ForumsQuestionsPros/Cons of Alternatives to Toodledo.


Pros/Cons of Alternatives to Toodledo.
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MM1772

Posted: Dec 20, 2018
Score: 0 Reference
Another Note app I tried was Nimbus Note. It didn't do a good job of importing the test text files I created for testing with SimpleNote and I just don't have time to figure it out.

It has some nice rich text features that look cool, but I can deal with plain text notes for now.
MM1772

Posted: Dec 21, 2018
Score: 0 Reference
@DrFrankBuck Did you import your Toodledo notebook Notes into Evernote? Or did you just use Evernote from the beginning?

I have 333 notes in Toodledo that I want to move over to a different note app. Evernote appears to import only Evernote or OneNote exports.

I have 525 notes in Evernote from when I used it in addition to Toodledo.

Ideally I'd like to get my 333 + 525 notes in the same place, but so far I haven't found a solution.


Edited to add:

I just added Evernote's Web Clipper to Chrome (Chrome extension), opened up one of my Toodledo Notes in Chrome, and was able to clip the note, which adds it to Evernote! I did have to change the name of the note by copying and pasting from the body of the note into the title space, but that isn't hard at all on a desktop. So, that would work, but I'd have to do it 333 times :( I'm going to email Evernote's support and ask if there's an easier way.

Edited again to add:

That didn't work well. It looks like the body of the note is not searchable. That is, if I search for a word that's only in the body, not the title, the search doesn't find it.


This message was edited Dec 21, 2018.
Ummagumma

Posted: Dec 21, 2018
Score: 0 Reference
Posted by MM1772:
I'm just wondering if anyone has found a good substitute for Toodledo's Notes module (not the task notes, but the notebook notes). Toodledo has said they don't plan to do much development on this feature because there are so many other options out there, which -- to me -- makes good business sense at this point.

I've looked at SimpleNote, Standard Notes, and Zoho Notes. I didn't really like Zoho Notes, so I crossed that off the list.

Standard Notes was okay and has a good encryption story, plus automatic backup, but it's open source and I don't know how long the project would continue (yes, it's true that many open source projects last much longer than commercial projects, but...) The big drawback was that it wasn't clear to me how I could move to another app if I wasn't happy with them or if they disappeared. Having spent a lot of time researching and trialing other apps, I don't want something I can't leave easily.

SimpleNote is also at least partially open source, but the company that provides it, Automattic, also created WordPress.com, so I don't think they're going to go away soon. Their support group was very helpful when I asked about a Toodledo Notes import. Though they don't have a specific import for it, they suggested I try their text file import. This, however, involves saving each note as a .txt file. You can get to that point by exporting the notes as .CSV, then opening the CSV file and stripping out the columns you don't need. Basically, the only column their import uses is the Notes column itself, so you lose the note title and folder. If you know VBA (or know someone who does), you can write a little script that instead writes the folder name as a tag (for example, #HomeRepair) in the note body, and then saves the note using the title as the filename. To make the Title into a valid filename, you have to do a search and replace on all the entries in the Title column and changing all spaces and special characters to a hyphen or underscore. I'm probably not explaining it clearly enough, and there are probably quicker ways to do it, but you get the general idea: It *can* be done with a little work, and support is very helpful. I had 600+ notes, but I saved only 300 as text. I've imported a few of those as a test.

Why didn't I just go with OneNote? I didn't see a good way to export if I wanted out. (I might have missed something, though.)

Why didn't I go with Evernote? Same thing. Also, I keep hearing rumors that they're not doing so well or that they're focusing so much on the business audience that soon there won't be lower-cost plans for the individual user. None of these rumors seem well-founded, but, as I said, I don't want to go through this again right away.


The biggest thing about OneNote and Evernote is the ability to do things other than just note taking. For me, it’s the support for file attachments and voice notes.

However, if you were ok with using the plaintext Toodledo notes, then looks like you don’t need any of that added functionality. Why don’t just use plaintext or Word /Doc notes saved in OneDrive or Google Drive ?

BTW, getting notes out of OneNote is doable, you can export them to PDF.
MM1772

Posted: Dec 21, 2018
Score: 0 Reference
Posted by Ummagumma:

However, if you were ok with using the plaintext Toodledo notes, then looks like you don’t need any of that added functionality. Why don’t just use plaintext or Word /Doc notes saved in OneDrive or Google Drive ?


