TaskPaper
plain-text to-do lists in a real Mac app
This version
Mac only. There is no official iOS app, so using your lists on a phone means opening the .taskpaper file in a third-party editor such as Editorial or Taskmator. You are buying TaskPaper 3, and Hog Bay sold TaskPaper 2 and TaskPaper 3 as separate paid apps with no published upgrade policy either way, so a future version 4 is best treated as another purchase rather than a free update. Development is one person doing maintenance rather than new features — 3.9.4 in November 2025 fixed a macOS 26.1 crash. Sync is whatever file service you already use, with no first-party service and no conflict resolution beyond what that service provides.
Cost over five years
$25 once = 5 months of Todoist Pro. Over five years that is $300 rented against $24.99 owned — $275 kept, and you still have the app.
Todoist Pro priced at $60 a year — $5 per month, $60 billed yearly. Checked 2026-09-22.
A .taskpaper file is a text file. Projects are lines ending in a colon, tasks are lines starting with a dash, tags are @words. The app renders that file cleanly, folds sections you are not working on, and filters it with queries like @due and not @done. Underneath, the file stays readable in TextEdit, in vim, in whatever text editor exists in 2040.
That is the whole argument, and it is the right one if you have ever watched a task app shut down and take your lists with it. Sync is your file service's problem: iCloud Drive, Dropbox, a Git repo if you are that sort of person. There is no account and nothing to cancel.
What $24.99 does not buy is a promise about the future. Hog Bay sold TaskPaper 2 and TaskPaper 3 as separate paid apps and publishes no upgrade policy, so assume a version 4 would be another purchase. Present-day development is maintenance: the November 2025 release fixed a crash on macOS 26.1 rather than adding anything.
Do not buy it if you need a phone app you enjoy using. There is no official iOS version, and editing the raw file in a third-party editor works but is not pleasant. Do not buy it for shared lists, reminders you can rely on, or a calendar view either — it does none of that, deliberately.
What it looks like
What it does
- Lists are plain text files you can open in any editor
- Tag-based search queries, folding and a focus mode
- No in-app purchases or subscription products on the listing
- Scriptable with JavaScript and AppleScript
- Still maintained — 3.9.4 shipped in November 2025
Cancel instead
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$39.99The facts
- Price
- $24.99
- Licence
- Own this version forever
- What you get
- One payment buys this major version outright. The next major version is a separate purchase, if you want it.
- Details
- $24.99 one-time on the Mac App Store, with no in-app purchases and no subscription products on the listing. taskpaper.com shows only a "Buy Now" button with no price, no stated trial length and no published upgrade policy, so the App Store listing is the page to check.
- Free trial
- Yes
- On Setapp
- No
- Minimum macOS
- not stated
- Developer
- Hog Bay Software (Jesse Grosjean)
- Price checked
- 2026-09-22
Check it yourself - Price band
- $15 to $30