2016 to-Do App Teardowns: Wunderlist Vs Any.do
It’s been a long time since we heard from some of our favorite to-do apps, Wunderlist and Any.Do, which means now is the perfect time to take a fresh look at both apps. Both are still some of the best cross-platform and free task managers available, but let’s see how far they’ve come.
Applicants
If you’ve worked at Lifehacker at least once, you’re already familiar with Any.do and Wunderlist. They’ve been featured in many of our round-ups of the best to-do list managers . We’ll assume you’re familiar with them – they’re both to-do apps, they’re mostly desktop and mobile, and have similar features to help you organize your to-do’s, add them on the go, remind you and hopefully get things done, but if not, here are the basics:
- Wunderlist : Wunderlist is a cross-platform to-do list and project organizer with apps for Windows and OS X, Android and iOS, Windows Phone, web, and more.It is clearly one of our favorites and deserves our pick as the best for Windows , Mac and Android. … It’s optimized, simple and easy to use, has timed reminders so you don’t miss a task, notes and additional information on each item, and it stores all your tasks and due dates online and syncs them across devices. If you like, just use the web app to manage your affairs.
- Any.do : Any.do is a web-based to-do list manager with Android and iOS apps, a Chrome app and extension, and a web app. It’s our current favorite for the iPhone , and while it can be a little spartan at times when it comes to features like customizable reminders and subtasks, its emphasis on simplicity and accessibility has made it more than a popular choice with tons of extra features under the hood . Like any good to-do manager, it syncs your to-do and account across devices, is available online, and keeps track of your tasks so you don’t have to.
While some of our other favorite apps (like Google Keep and Todoist) are regularly updated and improved, these two are a bit quieter. In the case of Wunderlist, we’re guessing that the veil of silence fell after the company was acquired by Microsoft . For Any.Do, this is not entirely clear. Let’s see where they are today.
How Wunderlist and Any.do have changed recently
The fact that Any.do and Wunderlist did not make any flashy announcements or updates does not mean that they did not make smaller and more minor improvements.
For example, a few months ago, Wunderlist updated their Android app to include quick add tasks and Google Now On Tap integration, and shortly thereafter, their iPhone and iPad apps received a similar update . Their Mac app received a similar update a few months earlier that made it easier to add tasks and added some useful shortcuts.
Just last month, Wunderlist introduced a new plug-in for Microsoft Outlook that works with Outlook on the web, or the desktop version of Outlook included in Microsoft Office 2013, 2016, or Office 365. For its part, the Outlook plug-in makes it easy to share to-do lists with collaborators by email. mail, turn emails into practice tasks, and set reminders based on emails and requests in your inbox. This is quite useful if you use Outlook for mail and there are a lot of people in a corporate environment. This is the move we expected to see when Wunderlist was acquired by Microsoft. Likewise, Wunderlist recently added itself as a Zapier channel . If you are not familiar with Zapier, think of it as a kind of IFTTT-like service that connects not only web services, but applications as well.
With Any.do, things got a little quieter. The app was significantly improved last year from Any.do 3.0, which improved collaboration with to-do lists, gave you the ability to zoom in and out of to-do lists to check sub-tasks or related items, and the ability to sort all of your individual to-do lists by time. priority or list views. The new version introduces some design changes and improvements, as well as some usability improvements. Since then, the team has introduced a new iPad app that adds all of the same great features to a (slightly) larger screen.
What Wunderlist and Any.do Offer Free and Premium Users
At the same time, the lack of major updates does not mean that nothing is happening. The Any.do Android app was last updated this week, and the iOS app was last updated earlier this month. Earlier this month, Wunderlist for Android received a very long-awaited update that improved the user experience for Android Wear owners, and its iOS app recently received Apple Watch support. All of its apps have received the required update to fix Daylight Saving Time issues here in the US.
There is still active development behind the scenes, with a lot of focus on bugs, usability and smooth running of both apps. It’s a shame we didn’t see huge feature updates or significant improvements to some of the biggest issues in each app (e.g. repetitive tasks are still a common complaint in app store reviews for both apps), but both services are still running the application is as convenient as possible for managing affairs.
Both apps are still free, with most of their popular features available at no cost. You can download any of them to all your devices, add your tasks, sync them and get reminders when they should be. However, both apps have premium features, and here’s what you get for your money:
- Wunderlist Pro ($ 5 per month or $ 50 per year) opens up the ability to upload files of any size to attach to your tasks, delegate tasks to an unlimited number of performers (useful if you are using Wunderlist with a team or family.), Unlimited subtasks for your tasks or projects, as well as additional cosmetic backgrounds to customize applications. All in all, the pro version has a few features limited (but still useful) in the free version and opens the door for them completely.
- Any.do Premium ($ 3 / month or $ 27 / year) lets you share unlimited tasks with collaborators or performers (free accounts are limited to one common task), customizable recurring tasks (free accounts are limited to pre-set recurrence), reminders on location-based, support for large files attached to your tasks, cosmetic themes for the app and unlimited use of one of the best features of Any.do, Any.do Moment is a kind of tutorial for your day that takes you through your tasks and encourages you to complete them or transfer them. In the case of Any.do, many of the premium features are not available at all in the free version.
All in all, Wunderlist is still in a better position as it gives you more features without money, while Any.do offers a huge value for money, which you end up spending on a premium account. Thus, it may be clear that neither application is completely “dead”, but it is definitely possible that both of them slow down a little. Their developers work on bug fixes and stability improvements more than new features, for better or worse. While it definitely makes us sit down and pay attention, it isn’t necessarily a bad thing .
Verdict: The best for you depends on what (if what) you are willing to spend
The battle between Wunderlist and Any.do is not easily resolved, simply by letting everyone know where these two popular apps are right now.
If we were to judge solely who is most busy adding new features and benefits, and who offers the most at no cost, we would have to choose Wunderlist. We don’t see the need for anyone to open their wallet for Wunderlist Pro, unless they use Wunderlist on a small team.
However, for interesting and innovative features, premium or not, and the most extra useful features for the money, if you decide to pay for a premium account, we’ll have to look at Any.do. Any.do Moment is like a mini “weekly review” you can do every day, which is very helpful, and they have more flexible repetitive tasks after you pay for them. Any.do might be cheaper, but it definitely offers more features that individuals might find useful to manage their tasks if you pay to upgrade your account.
Wunderlist is now under the auspices of Microsoft, which bodes well for its continued existence, updates and support, but it is possible that one day Microsoft will simply absorb him and his team for another project. Any.do, on the other hand, is independent but silent. While users can certainly support it by paying for it and its sister app Cal , independence and silence could be a sign that doors might close at any moment, or they’ll be purchased.
Should all this matter to you when choosing the best? Not really, but it’s worth considering whether you’re planning on spending money, thinking about switching apps to to-do, or wondering where these popular options are today. With all that in mind, and since they are both free to start with, try them both out to see which one you like best.