13 Best Reminder Apps for Windows

If you use a PC, consider installing a reminder app for Windows on it. Thanks to this solution, you’ll never forget about your to-dos and appointments. You’ll be able to boost your productivity and won’t be late for errands or meetings. We wrote this article to help you select the best reminder app for Windows. All the options that we recommend have a large loyal audience and positive customer reviews. We’ll share their brief descriptions with you, outlining their respective strong and weak sides.

Factors to Take into Account When Comparing Desktop Reminder Apps

When selecting a reminder app for PC, it’s necessary to keep in mind these four factors:

• Interface. The more user-friendly it is, the better. Some people prefer clean minimalistic layouts while others appreciate the chance to customize the app’s design.
• Features. The app can offer simple one-off or recurring alarms in a pop-up window. Alternatively, it can be packed with extra functions and double as a full-fledged business or private calendar.
• Cross-platform compatibility. Selected apps allow you to install them only on a PC. Others can be compatible with computers or laptops with other operating systems as well as Android or iOS smartphones. If the app allows you to sync the data across multiple devices, you’ll be able to access your reminders even from a friend’s gadget after they let you log in to your account.
• Price. All solutions from our list are available for free download. Some have paid plans too — the more extensive the additional functionality, the higher the price. In most cases, it’s not necessary to upgrade to a paid plan to benefit only from the reminders.

We’ll start with the most powerful and versatile apps. They’re suitable for planning your work schedule, assigning tasks to others, monitoring your team’s productivity and so on. At the end of the list, we’ll switch to niche solutions that have only one mission: to remind you about important tasks or even a specific type of task.

LeaderTask

💌 Unbiased people’s rating: 4.7

🏴 Free version: Yes

🏳️ Pricing: Starting with $2.18 per individual per month

👍 What makes it stand out: Extensive functionality

👎 What could have been improved: Steeper learning curve for the features that go beyond the reminders

We believe LeaderTask deserves to win first place in our rating. It’s a versatile product that allows you to manage your time, tasks and projects. It flexibly adapts to the needs of any type of user: from a student to a business owner, from a junior manager to a team leader. The app boasts impressive collaboration features. In a couple of clicks, you can create tasks for yourself and others, assign and delegate them and monitor the progress of each person involved. Feel free to set deadlines for assignments, split them into subtasks and group them into lists.

LeaderTaks lets you set two varieties of reminders: one-off or recurring ones. Besides, there are notifications. Notifications have selected common traits with reminders — but there is a fundamental difference between these two categories. You’ll see a notification when someone assigns a task to you — or if a change occurs with any of the items that were added previously to your schedule. You may get a notification in the morning to review your plans for the next few hours — or in the evening to check your achievements. A reminder operates as an alarm clock, attached to a specific date and time but not an event or action. LeaderTaks is compatible with various devices and operating systems. After you set a reminder or notification on your PC, it can pop up on your smartphone’s display — or vice versa.

You may want to start using LeaderTask as a reminder app. Sometime later, you might need its more advanced features, such as task management or collaboration on work projects. Then, you won’t have to get accustomed to a new software product from scratch. You’ll be able to keep on using the same app and it shouldn’t take you too long to explore its extra functions.

Trello

💌 Unbiased people’s rating: 4.6

🏴 Free version: Yes

🏳️ Pricing: Starting with $5 per individual per month

👍 What makes it stand out: Robust project management functionality

👎 What could have been improved: Steep learning curve

Just like in the case of LeaderTask, the functionality of this solution goes far beyond reminders. Trello is a firm favorite of teams who deal with complex projects and require powerful collaboration tools. It’s compatible with various platforms and integrates with multiple third-party products, such as Dropbox and Slack. Its interface is highly customizable and supports drag-and-drop functionality. Think about using Trello if you might require more advanced task management features later. The reminders will serve as a good starting point. It might take you some time to get used to this app — but the result should justify the efforts.

