Haven vs. Todoist, TickTick, Things, Notion, and Microsoft To Do

The short version

If you want the most features, the most integrations, or the most mature mobile apps, another task manager is probably the better choice.

If you want a free, private task manager where your data is encrypted before it's ever stored or synced, that's where Haven is different.

What makes Haven different from other task managers

Most popular task management apps are built around cloud storage and account-based syncing. That's convenient: sign in on another device and your tasks are already there. Haven takes a local-first approach instead: your task data is encrypted on your device before it's ever stored or synced. Your encryption key isn't sent to Haven, meaning Haven isn't designed to have the ability to read the contents of your tasks.

In other words, your task manager doesn't need to know your tasks. Everything else here follows from that one idea.

For a grocery list, that might not matter much. For a lawyer managing confidential work, a journalist protecting sources, a therapist organizing sensitive information, or anyone keeping genuinely private notes in their task manager, it can matter a lot.

Side by side

* Things doesn't require a traditional account, though syncing relies on iCloud. Pricing, platform, and feature details for other products change over time and are accurate to the best of our knowledge as of writing. Check each product's own site for current specifics.

What that encryption actually buys you

"Encrypted" gets used loosely enough in software marketing that it's worth being specific. Most apps that say "your data is encrypted" mean encrypted in transit (the connection to their server is HTTPS, table stakes that every app on this list has) and at rest on their servers (the disk is encrypted, but the company holds the key, so they can still read it whenever they need to). That protects you from someone breaking into the data center. It does not protect you from the company itself, an employee with access, or a subpoena compelling them to hand over readable data.

Haven's encryption happens before a task ever leaves your browser, using a key derived from your passphrase, a key that never gets sent anywhere. The server (ours, if you turn on sync) only ever receives and stores the already-scrambled result. There's no version of "the company reads your tasks" available to us, because there's no key on our end to read them with. You can verify this yourself: open the app, use the built-in "How your data is protected" panel, and watch it happen in real time. Or read the source, since the whole thing is open on GitHub.

Haven vs. Todoist

Todoist is one of the most established task management apps, with excellent organization, integrations, and natural-language task entry. It's a strong choice if you want a mature productivity app with a large ecosystem.

Haven takes a different approach. If you're searching for a private Todoist alternative because you don't want your task data stored in a readable form by a service provider, Haven is built specifically for that, at the cost of Todoist's integrations, natural-language parsing polish, and years of feature depth.

Haven vs. TickTick

TickTick packs in more than a task list (habit tracking, a Pomodoro timer, calendar views) in a genuinely well-built app with a real free tier. If you want one app to cover tasks and habits together, and provider-side privacy isn't the priority, TickTick is a reasonable, mature choice.

Haven doesn't try to match that breadth. It's a focused task manager where the trade is explicit: fewer built-in extras, but nothing you write is readable by the company running the service.

Haven vs. Things

Things is the closest philosophical match to Haven on this list: genuinely local-first, no account required for the app itself, and famous for its design. If you're all-in on Apple hardware and want a beautifully designed native app you pay for once instead of monthly, Things is hard to beat.

The differences: Things is Apple-only (no web, no Android), syncing runs through iCloud rather than an app-run server, and it doesn't publish a threat model or self-attack test results the way Haven does. Haven runs anywhere with a browser and is free.

Haven vs. Notion

Notion is a notes-and-docs workspace with a task list bolted on, not a dedicated task manager. That's exactly why some people prefer it, and exactly why others find it slower for a plain to-do list. If tasks are one piece of a bigger workspace you need, Notion's breadth is the point.

Haven is a dedicated task manager, not a workspace, and everything you write is encrypted before Notion (or anyone) would ever get a chance to see it. If you're only using Notion for tasks and never touch the rest of it, Haven is worth trying.

Haven vs. Microsoft To Do

Microsoft To Do is free, simple, and integrates tightly with Outlook and Microsoft 365. It's genuinely the right choice if you already live in that ecosystem and want tasks to just show up there.

It requires a Microsoft account, and like the others on this list, doesn't advertise end-to-end encryption because that isn't the product it's building. Haven has no Outlook integration at all today, a real gap if that's what you need.

Where Haven wins

• No account, ever. Open the app, set a passphrase, start typing. There's no signup form, no email verification, no OAuth consent screen.
• Actually free. Not a free tier with a task limit nudging you toward upgrading, but the whole thing, including sync across your own devices.
• Nothing to leak, even in a worst case. If our sync server were ever breached, an attacker would get ciphertext, a materially different incident than what "a task app got breached" usually means.
• You can read the code. Not "trust our privacy policy," but the actual encryption implementation, public, alongside a published threat model and self-attack test results.
• Real export, no lock-in. Your tasks leave as plain JSON whenever you want, and come back in the same format.

Where Haven isn't the right fit

• No native mobile app yet. Haven runs great as a mobile web page (add it to your home screen and it behaves like an app), but there's no App Store/Play Store listing today. Things or TickTick are further along here.
• No calendar integration. If your workflow depends on due dates showing up in Google Calendar or Outlook automatically, Haven doesn't do that at all yet.
• No team collaboration at scale. Haven is built for one person's tasks first. Notion and Todoist are meaningfully further along for teams sharing boards.
• Lose your passphrase and your recovery code, and it's gone. Real encryption means there's no "forgot password" support ticket that gets you back in. We've built real recovery options (a one-time recovery code, and splitting that code among people you trust), but the honest floor is: lose both, and the data is unrecoverable by anyone, including us.
• Younger project, smaller track record. Todoist and Things have years of production hardening behind them. Haven is newer. We've tried to be transparent about that by publishing our own security testing rather than asking you to just trust it, but "newer" is still true.

Who each app actually makes sense for

Pick Todoist or TickTick if you want the most mature, feature-dense task manager with natural-language input, and privacy from the app's own operator isn't a priority for what you're tracking.

Pick Things if you're all-in on Apple hardware, want a beautifully designed native app, and are happy paying once instead of monthly.

Pick Notion if tasks are one piece of a bigger notes-and-docs workspace you need, not a standalone list.

Pick Microsoft To Do if you're already living in Outlook and Microsoft 365 and want something that just shows up there.

Pick Haven if you want a genuinely capable task manager (boards, lists, tags, subtasks, recurring tasks, smart views) where the fact that nobody but you can read it isn't a nice-to-have. It's the reason you're looking in the first place.

Product names, features, and pricing mentioned above belong to their respective companies and are described here for comparison purposes only, based on publicly available information at the time of writing. Haven isn't affiliated with Todoist, TickTick, Cultured Code (Things), Notion, or Microsoft.