Focus5 vs Todoist: a simpler Todoist alternative
Todoist organises your whole list from $5 a month. Focus5 costs $29 once and shows you 5 tasks at a time so you never decide what to do next.
Todoist is one of the best to-do list apps you can buy. It has projects, labels, filters, natural language dates and a free plan most people never outgrow. Pro is $5 a month or $60 a year.
It is built to organise a lot of tasks. Focus5 is built to reduce them. You pick 5 for today, the rest wait in your backlog, and you work through them one at a time with a timer. It costs $29 once.
If your problem is finding tasks, use Todoist. If your problem is finishing them, keep reading.
| Todoist | Focus5 | |
|---|---|---|
| Core idea | Capture and organise everything, then filter it | Hands you the next task, five on screen at a time |
| Choosing what to do | You decide, every time you open it | Focus queues them for you, 5 on screen at a time |
| Organising | Projects, sub-projects, labels, filters, priorities | Books. No tags, no filters, no priorities |
| Capture | Typed, with natural language dates | Talk, and it writes it down and files it |
| Focus timer | Not built in | Yes, one task on screen with the clock running |
| Price | Free plan; Pro $5 a month or $60 billed yearly | $29 once, lifetime |
Why people pick Focus5 over Todoist
A queue, not a filter
Todoist gives you filters so a long list can look short. You still have to read the filtered list and choose from it, which is the moment most mornings go.
Focus5 does not show you a list to choose from. Open Focus and it gives you the next task with the timer running, in an order it works out: today first, then anything still open from before, then upcoming.
Add a task by talking
Adding to Todoist properly means a project, maybe a label, a date and a priority. Its natural language parsing makes that fast, but fast is not the same as free, and the tax is why so much never gets written down.
In Focus5 you talk. It writes the tasks down, dates them, and files them into the right book. Nothing has to be organised to get out of your head.
No system to maintain
A good Todoist setup is a system, and systems need maintenance. Projects go stale, filters stop matching how you actually work, and one bad fortnight leaves a backlog you have to face before you can use the app again.
Focus5 has no system to maintain. Miss a week and it asks the same question it asked before: what are your five today?
One payment, not a subscription
Todoist Pro is $5 a month, or $60 billed yearly. It’s a fair price for what it is, and it is also a bill that arrives forever.
Focus5 is $29 once. Every feature, every device, every update after this. Five years of Todoist Pro is $300; Focus5 is still $29.
Where Todoist is the better fit
Todoist is more app than Focus5 in almost every direction, and sometimes that is exactly what you need.
You genuinely need to organise, not just finish. Dozens of live projects, work that must be sorted and found again months later. Focus5 has books and nothing else, and that would hurt.
You work with other people. Todoist has shared projects, assignees and comments. Focus5 is single player.
You want it everywhere today. Todoist runs on everything. Focus5 is the Android app and a desktop browser. There is no iPhone app yet, and the web app is not built for a phone browser, because dragging a task to another day is HTML5 drag and drop and that never fires from touch.
Your free plan is already enough. Todoist’s free tier covers 5 personal projects. If that fits you and nothing about it frustrates you, there is no reason to switch to anything.
None of that is faint praise. Todoist is the better product for managing a lot of work. Focus5 is the better product for finishing a little of it, today.
Who Focus5 is for
Choose Focus5 over Todoist if:
- Your list is well organised and you still avoid it.
- You have rebuilt your project structure more than once this year.
- You want the next task handed to you, not a filtered list to pick from.
- You’d rather pay once than carry another subscription.
- You want a bad day to just end, not to leave a backlog.
See Focus5 in action
Frequently asked questions
Is Focus5 a Todoist alternative?
Only for part of the job. Todoist is a full task manager: projects, labels, filters, collaboration. Focus5 does not try to be that. If you want somewhere to keep everything, keep Todoist. If you want something that decides what today looks like and then sits with you while you do it, that is Focus5.
How much does Todoist cost?
Todoist has a free plan limited to 5 personal projects and one week of activity history. Pro is $5 per user per month, or $60 billed yearly. Business is $8 per user per month, or $96 billed yearly.
Can you import Todoist tasks into Focus5?
No, there’s no importer. That sounds like a gap and mostly isn’t: the point of switching is that the 200 items were never the useful part. Most people start fresh with today’s five.
Does Focus5 have projects and labels?
It has books, which group tasks, and that’s all. No sub-projects, no labels, no filters, no priority flags. If reading that made you uneasy, Todoist is the better fit and we mean that plainly.
Is $29 really the whole price?
Yes. One payment, no renewal, no expiry date. Your account keeps every premium feature, including the ones that aren’t built yet. There’s no monthly plan and there won’t be one.
Can you try Focus5 without paying?
Every feature is unlocked for your first 7 days, with no card. After that, Today, Agenda, Calendar and 2 books stay free with no time limit, and nothing you wrote gets deleted.
Compare Focus5 with another app
Focus5 vs Sunsama
Sunsama costs $204 a year and connects to 21 other tools. Focus5 costs $29 once and shows you 5 tasks at a time, one at a time, in the right order.
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Focus5 vs TickTick
Both apps have a focus timer. TickTick costs $35.99 a year and leaves you to choose what to work on. Focus5 costs $29 once and chooses for you.
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Focus5 vs Motion
Motion uses AI to build your calendar, from $19 per person a month. Focus5 costs $29 once and just queues your tasks in order, 5 on screen at a time.
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Focus5 vs Things 3
Neither app charges a subscription. Things 3 is Apple only and costs up to $79.97 across devices. Focus5 is $29 once for every device, with a focus queue Things does not have.
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Focus5 vs Notion
Notion makes you build your own task system. Focus5 gives you one you cannot change, and a Focus mode that decides what you do next.
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Focus5 vs Microsoft To Do
Microsoft To Do is free and syncs with Outlook. Focus5 costs $29 once and adds a Focus mode that queues your tasks and times them.
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Focus5 vs Google Tasks
Google Tasks is free and sits inside Gmail. Focus5 costs $29 once and adds a Focus mode that picks your next task and times it.
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Focus5 vs Trello
Trello shows all your work on a board at once. Focus5 shows 5 at a time and one on screen, in an order it picks for you.
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Focus5 vs ClickUp
ClickUp runs a whole company’s work. Focus5 runs your next hour: it picks the next task and starts the timer.
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Focus5 vs Superlist
Both apps let you add tasks by talking. Superlist is $59 a year. Focus5 is $29 once and adds a Focus mode that queues them and times them.
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