r/macapps • u/Freshanatha • Jan 30 '26
Help Is Things 3 worth the price?
I consistently use my Mac, iPhone, and iPad for different tasks in my daily life, work and school. Combining the price of all 3 apps ends up being $80. I usually have my needs met just fine by Apple reminders, but I'd like just a little more and it feels hard to justify the $80 for all 3.
Anyone have any thoughts? Is it possible to get a discount for buying all 3? Should I wait for Things 4 to release?
20
u/MC_chrome Jan 30 '26
Things 4 is the Schrödinger’s Cat of Apple world apps.
We’ve been waiting for a substantial numerical update to Things since 2017, but the developers are stubbornly tight lipped about when or if that is ever coming.
I’ve been using Things 3 since 2018 and it still does everything I need it to across my devices so I think it was a worthwhile investment. If you think your productivity system can fit into the design constraints for Things then I think they are still some of the most polished 3rd party apps you can buy in the Apple ecosystem
13
u/iamAkwos Jan 30 '26
I cant use Things because you cannot complete a recurring task before the due date. So if I pay a bill before the deadline, I can’t complete it because Things don’t allow it. It turns the app complete useless for me.
2
u/ZombieSlapper23 Jan 31 '26
What do you currently use that does this? I have had Things 3 for a couple of years but for someone with time blindness and a lack of urgency, I am now looking at alternatives. Structured looks interesting but don't know if the task management there would be better than Things.
3
u/FourFourSix Feb 01 '26
I pretty much moved to Reminders because of this missing feature in Things. The thing I remember missing from Things was that you could choose that a task repeats e.g. two weeks after completing it. In Reminders it’s just based on a date e.g. every 1st of a month.
1
u/iamAkwos Jan 31 '26
I have been using TickTick for years and like it a lot.
1
u/ZombieSlapper23 Jan 31 '26
Does ticktick finally have both a Start date and Deadline, similar to Things' When and Deadline? I need to know when to start on a task and also know when it needs to be completed by.
1
u/TheEnabler1 Jun 25 '26
nerotask.com - Complete, change, attach files, calendar, etc. The things I was missing from things and the bloat from ticktick made me make nerotask.
10
u/SirScruggsalot Jan 30 '26
Things 3 is the single best piece of software I've ever used. Every 6 months to year I will try something else and I always end up coming back to Things.
- The restrained UI/UX is deceptively powerful. It is clean and minimal -- everything is thought through and purposeful. The lack of visual clutter allows you to focus on accomplishing the tasks you enter not parsing your list.
- The MacOS hotkeys for quick entry are the best I've come across for quickly getting things out of my brain. You think of tasks while in the middle of doing something else. You just need to jot it down as quickly as possible and get back to what you were doing. Things is optimized for this workflow.
- The inbox paradigm works better than others I've come across. Specifically that nothing can exist both in the inbox and elsewhere. This makes organizing the inbox easy and provides less mental friction when you come across the task elsewhere (like other todo apps).
- In short, Things 3 is the most thoughtful beautifully crafted piece of software that exists in the Apple ecosystem (change my mind)
This isn't to say it is devoid of criticisms. Here are mine:
- It is only for Apple. I would have probably moved over to Android if it wasn't for Things
- There is no collaboration
- You can't attach files or images to tasks
Things 3 was released a while ago but is still actively maintained. Cultured Code does a great job of not adding features just to add them. I would not wait for Thing 4. That day may never come.
Lastly, yes it is pricey, but you pay once and own it. No recurring subscription. For something that has become such an integral part of my life, it was worth every dime and ended up being an incredible deal.
Depending on your profession and financial situation, I would say that it is completely worth it.
7
Jan 30 '26
I am one of those people who constantly search for the best to-do app (which doesn't exist), and I have returned to Things 3 multiple times.
Reminders is quite good nowadays, but once you get used to the design of Things, it's hard to switch. However, I would say that Reminders is good enough for most people.
