The best task managers, according to hackers
14 task managers were recommended on Hacker News between November 2025 and November 2026. We rank them by how many separate people recommend each one, and 1 earns the Hacker Approved badge.
Top pick
The most recommended task manager with the badge. Each figure is one person. RecommendsCriticizes One comment
Plain markdown files in git
Developers recommend it for human-in-the-loop agent tasks kept as markdown in git inside VS Code. One critic asks why GitHub or Jira boards won't do.
All 14 task managers, ranked
Select a column heading to sort. Approval share is recommenders out of everyone who gave an opinion; the tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs. Months counts the months, out of 13, in which someone recommended it.
| Rank | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Beads by Steve Yegge | 79 | 55 | 59% | 11 | 3 mo4 owners | — |
| 2 | Apple Reminders | 15 | 16 | 48% | 11 | — | — |
| 3 | Paca | 14 | 2 | 88% | 2 | — | — |
| Tied 4 | Todoist | 13 | 7 | 65% | 7 | — | — |
| Tied 4 | Agent Kanban | 13 | 1 | 93% | 5 | — | Approved |
| 6 | Minimal Monthly Task Planner | 11 | 3 | 79% | 1 | — | — |
| Tied 7 | Taskwarrior | 9 | 5 | 64% | 5 | — | — |
| Tied 7 | Things 3 | 9 | 2 | 82% | 5 | — | — |
| Tied 9 | Vikunja | 7 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
| Tied 9 | Reassign | 7 | 1 | 88% | 1 | — | — |
| 11 | ticket by wedow | 6 | 1 | 86% | 6 | — | — |
| Tied 12 | Backlog.md | 5 | 0 | 100% | 6 | — | — |
| Tied 12 | TickTick | 5 | 1 | 83% | 5 | — | — |
| Tied 12 | Beans by hmans | 5 | 2 | 71% | 3 | — | — |
How we rank
Rank is the number of separate people who recommend a product in a Hacker News comment over the past year. Someone who praises the same task manager in five threads counts once.
The badge goes to task managers that at least 10 people recommend, with recommenders outnumbering critics at least 2 to 1, recommended in at least 4 of the 13 months.
Rankings are never for sale. We may earn a commission when you buy through our links. It never changes the order.