Foco vs Todoist: The Best Alternative for Freelancers with Multiple Clients and Tools Like GitHub, Jira, or Asana

If you're a freelancer juggling multiple clients, you know how frustrating it is to switch between tools like Todoist, GitHub, Jira, or Asana just to keep track of your tasks. Todoist is a solid choice for personal to-do lists, but when you need to centralize projects from different clients, tight deadlines, and notifications from external tools in one place, its generic approach can fall short. This is where Foco positions itself as the best Todoist alternative for freelancers with multiple clients, especially with its Plus plan and Connections, designed to automatically pull in what’s assigned to you in other platforms without leaving the app.

1. Managing Multiple Clients: Why Todoist Isn’t Built for Freelancers with Several Projects

Todoist organizes tasks into projects, but it lacks a native concept of work or client. You can simulate this by creating a project per client, but you’ll run into key limitations:

• Lack of visual context: In Todoist, all tasks look the same, regardless of which client they belong to. In Foco, each work has a color applied to its tasks, allowing you to instantly identify which client each task is for.
• No focus mode: Todoist doesn’t have a view that filters tasks by project (client) to avoid distractions. Foco does: the Focus mode hides everything that isn’t part of that work, ideal for dedicated work sessions on a single client.
• Limited collaboration in the free plan: In Todoist, the free plan only allows sharing projects with up to 5 people. If you work with multiple clients, you’ll soon need to pay to invite more collaborators. Foco, on the other hand, allows unlimited collaboration in all its plans, including the free one.

For a freelancer managing multiple clients at once, these differences make a daily impact. While Todoist forces you to manually navigate between projects, Foco gives you a Panorama view where you see all your tasks (from all clients) in one place, each with the color of its work. And when you need to focus, the Focus mode isolates you from the noise.

2. Integration with External Tools: How Foco Plus Solves What Todoist Can’t

2.1. Foco Plus Connections: Automatically Pull in Tasks from GitHub, Jira, Asana, and More

This is where Foco Plus stands out as a Todoist alternative for freelancers using external tools. Todoist has basic integrations (like with Google Calendar or Zapier), but it doesn’t automatically pull in tasks assigned to you in GitHub, Jira, or Asana. You have to create them manually or use external automations, which adds complexity.

Foco Plus, on the other hand, includes Connections: a feature that links via OAuth to your work tools and imports as tasks what’s assigned to you or where you’re mentioned. It currently supports:

• Notion: pages and tasks where you’re mentioned or assigned.
• Linear: issues assigned to you.
• GitHub: issues, pull requests, and reviews awaiting you.
• Jira: issues assigned to you.
• Asana: tasks assigned to you.
• Any MCP server: via its URL.

Each connection has a destination work: you can choose a fixed work (e.g., assign all GitHub tasks to the "Client X" work) or let the AI decide automatically based on the content. Additionally, with the "complete also in the source" option enabled, marking a task as done in Foco closes or comments on the original item in the external tool. This eliminates duplicate work and saves you from updating two places.

2.2. Email Capture: Turn Emails into Tasks Without Copy-Pasting

Another exclusive feature of Foco Plus is email capture. Each user gets a unique email address (e.g., u-xxxx@in.heyfoco.com) to which you can forward emails. Foco automatically extracts a task from the subject and body and attaches the email as a note. This is especially useful for freelancers who receive requests via email from different clients: one forward and the task is already in Foco, with the email context attached.

In Todoist, email capture exists, but it’s more limited: it only creates a task with the email subject, without attaching the content or automatically extracting dates or priorities.

3. Views and Flexibility: How Foco Adapts Better to Multiple Clients

Todoist offers views like list, Kanban board, and calendar, but they aren’t optimized for managing multiple clients at once. Foco, on the other hand, is designed from the ground up for this scenario:

• Panorama view vs. project view: In Todoist, to see all your tasks, you have to go to the "Today" or "Upcoming" view, but there’s no way to visually distinguish which client each task belongs to. In Foco, the Panorama view shows all your tasks (from all works) in one place, each with the color of its work, giving you immediate context.
• Focus mode: In Todoist, if you want to concentrate on one project, you have to navigate to it manually. In Foco, the Focus mode filters the board to show only the tasks for that work, eliminating distractions.
• Customizable views: Foco lets you switch between list, Kanban, and calendar with a single button. In Todoist, the Kanban view is available, but it’s less flexible (e.g., it doesn’t allow drag-and-drop on mobile).

4. Pricing: When Is It Worth Paying for Foco Plus Over Todoist?

Todoist and Foco have similar pricing for basic plans, but Foco Plus (20 EUR/month) offers features Todoist doesn’t, especially for freelancers who need integrations with external tools:

• Todoist Pro (4 USD/month): includes reminders, comments, and up to 300 projects. It’s enough if you only need task lists, but it lacks advanced integrations or email capture.
• Foco 4 EUR/month: adds calendar view, sync with Google Calendar/Outlook, unlimited collaboration, and task assignment. It’s a middle-ground option if you don’t need AI.
• Foco Plus (20 EUR/month): includes Connections with GitHub, Jira, Asana, and more, email capture, unlimited Ráfaga (dictating multiple tasks in a row), and the daily briefing with a summary of what’s due, news, and priorities. For freelancers using external tools, this plan justifies its price by eliminating duplicate work.

If we compare with Asana (another project management alternative), the landscape is different: Asana requires a minimum of 2 seats in its Starter plan (10.99 USD/user/month), which makes it more expensive for freelancers working alone. Foco, on the other hand, has no minimum user requirements, and its prices are per individual user.

5. When to Choose Todoist and When to Choose Foco

This comparison isn’t about saying one app is better than the other in every case, but which one fits your workflow as a freelancer better:

• Choose Todoist if: you only manage personal tasks or simple projects, don’t need integrations with external tools, and prefer a minimalist app with good mobile sync.
• Choose Foco if: you work with multiple clients at once, use tools like GitHub, Jira, or Asana, and want to centralize everything in one place without duplicating work. Foco Plus is especially useful if you receive many requests via email or need a daily briefing to help you prioritize.

The best Todoist alternative for freelancers isn’t the one with the most features, but the one that removes the specific friction points of managing multiple clients and external tools in a single workflow.

6. Conclusion: Why Foco Is the Best Todoist Alternative for Freelancers with Multiple Clients

Todoist is a great tool for personal to-do lists or simple projects, but it isn’t designed for freelancers who need to manage multiple clients, tight deadlines, and notifications from external tools in one place. Foco, on the other hand, addresses these pain points with features like:

• Color-coded works to quickly identify which client each task belongs to.
• Focus mode to concentrate on one work without distractions.
• Connections with GitHub, Jira, Asana, and more (Foco Plus only) to automatically pull in what’s assigned to you in other platforms.
• Email capture to turn emails into tasks without copy-pasting.
• Daily briefing with a summary of what’s due, news, and priorities.

If you’re looking for a Todoist alternative that understands the needs of freelancers with multiple clients, Foco is worth trying. Its free plan lets you explore its basic features, and if you need advanced integrations, Foco Plus (20 EUR/month) offers hard-to-match value for those who rely on external tools. Try both and choose the one that best fits your workflow: ultimately, the important thing is that the tool helps you work, not manage the tool.