What is the best reminder app?

Apple Reminders on an iPhone and Google Tasks on Android. Both are free, and both will repeat a reminder on the schedule you give it. If you tend to swipe alerts away, Due on iPhone repeats a missed reminder until you act.

What is the best reminder app for iPhone?

Apple Reminders, for most people. It's free, it syncs to your other Apple devices, and since iOS 26.2 an Urgent reminder rings as an alarm even on silent. Pay for Due if you need one that keeps nagging.

What is the best reminder app on Android?

Google Tasks. It's free, sends a phone notification for any task with a date and a time, and puts dated tasks on your Google Calendar. Reminders by Chegal is a simpler pick, free with ads, with a birthdays list of its own.

What is the best free reminder app?

The one your phone came with, which means Apple Reminders on iPhone and Google Tasks on Android. Microsoft To Do costs nothing on either phone, and if you want habits beside your reminders, TickTick's free plan tracks five of them.

What is the best app for birthday reminders?

Google Calendar, if your contacts live in Google, because every birthday saved in Google Contacts shows on it by itself. On Android, Reminders by Chegal keeps a separate birthdays list.

Is there a reminder app that keeps reminding you until you do it?

Yes. Due on iPhone repeats a missed reminder every 1 to 60 minutes, up to ten times, until you tick it off or move it. Apple Reminders' Urgent setting rings as an alarm when a reminder is due.

9 best reminder apps in 2026, for iPhone and Android

How we chose

The best reminder app is the one that rings at the right moment and gets you to act, and that matters more than anything else on the feature list. A reminder that turns up late, lands silently on a locked phone or vanishes after one swipe is worse than none, because you stopped trying to remember the moment you set it.

So we held every app to six questions:

Does it ring on time, on the phone in your pocket?
Can you add one in a few seconds, ideally by typing a single line?
Does it repeat: bins every Wednesday, rent on the 1st, a birthday every year?
Can you snooze it or tick it off from the notification itself?
Does it run on the phones you and the people you share lists with carry?
What does the free version leave out, and what does the paid one cost?

We read every feature and price on the maker's own pages and app store listings on 29 October 2026. Nobody here tested these apps by hand, so you won't find star ratings or scores. Prices are in US dollars as of October 2026, from the US App Store or the maker's site, and your country's store sets its own.

The 9 best reminder apps

Start with the free app your phone already has. Each pick after it wins at one job: typing reminders in a sentence, nagging until you act, or keeping birthdays and the weekly shop in one place.

1. Apple Reminders: best for iPhone

Apple Reminders comes on every iPhone and costs nothing. It syncs over iCloud to your other Apple devices, the Watch included. A reminder can go off at a time, when you arrive at or leave a place, or when you start messaging a particular person. Apple's Reminders page also covers shared lists, where you hand a reminder to someone else.

The setting most people miss arrived in iOS 26.2. Mark a reminder Urgent and it rings as an alarm when it's due, even with the phone on silent or a Focus on. You'll find the switch under Date & Time in the reminder's details. Then open Settings, tap Apps, then Reminders, and let it use Alarms.

Pick it if you have an iPhone and want reminders that cost nothing and take seconds to set. Skip it if the people you share lists with carry Android phones, because Apple makes Reminders for its own devices.

2. Google Tasks: best free pick for Android

Google Tasks is free on Android and iPhone, and it sits inside Gmail and Google Calendar on a computer. Give a task a date and a time and your phone gets a notification. Give it a date alone and you get nothing, so always add both. Tasks repeat daily, weekly, monthly or yearly. Dated ones show on your Google Calendar beside your events.

Google says its nudges keep bringing a reminder back until the task is done. You can also turn an email into a task from Gmail's side panel, and the task keeps a way back to that message.

Pick it if you have an Android phone or your life runs through Gmail. Skip it if you want a reminder when you reach a place, because Google's own Tasks pages offer dates and times, not locations.

3. Todoist: best for typing reminders in plain words

Todoist's free Beginner plan covers 5 personal projects, Smart Quick Add and task reminders. Any task with a date and a time gets a reminder by itself, and Todoist's reminders page says you can type the date and time in plain words. It runs on iPhone, Android, Mac, Windows and Linux.

Pro costs US$5 a month billed yearly (US$60) or US$7 month to month. It lifts you to 300 projects, lets you put several custom reminders on one task, and adds a shortcut: type "!" in Quick Add, then the time, and the reminder is set as you write the task.

