Todoist and Toggl do not compete — they are typically used together. Todoist manages tasks and projects. Toggl tracks how long you spend on them. The reason freelancers end up with both is simple: Todoist does not track time, and Toggl does not manage tasks. But running two apps creates real friction that compounds over time.
What Each Tool Does Well
Todoist is one of the most refined task managers available. Natural language input lets you type 'call client Monday at 2pm p1' and it parses the task, date, time, and priority automatically. Recurring tasks, nested projects, and 80+ integrations make it a reliable backbone for personal productivity.
Toggl Track is a focused time tracker. Its timer is reliable and fast to start. The reporting is clean — you can filter by client, project, or tag across any date range. It has a free tier that covers most freelance use cases, and a browser extension that adds timer buttons to common websites and tools.
Together, they cover task management and time tracking in a way neither does alone. The combination is genuinely powerful — which is why so many freelancers use both.
The Real Cost of Two-App Friction
The problem is not the subscription cost (Todoist Pro at $5/month + Toggl Starter at $9/month = $14/month). The problem is operational friction that accumulates daily.
Every time you start working, you have to start a timer in Toggl separately from opening the task in Todoist. Every time you switch tasks, you stop one timer and start another — in a different app. At the end of the week, you compare your Todoist completed tasks with your Toggl time logs to produce client reports. These two datasets never align perfectly, so reconciliation takes time.
For freelancers billing by the hour across multiple clients, this reconciliation problem is not trivial. A session where you forgot to start Toggl, a Todoist task with no corresponding Toggl entry, a Toggl entry labeled generically that you cannot match to a specific task — these create small gaps that either cost you billable time or require manual correction.
When the Two-App Setup Makes Sense
If your task management needs are complex — Todoist integrations with Gmail, Zapier, Slack; nested project hierarchies; team collaboration — the Todoist ecosystem is hard to replicate. And Toggl's reporting, especially at the team level, is genuinely best-in-class.
The two-app setup also makes sense if you are already deeply embedded in both: years of Todoist history, established Toggl clients and tags, team members on the same stack. Switching has a migration cost that needs to exceed the ongoing friction cost to be worth it.
When an Integrated Tool Is the Better Choice
If you are starting fresh — or if the Todoist + Toggl workflow has always felt clunky — integrated task-and-time tools solve the reconciliation problem by design. The timer lives on the task card. Starting work on a task means one click, not two-app choreography. Time logs automatically to the task, so reports reflect actual work without manual matching.
Flowly is built for this use case. One-click timers on every task, analytics showing time by task and project, no separate app to manage. At $8/month for Pro, it costs less than Toggl Starter alone. The trade-off is a smaller ecosystem — no 80+ native integrations, no mobile apps. If you need those, Todoist + Toggl remains the better combination.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Todoist have built-in time tracking?
No. Todoist is a task manager without native time tracking. You can add time estimates to tasks, but there is no timer and no time log. For time tracking, Todoist users typically pair it with Toggl, Harvest, or Clockify.
Can Toggl replace Todoist?
No — Toggl is a time tracker, not a task manager. It has basic project and task labeling for categorizing time entries, but it cannot replace a full task manager. You cannot set due dates, organize tasks by project hierarchy, or manage a backlog in Toggl.
Is there a native Todoist + Toggl integration?
Yes — Toggl has a browser extension that adds a timer button inside Todoist tasks. This reduces some of the switching friction but does not eliminate the reconciliation problem. Time still logs in Toggl, tasks still live in Todoist, and the two datasets need to be compared manually.
What is the best alternative to Todoist + Toggl combined?
For freelancers who want task management and time tracking in one tool, Flowly is built specifically for this use case. Harvest combines invoicing with time tracking but is less capable on the task management side. ClickUp has built-in time tracking but is complex for solo users.
This article was originally published on flowly.run/blog/todoist-vs-toggl. Flowly is one workspace for tasks, timers, and analytics, built for freelancers who are tired of running four separate apps to answer one question: where did my week go.