Privacy friendly and open source task manager

Privacy and Security Get Advice
1

Hey everyone,

I am on the lookout for a reliable task manager that is privacy friendly, cross-platform (at least for Windows and iPhone), and preferably open source. I don’t mind paying for it, whether subscription or one-off (preference for the later), as long as it fits my needs.

Previously I had settled for Things3 because I really liked the simplicity, functionality, and one-time purchase however I had to sacrifice the cross-platform aspect since that is exclusive for mac / iOS. Curious if there are any alternatives that will check all the boxes for me.

Edit: forgot to mention that searching in alternativeto brought “Super Productivity” to my attention. If anyone used it before, would appreciate the feedback.

2

I like Workflowy, AppFlowy, Super Productivity (if tech projects is your use case), Planify (Linux only), and Vikunja. Joplin also works well.

3

LunaTask is another one that’s great.

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4

LunaTask and Joplin are probably the best candidates for E2EE.

Apple Reminders if you haven’t used it in a few years (I thinknit’s improved significantly) and you’re willing to use the Web version on Windows. Drawback is that ADP is made moot.

I like the interface for Microsoft ToDo (formerly Wünderlist) but can’t recommend it on the privacy front because Microsoft.

Depending on the workflow some notes apps might also be worth trying. A lot of them have checklists at minimum. On Proton’s Standard Notes they’re a paid feature. LogSeq is more of a self hosted Obsidian replacement but is cross platform and could work for some as long as they can sync the database themselves.

Depending on the privacy risk model here some of the corporate task managers like Asana or Trello might also be worth a look. In general they shouldn’t care much about individual users.

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5

Thank you for the very thorough response. Personally I also care a lot about simple, minimalist and aesthetic design. I am willing to comprise on a few things like full cross-platform functionality (so something like web interfecase of apple reminders is ok-ish for me).

Having said that, personally found Asana and Trello to be very bloated, Microsoft ToDo lacking on the aesthetics department (+ Microsoft). Notes apps lack functionality for me like deadlines, sub-tasks, reminders etc.

I’ll for sure give LunaTask a try. As far as I can tell it is not open-source but at least it has E2EE. Maybe also Joplin and see what works best for my workflow.

Edit: checked out Joplin. Definitely will try out and come back after around 2 weeks to share my thoughts on both for people looking at this topic in the future

6

Joplin is a a note taking app, but with support for tasks

7

I wonder why no one is talking about Standard Notes which is open-source and E2EE.
You may want to give it a try and compare to the other solutions presented here.
Tell us how it goes.

8

Same cost as Proton unlimited and only provides text notes on the free plan.

It’s great for quick and simple stuff but I find it hard to imagine using Standard Notes as an effective task manager.

Checklist support is sort of a base minimum for me. But it should preferably have scheduling and reminders as well.

I manage most of my personal tasks in a bullet journal system these days and currently use Apple Reminders to supplement that.

9

I am currently experimenting with Joplin. It has a lot of things going for it, and some unexpected wins like ability to host your own instance through next cloud and no need to create an account.

Having said that, it’s not a task manager first, and it is very obvious. It covers my needs at about 85-90% which I can work with, but I will try to test LunaTask and Standard Notes