Pick it if you add a dozen things a day and want each one done in a line. Skip it if five projects won't hold your life and you won't pay, since TickTick's free plan gives you nine lists.

4. TickTick: best for reminders, a calendar and habits in one app

TickTick's free plan gives you 9 lists of up to 99 tasks, 2 reminders on each task, dates typed in plain words and 5 habits to track, synced between your devices. It runs on iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac, Windows, Linux and the web.

The paid plan costs US$49.99 a year. It raises the limits to 299 lists and 5 reminders a task, adds more calendar views, and can send a reminder by email as well.

Pick it if you want a morning routine and your reminders on the same screen. Skip it if all you need is a ping at a time, because your phone's free app does that with no limits to run into.

5. Microsoft To Do: best free pick if you use Outlook

Microsoft To Do is free on iPhone, Android, Mac, Windows and the web. Tap Remind me and choose later today, tomorrow, next week or a date and time of your own. A task repeats daily, on weekdays, weekly, monthly, yearly or on a pattern you set.

Emails you flag in Outlook turn up in it as tasks, and its reminders and lists stay in sync with Outlook's.

Pick it if your email or your job runs on Outlook. Skip it if you don't use Microsoft's apps, because Google Tasks or your phone's own app gives you the same free reminders.

6. Due: best for reminders you'd otherwise swipe away

Due is built for one bad habit: dismissing the alert and forgetting it. Its Auto Snooze repeats a missed reminder every 1, 5, 10, 15, 30 or 60 minutes until you tick it off or move it. Out of the box it nags five times, and you can raise that to ten. Twelve buttons you set yourself, such as "next 10 PM", put a reminder on a time in one tap, and you snooze it straight from the notification.

It costs US$7.99 on the US App Store for iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch, with the Mac app sold separately. An optional Upgrade Pass subscription adds the features released after your first year, and anything you've unlocked stays yours if you stop paying.

Pick it if you've missed things because the alert came and went. Skip it if you carry an Android phone, since Due is made for Apple devices.

7. ActivityTracker: best for reminders that sit with your routines and goals

We make ActivityTracker, so this one is ours. It keeps your tasks and daily routines in one app, next to your goals, and its reminders work by the clock: In 5 minutes, Later, Tomorrow, Next week or a time you pick, with or without a due date. Type "call mum tomorrow 3pm" and the task gets its day and time, and a task with a time rings at that time unless you say otherwise. On Android the notification carries Done and Snooze 15 min buttons. Snooze from the task itself and you also get 1 hour, Tonight and Tomorrow 9 am.

Two things set it apart. Under a task's reminders, one line tells you whether this phone will ring, with a Send a test button beside it. And give a routine a time, say a 7:00 walk, and if it isn't ticked off when the time comes, the assistant sends you a nudge on Telegram or WhatsApp.

It costs SGD 34 a month for one person, plus a one-time setup that includes your first month. It runs in your phone's browser, and on an iPhone it rings only once you've added it to your Home Screen.

Pick it if you want your reminders on the same screen as your routines. Skip it if reminders are all you need and you'd rather pay nothing for them.

8. Any.do: best for a family list and reminders on WhatsApp

Any.do gives you tasks, reminders, a calendar and a daily planner for free, synced between your devices, on iPhone, Android, Mac, Windows, the web and Apple Watch. Repeating tasks aren't on the free plan. They come with the paid plan, along with reminders by place and reminders sent to you on WhatsApp, for US$4.99 a month billed yearly or US$7.99 month to month.

The family plan costs US$8.33 a month billed yearly for up to 4 people. It adds a shared family space and a shared grocery list.

Pick it if your household wants one shopping list and you'd rather get reminders where you already chat. Skip it if you need repeating reminders and won't pay, because Google Tasks and Microsoft To Do repeat for free.

9. Reminders by Chegal: best for birthday and shopping lists on Android

Reminders, from the developer Chegal, is a plain Android app with separate lists for tasks, shopping, birthdays and missed calls. It repeats daily and weekly reminders, takes voice input, can remind you at a place, and its core features work offline. A newer list setting brings ticked-off items back after a set time, which suits a weekly shop or a gym checklist.

It's free with ads. The paid upgrade removes the ads and adds sync between devices and a Google Drive backup, and the Play listing shows the price for your country.

Pick it if you want birthdays and the weekly shop in a simple Android app. Skip it if you use more than one device and won't pay, since sync comes with the upgrade.