Yes, for the most part I'm okay with plain text notes; if I need something more full-featured (for example, a draft of an article I'm writing), I'll save it in Word on either Office online or Dropbox. But usually I have lots of smaller plain-text notes.


BTW, getting notes out of OneNote is doable, you can export them to PDF.


True, but let's say I want to use another note app (maybe one with different features). I don't see PDF a lot as a supported input type.

For the past hour I've been looking at Simple Note (so far my preference) and Standard Notes. Simple Note has a better "escape plan" of plain text files, one per note. Yes, it's true that plain text is not always an import option, but I have seen it (Nimbus Note, Standard Notes). Standard Notes, however, has a better security story: notes are encrypted in storage.

I'm running out of time to do any more research :( I may end up flipping a coin :)
Ummagumma

Posted: Dec 21, 2018
Score: 0 Reference
Posted by MM1772:
Posted by Ummagumma:

However, if you were ok with using the plaintext Toodledo notes, then looks like you don’t need any of that added functionality. Why don’t just use plaintext or Word /Doc notes saved in OneDrive or Google Drive ?


Yes, for the most part I'm okay with plain text notes; if I need something more full-featured (for example, a draft of an article I'm writing), I'll save it in Word on either Office online or Dropbox. But usually I have lots of smaller plain-text notes.


BTW, getting notes out of OneNote is doable, you can export them to PDF.


True, but let's say I want to use another note app (maybe one with different features). I don't see PDF a lot as a supported input type.

For the past hour I've been looking at Simple Note (so far my preference) and Standard Notes. Simple Note has a better "escape plan" of plain text files, one per note. Yes, it's true that plain text is not always an import option, but I have seen it (Nimbus Note, Standard Notes). Standard Notes, however, has a better security story: notes are encrypted in storage.

I'm running out of time to do any more research :( I may end up flipping a coin :)


Looks to me like keeping notes in plaintext or word documents on OneDrive (or GDrive, Dropbox etc) is your best bet, no need to complicate things by using a wrapper on top of your data. It’s cross platform, searchable, future proof (since you are using files in standard common formats), can be easily moved to any other service or backed up.

The only reason I use OneNote is because I really like the extra functionality it provides, it helps me to organize my data better, I want my notes and file attachments and screenshots and voice notes in one place on the same screen. Otherwise, I’d just use a word editor for my notes. I believe that with most online storage services now providing image and document OCR search functionality, Evernote and OneNote are really losing much of their attractiveness to an average user. OneNote still has a good use case, especially in the workplace, the way it’s integrated into Windows and Office. But if you don’t need that level of integration, Word / text in OneDrive should work just fine.


This message was edited Dec 21, 2018.
roaz

Posted: Dec 22, 2018
Score: 2 Reference
Posted by MM1772:
@DrFrankBuck Did you import your Toodledo notebook Notes into Evernote? Or did you just use Evernote from the beginning?

I have 333 notes in Toodledo that I want to move over to a different note app. Evernote appears to import only Evernote or OneNote exports.

I have 525 notes in Evernote from when I used it in addition to Toodledo.

Ideally I'd like to get my 333 + 525 notes in the same place, but so far I haven't found a solution.


Edited to add:

I just added Evernote's Web Clipper to Chrome (Chrome extension), opened up one of my Toodledo Notes in Chrome, and was able to clip the note, which adds it to Evernote! I did have to change the name of the note by copying and pasting from the body of the note into the title space, but that isn't hard at all on a desktop. So, that would work, but I'd have to do it 333 times :( I'm going to email Evernote's support and ask if there's an easier way.

Edited again to add:

That didn't work well. It looks like the body of the note is not searchable. That is, if I search for a word that's only in the body, not the title, the search doesn't find it.


Here is a couple of other ways to import your text files into Evernote. Did you try any of these? I suggest you have the Evernote client installed for better results.

https://superuser.com/questions/981985/how-can-i-convert-standard-txt-files-to-evernotes-notes
You may need to add Evernote to your list of Send to options. Just search for "add program to sendto"

https://discussion.evernote.com/topic/96584-import-simple-text-notes/

Import Folders
https://help.evernote.com/hc/en-us/articles/209004967-How-to-create-import-folders-in-Evernote-for-W indows

Using ENSCRIPT method. You should be able to create a batch script to load all of your files.
https://dev.evernote.com/doc/articles/enscript.php
MM1772

Posted: Dec 22, 2018
Score: 0 Reference
Posted by roaz:

Here is a couple of other ways to import your text files into Evernote. Did you try any of these? I suggest you have the Evernote client installed for better results.

https://superuser.com/questions/981985/how-can-i-convert-standard-txt-files-to-evernotes-notes
You may need to add Evernote to your list of Send to options. Just search for "add program to sendto"


Thank you! That was amazingly simple! Now all my notes are in Evernote. I don't know if I'll stay there, but at least they're all in one place and I have to worry about only one type of export if I decide to move.

