[mgirkins]

Like every programmer before me, I created a to-do list app of course! However, as a programmer, I prefer trees to lists so I made a to-do tree app. I have been using it religiously every day since to manage all aspects of my life in a way that I couldn't previously with tools like Wunderlist (RIP) or didn't have the time to make work in this way like Notion.

Shockingly there aren't many other options out there for tree-based to-dos so when I posted it to my personal Twitter some people really liked it and started paying for it which turned my weekend project into more of a full-time side project.

As of today, I've been working on it for almost a year on and off and in fact yesterday I submitted my first iOS app to the app store for approval (a quick rejection but easily solvable!).

I think everyone should build their own to-do list app not least because it encourages you to actually use a to-do list app but also because I've learned so many interesting lessons from it along the way. Through this project, I've learned Svelte, iOS development with SwiftUI, lots of things about PWAs, and much more that is not easy to convey about engineering solutions.

You can find it at https://tatask.com if you're interested.

[maximus-decimus]

I'm tempted to do something like that in Go.

I don't feel like I need a tree-based to do app for my personal stuff, but I just plain don't understand how people are okay with the feature->story->task list on Azure Devops. This clearly needs to be a task tree/graph!

What I feel all those apps are missing though is dependencies. like "I can't do task E until I do C and D and those other trees". Technically Task Warrior does that, but then it shows them as a flat list... My dream app would be one that combines dependency tracking and tree-based tasks.

[mgirkins]

That would be a fun Go project!

I don’t need it for most personal things like shopping lists etc. but when I do it’s invaluable. I also don’t understand how people work like that!

Dependencies is an interesting idea that i’ve thought about a little bit. From my own experience i’ve found that a tree naturally models this quite well as every task depends on its subtasks, but i can see for more complex workflows that wouldn't work perfectly.

[lambdatronics]

Cool! I had been meaning to try my hand at a to-do app ever since I read "Getting Things Done" a few years ago, and I finally spent a couple weekends on it this month. The tree structure is 100% the way to go, and it's surprisingly uncommon as you note. It's been a fun & educational project so far. It's only SQLite file & some Python functions, no polish whatsoever. Probably will never get to the level of what you have, so hat's off!

[replwoacause]

Looks very nice! I’m building a to-do app now but will give yours a try since it looks so well done.

[jug]

Yeah, I loved Workflowy for this! https://workflowy.com

[johny115]

Looks interesting but with paywalled trial, you might as well say on homepage "we don't want anyone to use this app, go away".

[mgirkins]

I've been testing it out recently and it's been quite successful but I am about to change that to a soft paywall. I'm thinking 7 days with an occasional nagging paywall and then you get an extra 30 days free if you add credit card details.

What do you think?

[johny115]

Ah, I didn't see this "Skip and try free for 7 days only".

Ahh the classic SaaS founder marketing :), putting forward product experience negatives and hiding the product positives. I was kind of annoyed because there was promise of "Try it free" on homepage and then it required me to input my credit card.

I wouldn't buy even the next revolutionary ChatGPT without trying it a first so I just closed it and commented here. And as a general rule I don't give anyone my credit card unless I plan to buy it, that's just such a dark pattern. I am a Marketer, not a Product guy, but still, big nope on this. If my intent is to try, don't push me into buying with underhanded tactics (aka, let's hope the guy forgets he's in trial and gets charged at least for a month before he remembers to cancel it). This just doesn't match the stage in the journey at all.

Basically I was checking it out on laptop and I didn't see the option to continue without inputting credit card, either because it was in the bottom or because of the nearly invisible color.

Yea, I just wouldn't do this at all. Remove credit card requirement completely, you're in a highly mature market with a todo list app. There's nothing special about another to-do app, in mature enviroment, you should encourage users to try your app fast. If it was me, id remove the homepage video and embed a demo of the live app there. Then you can keep asking for credit card.

Or like you said, start without the extra step of credit card altogether, then give option to add it for another 30 days, although, i am not sure if this isnt overcomplicated for no reason. Might as well just give 14 days without credit card and then ask for payment.

Personally I think best case is what todoist does, free "crippled" version with max 5 projects, and you need to pay for unlimited. You can use it free, but its annyoing, there are also more limits, and you basically get going with the tool and only get to face the question of payment when youre starting to depend on it, at that point youre like whatever, i need to solve something here so, buy. In your case you could have 2-3 root items for free, and want more? pay.

[mgirkins]

That was not your mistake, I only added it after reading your initial comment!

Thanks for the detailed response, I understand what you mean by not wanting to give your credit card info out. I used to not have that requirement and then was encouraged to do so by someone I respect in business. The logic was that it is a very saturated market and people are prone to trying lots of options without paying them much attention whereas if you've given over your CC details you're more likely to use the trial period fully and therefore get benefits from the app.

I might switch to freemium at some point soon and see how that works for people. Given it's a side project I'm not sure why I'm so concerned about maximising revenue as that's not really the goal!

Thanks for the advice, I hope that you end up using Tatask from here on out. Also if you have an iPhone, the app is in review currently and should be released very soon.

[kaibee]

I'm less likely to commit to using something if I'm going to have to decide to pay for it sooner. I would try offering a month or two free and see how many people commit to using it and over what timeframe. You probably want people to be invested in the app, such that it becomes worth it for them to pay because it would be cogitatively expensive to switch. A week is definitely not enough time to build that kind of habit.

[haltcase]

7 days is already significantly limiting, the "nagging paywall" would drive me away from the app entirely. The extra free time from adding card info isn't terrible. I imagine you'd need to play with the numbers, e.g., is 7 days even enough time to evaluate the added complexity over a traditional to-do app? Maybe it could be 14.

[JohnFen]

> Like every programmer before me, I created a to-do list app of course!

Not every programmer -- I've never made a to-do list app.