Things 3 Review

Last updated: 2026-07-06

Things 3 is worth it if you’re all-in on Apple, work solo, and want a beautiful task manager you own instead of rent — $80 once across Mac, iPhone, and iPad, with no subscription and no AI. It costs more than Todoist in year one, but by year two it’s cheaper, and over five years it costs 73% less. The tradeoff: no AI, no web app, no collaboration, and no integrations beyond Apple Shortcuts.

Quick Verdict

• Buy it if you’re Apple-only, work solo, and want to own your task manager instead of paying monthly.
• Skip it if you want AI features, need a web app, or work with a team — Todoist covers all three.
• $80 total (one-time) beats Todoist’s $300 over five years, but Todoist’s subscription funds ongoing AI development that Things doesn’t have.

Get Things 3 for iPhone

Things 3 at a Glance

How I Evaluated This

I judged Things 3 on what it deliberately leaves out as much as what it does well, since the simplicity is the actual selling point for the right user. Every price below was re-verified in July 2026.

What Makes Things 3 Different

There are four things Things does that no other major task manager does quite the same way.

One: Apple-native everything. Things doesn’t run on a web server that happens to have an iOS wrapper. It’s built natively for Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Vision Pro. The animations, the typography, the haptics on iPhone, the keyboard shortcuts on Mac… all of it feels like Apple built it themselves. iCloud sync is fast, end-to-end encrypted, and free.

Two: The hierarchy makes sense. Areas at the top (the domains of your life: Work, Personal, Health, Finance). Projects inside Areas (goal-sized chunks of work). Tasks inside Projects. Headings inside Projects to organize subtasks into groups. It’s one level deeper than most people need and one level shallower than OmniFocus. For most solo professionals, it’s exactly right.

Three: No subscription. $9.99 for iPhone. $19.99 for iPad. $49.99 for Mac. $80 total. That’s it. No monthly charges. Updates are free. The app you bought in 2020 still works, still gets updated, still costs the same.

Four: Speed. Opening Things on Mac is instant. Quick Entry pulls up in under a second from any app. Creating a task has no loading state. On iPhone, the app opens and you’re typing before you’ve registered that it launched. After using subscription apps with their brief loading states, Things feels like cheating.

What Things 3 Does Well

Today View

The Today view is where most Things users live. It shows tasks you’ve scheduled for today plus tasks that are due today. Nothing else.

No inbox noise. No overdue items from last week cluttering the screen. Just today.

There’s something about this restraint that makes you actually trust the app. When it says “these 8 things are for today,” you believe it. Compare that to task managers where Today shows 47 items including that blog post you marked due last November.

Natural Language Date Parsing

Type “Review contract Thursday” and Things sets the task to Thursday. “Follow up next Monday at 9am” works too. “Every two weeks starting April 1” works. It’s not the most advanced natural language engine in the category, but for everyday scheduling it covers everything most people need.

Quick Entry on Mac

Control+Space (or whatever shortcut you set) opens a floating entry box over any app. Title your task, set a date if you want, pick a project, hit Enter. It takes about five seconds.

I’ve used this shortcut dozens of times in the middle of other work. It’s genuinely the best quick-capture experience on Mac. The task ends up in the right place without breaking your flow.

Someday List

The Someday list is underrated. It’s where you put things you want to do eventually but not now. “Learn Portuguese.” “Read Anna Karenina.” “Research standing desk options.”

These don’t clutter your Active tasks or your Anytime view. They’re parked somewhere you’ll review occasionally. It’s the equivalent of a “maybe someday” folder in Getting Things Done, but built into the app structure.

I’ve told people for years: a task manager only works if you trust it. The Someday list is part of what makes Things trustworthy — you know things won’t disappear, but they also won’t show up when you don’t want them.

Archiving Projects

One thing I recommend to anyone with a task manager: archive old projects aggressively. When you finish a project in Things, archive it. It disappears from your sidebar but stays searchable. Over time, your Areas stay clean, your sidebar shows only what’s active, and you stop feeling overwhelmed when you open the app.

Things makes archiving a first-class action. Right-click, Archive. Done.

What Things 3 Lacks

Being honest here matters more than protecting the affiliate potential.

No AI. Todoist has Assist (breaks vague tasks into specific subtasks), Ramble (voice-to-task in 38 languages), and Email Assist. Things has… Apple’s Writing Tools, which lets you proofread text in the notes field. That’s Apple’s feature, not Things’. If you want to say “follow up with the client about the proposal Friday afternoon” into your phone while driving and have it become a properly dated task in the right project, Things can’t do that. Todoist can.

No web app. You cannot use Things in a browser. If you’re on a Windows machine at a client site, or borrowing someone’s computer, or just want to check your list from a browser, you can’t. Everything has to go through a native Apple app.

No collaboration. Things is a solo tool. No shared projects. No assigning tasks to other people. No comments. No team workspaces. If you manage people or work in a shared project with anyone, Things is the wrong tool.