Two things I noticed:

I have the Evernote client open. Before I did the import, I went through the existing notes on Evernote and got rid of some more that were outdated and not necessary. Then I did an Evernote backup. (I keep forgetting how to do this, but you have to click Notebooks and then right-click and select Export Notes.)

When I imported the text files, they all went into the last Notebook on my list of notebooks. Was that because that was the folder that was open, or it was the last one in the list? I don't know, but since it was very easy to find the new notes and move them. Just select a bunch of notes and a dialog box opens asking what you want to do. I selected Move To and moved them to a temporary folder.

The second thing I noticed was that the titles on the imported notes were the name of the file. So, for example, if a text file is named note1,txt, when you import it this way (Send to > Evernote), the title of the note will be note1.txt. This wasn't a problem for me since I made the filenames the same as the actual note name.

Thank you again! Now I can actually do something this weekend instead of sitting in front of my computer trying to figure this out!
tanichka13

Posted: Dec 23, 2018
Score: 0 Reference
Posted by Purveyor:

Toodledo features not available in RTM:


Clicking the checkbox for a task in RTM doesn't mark it completed (it selects the task, and then you need to click the "check" at the top).

People are complaining that you need multiple clicks to reschedule overdue events, and yet it's acceptable that you need to click TWICE to mark a task completed?

They almost had me, but that's just idiotic.


This message was edited Dec 23, 2018.
MM1772

Posted: Dec 23, 2018
Score: 0 Reference
Posted by tanichka13:

People are complaining that you need multiple clicks to reschedule overdue events, and yet it's acceptable that you need to click TWICE to mark a task completed?.


That's true. However, I don't have a problem with that because I'm usually on the web, checking off a number of items at once and that one extra click doesn't bother me. Maybe it's because when I'm done, they all disappear at once, and I can see the completed tasks by clicking the Completed tab.

In other words, if I want to mark 10 tasks as done:

Toodledo - click each task (10 clicks).

RTM - click each task and then click Done (total of 11 clicks).

It's probably a preference thing.
martingchapman

Posted: Dec 24, 2018
Score: 3 Reference
Posted by tanichka13:


Clicking the checkbox for a task in RTM doesn't mark it completed (it selects the task, and then you need to click the "check" at the top).

People are complaining that you need multiple clicks to reschedule overdue events, and yet it's acceptable that you need to click TWICE to mark a task completed?

They almost had me, but that's just idiotic.


In RTM having selected one or many tasks to complete you can just press the "c" key (keyboard shortcut) to complete them.
With TD you complete each task by selecting it, but you then need to "refresh" the page ("r" keyboard shortcut) to make those tasks disappear.

Having used both systems, on and off for many years, I don't find either way better or worse, just different.
MM1772

Posted: Dec 29, 2018
Score: 6 Reference
It's been a long, hard decision, but I'm letting my Gold plan lapse at the first of the year.

When the price increase announcement was made, I started looking for alternatives, just in case. I discovered that Remember the Milk fit my way of organizing better than Toodledo, so I switched to that and tried both side-by-side for a couple of weeks, with Toodledo as my "real" app. By the end of my test, I decided that RTM was better for me. The fact that RTM now has a direct Toodledo import swayed me.

I use Toodledo Notes a lot, but I was having trouble finding a solution for that. I exported them as CSV and then managed to save them into individual text files, and them into Simple Note. But then I decided to go with Evernote since it was easy to import the text files there, where I had some existing notes. But then -- as I said, this has been a long process -- I discovered that I couldn't use the Evernote app on Android unless I had a Premium account, so this morning I exported the Evernote notes and imported all my notes into Simple Note.

My needs are relatively simple. I don't need to share tasks or assign them to other people. Toodledo did the trick, but I wanted to keep history. For now, RTM fits the bill.

