Polylane vs Todoist

Todoist is a task manager. It has been shipping for well over a decade, runs on desktop, mobile, and the web, and its paid plan costs well under Polylane Solo. If what you need is a dependable list of what to do next, Todoist is the better buy, and this page will not argue otherwise.

Polylane is a planner for people running several pursuits at once. Projects go down one axis, channels across the other, linked work moves together, and you drag it onto a day calendar. Matrix, link, calendar.

Polylane is also young. There is no mobile app, no integrations, and Google Calendar sync pushes one way. Those limits are real, and they are listed below rather than buried.

Todoist answers one question: what do I do next? You capture a task, it reads the date out of plain English, and the work lands in one ordered list you can slice with projects, labels, filters, and priorities. The structure is a tree: project, section, task, sub-task.

Polylane answers a different one: what does this week look like across everything you are running? The structure is a grid, so a channel you have not touched in a fortnight shows up as an empty cell instead of something you were supposed to remember.

A list is good at the next action. A grid is good at the shape of the load. If you are running one main thing, you want the list.

• The matrix — every project against every channel in one grid, so coverage and gaps are visible without counting.
• Linked batches — work that ships together is linked, so it moves together when a date changes instead of being rescheduled one task at a time.
• A day calendar — drag a batch onto a day and the week becomes a commitment with a shape, not a backlog with dates on it.
• Three views — Overview, Flow, and a Graph view of the same plan.

These are not throwaway concessions. If one of them describes you, Todoist is the right call.

• You want a straightforward task list — one stream of work, ordered and dated. That is what Todoist is built for, and it has had years to get it right.
• You need it on every device — Todoist has apps for desktop and mobile, browser extensions, and the web. Polylane runs in a browser and nowhere else.
• Price matters — compare the two yourself on Todoist's own pricing page against ours. We do not quote their figures here: any number we printed would be ours to keep accurate, and theirs to change.
• You capture on the move — quick add with natural-language dates is a Todoist signature. Polylane has no mobile capture at all.
• You depend on other tools — Todoist connects to a long list of apps and has a public API. Polylane has neither yet.
• You share work with other people today — Todoist supports shared projects now. Polylane Studio is a founding waitlist, not something you can buy and use.

• No mobile app — the browser is the only way in.
• No integrations, no import — nothing carries over from Todoist automatically. Moving across means retyping.
• One-way calendar sync — Polylane pushes to Google Calendar. Events you create in Google do not come back. Two-way sync is not shipped.
• No AI features — nothing writes, sorts, or estimates for you.
• Studio is not available — the shared workspace for up to 5 seats is on a founding waitlist and not yet shippable.

If one of those is a requirement, stay where you are. We would rather you did than have you pay and leave in a fortnight.

Nothing stops you. One workable split is to keep the task manager you trust for capture and the daily list, and use Polylane to lay out the week across pursuits before it starts.

The cost of that split is plain: the two do not talk to each other, so anything living in both places is typed twice. If that friction is not worth it, pick one.

Free covers 2 projects, the default channels plus 2 custom ones, calendar scheduling, and task linking. It stays on the device you use it on — cloud sync and .ics export are paid.

Solo is $19/mo or $180/yr, and ₹499/mo incl. GST in India. It adds unlimited projects and channels, cloud sync across devices, .ics export, and a 14-day trial. The pricing page shows the rate that applies today, including any founding discount.

Paid plans carry a 14-day money-back guarantee, and you can cancel any time.

Todoist ships often, so this page describes it as of the date above and sticks to what each tool is for. It avoids feature checklists and quoted competitor prices on purpose: both go stale, and a stale comparison misleads. For what Todoist does today, read their site.

If something here is wrong or out of date, tell us at support@smatsols.com and we will correct it.

The free plan needs no card. Two projects is enough to run the loop once — map the grid, link what ships together, and drop it on the calendar — which is the honest test of whether the shape matches how you work.

Start free, or read the pricing page first.

Disclaimer: Notion, Motion, Akiflow, Sunsama and Todoist are trademarks of their respective owners. Information in this comparison is gathered from public sources and is accurate as of July 2026. Polylane is not affiliated with or endorsed by these companies.

If something here is wrong or out of date, email support@smatsols.com and we will correct it.