasks per day from emails
• You prefer manual control over every task detail
• You want the cheapest possible task management solution

Choose TidySync if:

• Most of your tasks originate from email
• You receive 30+ emails a day that contain action items
• You want AI to do the extraction work for you
• You need smart email filtering and auto-prioritization
• You work with a team that triages shared inboxes

The Honest Take

Todoist is an excellent general-purpose task manager. If email is just one of many inputs for your tasks, it's a solid choice. But if your daily reality is drowning in emails and manually extracting tasks from them, Todoist's email integration will feel like a workaround rather than a solution.

TidySync was built for exactly that problem. The AI-first approach means your inbox processes itself, and you spend your time acting on tasks rather than creating them. It's a narrower tool — but for email-heavy workflows, it's significantly faster.

Try TidySync free for 14 days →