need an iPhone to do app w/ shared lists

June 23, 2010 4:48 PM

I currently use Remember The Milk, about 95% on the iPhone. I've been having syncing problems lately, which makes me want to find a replacement.

Additionally, it seems expensive at $25 / year. So I am investigating my options. I also got my wife an account, but the only thing she uses it for is our shared grocery list. So, due to all three of those factors, I am not thrilled about the cost for RTM or any which would require a yearly fee.

I use the to do list to keep track of work and personal lists, as well as groceries. I would need to be able to create and delete arbitrary lists. Some of my tasks are repeating at various intervals. Having "check list" or "template" functionality would be a bonus.

I've seen Toodlerdo, Zenbe, and Share2Gather, which all seem like contenders. At least Toodlerdo is cheaper than RTM.

What can you tell me about these or any other apps that might meet my needs? I've seen a few other iPhone to do questions on askmefi, but none of them seemed to have the "shared list" component.

posted by reddot to computers & internet (14 answers total)

BTW, Thanks for any info you can provide.
posted by reddot at 4:48 PM on June 23, 2010

I use a combination of Todo and Grocery Gadget. Todo is for all my personal tasks, and Grocery Gadget is great for shared, sync-able grocery lists.
posted by SNWidget at 4:58 PM on June 23, 2010

I have used (very) many systems, online and off. So far, my hands-down favorite is ToodleDo.

• It is fast
• Apps for Android and iPhone
• Has contexts, can be used for GTD
• Has due dates, anathema to GTD, but I like 'em for things that, you know, need to be done by a date
• Has arbitrary "tags"

My previous favorite was OmniFocus, which does have an iPhone version that will sync with your desktop. If I had an iPhone, it probably would have been my choice. Without an Android, ToodleDo was better, due to the integration. It is a bit spendy, but very very good.
posted by Invoke at 5:18 PM on June 23, 2010

Er, *with* an Android phone. That makes more sense.
posted by Invoke at 5:18 PM on June 23, 2010

SNWidget: Is this the "ToDo" that you are referring to? I had not seen grocery gadget. I will check it out.

Invoke: I will also investigate Toodledo in more detail. Did you try RTM at all? If so, what made you prefer Toodledo? I had looked at OmniFocus, but I didn't see an feature to allow sharing of lists. Do you think that one could share lists (but not all lists) via their WebDAV feature? I'll check it out.

Thanks!
posted by reddot at 5:38 PM on June 23, 2010

My wife and I use Zenbe Lists to share our shopping lists. Our primary interface is the iPhone app, with the web app on occassion at our computers to perform major updates (like when planning a party). The iPhone app is very primitive and we regularly get duplicates created upon syncing. So long as we keep the lists purged of done items, it functions. The app has not been updated in over a year which would give me concern if I were to be considering it today. It works but I'm not particularly recommending it.
posted by fief at 5:40 PM on June 23, 2010

I'm quite happy with Toodledo. It can compartmentalize a lot better than RTM.
posted by dry white toast at 6:24 PM on June 23, 2010

reddot: Yup, that's the ToDo I was referring to.

I like it because I can add stuff with one step. RTM involved so many steps to add things to my list that I started to avoid it. My wife uses another app, but I can't for the life of me remember what it was. I may get her to pop up in this thread in a bit and add her own input.
posted by SNWidget at 6:33 PM on June 23, 2010

Has anyone tried Grocery IQ? I just downloaded and tried out Grocery Gadget Lite, but it keeps crashing on me, so I'm unsure about buying it.
posted by reddot at 7:08 PM on June 23, 2010

Shopper is what my husband and I use for shared/sync'd grocery lists and I like it a lot - it works very well. I use Pocket Informant and Toodledo for task lists because I like adding alarms to my tasks, and you can't do that with Toodledo by itself. Toodledo syncs nicely with Informant and Google Calendar (all three are sync'd in Informant).
posted by acridrabbit at 9:13 PM on June 23, 2010

Oh, and I used to use RTM (pre-iPhone) and ditched it because it didn't seem worth the annual fee.
posted by acridrabbit at 9:14 PM on June 23, 2010

I'll check out Shopper. Thanks!
posted by reddot at 7:47 AM on June 24, 2010

I set up a gmail account for our shopping list. Both my wife and I have it in configured in our phones. When we want to add an item, we email the account with a single item name in the subject line. If a photo or more details are needed, those are in the body of the email. When we go to the store, we delete the messages as we pick up each item.

Our daughter can add items to the list too if she has any requests, just by having the email address. We can use the sender's address to determine who added an item.

This has worked surprisingly well for us. Note that if you archive instead of delete the messages, you can also keep track of how often you buy things.
posted by tkolstee at 9:31 AM on June 24, 2010

tkolstee, that's a really interesting idea. I hadn't thought of that.

So, in terms of my personal to do list, I chose To Do.

In terms of Grocery specific apps, I am leaning towards Grocery IQ, although the email account sounds like it could work to and would be simpler in some ways.
posted by reddot at 11:39 AM on June 25, 2010