Written by Jackson Pearce Student engineer and creator of TalonTodo
"Best" depends on the job. A planner that only stores notes fails when the job is deadlines. A planner that only stores tasks fails when the job is a practice test. This page compares the free tiers students actually run into, with limits checked on 10 October 2026.
I use TalonTodo for classes, assignments, groups, and study sets in one account. It is free to start at app.talontodo.com/register. The other apps below are good at the thing they were built for. The table is here so you can see the limit before you move a semester of work.
Free-tier limits
| TalonTodo | Todoist Beginner | Notion Free | Quizlet, not Plus | Asana Personal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| What the free plan caps | 10 active classes | 5 personal projects, 5 people per project, 7 days of history | 1,000 blocks once the workspace has 2 or more members | One Test per flashcard set | 2 users |
| Reminders | Included | Automatic reminders for a task with a date and time. Custom reminders are paid. | Not an assignment reminder product | Not an assignment reminder product | Activity log included |
| Study practice | Test, Learn, Match, Written, and Mixed, with no per-set cap | None | None on the planner side | One Test per set. Learn is a limited number of rounds, and Quizlet does not publish the count. | None |
Sources: Todoist pricing and usage limits, Notion pricing and block usage, Quizlet Test, Asana Personal. Notion Plus for students and educators is a different plan from Free, so it is not in this column.
Which one to open
You need every assignment attached to a class. Start with a student planner, not a blank project. TalonTodo's free plan is 10 active classes, reminders included, and completed tasks stay on the account. The walkthrough is A Free Assignment Tracker for Students.
You already live in Todoist. Beginner is enough for a short personal list. Five projects and a 7-day history get tight once each course is its own project. See A Todoist Alternative Built for Students.
You want a workspace you design yourself. Notion Free is $0 and, for one member, does not cap pages and blocks. The 1,000-block cap applies when a second person joins. It will not file an essay under a class unless you build that.
You are studying from flashcards. Quizlet is the set people already know. Without Plus, Test is one run per set. TalonTodo's study modes do not have that per-set cap, and the assignment list sits in the same account. See A Quizlet Alternative That Also Plans Homework.
The work is a group. Asana Personal is 2 users. Todoist Beginner is 5 people per project. TalonTodo groups do not have a member cap. See A Group Project Planner for Students.
MyStudyLife publishes a free student planner and describes support for rotating timetables on mystudylife.com. This table does not invent a numeric cap for them, because that number is not in the sources above. TalonTodo's difference on the same job is flashcards, group projects, and plain-language entry in one account: A MyStudyLife Alternative for Classes and Flashcards.
About the author Jackson Pearce is a student engineer and the creator of TalonTodo, a productivity app designed to help students manage projects, deadlines, and daily tasks more effectively.