Any.Do

💌 Unbiased people’s rating: 4.6

🏴 Free version: Yes

🏳️ Pricing: Starting with $3 per individual per month

👍 What makes it stand out: Opportunity to synchronize the reminders across all the gadgets that you use

👎 What could have been improved: Limited customization opportunities

It’s a well-known task management system that allows you to take notes, set reminders and integrate its contents with third-party calendars. Its interface is uncluttered and its settings are remarkably flexible. After you create a task, you can divide it into subtasks, label it with keywords or tags, set a deadline for it and group similar tasks together. There is a convenient daily overview format that lets you check everything planned for the day and prioritize the activities. You’ll appreciate the ease of adding tasks and reminders with your voice. As for the shortcomings, Any.Do is less customizable in certain aspects than its more advanced competitors.

Todoist

💌 Unbiased people’s rating: 4.5

🏴 Free version: Yes

🏳️ Pricing: Starting with $4 per individual per month

👍 What makes it stand out: Meticulously thought-out task management functionality

👎 What could have been improved: Limited functionality of the free version

It’s a perfect solution for managing tasks and projects as well as setting and tracking your goals. It’s equally suitable for individual and team use. It will be convenient for you to work on its content collaboratively with your colleagues, friends and family members. Todoist ticks all the boxes of a powerful app of its sort. Its interface is sleek and its functionality is extensive. You can create tasks, split them into subtasks, merge them into projects as well as set reminders and deadlines for them. The app is compatible with multiple platforms and integrates with third-party products, such as Slack or Google Calendar. The only drawback is the necessity to upgrade to premium to access many helpful features.

Desktop Reminder

💌 Unbiased people’s rating: 4.5

🏴 Free version: Yes

🏳️ Pricing: No

👍 What makes it stand out: Robust data protection

👎 What could have been improved: Limited reminders personalization opportunities

This one is great for organizing your daily tasks and commitments. It’s enough to make one click to prioritize or delegate a task. You can create folders to manage the content of the app and benefit from the powerful search feature. The reminders are intuitive. You might fail to personalize them as flexibly as in more advanced solutions — but there is no reason for criticism when it comes to the functionality. Desktop Reminder won’t let you down if something goes wrong with your computer. It relies on Google Drive for backups, so all your data will be stored there. The information will be encrypted — if, in the worst scenario, hackers manage to access it, they won’t be able to read it.

Microsoft To-Do

💌 Unbiased people’s rating: 4.5

🏴 Free version: Yes

🏳️ Pricing: No

👍 What makes it stand out: Integration with other Microsoft products

👎 What could have been improved: Lack of collaboration features

It’s a native Microsoft solution that isn’t limited to any particular platform or operating system. It integrates with all the other products by the same brand, so you can access the saved content from various apps. It will be convenient for you to generate tasks, classify them into categories and attach sticky notes to them. The app enables you to single out the most important to-dos for a certain day and review them in a visually appealing format. After you create a list of tasks, you’ll be able to add reminders on top of it. Individual reminders for stand-alone items are available too. The weak point is the lack of collaboration features.

OneNote

💌 Unbiased people’s rating: 4.5

🏴 Free version: Yes

🏳️ Pricing: No

👍 What makes it stand out: Communication functionality

👎 What could have been improved: Limited customization opportunities

It’s a native Microsoft product that was conceived to take notes — but can be just as good for reminders. Its interface is straightforward and requires only minimal configuration. The process of creating tasks and reminders is intuitive. You can pin the items on your desktop and add photos to them. You can also discuss your to-dos with others, using the built-in functionality of the app. On the flip side, you might fail to customize the app for your taste.

2Day

💌 Unbiased people’s rating: 4.4

🏴 Free version: Yes

🏳️ Pricing: No

👍 What makes it stand out: Cloud storage

👎 What could have been improved: Lack of tidbits that create the wow factor

It allows you to organize your tasks in a logical and visually comprehensive order. To deal with the most important tasks, you can use tabs. You’ll be able to attach a reminder to each task. The app is rather simple and won’t overwhelm you with excessive functionality. Many apps of this sort ask you to pay for using cloud storage — but 2Day doesn’t. Normally, reminders occupy very little space. But over time, this amount can increase significantly — and then, you’ll appreciate the free access to the cloud. The second peculiarity consists in the fact that it’s an open-source product. Its code is publicly available on GitHub. Anyone who likes the app and has relevant expertise in tech can contribute to its improvement.