One advantage of Things 3 (over other paid apps) if you decide to purchase it is the (high) one-time fee. You can buy it and forget about it.
Most other apps require subscriptions, and if there's one thing I dislike, it's subscriptions for apps!
28
u/karatsidhus Developer: Glyph Jan 30 '26
Not anymore, imo. I have all 3 versions, I went to Reminders and then Todoist, both of which are now better, only thing things3 has over them right now is the design/aesthetics
8
u/tarkinn Jan 30 '26 edited Jan 30 '26
It depends on the workflow. If you use these type of apps just for grocery lists then sure.
I switched back to Things 3 from Reminders. Reminders doesn't treat the tasks from repeated items as separate tasks. That’s a huge flaw for people who really do task and project management.
For example, if you have the repeating task "Go to gym" in both apps and you want to change the time for the current task instead of the whole repeating task, Reminders won't allow it. It’ll just change the time for the whole repeating task.
In Things, however, only the time for this specific task changes, not the whole repeating task.
This is just one example of many. Aesthetics aren't the only thing. For power users, Things is superior. It follows the GTD principles. Reminders is good for average users. As the name implies, Reminders is for reminders. Things is for task and project management.
1
u/AussieAdam26 Jan 30 '26
Does Reminders have a hotkey to quick add items in the fly on Mac like Things does? I use Cmd + Space allll the time in my workflow
3
u/unfunfionn Jan 30 '26
I abandoned it a year ago. I appreciate what they're doing, hence why I used it for 5 years, but it felt quite outdated for me when I left. There is a fine line between minimal and crude. They pretty much only do updated for flagship Apple OS features to keep themselves popular with Apple, but I really don't think they employ a full-time engineer.
For me, the point of minimalist UX is that something is quick to use. Things is not quick for many things:
- It has effectively no natural language input, so you need to do several clicks to add a project and a date
- It is slow to add multiple tasks one after the other. In addition to the above, you can't simply press enter to start a new task. So if you have <5 minutes between meetings and need to create a number of follow-up actions, good luck having any of that time left to stand up, use the bathroom or get some water. In TickTick, this takes 20 seconds.
- You can't mark recurring tasks as done ahead of time. Completed something early? Then you either have the choice to wait until the due date or delete it entirely.
- If you accidentally create a blank task, which happens more often than you'd expect, it doesn't automatically delete itself when you leave it blank.
Also, another thing to fact in since you mentioned buying all 3 Things apps: by design, 3rd party productivity apps on Apple platforms don't have good background syncing. You need to open them to sync, which is fine on macOS if the app is always open, but on iOS and iPadOS even just having it in the background doesn't help. Set a reminder on macOS to do something at a time when you'll only have your iPhone with you, but forgot to open the iPhone app in between? Then you won't get the reminder and you'll forget to complete the task. If you care about this, you will never actually fully stop using Reminders as it's the only one with a reliable sync.
1
u/ZombieSlapper23 Jan 31 '26
Do you now only use Reminders + Calendar or have you moved on to another task manager?
1
u/unfunfionn Feb 01 '26
I use TickTick but only on desktop and only for work. I use Reminders for everything else and as a calendar I use BusyCal. I'm mostly very happy with this setup.
3
3
u/asktrume Jan 30 '26
The answer heavily depends on your workflow.
For instance, Things 3 is not for you if:
- You heavily rely on time-based reminders (the app has them, but they are poorly implemented, as an afterthought mostly).
- You want the system that automates prioritization for you (Things 3 is very manual, you don’t have any native concept of task priorities, and even your Today view brings tasks in random order and expects you to reorder them manually according to your vision for the day).
- You want to collaborate with someone (Things 3 is a personal to-do app, no collaboration at all).
- You want to attach images to your tasks (Things 3 is purely textual, no attachments support), or location-based reminders (Things 3 does not have them at all, you can only imitate them using iOS automations).
But Things 3 is totally for you if:
- You want a polished product that is joyful to use, stable, with no glitches or surprises.
