When comparing TickTick vs Workflowy, the Slant community recommends Workflowy for most people. In the question“What are the best cross-platform task apps?” Workflowy is ranked 4th while TickTick is ranked 6th. The most important reason people chose Workflowy is:
Any sublist can be viewed as a top-level list. This sounds simple but makes WorkFlowy extremely powerful. For example, the same line item, "write my book," can simultaneously be a to-do in a task list and the container for an entire working document.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Create checklist for a task
On each task you can choose between a text description or a checklist.
Pro Cross-platform
It’s accessible on the web, via a Chrome extension, on Android (phone/tablet, with widgets), and on iOS.
Pro Flexible recurring tasks
Recurring tasks are simple to set, and can be created according to custom rules.
Pro Customizeable Android widget
You can change the opacity, themes, lists, and cosmetic features of the widget.
Pro Smart date parsing
You can type "buy milk tomorrow 5pm" it will turn into a task as "buy milk" and reminder set as tomorrow 5pm automatically.
Pro Multiple reminders
You can add up to five reminders for different time to a single task.
Pro Smart List
Allows you to set custom filters, making it easier to find tasks.
Pro Multiple reminders
Supports up to 5 reminders per task.
Pro Advanced sorting options
Tasks can be sorted by dragging and dropping them in the list.
Pro Google Calendar integration
You can integrate TickTick with Google Calendar.
Pro Lightweight app
TickTick is resource-light, which is great if you run multiple programs or are using an older device.
Pro Clean UI
TickTick takes a minimalistic approach in order to keep things simple.
Pro Easy to add tasks
Just start typing to add a task.
Pro Has a calendar view
Pro version of the software allows tasks to be laid out in an easy to overview calendar view.
Pro Supports #hashtags (labels)
Just click a hashtag to filter your labeled tasks.
Pro Description and checklist all together
Paid users can add description and checklist into a single task all together.
Pro Set list color
You can set a different color for each list.
Pro Free task tagging
Tags are a native feature; up to five tags can be applied to each task.
Pro Great support to recurring tasks
Easy to set recurring tasks and a lot of possibilities to do that.
Pro Share task lists for collaboration
You can share a list through an email or a shareable link.
Pro Location reminder
Remind you of a task when you reach specific location.
Pro Can set duration of a task
You can set starting and ending date and time for tasks.
Pro Follows Android design guidelines
The mobile Android app of TickTick follows the Android design guidelines for a familiar interface.
Pro Keyboard shortcuts
TickTick supports keyboard shortcuts that makes it easier to work with.
Pro Custom themes for pro users
Paid users can enjoy pro themes.
Pro Recover from trash
Easy to see and recover tasks from trash if you deleted them by accident.
Pro Print tasks
Easy to print any task you want to.
Pro Siri integration
You can add tasks via Siri.
Pro Folder with concluded tasks
Easy to see all concluded tasks by date of conclusion.
Pro Support team is great
Support team responds quickly.
Pro Integration with calendars by URL
Shows your events on other calendars (like Outlook) in your task list.
Pro Outline-style hierarchy with zoom
Any sublist can be viewed as a top-level list. This sounds simple but makes WorkFlowy extremely powerful. For example, the same line item, "write my book," can simultaneously be a to-do in a task list and the container for an entire working document.
Pro Minimalistic interface
Interface has no clutter. It allows focusing on thoughts to note down. This keeps things simple and easy to understand, which can help keep everything organized in an intuitive manner.
Pro Easy to see an overview and organize notes
All notes are part of a list, which makes it easy to organize everything. Nested lists allow for organizing notes into hierarchical categories of infinite depth. All lists can be folded. WorkFlowy also has tags and instant full-text search.
Pro Super fast sync between devices
While adding a list of to-do on web, it syncs with iPhone and iPad apps very quickly. This way you can jump between devices with no delay of up to date content.
Pro Quickly focus on a specific topic
Enables users to focus on specific topic area, which is referred to as "hoisting" within Workflowy.
Pro Supports tags
Enables users to search by tags.
Pro Cross-platform web and mobile
WorkFlowy can be accessed from either a browser or their apps, which include a Chrome app for desktops as well as an iOS and Android app. This makes it easy to access ones notes no matter the platform or device being used.
Pro Deep nesting
Workflowy's 'everything is in a tree' interface makes it easy to keep expanding on topics, no matter where, or how deep in the hierarchy they are.
Pro Tasks can be added and manipulated quickly
WorkFlowy allows entering many tasks very quickly – especially useful for meeting minutes or a "brain dump" when you have to type fast. After typing in all your thoughts, it's very easy to organize and sort multiple groups at once.
Pro Import and export via OPML
OPML (Outline Processor Markup Language) is a commonly used standard for text exchange. With two-way support for OPML you are never locked into Workflowy. Importing/exporting via copy/paste of entire outlines is a snap.
Pro Text formatting
You can have bold, italic, and underlined text.
Pro Strong community
There are number of talented coders who help customize WorkFlowy with extensions and styles. It has an active blog and welcomes collaboration.
Pro Daily digest email
WorkFlowy can send you an email with that day's activity. It's a great way to track progress.
Cons
Con No native integrations with IFTTT or Zapier
The app doesn't feature native integration with these services, but you can use this functionality by fiddling with the custom email address that is provided by TickTick.
Con unable to sync with gtasks, only imports
Con Intelligent date and time entries don't work everywhere
In some apps, you can type "call Ben tomorrow at noon" and the date and time fields will be automatically populated with "tomorrow" and "noon". TickTick has recently implemented this feature, but it doesn't work flawlessly via the webapp or via a widget. The functionality does work good within the Android app, however.
Con Free version is limited
TickTick's free version is limited to 19 task lists, 1 attachment per day, and 1 collaborator.
Con Abo model is too expensive
Con Translation to Portuguese is not professional
For Portuguese speakers, the Portuguese translation seems very amateurish.
Con No search of non-latin languages in web
The web version has no ability to search non-latin languages (e.g. Russian, Greek).
Con Interface is not clear
It has too much information, causing some confusion sometimes.
Con Doesn't work well in mobile browsers
The functionality of the mobile version of the site is a bit limited, while new features have been added such as the ability to move lines of text, even that is limited on Android to only being functional on Chrome.
Con Offline desktop app requires Chrome
The offline desktop requires installing Google Chrome first before the WorkFlowy app can be installed. This is not good news for non-Chrome users especially users who frequently uses Firefox or Safari as their default browsers, in which Chrome app also suffers memory leak and battery issues.
Con Inconvenient interface
Notes automatically collapse, making them unreadable without user interaction. You cannot view multiple long notes at once.
Con No public API
Con Cannot use link-text
You cannot have text link to a URL. When you link to a website you have to post the full URL instead. Instead of having the name of the website or article like, Slant, you instead have to post http://slant.co
. It's especially annoying if you have a long URL that takes up a lot of space in the document.
Con No support for Right-To-Left languages
Mixed text is scrambled, and text-alignment is wrong.
Con Doesn't work on all mobile phones
Not compatible with Android OS version 4.1 and 4.2.
Con Infrequent updates and new features
WorkFlowy works well but it is hardly ever updated, in comparison to Dynalist, which works in a very similar way but has more features and is updated weekly.
Con Only supports one big text file
Although with Workflowy's focus feature this can work, you might prefer managing separate text files.