The list is shared. The job is on it. The bins still did not go out, because the only phone that buzzed on Tuesday night was yours.

So you went out with the bins. Again.

That is the bit the search for the best family to do list app tends to skip. Every page ranking for it compares the same things: colours, widgets, how pretty the list is. In a family the list is never the problem. The problem is getting the right job to the right person on the right day without one adult doing the reminding. So that is what we checked, on each company’s own site, on 6 October 2026.

The best family to do list app reaches the right person

A family job needs three things before it gets done. A name, so it stops being nobody’s job. A day, so it is not “at some point”. And a nudge that lands on the named person’s phone, not the phone of whoever typed it.

Most apps do the first two. The third is where they quietly fail. Apple says it plainly on its own support page: notifications you set for your reminders are not shared with anyone else. So you can assign the bins to your son, and the alert still goes to you.

A shared list with a private reminder is a list you are still running on your own.

The other thing the diagram above shows is the headcount. A couple can live on almost any free plan, which is what our best shared list app for couples roundup found. Four people is where free plans start leaving somebody off.

What a family to-do looks like in Chirpy

Here is the same Tuesday in Chirpy. You open the house list, type “Bins out”, pick Sam and pick Tuesday. Sam’s phone buzzes on Monday at eight in the evening and again at nine on Tuesday morning. Yours stays quiet, because it was never your job.

Anything on a list with a date also shows up on the household calendar, so the bins sit next to football and the dentist in the week everyone already looks at. Further out, a job dated a month away gets a nudge at 30 days and at 7 days as well. And on Sunday night you can ask Chirpy “what’s still open on the house list this week?” and it answers from the list, with the dates.

Chirpy Basic is free for the whole household, up to six people, with no ads and no card. It comes with ten lists of your own on top of the built-in house list and wishlist, which covers the jobs, the packing and the Christmas presents at once.

The six other apps worth installing, checked today

Every price and limit below came off the company’s own pricing or support page on 6 October 2026, not from another roundup.

Cozi, if you want the list next to a family calendar

Cozi Free has to-do lists, a shared calendar and shopping lists, with ads and standard reminders. Gold is $39 a year and adds up to three reminders, a month view and a birthday tracker. Max is $79 a year and adds AI that turns emails into events. Cozi says every plan covers every family member on every device, which is the right way to price a family app. We set the two side by side in our Cozi comparison.

Any.do, if you are happy to pay from day one

Any.do markets itself as a family to-do app, and its Family plan is built for it: a shared family space, shared grocery list and shared projects for up to four members, at $8.33 a month billed yearly or $9.99 monthly. The catch is the free plan. On Any.do’s own comparison the shared family space and shared lists are locked, and recurring tasks are paid too. Free Any.do is a personal list.

Todoist, if the jobs repeat on a rota

The best task manager going, with dates that understand “every second Tuesday”. Free gives you five personal projects with up to five people on each, and assigned tasks work on every plan. Pro is $5 a month billed yearly, or $7 monthly. Todoist’s help pages say each Pro subscription is tied to one account, and anyone you collaborate with needs their own subscription to use Pro features. We went through what that means for a house in todoist for family organisation.

Here is the one place Todoist beats us plainly: a Chirpy to-do does not repeat yet, so for a chore that comes round every week, Todoist’s recurring dates are the better tool. What Chirpy does for a family instead is make the one-off job land, a name and a day reaching that person four times and sitting on the calendar everyone sees, free for six, while the things that really do repeat in a house, the bills and renewals, come round on their own from Money and Car.

TickTick, if it is two of you

Excellent, with a calendar view and a timer built in. The free plan allows nine lists, 99 tasks per list, two reminders per task and two members per shared list. Two is a couple. It is not a family of four. Premium is $49.99 a year.

Microsoft To Do, if you want free and nothing else

Free, with shared lists by invitation link and the ability to assign a task to anyone on the list. On Windows you can type @ and a name while adding a task. It is a clean list and only a list, so the job never meets the calendar or the shopping.

Apple Reminders, if every phone is an iPhone

Already installed, shares in real time, and lets you assign a reminder to anyone on the list. Two limits, both from Apple’s own pages: you can share only with other iCloud users, so one Android phone and the list is closed to them, and the notification you set is yours alone. If that second one is why you are reading this, our guide to an apple reminders shared list alternative goes through it.

Family to do list app prices: free against free

Free tier against free tier, top tier against top tier, every rival price from its own site on 6 October 2026.

Any.do Family’s $99.96 a year buys four people a shared to-do space. Chirpy Basic costs nothing and buys six people the lists with names and dates, the reminders that go to the right phone, and the calendar, meals and money those jobs belong next to.

Pick by the family you actually have

• Two adults, both on iPhone. Apple Reminders. Free, and already on your phone.
• A house that runs on a weekly rota. Todoist, for its repeating dates, or a chore app built around points; our best chore app for families roundup covers those.
• Four people, and you want to pay once. Any.do Family or Cozi Gold, both priced for the household.
• A family where one adult is the reminder for everyone. Chirpy, where a job with a name on it goes to that person’s phone, free for up to six.

Setting up a family to-do list that survives December

1. Keep one house list, not one per person. Personal lists stay personal. The shared one holds only jobs somebody else could do.
2. Never add a job without a name. “Fix the gate” with no name on it belongs to the person who notices it, which is always the same person.
3. Give it a day, even a rough one. In Chirpy the day is what puts it on the calendar and starts the reminders.
4. Look at it together once a week. Sunday night, five minutes. Ask Chirpy what is still open and go down the answer.

Step two is where most family lists die, and it is a habit problem before it is an app problem. Our guide on how to get family to use shared app lists has the first fortnight in more detail.

Common questions