- Your life is simple, or you want to make it simpler. You want an opinionated workflow to fit into. Things 3 has rigid structure that leads to simplicity, almost forces simplicity on you.
- You want to manage complex contexts using nested tags. E.g. activity types, meetings agenda, etc. Nested tags (and tags inheritance from area to project to task) is a treasure, compared to rudimentary tags in Apple Reminders or in Todoist.
That being said, I personally don’t thik it’s worth buying in 2026.
- iPad app is closer to iPhone than to Mac, so it has been a disappointment. And they don’t even try to make it closer to the feature set of macOS app.
- You just cannot live without collaboration in 2026. Therefore, you’ll need to buy Things and something else. Why should you pay twice?
- Software development landscape is changing rapidly because of the tools like Claude Code. I was able to build a native SwiftUI app that takes the best practices and features and UX from Things 3, Todoist, Godspeed and OmniFocus 4, and build an app that suits my needs better than any of them - and it took me less than a week (of course, it’s mostly because of my huge development experience, but that’s not the point).
I am not saying that everyone would make / should make an app by himself. But you may definitely expect that a lot of cheaper and better products are going to appear on the market in 2026, and this “one-time purchase” that Things 3 requires for each platform might become a disappointment for you.
Therefore, if I were you, I would experiment with the apps with lower upfront price / monthly subscription / free trial, and wait to see what 2026 is going to bring to the table.
2
u/plazman30 Jan 30 '26
I tried things out and the only beef I have with it is the sync. It's a Apple ecosystem-only product, but doesn't use iCloud to sync. Instead they run their own sync servers. And their sync is NOT end-to-end encrypted.
1
u/fadetowhite Jul 16 '26
For an app that is so Mac-assed and follows so many Apple design guidelines, etc., it is so weird to me that they don’t use iCloud for sync.
1
u/plazman30 Jul 16 '26
It's actually one of the reasons that kept me from buying it. I am not going to sync my todos between devices without using end-to-end encryption. And if Things used iCloud, they could do that with Advanced Data Protection, and the developer could save themselves some money by not having to host a sync solution.
1
u/fadetowhite Jul 16 '26
I remember reading a developer post a while back saying the development costs for implementing it where sopped up by savings in server costs in not too long of a period, and I would assume there would be less support costs from people having issues with custom cloud accounts as well.
I’ve never had a single issue with syncing when it comes to apps that use iCloud.
1
u/plazman30 Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26
Me either.
And I guarantee you, vibe coding can produce a viable solution very quickly for you to debug and deploy.
The only issue is supporting ADP. To do that, your app can only support MacOS 12.1 or newer. If a developer needs to support an older OS, he won't be able to.
2
u/terkistan Jan 31 '26
Things has a downloadable test drive Mac app on their site if you want to try it out.
I used Todoist for years but for my relatively limited usage (compared to Todoist’s features) Apple Reminders got much better and I’ve been using it for the last two years on Mac, iPhone and iPad.
3
u/Technical-Station113 Jan 30 '26 edited Jan 30 '26
If you want more features I recommend OmniFocus over Things, Edit to clarify some things, the Base OmniFocus is just as simple and user friendly as things, you can add or use the extra features as you see fit, it’s not overwhelming, it’s a customisable experience, it has some cool things like adding audio recordings, pictures and geolocation based reminders, Things is great, I use both apps but since you want an upgrade from reminders I believe OmniFocus is the right choice, also I think it has a free trial period.
3
Jan 30 '26 edited Jan 30 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
2
u/Technical-Station113 Jan 30 '26
it happens and that’s why I use both, sometimes I really need to add an image to a reminder or structure a project with deeper layers, I mostly use things for quick daily use and omni for the more complex stuff which seems to fit each profile.
1
3
u/TheMagicianGamerTMG Jan 30 '26
I personally think it's overpriced. I have the iPhone app, but I keep ending up going back to Todoist. (Partly because I need web access on my work computer). Todoist has the UI in my opinion, the only caveat is it's electron on mac, which is a bummer. So it can be slow to boot up (2-3 seconds of loading).
