Super Productivity

XDA’s writer swapped their to-do app for Super Productivity and called it super effective, and we get why: the local-first design, the built-in Pomodoro timer, and the Jira integration solve a real problem for developers who bill by the hour. But Super Productivity is also a large Electron app that leans on ticket-tracker workflows, and plenty of people bounce off it for exactly those reasons. If you’ve tried it and want something lighter, more mobile-friendly, or better at plain personal task lists, these are the Super Productivity alternatives we’d point you at.

We spent two weeks running each candidate through the same workflow: a daily planning session, three focused blocks with time tracking, and a weekly review. The picks below cover free open-source options, one-time paid apps that avoid subscriptions, and mobile-forward services for people who plan on the go.

Quick comparison

App Best for Free plan Starting price Standout feature
Todoist Cross-platform habits Yes, 5 projects $4/mo Natural-language date parsing
TickTick Calendar-first planners Yes, 9 lists $2.99/mo Built-in Pomodoro and Eisenhower matrix
Things 3 Apple ecosystem loyalists No, one-time $50 desktop $50 one-time Areas, projects, and headings hierarchy
Logseq Outliners who want backlinks Yes, fully free $5/mo cloud sync Local Markdown files, block references
OmniFocus 4 GTD purists on macOS 14-day trial $9.99/mo or $99.99 v4 Custom perspectives and forecast view
Taskwarrior Terminal users Yes, fully free $0 Scriptable CLI with a plain-text data store
Focalboard Small teams self-hosting Yes, self-hosted $0 self-hosted Kanban, table, and gallery boards

Why people move away from Super Productivity

Users on Reddit and the project’s own GitHub issues share a few consistent complaints. The Electron shell can chew through 500 MB of RAM on a large workspace, which stings on older laptops. The Jira and GitLab integrations are the marquee features, but they can feel over-engineered if you just want a list of chores. There’s no first-party mobile app that syncs with the desktop instance, which limits it if you plan while commuting. And the sync story relies on your own WebDAV, Dropbox, or LAN setup, which is a plus for privacy folks and a chore for everyone else.

The alternatives

Todoist, best for cross-platform habits and natural-language capture

Todoist has been the default recommendation for a decade for a reason. Type “Call the plumber every Tuesday at 3pm” and it parses the recurrence, the reminder, and the due date in one line. Todoist for productivity has the deepest cross-device sync in the category, native apps on every platform, and integrations with Google Calendar, Gmail, Slack, and Alexa.

Where it falls short: The free tier caps you at five active projects, which many families outgrow inside a week. No built-in time tracking, which Super Productivity gives you for free.

Pricing:

Migrating from Super Productivity: Export your tasks to CSV, then use Todoist’s CSV import. Recurrences, projects, and sub-tasks map over. Time-tracking history does not.

Download: Aptoide · todoist.com/downloads

Bottom line: Pick Todoist if you plan across desktop and phone and value quick capture. Skip it if you need embedded time tracking.

TickTick, best for planners who live in the calendar

TickTick started as a Todoist clone and has grown into something with real personality. The calendar view is the best in the category, the built-in Pomodoro timer solves the exact focus problem Super Productivity does, and the habit tracker is a nice bonus.

Where it falls short: The UI has a lot going on for people who want a stripped-down list. Sync can lag under heavy load.

Pricing:

Migrating from Super Productivity: No direct importer. Export tasks to a spreadsheet, then paste into TickTick using Ctrl+V from a clean text list. Projects come across as lists.

Download: Aptoide · ticktick.com/download

Bottom line: The best value in the category. Choose it if you like a calendar-first view and want Pomodoro built in.

Things 3, best for Apple-only planners

Things 3 is the Cadillac of paid task managers on macOS and iOS. The Areas, Projects, and Headings hierarchy models real life better than most, and the “Today” view is the cleanest daily plan we found.

Where it falls short: Mac and iPad only. No Windows or Linux client. The one-time price adds up if you buy the desktop app, the iPad app, and the iPhone app separately.

Pricing:

Migrating from Super Productivity: No importer. Use Things’ Quick Entry with the mail-drop trick: send a plain-text list to your Things inbox address, and each line becomes a task.

Download: culturedcode.com/things

Bottom line: Buy it if you own a Mac and want a task app you never think about again. Skip it if you use Windows or Linux.

