The Best To-Do App For iPhone

If you thought there were tons of to-do app options for Mac, meet the iPhone. You could fill pages with all your different choices. We’ve tested plenty and Wunderlist was an easy favourite thanks to its focused feature set, great syncing capabilities, cross-platform support, good looks and $0 price tag.

Update: We’ve changed our minds and decided that Orchestra is our top pick.

Wunderlist

Platform: iPhone (and Many More)
Price: Free
Download Page

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  • Syncs with the Wunderlist web app and any other copies of Wunderlist you’re running on other platforms (such as Mac, Windows, Android, iOS or Blackberry)
  • Share lists with friends to collaborate on tasks
  • Add notes to tasks to provide additional details
  • Easily organise tasks through drag and drop
  • Assign deadlines to tasks
  • Filter views help you break down your tasks by status and date
  • Star important tasks
  • Add tasks via email
  • Choose from several themes to personalise Wunderlist

Much like its Windows and Mac counterparts, Wunderlist is an excellent to-do list app that focuses on the features you need to manage your tasks and doesn’t bother with much else. You can create multiple lists, add tasks to those lists (or just add them), sort by due date and priority, add notes for context, and check items off when you’re done. Tasks can also be added via email and everything syncs with Wunderlist’s servers. Because Wunderlist is available on practically every platform, including the web, you can easily access your to-dos from anywhere.

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Tagging tasks would be a welcome feature in Wunderlist, and now that most to-do apps are location-aware it wouldn’t hurt to add that as well. That said, there’s little to complain about. Wunderlist works very well.

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Wow. There are a ton of excellent to-do apps on the iPhone. While Wunderlist is a very solid choice that will handle the needs of most people, you should absolutely check out these alternatives because they’re all pretty great and may suit your specific needs a bit better.

If you’ve upgraded to iOS 5, you now have a built-in app called Reminders which is a very simple to-do list app that can make use of your location to remind you when you’re near a task you have to complete. It’s also capable of creating standard to-dos with deadlines. If you don’t like Apple’s built-in location-aware option, ReQall (Free), Tasker ($2.99) and TaskAware ($10.49) are alternatives.

For those of you who like notebook-style, well-design to-dos, you’ll want to look at EgretList ($2.99) is a pretty great option. It allows you to attach relevant media to your tasks and even includes faux-sticker packs that can be used to indicate what kind of item you’re adding. It syncs with Evernote so you can access your list from practically any desktop platform or the web. 2Do ($7.49) offers a similar experience, but with a more professional look (rather than the fun, personal style of Egretlist).

If you’re looking for simple-syncing options, Toodledo ($2.99) is worth a look. You can add tasks, sort them easily, create locations reminders and sync with Toodledo.com. Another similar, long-time favourite is Remember the Milk (Free-ish). You can use the app to remind you or you can have it send you emails, text messages, and more to make sure you do not forget anything ever again. It syncs with RememberTheMilk.com, of course, and offers push notifications, smart lists, task prioritisation and plenty of other features (some of which are premium and require a subscription, by the way).

When you’re aiming for simplicity and minimalism, TeuxDeux ($2.99) is the app you’re going to want. You just add items by day (or under the “Someday” header) and that’s about it. It keeps things extra simple so all you have to worry about is adding tasks.

Lastly we have Things ($10.49) and OmniFocus ($20.99), which make up for the pricier side of the to-do apps. Like their Mac OS X counterparts, they concentrate on the Getting Things Done (GTD) system. If you need a solid GTD app, both of these are great choices.

Got a favourite we missed? Share it in the comments!

Lifehacker’s App Directory is a new and growing directory of recommendations for the best applications and tools in a number of given categories.


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