Both Microsoft To Do and Apple Reminders are excellent free to-do apps, which you should try before deciding to purchase a GTD app or subscribe to one.
Why Microsoft To Do?
- On Windows & Android
- Start and due dates
- Formatted notes
- Customisable theme
- Integrates with Outlook
- Attach any file type
Why Apple Reminders?
- Hourly reminders
- Tags
- Custom smart lists
- Add multiple accounts
Pricing & supported OS
Apple Reminders and Microsoft To Do are both free to-do apps for managing your tasks. They are available on iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and the web. Microsoft To Do is also available on Windows and Android (Apple Reminders is not), which makes it ideal for anyone who doesn’t like being restricted to ecosystems. With both apps, it is easy to move between devices (to pick up where you left off on supported operating systems).
| App | Apple Reminders | Microsoft To Do |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Size | 10.2 MB | 82.1 MB |
| Developer | Apple | Microsoft |
| Type of app | Get Things Done, To-do | Get Things Done, To-do |
| Supported OS | iPadOS, iOS, watchOS, macOS, web app | iPadOS, iOS, watchOS, macOS, web app, Windows, Android |
Both apps are minimalist, with one screen serving as both the homepage and workspace. Their workspaces divide into two columns, with sidebars and bigger columns for displaying your tasks. For both, you can turn your smart lists on or off. In Apple Reminders, you can even rearrange them; something you can’t do in Microsoft To Do. You also can’t turn off the My Day smart list in Microsoft To Do (which you can in Apple Reminders, only it’ll be the Today smart list).
Smart lists
| Microsoft To Do | Apple Reminders |
|---|---|
| My Day | Today |
| Important | Flagged |
| Planned | Scheduled |
| All | All |
| Completed | – |
| Assigned to me | Assigned to me |
| Flagged email | – |
| Tasks | – |
You can also create your own lists in both apps (below the smart lists). Apple Reminders also uses tags, which Microsoft To Do does not.
The look you prefer comes down to personal preference. Microsoft To Do’s user interface looks more minimalist, which makes it look more professional and pleasant to work with. The tabs in Apple Reminders make the app look cluttered.
Creating to-dos
Quick tasks
Microsoft To Do has fewer steps for quickly creating tasks. You can name your task, add it to your day, and set a reminder and date (start date). Apple Reminders has more options for quick tasks. Of course, you don’t have to use them all, but you can create more detailed tasks without needing to go to the inspection icon. Only you can decide if that is important for your workflow. You can add the due date and time, location, tags, assign the task, flag, or add an image to it.
Adding more details
For most of these features, you have to tap the task to access them in Microsoft To Do. It’s not a deal-breaker, but something to note. You can then add subtasks, a due date, files, and some notes. You can also repeat your tasks. The inspection icon in Apple Reminders lets you add notes, a URL, a Messaging-based reminder, and priorities.
Subtasks & notes
You cannot set start and due dates for your task in Apple Reminders, which Microsoft To Do does. Apple Reminders does not have start dates, only due dates.
You can add more details to your subtasks in Apple Reminders than you can in Microsoft To Do. Reminders treats your subtasks as it does with main tasks, so they can each have their own notes and dates, repeat cycles, etc. On the other hand, Microsoft To Do has more format options for your notes. You can add a body and lists to your notes. You also get format options to make it bold, italic, or underlined.
Subtasks and notes are more easily accessible in Apple Reminders than in Microsoft To Do. Apple Reminders displays them right below your task, giving you all the details about the task at hand. In Microsoft To Do, the minimalist approach means you must tap your tasks to see their details.
Adding URLs
You can add multiple URLs to both apps. Apple Reminder’s URL slot only supports one URL, but you can add more links in the notes section of your reminders. Microsoft To Do has a better way to package your URLs. Of course, you can just add them plainly, but you can also add them to meaningful text. It looks neater.
