Polylane vs Todoist

Todoist is a task manager. It has been shipping for well over a decade and runs on desktop, mobile and the web. It offers list, board and calendar views, with assigned tasks and comments for teams. If you need flexible task management across devices, it is a strong choice. Compare current prices on each product's pricing page.

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 native app yet, the only integrations are Google Calendar and Outlook, and calendar sync is not two-way. Those limits are real, and they are listed below rather than buried.

Todoist captures tasks with natural-language dates and organizes them with projects, sections, labels, filters and priorities. You can switch between list, board and calendar views and use its calendar layout for time blocking.

Polylane starts with your weekly workload: what does it 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.

The distinction is the starting structure. Todoist lets you choose project views; Polylane makes the intersection of each project and channel visible, then keeps related tasks in named batches.

• 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, Timeline, 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 We do not quote their figures here: any number we printed would be ours to keep accurate, and theirs to change.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's quick capture on a phone takes a title and a cell, remembering the last one you used, and reads no dates.
• You depend on other tools — Todoist connects to a long list of apps and has a public API. Polylane has no public API, and its only connections are Google Calendar and Outlook.
• You want per-task assignment inside a shared project — Todoist assigns individual tasks to people within one project.Polylane Studio shares the whole matrix and calendar with a team, priced per seat; it has no per-task assignment.

• No native app yet — the browser is the only way in, and it installs to your home screen.
• No direct Todoist connection — nothing carries over on its own. A Todoist CSV export comes in through Import, and you see every task before anything is written.
• Calendar sync is not two-way — your Google or Outlook meetings show as busy time, and on a paid plan the blocks you schedule can be sent to your calendar, but changes made to them there do not come back.
• No AI of our own — Brain dump turns pasted notes into tasks with your own Claude, OpenAI or Gemini key; nothing sorts or estimates for you.

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 $180/yr, paid annually; monthly billing in India is ₹499/mo incl. GST. 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 kreativish.ai@gmail.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 4 October 2026. Polylane is not affiliated with or endorsed by these companies.

If something here is wrong or out of date, email kreativish.ai@gmail.com and we will correct it.