Notion, Todoist and Things Onboarding Teardown

Productivity apps have one onboarding problem that content apps never face: on first open, there is nothing to show, because the user has not made anything yet. Notion answers with a survey and preloaded templates, Todoist with a required account and a quiz but no paywall, and Things with no account at all and a sample project that teaches the app.

The blank page problem

A new to-do app can only show an empty list, and a new workspace app an empty page, because everything useful depends on input the user has not given yet. There are three ways out: fill the space with something plausible (templates), design the emptiness so it tells the user what to do (empty states), or make the first input so cheap that the emptiness lasts seconds. The three apps below each lean on a different one, and they also disagree about when to ask for an account.

Notion: survey, then a furnished workspace

Notion's onboarding is a web-first flow that the mobile app mirrors. The sequence below is from published teardowns ^1,2.

1. Sign-up. Email, Google or Apple. Notion checks the email domain and, if it matches an existing team, offers to join that workspace instead of creating a new one ¹. For a collaborative product this is the most valuable thing the account step can do.
2. Profile. Name and optional photo ¹.
3. Survey, part one. "What do you need?" and "How do you work?", with work, personal and school as the headline answers; the interface preview on the side changes as you pick ¹.
4. Survey, part two. Role, team and company size, and the question that matters most: what you plan to use Notion for ^1,2.
5. Workspace name. One field ¹.
6. Template picks. A screen of starter pages matched to your answers: Projects, Goals Tracker, Document Hub, Wikis, Meeting Notes, and a Notion AI entry ¹. Choose several; they become the first pages in your sidebar.
7. Adaptive tour. Short contextual tips keyed to the use case you declared ¹.
8. Template gallery on demand. Adding a new page surfaces Notion's own and community templates; the public gallery lists over 30,000 across 349 categories ^2,3.

All of this runs on the free plan, which has no block limit for individuals ⁴.

Todoist: account and quiz, but no paywall

Todoist is the most conventional of the three ⁵.

1. Sign-up. Required before the main interface appears; email, Google, Apple or Facebook ⁵.
2. Quiz. A few questions about how you plan to use the app, in the Notion style, used to tune the starting setup ⁵.
3. Profile setup. Name and, optionally, a photo ⁵.
4. Inbox. The first view is the Inbox with a quick-add field and a short "Welcome" project that doubles as a tutorial; completing its tasks teaches due dates, projects and priorities (observed; the exact contents change between versions).
5. Template gallery. Projects can be created from templates in sixteen categories, from "Productivity methods" to "Marketing & Sales" ⁷.
6. Deferred paywall. No subscription screen appears during onboarding. The upgrade sheet opens later, when a user tries a Pro feature such as a task reminder, and it leads with a feature carousel and an annual-plan discount ⁵. The free Beginner plan allows five active projects and three filter views ⁶.

Things: no account, a sample project, pay up front

Things is the outlier: paid up front per platform through the App Store, no subscription, no account requirement.

1. Purchase, then open. There is no sign-up. Things Cloud, the sync service, is optional and keeps a local copy on each device so the app works fully offline ⁸. Users on r/thingsapp routinely discuss running it without Cloud at all unconfirmed.
2. Sample project. On first launch the sidebar contains a pre-made project whose to-dos explain the app: how to add a to-do, set a date, use headings, move something to Someday. Completing them is the tutorial (observed; the exact wording is version-dependent).
3. Inbox, Today, Upcoming, Anytime, Someday. The fixed lists are the structure. Cultured Code's own guide tells new users to capture into Inbox, pick a few items for Today each morning, promote multi-step items to Projects and group projects under Areas such as Health or Career ⁹.
4. Optional Things Cloud prompt. The app suggests enabling sync once there is something worth syncing, and the account creation is a single email step at that point (observed).
5. No paywall, ever. The price was paid on the store page. That removes the whole conversion problem from onboarding and moves it to the App Store listing.

Side by side

Why templates work, and when they backfire

A template converts an empty page into a decision: keep this, change this, delete this. Reacting is easier than inventing, which is why Notion's survey ends by handing you pages instead of a cursor ², and the survey makes the preload feel chosen rather than generic.

The failure mode is real, though. A highly upvoted r/Notion thread from February 2024, "Beginners, don't start with templates", argues that elaborate community templates teach the template rather than the tool, and that new users should build a simple page first ¹¹. The lesson is in the word "elaborate": Notion's own onboarding picks are deliberately plain (a project list, a goals tracker, meeting notes), and the sprawling 30,000-item gallery is kept a tap away rather than on the first screen ³.

Why empty states are the cheaper fix

Todoist and Things both rely less on templates and more on the empty state itself. The Appcues guidance is the standard reference: state the cause briefly, give one clear next action, and skip the call to action only when the screen already contains one, like a search field ¹⁰. Todoist's Inbox with its quick-add bar and Things' sample project both meet that bar: the next action is obvious and takes seconds.

Things' sample project is a template, an empty-state message and a tutorial at once, and the user dismantles it by using the app.

Account first or later

Notion and Todoist ask first; Things never asks. All three are defensible, because in each case the account does something on day one. Notion's domain detection can route a new user into an existing team, which is where its revenue comes from ^1,4. Todoist's account enables sync across its many platforms from the first task. Things keeps a local store and syncs only within Apple's ecosystem, so it can ask only when there is a second device to sync to ⁸.

The pattern to avoid is an account that does nothing on day one. If the only reason for the form is that your backend wants a user ID, create the account silently and let the user claim it later.

Where the paywall goes

None of the three shows a paywall during onboarding, which is unusual in 2026. RevenueCat's panel shows productivity subscriptions converting overwhelmingly on day zero, 71.9% of paid conversions in the 2026 report ¹², which argues for an early offer. Todoist's answer is to make the first Pro action the paywall: reminders are a day-zero feature for many users, so the sheet still arrives early, but only for people who have shown intent ⁵. Notion sells to teams, so its upgrade moment is a member limit, not a screen. Things sold the licence on the store page, so its onboarding has no conversion job at all.

How this shows up in the charts

Productivity is a category where chart position and revenue diverge sharply. Notion and Todoist sit high on the free charts on both stores, while a paid-up-front app like Things rarely appears in the free chart but holds a stable position in the paid list. You can see the split on the iOS charts and Android charts, watch for productivity apps that spike on movers after an onboarding update, and compare rank history on top apps. For why paid and free charts behave differently, see how App Store rankings work.

What to copy

Copy Notion's survey only if the answers change what the user sees next. Copy Todoist's deferred paywall if your premium features are ones people reach on day one. Copy Things' sample project regardless of what you sell.