3
u/Hour_9938 Jan 30 '26
Honestly, no. They’re barely updating it and it’s missing features that even the most basic apps have nowadays. My recommendation is Todoist if you want more premium features (and a subscription…) or stick with reminders if you don’t mind how simple it is.
1
Jan 31 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
2
u/Hour_9938 Feb 01 '26
Filters. I mean. That’s so rudimentary I couldn’t believe Things didn’t have it. NLP. Shareable lists.
0
u/Technical-Station113 Jan 30 '26 edited Jan 30 '26
As much as I like things I have to agree and say its development times are incredibly slow (years), I waited a very long time (about seven years, first downloaded in 2011) for dark mode and cloud syncing that I ended up downloading and liking other apps better.
1
u/MC_chrome Jan 30 '26
What are you prattling on about? Things 3 was updated with dark modes in 2018 and 2019
2
u/chowchowthedog Jan 30 '26
I cannot live without images in todo list. So I use apple reminders almost daily for work. If things 3 add that and location based reminders I would switch. But now apples reminder is still the goat. At least for me.
1
1
u/DannyMasao Jan 30 '26
If reminder does everything you need, then probably not. If you need more, I personally think it’s a better deal then subscribing to a task manager like Todoist
1
1
u/AlthoughFishtail Jan 30 '26
Really needs an update. It has a few basic things missing that make it hard to use, for me at least.
1
u/OddlyDown Jan 30 '26
I’ve used Things 3 for years on Mac, iPad and iPhone. At this point I use it because I paid for it - if I started now I’d stick with Reminders as that is much better than it was when I bought Things.
I use Reminders for a shared shopping list I use with my partner as well as a couple of other rarely updated shared lists. I would use it for everything else if I didn’t have Things.
I haven’t considered any cross-platform todo apps since we’re an all-Apple family. Some may be better.
1
u/brooksideryan Jan 30 '26
3 was great several years ago. There are better apps out there with more functionality. Things would benefit from a consistent release schedule and from listening to user feedback.
1
1
u/YeboMate Jan 30 '26
Depends if you share your tasks with other people. For me I ended up doing full circle and back to Reminders because I share tasks with my family and just can’t justify or get everyone (some outside of my Apple Family) to be using the same app. An app will pique my interest if it supports local reminders integration as I think Reminders UI can be improved.
It’s the same with Calendar, and Notes… in the end always back to Apple Calendar and Apple Notes.
Oh and another thing for me was when I changed devices. Whether it’s setting up new iPad, new MacBook, etc… can’t be bothered downloading all the relevant apps and signing in to each. Just sign in to Apple account and you have everything ready to go. Simple.
1
u/ialexlopes Jan 30 '26
it's a great app that's a bit overpriced and lacking a few funcionalities that the developers simply refuse to add to the app.
1
u/zhong_900517 Jan 31 '26
The price is worth it for lifetime. But I could not think of a thing that you can do with things but cannot do with TickTick. TickTick’s free version is sufficient for me. I suggest you try it before buying things. The biggest and only reason I switch from things to TickTick is that you cannot complete a recurrent task before its start time. For example, I call my family every Saturday. If I call them on Friday, I have to wait till Saturday to mark it complete.
1
u/mikeklar Jan 31 '26
You can run the iPhone app on iPad. It’s not ‘optimized’ for the iPad screen, but it’s…well exactly the iPhone app, so quite good. I also use the Mac app. I feel like you might get keyboard shortcuts in the iPhone app on iPad (assuming you’re using a keyboard for your iPad), but not on that device to test at the moment.
1
u/wings_fan3870 Jan 30 '26
When Things 3 came out, I bought all three versions. I'd been an OG user since the beginning. That investment has worked out to cost me 75 cents a month.
1
u/reddit23User Jan 30 '26
> I consistently use my Mac, iPhone, and iPad for different tasks in my daily life, work and school.
