Free, fast, and built into every iPhone — but stops being useful the moment you grow out of a single device.
Apple Reminders is genuinely excellent on iPhone, free forever, and integrates with Siri better than any third-party app. It falls apart the second you need it on a Windows machine, an Android phone or a shared browser. LemTask runs everywhere, adds gamification, habits and a focus timer, and gives you a real free tier on every platform — not just inside Apple.
Gamified task management with voice input, AI suggestions, and fun productivity features.
iPhone-only users who want a free, native checklist that syncs with Siri.
| Detail | 🍋 LemTask | Apple Reminders |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Forever-free, 10 active tasks | Forever-free, unlimited tasks |
| Free tier limits | 10 | Unlimited |
| Supported platforms | Web, iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, Linux (PWA) | iOS, Mac, iPadOS, Apple Watch only |
| Languages | 9 (en, fr, es, de, pt, hi, fil, pa, ar) | 40+ |
| Feature | 🍋 LemTask | Apple Reminders |
|---|---|---|
| Per-User Language (9 languages) | Workspace-wide only | |
| Cross-platform (Web + Android + Windows) | ||
| Siri / voice capture | Voice brain dump | |
| Location-based reminders | ||
| Gamification & XP | ||
| Habit tracking | ||
| Focus / Pomodoro timer | ||
| AI suggestions | ||
| Smart Lists / saved filters | ||
| Subtasks & nesting | ||
| Free tier | 10 active tasks | Unlimited |
Apple Reminders is the most under-rated free task app in the world. Location triggers, Siri capture and natural-language parsing all work better than most paid competitors. The catch is it stops at the edge of the Apple ecosystem. The moment you have one Windows colleague, one Android phone in the family, or one browser-based workflow, Reminders becomes the bottleneck. LemTask doesn't try to beat Reminders at being native to iOS — we lose that fight. We win on everywhere-else. Plus a motivation layer Apple will never ship because it's not on-brand for them.
We built LemTask, so we'd love to say it wins everywhere. It doesn't. Here's where Apple Reminders is the better pick — honestly.
Location-based reminders ('remind me when I get home') still work better than any third-party app — Apple owns the OS-level geofencing.
Siri capture is one tap from the lock screen and never asks you to log in.
Completely free, ad-free, no upsell, no account beyond your iCloud you already have.
Tight Messages, Mail and Calendar integration — assigning a reminder from a text thread is a single share-sheet tap.
Web, Android, Windows, Mac, iOS — Reminders is Apple-only.
XP, levels and streaks turn checklists into momentum.
Habits, focus timer, voice brain dump and AI in one app.
We tell you Reminders' location triggers and Siri are still better — and why we still win on cross-platform.
"Reminders worked when I only had an iPhone. The day I joined a team that uses Windows laptops, I switched to LemTask the same week."
— Hannah L., Operations lead
Switched from Apple Reminders
Spin the wheel and see who wins each feature matchup!
A quick, no-data-loss migration in a few steps.
Apple doesn't ship a CSV export, so use the share-sheet on each list → Print → Save as PDF. For larger libraries, the free Reminders Importer shortcut on RoutineHub converts each list to CSV in under a minute.
Settings → Import → Generic CSV. Map the title, due-date and priority columns and we'll preserve nesting up to three levels deep.
On iOS, add the LemTask Siri shortcut once. After that 'Hey Siri, add buy milk to LemTask' creates the task and tags it to your default list — same muscle memory as Reminders.
Turn on the streak counter and pick one daily focus task. After two weeks you'll have a clear streak and a real reason to open the app — something Reminders intentionally never gave you.
Yes — LemTask has a forever-free tier you can use without ever paying. The honest gap is the 10-active-tasks cap on the free plan vs Reminders' unlimited count. If you only ever have a small list and live entirely on Apple devices, Reminders is the cheaper option. The moment you want gamification, habits, focus timing or a Windows browser tab, you're outside Reminders' scope.
Yes, but Apple doesn't expose a one-click export. We recommend the free 'Reminders to CSV' shortcut on RoutineHub — it grabs every list including completed items, dates and notes. Upload the CSV inside Settings → Import → Generic CSV and we'll map titles, due dates and priorities automatically. Sub-reminders import as nested subtasks.
Yes. LemTask ships an official Siri shortcut. After installing it once, you can say 'Hey Siri, add call mum to LemTask' and the task lands in your inbox with the right tag. It's one extra setup step compared to native Reminders, then identical muscle memory afterwards.
Not yet — that's a feature where Reminders genuinely wins because Apple has OS-level geofencing access we can't match. We do have time-based reminders, recurring reminders and calendar-blocked reminders. If location triggers are mission-critical, keep Reminders for those specific items and use LemTask for everything else.
Yes — a native Mac app plus a Web app that works in any browser. Both stay in sync in real time. Compared to Reminders' Mac app, ours adds gamification, habits and a focus timer; we lose to Reminders on Apple Watch coverage, where Reminders has a richer native complication.
Cross-platform. We have native iOS, native Android, a Mac app, a Windows app and a Web app — all sharing the same realtime backend. Anything you do on one device shows up everywhere within seconds, even on a colleague's Windows laptop they're using to share a list with you.
Yes, and it works for non-Apple users — which iCloud sharing does not. You can invite anyone by email, share a public link, assign tasks, and add comments. Plans start at $6 per user per month for full team features. iCloud shared Reminders are free but require everyone in the share to have an Apple ID and an iCloud-signed-in device.
Not meaningfully. LemTask uses standard push notifications instead of polling, and the iOS app is under 25 MB. Real-world battery delta vs running Reminders alone is well below 1% per day in our internal tests on an iPhone 15. If you're worried, you can disable background refresh and rely on push only — it'll still feel instant.
Join thousands who've made the switch to LemTask
Start Free TrialWe use both LemTask and the competing app daily across personal and team workflows. Pricing is taken directly from each vendor's public pricing page on the date listed below. Feature parity is checked by attempting the same job-to-be-done in both apps (capture, plan, execute, review). When a feature exists but is gated behind a higher tier, we say so explicitly. We also re-read the most recent G2, Reddit and Product Hunt threads about the competitor before publishing.