No integrations. Things connects to Apple Shortcuts and that’s basically it. No native Zapier integration. No Slack. No Gmail. No calendar sync. If you want meeting action items to automatically flow into Things from Granola, you need to build a Shortcuts workflow and it won’t be as clean as Todoist’s native integrations. If your task management needs to connect to anything outside Apple’s ecosystem, Things will fight you.

Basic recurring tasks. Things handles daily, weekly, and monthly recurrence fine. But if you need “every third Tuesday” or “every 10 days” or other patterns, the options are limited compared to Todoist.

The AI Question

Here’s what I actually think about AI in task managers.

Most of the value from AI for task management comes from two things: capturing tasks faster (voice, email parsing) and breaking down vague tasks into specific ones. Things doesn’t do either. Todoist does both.

But here’s the thing… the people who love Things aren’t really using Todoist’s AI features either. They’re not trying to. They open Things, they see their tasks, they do their work. The simpler their setup, the more they use it.

There’s a real tradeoff between friction and follow-through. More features means more setup time, more decisions about how to use the tool, more reasons to fiddle instead of work. Things removes that option. You can’t build an elaborate filter system. You can’t spend 45 minutes configuring AI behaviors. You just have tasks, projects, areas, and a today view.

I’ve watched people spend weeks setting up their task manager and never actually finish any tasks. Things doesn’t let you do that. There’s not enough to configure.

So is Things worse because it has no AI? For some people, yes. If you’re a high-volume email user who wants tasks created from messages automatically, or a voice-capture person who manages tasks while commuting, the lack of AI is a real gap.

But for the solo Apple user who just wants a clean place to keep their work? The AI gap doesn’t matter much. And the simplicity advantage is real.

The Pricing Math

Todoist is cheaper in year one. By year two, Things is ahead. Over five years, Things costs 73% less.

The caveat: Todoist’s subscription funds continuous development, new features, and AI improvements. Things gets updates but not at the same pace. Things 3 launched in 2017. It’s still Things 3 in 2026.

Whether that gap in development pace matters to you depends on what you want from a task manager. If you’re chasing the latest AI features, Todoist. If you want a stable tool that works the same way it did five years ago (which is a feature, not a bug), Things.

Who Should Use Things 3

The right Things 3 user looks like this:

All-in on Apple. iPhone, iPad, Mac. No Windows machine at work, no Android tablet at home. The Apple ecosystem is just their life.

Works solo. Freelancer, consultant, solopreneur, or someone whose task management is entirely personal. Not managing a team. Not assigning tasks to anyone else.

Values design. Opening an app 20 times a day matters. If a beautiful interface makes you more likely to use your task manager, that’s worth something real. Things is the only task manager where using it is a small pleasure.

Anti-subscription. The subscription model of modern software genuinely bothers some people. The idea of owning a tool instead of renting it appeals to them. Things is $80 and it’s yours.

Who should use Todoist instead:

• Anyone with a non-Apple device (even one)
• Anyone who wants AI features (task breakdown, voice input, smart scheduling)
• Anyone who needs integrations with other tools
• Anyone working with a team
• Anyone who wants to start free and upgrade later

I have a full Todoist vs Things comparison if you want to go deeper on the head-to-head.

Feature Summary

FAQ

Is Things 4 coming?

Nobody knows. Cultured Code hasn’t announced anything publicly. Things 3 launched in 2017 and still gets updates, but the pace of new features has been slow compared to subscription competitors who have ongoing development budgets. In May 2025 they did rebuild the entire cloud backend using Swift — so the infrastructure work is happening. Whether that leads to a major Things 4 release is still anyone’s guess.

Can I try Things before buying?

No free trial. The App Store doesn’t support trial periods for paid apps in the traditional sense. You can look at screenshots and watch the demo videos on Cultured Code’s site, but you’re committing $9.99 for iPhone to see if you like it. At $9.99 that’s a low-risk test. If you love it on iPhone, then consider Mac ($49.99).

What about OmniFocus?

OmniFocus is the other major Apple-only task manager. It’s more powerful — built for GTD methodology, deep AppleScript automation, more complex project structures. OmniFocus Pro is $99.99 one-time (Standard is $49.99; or $9.99/month if you’d rather subscribe). If you’re doing serious project management with lots of contexts, dependencies, and custom perspectives, OmniFocus is worth the complexity. Things is better for people who want simplicity without all the GTD scaffolding.

Does Things work with Siri?

Yes. You can create tasks with Siri on iOS. “Hey Siri, remind me to call the accountant in Things tomorrow morning” works. It’s not as sophisticated as Todoist’s Ramble feature, but for occasional voice capture it functions.

Does Things sync with my calendar?

No native calendar sync. Things shows scheduled dates within the app but doesn’t create calendar events and doesn’t pull in calendar events. If you want to see your tasks alongside your calendar, you’re doing that manually or building something with Apple Shortcuts.

Get Things 3: Things for iPhone ($9.99) | Things for iPad ($19.99) | Things for Mac ($49.99)

If you’re comparing task managers more broadly, see my Best AI Task Managers (2026) roundup. And if you’re torn between Things and Todoist specifically, the full Todoist vs Things comparison is where I go into more depth on both tools side-by-side.

Next Step

Get Things 3 for iPhone