RemindMe

💌 Unbiased people’s rating: 4.4

🏴 Free version: Yes

🏳️ Pricing: No

👍 What makes it stand out: Opportunity to send reminders to your smartphone

👎 What could have been improved: Lack of unique tidbits

This app was purposefully designed for reminders. Its interface is sleek and intuitive. You can set reminders for tasks, meetings, appointments and other events as well as personalize them. To make the most of RemindMe, you may want to create to-do lists for different areas of your life. Some tasks can be time-sensitive while others might lack deadlines. After you set reminders, you can send them to your smartphone. You can check all the active reminders in the calendar view, together with the upcoming events.

Remember The Milk

💌 Unbiased people’s rating: 4.4

🏴 Free version: Yes

🏳️ Pricing: $49.99 for the annual subscription

👍 What makes it stand out: Simplicity of use

👎 What could have been improved: Not too suitable for business

This one was launched to remind you about casual activities. It’s not the best option for business-oriented users. Remember The Milk boasts a simple interface that enables you to manage tasks with minimum effort. You can set regular or location-based reminders. Feel free to sort tasks by priority and add due dates to them. The app is available on various platforms and integrates with multiple third-party products, such as Evernote and Outlook.

Google Keep

💌 Unbiased people’s rating: 4.4

🏴 Free version: Yes

🏳️ Pricing: No

👍 What makes it stand out: Task management functionality

👎 What could have been improved: Lack of collaboration features

This one lets you take notes and manage tasks. Its interface is colorful and intuitive. You’ll be able to not only set reminders but also add voice recordings and images to them. The app seamlessly integrates with other Google products and is compatible with various devices. Compared to the most powerful alternatives from our overview, it lacks advanced task management features — that’s why its learning curve is shallower.

Pillbox Pro

💌 Unbiased people’s rating: 4.4

🏴 Free version: Yes

🏳️ Pricing: No

👍 What makes it stand out: Focus on medicine intake

👎 What could have been improved: Can hardly double as a multi-purpose reminder app

If you stick to a prescribed drug regime, this app will remind you it’s time to take your pill. Of course, you can use any generic software product for this purpose. However, Pillbox Pro was designed specifically for patients who take several drugs every day. You’ll be able to set a dedicated reminder for each of them, so you’ll never get confused about which one to take. Feel free to add a note to each reminder to specify the requirements of each substance — for instance, “With food” or “Before bedtime”. The app will tell you when it’s time to replenish your supply of medicines so that you’ll never run out of them. Pillbox Pro will keep a detailed record of all the data that you input into it. Later on, you’ll be able to access it in a couple of clicks to show it to your pharmacist or doctor.

Drink Water Reminder

💌 Unbiased people’s rating: 4.4

🏴 Free version: Yes

🏳️ Pricing: No

👍 What makes it stand out: Efficiency in preventing dehydration

👎 What could have been improved: Limited functionality

The mission of this app consists in reminding you about one thing only — to regularly drink water. Some users might perceive it as a trifle. But in fact, dehydration can significantly deteriorate your well-being and productivity. If you fail to consume enough liquid during the day, you might get tired prematurely. You may feel irritated, your memory may let you down and it may be challenging for you to concentrate even on simple tasks. Dehydration is detrimental to metabolism as well as the state of your skin, hair, nails and internal organs. You might mistake thirst for hunger and overeat, which can provoke obesity in the long run.

In a nutshell, Drink Water Reminder is a simple but meaningful tool for improving the quality of your life. It can inform you about the necessity to have a glass of water at fixed time intervals. Or, it can do so after you complete a specific action.

Final Thoughts

A Windows reminder app can become a lifesaver for busy people. It will act as an alarm clock, preventing you from forgetting about your tasks, meetings and other plans. Unlike a regular alarm, such a solution won’t limit itself to attracting your attention. It will also inform you about what exactly you’re supposed to do. It can become your indispensable assistant in your private and professional life.

When looking for a reminder app for Windows 10 or 11, consider LeaderTask. It’s an excellent task, project and team management tool with extensive functionality. If you’re interested only in the reminders, it should be easy for you to use them. When you need extra features, it won’t take you long to explore them and integrate them into your daily activities. You may start with the free version and then, upgrade to one of the three paid plans, depending on your needs. The most affordable plan will cost you just slightly $2 per customer per month.