sleek vs topydo
We give sleek a 3.4 GPA and topydo a 3.2, out of 4.0. sleek grades higher on ease of use. They get the same grade on value for money, the free plan, features and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
How we grade them
| 3.4GPAsleekVery good | 3.2GPAtopydoVery good | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | AFree and open source under the MIT license, with no paid version. The Mac App Store listing is free with no in-app purchases too. The developer asks for optional sponsorship toward app store fees, and that's the only money involved. | AFree and open source under the GNU General Public License v3, with no paid edition. You install it from PyPI with pip and that's the end of the matter. Nothing to buy now or later. |
| Free plan and trial | AThe complete app is free, from the Mac App Store, Microsoft Store, Snap Store, Flathub, Homebrew or a direct download. There's no paid tier, so nothing is kept back. | AThe full program is free, with all three interfaces: one-off commands, a prompt with auto-completion and a column view. Prompt mode, column mode and iCalendar output each need an extra pip dependency, but none costs anything. |
| Features | BIt does one thing, managing todo.txt files, and does it fully: priorities, contexts, projects, due dates, recurrence, deferred todos, grouping, an advanced search and archiving to done.txt. The gap is sync. None is built in, so sharing the file between devices is left to other tools. | BIt does one job, extending todo.txt, and does it fully: due and start dates, rec:1w style repeats, dependencies that hide a parent until its children are done, filters like due:<today, and a revert command. The catch is in the README: other todo.txt tools may not interpret its tags properly. |
| Ease of use | BYou don't have to learn the todo.txt syntax, because built-in pickers set it for you and dates can be typed the way you'd say them. No rating on record, so it stops at a B. One snag: the Flatpak build needs extra file permissions to reopen your file after a restart. | CIt's a console program installed with pip, and you drive it with typed commands or vim-like keys. Relative dates like tomorrow or fri help, and Tab completes for you in prompt mode. Still, there's no graphical app, so this is for terminal people. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWindows, Mac and Linux, which covers every desktop. But there's no mobile or web version and no integrations. What helps is the file: a watcher picks up changes made by other todo.txt apps, so a second app can work on the same list. | BMac, Linux and Windows, though column mode doesn't work natively on Windows and needs Cygwin. No integrations are listed and no sync is described. There's no native Android build either: the docs describe running it under Termux. |
| Best for | a friendly face for your todo.txt file | todo.txt in a terminal, with dependencies |
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: sleek and topydo. How we grade
Where they differ
- sleek is free. topydo is free.
- sleek also covers Markdown and natural-language input.
In commonFree planmacOSWindowsLinuxOpen sourceLocal-firstTasks
At a glance
| sleek | topydo | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| Starts at | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Free and open source under the MIT license on Windows, macOS and Linux; the Mac App Store listing is free with no in-app purchases. The developer asks for optional sponsorship toward app store fees. | The whole program is free and open source under the GNU General Public License v3, with no paid edition. It is installed from PyPI with pip. |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| macOS | ||
| Windows | ||
| Linux | ||
| Made by | Robin Ahle | Bram Schoenmakers |
| Price read from | github.com | github.com |
| Checked | Oct 9, 2026 | Oct 9, 2026 |
Who each one suits
sleek
- People who keep their tasks in a plain todo.txt file
- Using one task file from several todo.txt apps
- Desktop users who want a free graphical todo.txt app
- Keyboard users: the app is navigable with shortcuts
topydo
- People who keep tasks in a todo.txt file and work in a terminal
- todo.txt users who want dependencies and recurring items
- Keyboard users who want several filtered lists side by side
Worth knowing
sleek
- Desktop only: sleek is offered for Windows, macOS and Linux, with no mobile or web version.
- Tasks live in todo.txt files, and the README and wiki describe no built-in sync service, so sharing a file between devices is left to other tools.
- The Flatpak build runs in a sandbox and needs extra file permissions before it can reopen a todo.txt file after a restart.
- The README says the backlog is growing while capacity is limited, and asks for contributors and sponsors.
topydo
- Console only: there is no graphical, web or mobile app. The docs say there is no native Android build and describe running it under Termux.
- Column mode does not work natively on Windows; the docs point Windows users to Cygwin for it.
- Dependencies, recurrence and start dates rely on tags that, the README says, other todo.txt tools may not interpret properly.
- The documentation describes no sync feature, and releases are infrequent: PyPI shows 0.14 in December 2020, 0.15 in April 2025 and 0.16 in February 2026.
Key features
sleek
- Works on todo.txt files
- sleek opens existing todo.txt files or creates new ones and can manage several at once. A file watcher picks up changes made to a file by other todo.txt apps.
- todo.txt attributes with pickers
- Todos carry priorities, contexts, projects, due dates, recurrence, threshold dates for deferred todos and pomodoro intervals, set by typing the syntax or through built-in pickers.
- Filter, sort, group and search
- Todos can be filtered, sorted and grouped by any attribute, with the order of each group invertible, and an advanced search accepts filter expressions based on todo.txt syntax.
- Recurring todos and notifications
- Marking a recurring todo complete creates the next one, and due dates can trigger notifications.
- Archiving completed todos
- Completed todos can be shown, hidden or archived into a separate done.txt file.
- Markdown and human-friendly dates
- Descriptions support Markdown, including links with custom protocols such as file://. Due and threshold dates can be typed as spoken dates, and todos can be created multi-line or in bulk.
topydo
- Command line, prompt and column modes
- Runs as one-off shell commands, as a prompt with Tab auto-completion, or as a text interface of side-by-side columns with vim-like keys, where each column has its own filter and sort order.
- Due dates, start dates and relative dates
- Due and start dates are stored as tags on the todo.txt line. When adding items you can type relative dates such as tomorrow, 1w or fri, which are written to the file as absolute dates.
- Dependencies between items
- The dep subcommand links a parent item to child items that should be done first. A parent with open children is hidden from the default list, and a Graphviz Dot export can draw the dependency tree.
- Recurring items
- A rec tag such as rec:1w creates a new instance of an item when it is completed, counted from the completion date or, in strict mode, from the original due date.
- Filtering, sorting and output formats
- Filter expressions select items by text and by tag comparisons such as due:<today, and sort and group expressions order the result. The ls command can also output iCalendar, JSON and Graphviz Dot.
- Backups and revert
- After each change topydo stores a backup of the todo and archive files, 5 by default, and the revert subcommand undoes the last command or a numbered earlier one.
Plans
sleek
Free$0
The complete app from the Mac App Store, Microsoft Store, Snap Store, Flathub, Homebrew, the AUR or a direct download.
topydo
Free$0
The full program with its command-line, prompt and column interfaces. Prompt mode, column mode and iCalendar output each need an extra pip dependency.