Logseq treats every task as a block in an outliner, and every block can link to any other block. The data lives in plain Markdown files on your disk, which makes it a strong Super Productivity alternative for privacy folks who don’t want an Electron dashboard.

Where it falls short: No calendar view. Learning curve if you’ve never used an outliner. Sync requires a paid tier or a shared drive.

Pricing:

Migrating from Super Productivity: Export as JSON, then run one of the community scripts on GitHub to convert to Markdown pages. Preserves task metadata but not time-tracking sessions.

Download: logseq.com

Bottom line: Choose Logseq if you already think in bullet points and want your tasks to link to your notes.

OmniFocus 4, best for GTD purists on macOS

OmniFocus 4 is the app people use when they treat David Allen’s Getting Things Done method like a religion. Custom perspectives let you slice tasks by context, energy level, or any tag combination, and the Forecast view shows the next seven days at a glance.

Where it falls short: Apple-only. Steep learning curve. The subscription model launched in 2023 upset the base, though a one-time purchase is still on offer.

Pricing:

Migrating from Super Productivity: Use the OmniFocus TaskPaper import format. Convert your Super Productivity JSON export with a community script from the OmniFocus subreddit.

Download: omnigroup.com/omnifocus

Bottom line: Worth every penny if you do proper GTD. Overkill for a shopping list.

Taskwarrior, best for terminal users

Taskwarrior is a CLI task manager with a data store you can grep, back up with rsync, and script from any language. It’s older than most of this list and still actively maintained.

Where it falls short: No GUI unless you install a third-party one. Sync requires running your own Taskchampion server or living in a single-machine setup.

Pricing:

Migrating from Super Productivity: Convert the JSON export to Taskwarrior’s JSON format with a short jq filter. Tags and projects import cleanly.

Download: taskwarrior.org

Bottom line: The right pick if you already live in the terminal. Baffling otherwise.

Focalboard, best for self-hosted small teams

Focalboard is the open-source Trello and Notion hybrid that Mattermost maintains. You can host it on a Raspberry Pi, connect a Postgres database, and give a small team Kanban boards, tables, and galleries without paying per seat.

Where it falls short: Personal edition development stalled in 2023 while Mattermost focused on the enterprise integrations. The mobile experience is a browser view, not a native app.

Pricing:

Migrating from Super Productivity: Manual copy-paste through the CSV importer.

Download: focalboard.com

Bottom line: Pick it when Super Productivity’s single-user model isn’t enough and you want to keep everything on your own hardware.

How to choose

Pick Todoist if you want the least friction across Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android and don’t mind paying $4 a month.

Pick TickTick if you plan around a calendar and want Pomodoro without a plugin.

Pick Things 3 if you’re all-in on Apple and hate subscriptions.

Pick Logseq if your tasks are entangled with your notes and you want local Markdown files.

Pick OmniFocus 4 if you actually do GTD, not just talk about it.

Pick Taskwarrior if a CLI feels like home.

Pick Focalboard if a small group needs to share boards on your own hardware.

Stay on Super Productivity if the Jira, GitLab, or OpenProject integration is what got you there in the first place. Nothing else on this list gets closer to Super Productivity for developers who bill against tickets.

FAQ

Is Super Productivity really free?

Yes. Super Productivity is free and open source under the MIT license, funded by donations and a paid Sponsor tier that unlocks cosmetic themes and priority support. Nothing on the core feature set is behind a paywall.

What’s the best free Super Productivity alternative?

Logseq for outliner-style planning, Taskwarrior for the terminal, and Focalboard for team boards. All three are free forever with no upgrade path pushing you into a subscription.

Can I sync Super Productivity across devices?

Yes, through Dropbox, WebDAV, a local network drive, or a self-hosted Nextcloud. There’s no first-party sync service. Every Super Productivity alternative on this list except Taskwarrior ships with hosted sync out of the box.

Does Super Productivity have a mobile app?

Not a first-party one. The desktop app runs in a browser via the web build, and a community Android wrapper exists. Todoist, TickTick, and Things 3 all ship first-class mobile apps.

What’s the closest paid alternative to Super Productivity?

Todoist Pro. It’s the same shape (project tree, natural-language capture, cross-platform sync) with better mobile apps and no self-hosting to manage.