Due vs TickTick vs Nudge: reminders that repeat until you act

If you're comparing these three apps, you probably want the same thing: a reminder that doesn't give up after one notification. All three do that. They do it in genuinely different ways, and the difference matters more than any feature list shows.

Disclosure first: we make Nudge. We'll be specific about what Due and TickTick do well, because they both do their thing well, and the right pick depends on what kind of reminding you actually want.

Due: the same alert, over and over, until you deal with it

Due has one job and has done it for over a decade. You set a reminder, and if you don't act on it, Auto Snooze re-alerts you at a fixed interval (every minute, every 5, up to every hour) until you mark it done or reschedule it. By default it repeats 5 times; you can raise that to 10 or let it keep going indefinitely.

It's also very fast to use. The time picker is built for thumbs, and typing something like "pay rent on the 1st" just works.

Due is a one-time purchase (US$7.99 as of September 2026) with an optional yearly pass for new features. iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Mac.

What it doesn't do is think. Due doesn't know you're in a meeting, and it treats every task the same. That is the design: mechanical certainty.

Pick Due if you want the exact same alert repeated on a fixed clock until you deal with it.

TickTick: a full task manager with an "annoying alert"

TickTick is a much bigger system: lists, tags, subtasks, habit tracking, a calendar view, a pomodoro timer. In the reminder options is a feature the community calls the annoying alert; TickTick calls it Constant Reminder. Turn it on for a task and the notification keeps ringing until you complete the task.

The free plan covers basic use but caps reminders at 2 per task. Premium (about US$36 a year as of September 2026) raises the caps and unlocks more of the calendar features.

The trade-off is that TickTick is a system you have to run. Lists need organizing, the features take learning, and Constant Reminder is something you switch on per task. If you already enjoy managing a task system, that's a plus, not a cost.

Pick TickTick if you want one app for tasks, habits, and calendar, and you're willing to configure it.

Nudge: follow-ups timed around your day

Nudge starts from a different assumption: the first reminder usually fails for timing reasons, not memory reasons. It arrived while you were driving, or presenting, or asleep. Repeating the same alert on a fixed clock doesn't fix that; it just makes the app easier to mute.

So Nudge picks its moments. You add a task by typing or saying it in plain words, and Nudge schedules reminders around your usual active hours and your quiet hours. On Pro with a calendar connected, it works around your meetings too. If you don't act, it checks back later at another usable moment.

For the things you truly cannot miss, any task's reminder can become a real alarm on iOS 26 or later. It rings loud on the lock screen and goes off even if the app is closed.

The Free plan includes the follow-up behavior, iPhone alarms, and chat at 10 turns a day. Pro (a subscription in the iPhone app or on the web) adds calendar-aware timing, unlimited chat, and memory that shapes how it plans.

What Nudge won't do is blast you on a fixed interval. If you want an alert every five minutes until you give in, Due is honestly better at that.

Pick Nudge if you want the follow-up to arrive at a moment you can actually use, and you'd rather talk to your task list than manage it.

The short version

• Due: the same alert on a fixed clock until you act. Fastest to set. One-time purchase. No intelligence, by design.
• TickTick: a full task manager whose Constant Reminder rings until you complete the task. Free plan with caps; Premium subscription.
• Nudge: reminds you, then checks back at moments picked around your day. Add tasks by talking. Real alarms on iOS 26. Free plan; Pro subscription.

If what you're really shopping for is a reminder that won't go away until you do the thing, we wrote about how that should behave (and where most implementations go wrong) in this post.