vs
Motion vs Todoist
Side-by-side comparison of pricing, features, and trade-offs, and which one actually fits your team.
What each tool does
Motion: Motion is the AI-powered calendar and task manager that automatically schedules your tasks around meetings, deadlines, and priorities. Founded in 2019, Motion has raised over $50M and serves productivity-obsessed professionals, founders, and teams who want their calendars to plan themselves.
Todoist: This is Todoist's killer feature and the reason most people stay. Type "Call mom every Sunday at 6pm" and it creates a recurring task scheduled for Sunday evenings. Write "Review PR #dev p2 @laptop" and you get a medium-priority task in your Dev project with a laptop context label. Dates, times, recurrence patterns, priorities, projects, labels, all parsed from a single text input.
Motion vs Todoist at a glance
| Motion | Todoist | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Paid | Freemium |
| Starting price | Paid | Freemium Free, $5/mo (Pro), $8/user/mo (Business) |
| Free tier | No | Yes |
| Category | productivity | productivity |
| Best for | Motion is a business tool available at motionapp | Task management app that helps individuals and teams organize work and life |
| Top strength | Auto-scheduling that works: actually saves planning time. | Natural language input: Once you get used to it, every other task app feels clunky by comparison |
| Main limitation | Expensive: $34/month solo is steep for personal productivity. | See review |
| Full review | Motion review → | Todoist review → |
What these prices mean in context
Motion starts at $19/month and Todoist at $5/month. Across the 38 productivity tools we track and price ourselves, the median entry price is $14/month, spanning $1.50 to $990. Motion sits 36% above it; Todoist sits 64% below it.
Method: the lowest recurring monthly price quoted in our own review of each tool, read on 2026-08-19. Annual-only and enterprise quotes are excluded, as are figures above $2,000, which are contracts rather than entry prices. Categories with fewer than five priced tools are not reported.
Strengths & weaknesses
Motion highlights
Pros- Auto-scheduling that works: actually saves planning time.
- Adapts to schedule changes: reschedules automatically when meetings move.
- Cross-platform: desktop, web, iOS, Android.
- Team workload visibility: surfaces capacity issues automatically.
- Calendar integration solid: works with Google and Outlook reliably.
- Expensive: $34/month solo is steep for personal productivity.
- Learning curve: AI works best when you trust it; manual control fights the system.
- Limited project management depth: not a replacement for Asana or Jira.
- Mobile less polished: feature parity exists, UX less smooth.
Todoist highlights
Pros- Natural language input: Once you get used to it, every other task app feels clunky by comparison
- Cross-platform sync: Native apps for web, Mac, Windows, iOS, Android, Linux, Apple Watch, Wear OS. Instant sync everywhere
- Design that respects your time: Clean, fast, no unnecessary complexity. Adding a task is frictionless
- Generous free tier: 5 projects covers most personal use cases
- Karma gamification: Gentle motivation through streaks and daily/weekly goals. Not aggressive, just enough to keep you honest
Frequently asked questions
Is Motion better than Todoist?
Which is cheaper, Motion or Todoist?
Can Motion replace Todoist?
Do you have an affiliate relationship with these tools?
Disclosure: some links on this page are affiliate links. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Learn more.