Though I deleted all my tasks from Toodledo (and will eventually delete all my notes), I'm keeping my account on the free plan and will check in periodically to see how things are going. I might switch back later, since I really loved Toodledo.

I wish everyone -- especially the new owners of Toodledo -- a very happy and prosperous 2019.


This message was edited Dec 29, 2018.
pawelkaleta

Posted: Feb 06, 2019
Score: 0 Reference
I'm currently testing free Trello account (I consider only that option for this particular platform), looks promising. Could anybody share opinion or critical cons?

This message was edited Feb 06, 2019.
physicschic

Posted: Apr 07, 2019
Score: 1 Reference
Good morning everyone. I am still comparing ToDo services. As promised, I'm sharing my findings so far. (I haven't made a decision yet). Toodledo just isn't mentioned on many of these sites, as is MyLifeOrganized. So far, the best comparison tools are the first two websites:


#1
GTD apps Comparison - Task managers, ToDo lists and GTD applications
http://todocompare.com/index.php?l=28,6,1,4,2,3,7,8,29,19,27,23,39,21,63,9,14,45,31,4&f=


#2
Getapp Collaboration software comparison site
https://www.getapp.com/collaboration-software/

#3
Priacta.com Comparison tool
https://priacta.com/Articles/Comparison_of_GTD_Software.php


#4
18 of the Best Productivity Apps: Boost Your Productivity In 2019 (Including Free Alternatives)
https://thedigitalprojectmanager.com/best-productivity-apps-tools/


#5
Slant /versus /Options
https://www.slant.co/options/4437/~mylifeorganized-review
https://versus.com/en/search?q=toodledo

#6
Versus
https://versus.com/en/search?q=todoist%20vs%20toodledo


#7
Zapier's list this month
https://zapier.com/blog/best-todo-list-apps/#other


#8
Lifehack.org
https://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/the-complete-guie-to-list-and-to-do-apps.html


This message was edited Apr 07, 2019.
AA

Posted: May 02, 2019
Score: 2 Reference
My Gold subscription is running out in August. I've been a happy customer for 9 years.

In August, I will ask Toodledo support if they can extend me for the original price (fat chance!). The only thing I'm missing in the new $30/year tier is unlimited history. I'm just not willing to pay double the price per year for a single feature that has always been part of the $30/year Gold plan.

So, if they reject my request, I need to leave. Really sad. Plus, I've even encountered data loss in recent weeks (in notes fields of the Lists section), and I've been unable to access the Habits section in any way on a newly purchased iPad mini 5. (Access is denied via the iOS app and via all mobile browsers, too, even in desktop mode.)

Therefore, I have now departed Toodledo in all sections except for tasks. It was a long and arduous process to find suitable replacements. If only because of this, I'm just not willing to pay $60/year for Toodledo – because I've just been forced to spend dozens of hours in search of replacements.

For Notes, I switched to Simplenote. I had an Evernote subscription a year ago or so, but found the app too clunky (especially on mobile) for my rather simple needs. However, I really need Markdown. The absence of Markdown support has been one of my pet Toodledo peeves for years. If I'm not mistaken, there's no Markdown support in Evernote, either, but there is in Simplenote. Replacement found. And it's free.

For Lists, I have moved them to FlexLists. Rather outdated design, but in some respects more advanced than Toodledo's lists. Responsive developer. Promises a big overhaul of everything in early June. Replacement found. And it's free.

I don't use Outlines. For Habits, a replacement was the most difficult to find. Most habit-tracking apps only seem to support yes/no habits and number habits, but no star habits like Toodledo does. I love star habits and no longer can be without them. I finally found the Japanese site 42goals.com that is superior to Toodledo's habits, offering practically everything that Habits do here, and more (better displayed, too). Unfortunately, the site seems to be on the verge of collapse. The developer is not responding to user queries. And while it's certainly usable for free, the premium version is very nice, but it's really expensive: $45/year. For now, I have purchased the first month for $5 via PayPal. If the site vanishes, I'll just say, "what the ****", and I'll just set up all habits as a spreadsheet in Google Sheets, tracking them manually from then on, and that's gonna be it. There are also apps like Beeminder and StickK where, I think, you need to pay real money to software developers if you fail to observe your habits... sorry that that doesn't sound enticing to me.