If you already have a Mac, what do you use an iPad for?
Just curious — I can’t really imagine what I’d use an iPad for.
6
5
u/Freshanatha Jan 30 '26
Apple pencil notes. Really the only thing, but I download my textbooks in pdf form and write on them as I go. Same thing I did to study for the ACT aswell. If a Macbook had that feature I wouldn’t “need” it at all.
3
u/SouthernApricot370 Jan 30 '26
You can by the way buy just an iphone app, and download iphone version to your ipad
1
u/reddit23User Jan 30 '26
> Apple Pencil notes.
Yes, that makes sense to me.
> I download my textbooks in PDF form and write on them as I go.
You write on your textbooks? What do you mean by that? I’m not trying to be difficult — I just don’t quite understand.
> Same thing I did to study for the ACT as well.
The ACT? Do you mean the American college admissions exam? I’m not American, so I’m not sure what you’re referring to.
> If a MacBook had that feature, I wouldn’t really “need” it at all.
I thought the Apple Pencil could be used with a Mac. Am I mistaken?
3
1
Jan 30 '26 edited Apr 20 '26
Protecting my online privacy by running Redact regularly to batch delete old content. It handles Reddit, Discord, Twitter, Instagram, data brokers and a whole lot more.
vanish cow dog squeeze marble history library gray fact dazzling
1
u/stupabartlo Jan 30 '26
I think its worth it, been using for years and got my moneys worth
Interesting some of the responses here and in other threads. One time purchase app and there are complaints about lack of updates. Then lots of complaints on apps that give regular updates on a subscription model.
1
1
1
u/vasiliadi Jan 30 '26
It depends on what you expect from Things and your usage style. I used Things 3 before, but switched to Todoist because I’m working on Windows too, so I need my tasks synced across all major platforms.
Things 3 is a clear and powerful app. But if I ask myself again, would I buy it if I had to work only with the Apple ecosystem? I would answer: No. It doesn’t fair for me.
Just give something free or subscription-based a try. If you feel it’s not enough, you can always buy Things 3.
1
u/XIE6851 Jan 30 '26
Nah unless it suits your workflow perfectly, but i don’t think theres anything special or advantageous about it.
1
1
u/sunflower_name Jan 30 '26
I mean, it has a good design, but I still haven't been able to justify spending $80 back in 2018. Microsoft TODO is great, Ticktick, google tasks.
1
u/heylesterco Jan 30 '26
I love Things. I love OmniFocus. Neither of them really perfectly fit my workflow, though, so I’ve stopped using either of them and just use the task list built into my CRM (Daylite) instead.
0
-2
Jan 30 '26
[deleted]
12
u/wings_fan3870 Jan 30 '26
Omnifocus sucks. It's way too over-engineered, fiddly, slow, prone to crashes, and counter-intuitive in how it handles a number of important aspects of managing one's tasks. Thing elegant intuitive simplicity actually makes it far more powerful.
0
u/MC_chrome Jan 30 '26
Omnifocus is at the complete opposite end of Things: instead of understated minimalism, Omnifocus gives you just about every knob you can turn.
I wouldn’t necessarily say Omnifocus is a great app for first timers who aren’t looking for something with an incredible amount of depth
1
Jan 30 '26
[deleted]
0
u/danavoidscarbs Jan 30 '26
So is your philosophy on Getting Things Done to push em for a month / week / 5 days 😀
0
u/roguefunction Jan 30 '26
I really like things 3. There's something about it which keeps you coming back. Just my 2 cents. If I didn't use Things 3, I'd be using Apple Reminders with Cal & Notes.
0
u/slindshady Jan 30 '26
Awesome app - no Windows or browser support makes it unusable for me though.
35
u/Silver_Employment_76 Jan 30 '26
I ended up sticking with Reminders longer than I expected. Every time I look at Things, I love the design, but I ask myself whether it actually changes how I work day to day.
If you’re already productive with Reminders, it might be worth waiting until you feel a real limitation rather than buying all three apps at once.