Apple Reminders only supports image attachments. In Microsoft To Do, you can add any file type to your tasks; photos, PDFs, Word documents, audio files, and even videos; as long as they are 25 MB or less.
| Creating to-dos | Apple Reminders | Microsoft To Do |
| Start date | – | ✔ |
| Due date | ✔ | ✔ |
| Notes | Basic text | More formatting |
| Subtasks on repeating to-dos | ✔ | ✔ |
| Subtasks with notes & deadlines | ✔ | – |
| Images | ✔ | ✔ |
| URL | Multiple | Multiple |
| Tags | ✔ | – |
| Flag tasks | ✔ | ✔ |
| Location-based reminders | ✔ | – |
| Messaging-based reminders | ✔ | – |
| Create to-do in other apps | ✔ | ✔ |
| Create to-dos via email | – | Flag them in Outlook |
| Integrate with Calendar | – | Yes, Microsoft Calendar |
Creating lists
When creating a list in Microsoft To Do, you can name it and choose a theme colour or photo for it. For Apple Reminders, you can name your list, pick a colour for its icon, and the icon (or emoji) itself. You can create custom smart lists in Apple Reminders by choosing a certain number of filters; tags, date, time, location, flag, and priority. Custom smart lists are awesome!
Both apps have a three-dots icon for editing your list to rename, sort your tasks (Apple Reminders lets you manually sort your tasks), or print the list. You can also select multiple tasks for editing. Apple Reminders has more options for that than Microsoft To Do. It can also show your completed tasks at the bottom of your list.
Microsoft To Do can add or remove your list from a group. In Apple Reminders, you simply drag it into a different group to move it. You can change the theme in Microsoft To Do, and you can duplicate a list (super useful) or send a copy of it to someone. Apple Reminders limits you to just printing your lists, but it effectively does the same thing.
Microsoft To Do does justice to completed tasks. It ticks, strikes out and moves them to the bottom of the list. It can even play a completion sound! The dot and dim for completed tasks in Apple Reminders feels inadequate. Also, the steps for showing and hiding completed tasks are a bit cumbersome. Microsoft To Do’s setup is much better for this, where you can simply toggle the completed tasks.
Both apps can delete completed tasks. Apple Reminders has a specific feature to clear completed tasks, whereas, in Microsoft To Do, you have to manually do it. Let’s hope they can make that easier in the future. Both apps don’t have a recycle bin, so the tasks you delete will be permanently removed from the apps.
Collaboration
You can collaborate on your lists from either app by sharing their links. You can then assign tasks to different people on your team, and they can also assign tasks to you. You can view those under your Assigned to me smart list. Collaboration is a very important part of our workflow in 2022, it’s a must-have. We hope to get more interactions for our collaborations, though. Like comments and the ability to respond to them. Both apps don’t have this yet.
| Creating lists | Microsoft To Do | Apple Reminders |
|---|---|---|
| Ease of creation | Easy | Easy |
| Completed tasks | Toggle ★★★★★ | Hide/show ★★ |
| Collaboration | ✔ | ✔ |
| Edit multiple tasks | ✔ | ✔ |
| Dates | Start & due | Due only |
| Recycle bin | – | – |
| Tags | – | ✔ |
| Custom smart lists | – | ✔ |
Integration with email
Microsoft To Do integrates with Outlook. When you Flag your emails for follow-up, they appear in the Flagged email smart folder in your To Do app. This feature seems to be available only on the iPhone version of the app, though. I’m not sure if it’s a bug or if they are discontinuing the feature. The app, however, does not integrate with the Microsoft Calendar app. Apple Reminders doesn’t integrate with either the Mail or Calendar apps.
Organisation
Both apps have two levels of organisation; groups and lists. Apple Reminders also has tags that add a third dimension to how you organise your tasks. Both apps have minimalist organisation, which means you can’t use them to manage big projects (with many moving parts).
Accounts
In Microsoft To Do, you can only have tasks from one Microsoft account at a time. Apple Reminders, however, allows you to add multiple accounts and see all your tasks in one place.
Searching
Both Apple Reminders and Microsoft To Do can search through your tasks.
Verdict
Microsoft To Do is the better of the two apps. It clearly has much more to offer than Apple Reminders. That is why our team stopped using Apple Reminders for Microsoft To Do. Which one suits your needs better?