And now the most important thing – Tasks. As mentioned, I'm willing to stay with Toodledo for $30/year with full history. If not, I'm outta here. I have narrowed down the alternatives to Todoist, TickTick, and Remember The Milk. The clear winner so far, in my testing, has been RTM. For Todoist, among other things, there's no "import from Toodledo" option. For TickTick, it sometimes happens that after opening the webpage, it's completely blank (has happened on various computers for me). There's nothing to do – restarting the browser doesn't help, nor does clearing the cache/cookies, etc. Scary. To make it brief, RTM seems the best replacement option. It's $40/year, but that's better than $60/year. And to correct the statement from an overview earlier in this thread: perhaps the situation has changed recently, but RTM does now support not just the import of Toodledo tasks, but also the backup/export of all data in JSON format (not just iCal as previously):

https://www.rememberthemilk.com/help/answer/basics-tasks-importexport-import

I really hope I can stay with Toodledo after 9 years. But if not, RTM it is.


This message was edited May 02, 2019.
GSP1963

Posted: May 07, 2019
Score: 2 Reference
@AA:

You wrote: "I really hope I can stay with Toodledo after 9 years. But if not, RTM it is."

I've been with Toodledo over 10 years and I think the writing on the wall here is pretty clear. My Toodledo subscription expires in 5 days and I won't be renewing. In the next day or two, I'll be subscribing to Remember the Milk. That app's feature set is excellent and I get good vibes from the people running it.

Good luck with whatever you decide.
-J-O-D-

Posted: May 07, 2019
Score: 2 Reference
RTM is really good, I have tested it for a couple of months, but for me, one important aspect is to track time spent on some tasks - and using a 3rd party extension, as it is needed for RTM (it only has Estimated time, not tracked one), was not for me. That being said, I have one year Standard subscription active for testing only, as my primary tool is now Clickup (it can be set up for personal needs with most of the team options away from the UI via a simple setting:-) ).
AA

Posted: May 10, 2019
Score: 0 Reference
I definitely agree with the "good vibes" comment regarding RTM. You can see that it's the loved child of the original developers – something that no longer applies to Toodledo.

I just don't think Jake would have slapped his loyal customers with double the subscription price all of a sudden. What does that tell us? If such desperate measures are required (?) here, it can only tell us this may be the last-ditch attempt to save Toodledo from extinction. How can you expect "good vibes" from that?

Yes, RTM also increased their subscription price from $25 to $40 a couple of years ago. But that's not doubling the subscription price – and the resulting price is still a lot lower than Toodledo's new top tier.

The frustrating thing for me is that for 9 years, I was happy to pay the $30/year subscription price here, mainly because of "full history". Now suddenly, Toodledo have moved "full history" to the top tier at $60/year. I'm not sure I'm ready to pay that, for a single feature I need from the top tier. My current subscription is running out in August, and that may, sadly, be the end of it for me here at Toodledo.

Here is what I plan to do in August: I will approach Toodledo support and ask them if they can extend me for the original $30 price for another year, with full history. I have no idea if that can somehow be arranged or not – all I know is that I'm probably not willing to pay $60 just for full history. I'm also willing to extend my subscription for two years upfront, at $60 for both years combined, with full history included.

If they reject this request from me, I'm afraid that will necessitate my move to RTM. I will hate to do that, because it will, no doubt, cost me lots of additional hours of work, but if something needs to be done, it needs to be done.


This message was edited May 10, 2019.
Duo

Posted: May 10, 2019
Score: 2 Reference
Posted by AA:

I just don't think Jake would have slapped his loyal customers with double the subscription price all of a sudden. What does that tell us? If such desperate measures are required (?) here, it can only tell us this may be the last-ditch attempt to save Toodledo from extinction. How can you expect "good vibes" from that?


The introduction of advertising for free users (so far), the large price increases for new and existing users, the moving of relied upon features from one tier to the next for new and existing users, the shoddy development practices, the poor management of the changes around pricing, features and privacy, the lack of understanding of the product, the product space and its users, long-time users abandoning ship... I don't think this story is moving towards "Happily ever after" but I hope I'm wrong.
Charlie5

Posted: May 10, 2019
Score: 1 Reference
Here is HUGE list of alternatives. This was put together by myself and the IQTELL community when that platform shutdown.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JCAzQ5f9ETGDhGZSUtecnq5at7AJw3BxSzP5E3h4lgo/edit


This message was edited May 10, 2019.
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