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Microsoft Excel vs Todoist

Microsoft Excel and Todoist are both personal productivity tools. Microsoft Excel is aimed at small businesses and enterprise, while Todoist is aimed at freelancers and small businesses. Todoist costs less, from $7/mo versus $9.99/mo for Microsoft Excel. Both have a free plan.

Microsoft Excel

The standard spreadsheet for analysis, modeling and reporting

Todoist

Cross-platform task manager

PricingFreemium · $10Freemium · $7
Starting price$9.99/mo$7/mo
Free planYesYes
Free trial30 days—
Built forSmall businesses, Enterprise, FreelancersFreelancers, Small businesses
Platformsweb, macos, windows, ios, androidweb, macos, windows, linux, ios, android
CountryUS · 1985US · 2007
Rating——

Choose Microsoft Excel if

Finance, accounting and analyst teams that need the deepest spreadsheet features and the industry standard file format.

  • Industry standard skills and file format
  • Unmatched depth for financial modeling and analysis
  • Handles large datasets on the desktop

Look elsewhere if: Teams that mostly collaborate live in the browser on simple sheets (Google Sheets) or need a relational database with views (Airtable).

Choose Todoist if

Individuals and small teams who want a fast, dependable to-do app.

  • Fast capture and excellent cross-platform apps
  • Affordable Pro plan
  • Reliable, long-lived company

Look elsewhere if: Teams needing timelines, dependencies or workload (Asana, ClickUp).

Microsoft Excel vs Todoist pricing

Microsoft Excel

  • Excel for the web$0Free with a Microsoft account, reduced feature set
  • Microsoft 365 Personal$9.99/mo$99.99/yr; 1 person, desktop apps, Copilot, 1 TB
  • Microsoft 365 Family$12.99/mo$129.99/yr; up to 6 people, 1 TB each
  • Microsoft 365 Premium$19.99/mo$199.99/yr; higher Copilot limits and advanced AI
  • Office Home 2024$179.99/one-timePerpetual Excel, Word, PowerPoint for 1 PC or Mac

Todoist

  • Beginner$05 personal projects, 3 filter views, 1 week history
  • Pro$7/mo$5 billed yearly ($60/yr); 300 projects, 150 filters
  • Business$10/user/mo$8 billed yearly; up to 500 team projects

Microsoft Excel · Key features

  • Dynamic array formulas including XLOOKUP, FILTER and LAMBDA
  • PivotTables, PivotCharts and a wide range of chart types
  • Power Query to import, clean and reshape data from many sources
  • Power Pivot data models for large multi-table analysis
  • Python in Excel for analysis and visualization in the grid
  • Copilot to generate formulas, analyses and summaries from prompts

Cons

  • Advanced features have a steep learning curve
  • Web version lacks some desktop features
  • Emailed copies lead to version chaos

Todoist · Key features

  • Natural language task entry with recurring dates
  • Projects, sections, sub-tasks, labels, priorities
  • Filters and custom views; calendar layout
  • Reminders and durations (Pro); two-way Google Calendar sync
  • Team workspace with shared projects (Business)
  • Apps for web, desktop, mobile, watch, browser extensions

Cons

  • Free plan limited to 5 projects
  • Not built for team project management
  • No time blocking without a partner app

Microsoft Excel vs Todoist: FAQ

Which is cheaper, Microsoft Excel or Todoist?

Todoist starts at $7/mo and Microsoft Excel at $9.99/mo. Both prices are checked on the vendors' own pricing pages.

Do Microsoft Excel and Todoist have a free plan?

Yes, both Microsoft Excel and Todoist have a free plan; paid plans add more usage and features.

Not sure yet?