This is the third review in our App Quest to find the best task-management app series.

OVERVIEW

Wunderlist is another simply, but beautifully designed task-management app, that offers a few more bells and whistles the either Do It Tomorrow or TeuxDeux. If the other two apps reviewed in this series fall a little short for your needs, but you’re still looking for a simple todo app, than Wunderlist with its few more features, just might fit the bill.

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In our quest to find the best task-management app, we set the following six criteria:

• Must be ubiquitous: web app, iPad app, and Android app–with sync.
• Must be easy to use.
• Must have reminders: email and SMS.
• Must have the ability to create recurring tasks.
• Must be inexpensive or free.
• Must have an attractive and intuitive interface.

Offering a few more features than Do It Tomorrow or TeuxDeux, how will Wunderlist rate against our criteria? Read on to find out.

Must be ubiquitous: web app, iPad app, and Android app–with sync.

Wunderlist has all the right apps in all the right places. Not only does it offer a web app, and iPhone, iPad, and Android app, it also has a Windows, Mac, Linux, Blackberry, and Windows Phone app. Wunderlist is the definition of ubiquitous with all apps being free of charge (and without in app purchases–yay!) without limitations and sync beautifully amongst all platforms. We couldn’t ask for anything more and if we could have given Wunderlist more than 5 stars in this category, we would have!

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Must be easy to use.

With it’s simple and intuitive interface, Wunderlist is very easy to use. Once you log in to your account, you’re presented with your inbox where you can add tasks or receive them by email (we’ll talk about that in a bit). Just type your task in the input box and click enter to add it to your list. Speaking of lists, you can make multiple lists by clicking on the “add list” button at the bottom of the list panel. This is helpful is you want to segregate your works tasks from your home tasks or set up a specific list for a project your may be working on. Once you’ve created your list, you can then click on it to move to that list and begin adding tasks to it.

Once you’ve added a task, you can hover the right side of each task and three icons will appear: a clock, a note, and an X. Click on the X to delete the task, click on the clock to set a due date, and click on the note to add a note to the task.

If you need to prioritize a task, simply click on the star on the left side of the task.

You can rearrange tasks or move them from list to list simply by dragging and dropping the list into a new order or an existing list.

To complete a task, simply click in the check box to the left. One nice feature of Wunderlist is that you can email me@wunderlist.com and new tasks will automatically be created. You can even designate which list (or create a new one automatically) by typing the list name in the subject field. Your tasks are written in the body of the email, one per line. If you don’t specify a list, it will be added to your inbox. Need to share you lists? Wunderlist has got you covered. In the upper righthand corner, just prior to the list sidebar, there are three icons. The first is the print icon to print your task list. The second is an email icon where you can email your task list. And the final one is a cloud icon which syncs with the CloudApp and makes a public link to your list that you can share.

At the bottom of the Wunderlist window you have various filtering options. You can see all of your tasks regardless of list, all of your starred tasks, and your completed tasks. You can also filter by due date by clicking the “Today”, “Tomorrow”, “Next 7 Days”, “Later”, and “Without a Date” buttons.

Don’t like the look of Wunderlist? You can change the background by clicking on the up arrow next to the colored box underneath the list sidebar and then choose from one of the options. Wunderlist offers a small variety of backgrounds including the default (wood), chalkboard, some nature themes, a cartoon theme, colored themes, among others. Clicking on your username at the bottom left of the screen allows you to make changes to the settings. You can make account changes, date-format changes, decide whether or not you want delete warnings, whether you want the sidebar on the left or the right, and you can choose from the many languages Wunderlist offers. Overall, despite it’s moderate feature list, Wunderlist still remains easy and intuitive to use and makes it a cinch to get started right away.

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Must have reminders: email and SMS.

Wunderlist does offer reminders via email and mobile notifications (no SMS), but their implementation is a bit strange. Although you can set a due date in any of their apps, you can only set up reminders from within one of their mobile apps. You cannot set up any reminders in their web app or desktop apps. This seems counterintuitive to me. Obviously the feature is built in, but why, after making the look and feature set nearly the same across all platforms, would you neglect putting in this key feature in your flagship web and desktop apps? Looking through their feature-request forums, this is one of the most requested features and I think it puts a dent in an otherwise excellent app.

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Must have the ability to create recurring tasks.

Unfortunately, as with most of the simplified todo managers, Wunderlist doesn’t allow for recurring tasks. This is another feature that has been frequently requested in their forums. And I think for any task-management app, this to be a key minimum feature.

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Must be inexpensive or free.

Wunderlist excels in this aspect. They do not charge for any of their apps and as far as I can tell, there are no in-app purchases either. They have made all of the features of Wunderlist 100% free without placing any limitations on any of their apps. No freemium here. No pro version. Just 100% of the features for 0 cost. Nice.

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Must have an attractive and intuitive interface.

Wunderlist is one of the most attractive todo lists I have reviewed so far, along with Do It Tomorrow. Both have done so without adding in any complexity to the interface. And going the extra step in allowing users to change the background combines the overall beauty with some user choice.

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FINAL THOUGHTS

Overall, Wunderlist is a very capable and attractive todo manager with just enough features to please a budding power-user without complicating anything. It seems to find the perfect middle between being simple with no features and being complicated with the whole kitchen sink. So far, it’s the strongest contender in our App Quest for the best task manager.

Have you used Wunderlist? What do you think? Give us your opinion in the comments below.