Orgzly vs Taskwarrior (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Orgzly and Taskwarrior share a 2.8 GPA, both are free, so the choice depends on whether you care more about ease of use, where Orgzly grades higher, or features, where Taskwarrior does.
Checked Oct 5, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 · graded Oct 10, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA
They get the same grade on value for money, the free plan and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Which one is for you
Pick Orgzly if
- Fits if you already keep your notes and to-dos in Org files
- Works for Android users who sync through a folder or Git
Look elsewhere if
- Not for you if you use an iPhone or Mac, as it is Android only
- Watch out: sync is manual, and deleting a remote notebook is not yet detected
- Watch out: Dropbox sync is only in the Google Play version, not F-Droid
- Skip it if you want a teams or sharing feature, as none is described
Pick Taskwarrior if
- Fits if you already spend your day in a terminal and want your tasks there too
- Works for people who script, with hooks in any language and fields they define themselves
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you've never opened a terminal, because typed commands are the only way in
- Not for you if you want an official phone or desktop app, as front ends are separate community tools
- Not for you if you want sync out of the box, since you run a sync server or a cloud bucket that carries a small cost
- Tight if you're on Windows, as it runs only through WSL or MSYS2, and Cygwin is no longer supported
- Watch out: since version 3.0 the docs warn that Syncthing or rsync can corrupt your task data
How we grade them
| 2.8GPAOrgzlyGood | 2.8GPATaskwarriorGood | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | AFree and open source, with the whole app free, against a to-do middle of $3.99 a month. | AFree and open source under the MIT license, a program anyone can download and run, with no paid edition at all. The project takes donations through GitHub Sponsors. The only bill you might see is for sync, since the docs say a cloud storage bucket carries a small cost. |
| Free plan and trial | AFree outright, with no paid plans and no caps on record. | AThe whole program is free. There's no paid edition, so nothing is locked. Filters, reports, hooks and custom fields are all yours from the first command. |
| Features | CNotebooks, search, agenda and links do the job, but sync is manual and conflicts cannot be merged in the app. | BMore than 20 standard attributes per task, filters you combine on the command line, contexts that stay switched on, and an urgency score built from a dozen or more factors. Hook scripts and your own fields bend it to any workflow, and everything moves in and out as JSON. The whole job, in a terminal. |
| Ease of use | CNo store rating on record. You need to know Org files and set up a sync folder first. | DIt's a command-line program, so you learn commands before you add your first task, and anything that needs a terminal sits at a D on our ladder. Sync is more work again: you run a TaskChampion sync server or set up a cloud storage bucket yourself. |
| Platforms and integrations | CAndroid only; the FAQ answers 'Not yet' on an iOS version, and no web or desktop app is listed. | CMac and Linux, and Windows only through the Windows Subsystem for Linux or MSYS2. That's computers and nothing else: the project ships no graphical, web or mobile app, and those are separate community tools. Sync runs through a TaskChampion server or a cloud bucket. |
| Best for | Org-mode notes and to-dos on Android | running your to-do list from a terminal |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Orgzly and Taskwarrior. How we grade
Price against what you get
Orgzly has no paid plan and scores 2.0 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Taskwarrior has no paid plan and scores 2.0.
On this chart the two sit in the same place: the same score for the same starting price. Of the other to-do list apps on the chart, none scores higher than Orgzly for less, and none scores higher than Taskwarrior for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Orgzly also covers notes.
In commonFree planOpen sourceTasks
At a glance
| Orgzly | Taskwarrior | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| Starts at | Free | Free |
| Free plan | The documentation's FAQ says Orgzly is free. | The whole program is free and open source under the MIT license, with no paid edition. The project takes donations through GitHub Sponsors. |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| macOS | ||
| Linux | ||
| Android | ||
| Made by | Orgzly LLC | Gothenburg Bit Factory |
| Price read from | orgzly.com | taskwarrior.org |
| Checked | Nov 12, 2026 | Oct 5, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Orgzly
- Android only: the FAQ answers "Not yet" on an iOS version, and no web or desktop app is listed.
- Sync is manual, and the docs say deleting a remote notebook is not yet detected.
- Dropbox sync is available only in the Google Play version, not the F-Droid build.
- Conflicts between local and remote notebooks cannot be merged inside the app.
Taskwarrior
- The project ships only a command-line program. Graphical, web and mobile front ends are separate community tools.
- On Windows it runs through the Windows Subsystem for Linux or MSYS2; Cygwin is no longer supported.
- No hosted sync service is included: you run a TaskChampion sync server or configure a cloud storage bucket yourself.
- Since version 3.0 the docs warn that file-sync tools such as Syncthing or rsync can corrupt task data and are unsupported.
Key features
Orgzly
- Org mode notebooks
- Notes and tasks are saved as Org-format text files, so they can also be opened in other Org-aware tools.
- Search expressions
- Query by state, tag, priority, notebook, and scheduled, deadline, event, closed or created dates, with AND, OR and NOT.
- Agenda view
- Add an agenda term to a query to group results by day over a chosen number of days.
- Sync options
- Sync notebooks with Dropbox, a WebDAV server such as Nextcloud, or a directory on the device. Sync is started by hand.
- Links between items
- Links can point to web pages, email, phone numbers, map locations, files, other notes and notebooks.
- Swipe actions
- In search results, swipe to set a start time, cycle TODO and DONE states, or jump to the note's notebook.
Taskwarrior
- Task commands in the terminal
- Tasks are added, modified and completed with short task commands, and carry attributes such as project, tags, priority and due date out of more than 20 standard ones.
- Filters, reports and contexts
- Reports list tasks through filters you combine on the command line. A context is a named filter that stays active, for example to show only work tasks.
- Urgency score
- Each task gets a numeric urgency score summed from a dozen or more factors such as priority, and the next report sorts tasks by it.
- Sync between replicas
- The task sync command exchanges changes with a TaskChampion sync server, an AWS or Google Cloud storage bucket, a local file or a git repository.
- Hooks and user defined attributes
- Hook scripts in any language run at set events in the program, and user defined attributes add your own fields that can be stored, sorted and shown in reports.
- JSON import and export
- Task data moves in and out through a documented JSON format, which the community tools listed on the project's Tools page build on.
Plans
Orgzly
Free$0
The whole app; the source is on GitHub under the GPL.
Taskwarrior
Free$0
The full command-line program under the MIT license. Sync needs your own server or a cloud storage bucket, which the docs say carries a small cost.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Orgzly or Taskwarrior?
As of Nov 12, 2026, both Orgzly and Taskwarrior are free to use.
Which has a free plan, Orgzly or Taskwarrior?
As of Nov 12, 2026, both Orgzly and Taskwarrior have a free plan.
Which platforms do Orgzly and Taskwarrior run on?
As of Nov 12, 2026, only Orgzly lists an Android app and only Taskwarrior lists macOS and Linux apps. A platform missing from a listing is one its maker's pages did not mention.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.