What each one costs

Prices are in US dollars as of October 2026, except ActivityTracker's, which is in Singapore dollars. Where an app sells several plans, the Paid column shows the cheapest single payment.

App	Free version	Paid from	Phones
Apple Reminders	Everything	None	iPhone
Google Tasks	Everything	None	Android, iPhone
Todoist	5 projects	US$5 a month, yearly	Android, iPhone
TickTick	9 lists, 2 reminders a task	US$49.99 a year	Android, iPhone
Microsoft To Do	Everything	None	Android, iPhone
Due	No	US$7.99 once	iPhone
ActivityTracker	No	SGD 34 a month	Phone browser
Any.do	No repeats	US$4.99 a month, yearly	Android, iPhone
Reminders by Chegal	With ads	See Play listing	Android

Three of the nine cost nothing at all for reminders that ring at a time and repeat: Apple Reminders, Google Tasks and Microsoft To Do. Elsewhere your money goes on extras, such as Due's reminder that won't let go or a Todoist task that carries several reminders at once.

Which one fits your day

Match the app to the phone you carry and the habit that keeps tripping you up.

You have an iPhone and want it free: Apple Reminders, with Urgent on for anything you can't miss.
You have an Android phone: Google Tasks, or Reminders by Chegal if you want birthday and shopping lists of their own.
You swipe alerts away and forget them: Due, on iPhone.
You add plans all day by typing: Todoist.
You want habits next to your reminders: TickTick.
Your work runs on Outlook: Microsoft To Do.
You run a household: Any.do's family plan, or a shared list in Apple Reminders when everyone has an iPhone.
You keep forgetting birthdays: save them in Google Contacts, and Google Calendar shows each one without you adding it.

A reminder app suits a thing you must do at a time. Library books due back on Friday have a deadline but no hour, and a to-do app handles those better: try one of the best task management apps. Put the dentist at 3pm in your calendar, not your reminder app: the event's alert does the reminding. The best calendar apps for iPhone are here if yours falls short.

For something that repeats every morning, like a walk or ten minutes of study, a routine app tracks the streak a reminder app forgets. Pin the new reminder to something you already do each day, a trick called habit stacking, and it sticks sooner.

Make any reminder app ring on time

Most "my reminder never went off" stories come down to settings, not the app. Ten minutes fixes them:

Let the app send notifications, then test it. Set a reminder for two minutes from now, lock the phone and put it down. If nothing rings, fix that before you trust the app with anything.
Give every reminder a date and a time. In Google Tasks a date alone sends no notification at all.
On iPhone, mark the reminders that matter Urgent. Apple says the alarm sounds only on the device Find My uses as your location, so check that it's your phone and not your iPad.
Android phones have a trap of their own in the battery settings. Android's Doze mode holds back standard alarms and syncs when a phone sits unplugged and still for a while. If an app's reminders arrive late, open its battery setting and let it run without restrictions.
Write the reminder as the thing you'll do. "Put the green bin out" gets done. "Bins" gets a shrug.
Snooze to a real time, like 8pm, so the reminder comes back when you can act on it.

In ActivityTracker you set a reminder by the clock, In 5 minutes or Next week, with no due date needed, and one line under it says whether this phone will ring.

See how tasks remind you

Ravi's first two weeks with one reminder app

Made-up example: Ravi shares a flat with two friends, trains for a 10k and takes a Spanish class on Thursday evenings. Bin night and the rent live in his head next to his sister's birthday, and two of them slipped last month.

On Sunday he puts six reminders into Apple Reminders: bins every Wednesday at 8pm, Spanish homework on Thursday at 6pm, the rent transfer at 9am on the 1st of each month, a long run every Saturday at 7am, running socks when he leaves work, and his sister's birthday on 12 November.

Before he trusts it, he sets a reminder two minutes ahead and watches it ring on the locked phone. Then he marks the rent Urgent, because a missed transfer costs him a late fee.

On Wednesday the bin reminder rings at 8pm while he's cooking. He swipes it away, and the bins stay in.

On Thursday he buys Due for US$7.99 and moves the bins and the Spanish homework into it, with Auto Snooze every 10 minutes. The next Wednesday it rings three times, and the bins go out on the third.

Two weeks in, 14 reminders have rung and he acted on 13. He keeps Apple Reminders for the quiet ones and Due for the two he used to swipe away.