Things 3 vs Todoist One-time Apple app, or a list that goes anywhere.

Things is bought once and stays on Apple devices. Todoist runs on almost anything and is sold as a subscription. The rest of the choice follows from those two facts.

Jacky Fakkeldij Building Driftto, on his own · Updated 20 October 2026

I build Driftto, an iPhone app for getting a thought into the right place without first finding the app, waiting for it to open and picking a project. Todoist is one of the apps it writes to. Things is not. So I had a reason to look closely at Todoist, and at the app it is most often weighed against.

In October 2026 I went through Cultured Code's Things support pages, Todoist's help center and pricing page, and both apps' listings in the US App Store. Everything below comes from those pages.

The short answer

Things suits one person who works only on Apple devices, wants to pay once, and likes a calm list that separates what is for today from what can wait. It has no shared lists and no apps outside Apple's platforms.

Todoist suits anyone who needs their list on Android, Windows, Linux or a browser, who shares projects with other people, or who wants to build custom views with filters. Its free plan is real but small, and the full version is a subscription.

Paying once or paying monthly

Things is sold per device type in the App Store, with no subscription. In the US store, Things 3 for iPhone costs $9.99, the iPad version $19.99 and the Mac version $49.99. Syncing between them runs through Things Cloud, which Cultured Code provides at no charge. The trial Cultured Code offers is for the Mac version, through its website. All three apps support Family Sharing for up to six people.

Todoist costs nothing to download. Its Beginner plan includes 5 personal projects, 3 filters and one week of activity history. In the US App Store, Todoist Pro is an in-app purchase at $6.99 a month or $59.99 a year. Pro raises the limits to 300 projects and 150 filters, adds custom and location reminders, a calendar layout and full activity history.

So the math is simple. Things on iPhone alone costs less than two months of Todoist Pro. Things on all three Apple devices costs $79.97 once, a bit more than one year of Pro. If the Beginner limits are enough for you, Todoist costs nothing at all.

Apple only, or everywhere

Cultured Code lists Things for Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Apple Vision Pro. If you also use an Android phone or a Windows computer, Things will not follow you there.

Todoist's download page lists apps for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Android, Wear OS, Windows and Linux, plus browser extensions and email add-ons. For many people this point settles the question before any feature does.

How each one plans your day

Things gives every to-do two kinds of date. A start date decides when the item becomes active: until then it waits in Upcoming, and on the day it moves into Today. A deadline is the date it must be done, and it doesn't hide the item. Today can hold a This Evening section for things you'll get to later. Anytime shows everything you could do right now. Someday holds ideas that have no plan yet, and keeps them out of Anytime and Upcoming until you decide.

Above that sit Projects for goals and Areas for parts of your life, like Work or Family. You don't design your own views; you use the ones Things gives you.

Todoist has an Inbox, a Today view and an Upcoming view, and a task can have a date and a separate deadline. Its own tool for the rest is filters: saved searches with a small query language. A filter like (today | overdue) & #Work shows what is due or late in one project. Projects can be shown as a list, a board or, on Pro, a calendar. A Someday list is something you set up yourself, with a project or a filter.

Typing dates, tags and labels

In Todoist's Quick Add you write the details into the task name. Typing "tomorrow at 4 PM" sets the date, "every other Tuesday" makes it repeat, #Work picks the project, p1 sets the priority, braces set a deadline and an exclamation mark adds a reminder. Labels take a % sign now; Todoist says the older @ sign works until it is retired at the end of 2026.

Things also reads natural language, but in a different place. On an iPhone you swipe right on a to-do to open the When picker, pull down, and type something like "tues 8am" or "17d" for 17 days from today. Cultured Code's support page describes this in the When and Deadline pickers, not in the to-do's title. It works in eight languages, including English, German, French and Spanish.

Things has tags, which can be nested in groups and put on to-dos, projects and areas. On an iPhone you filter a list by tag from the More menu, and picking several tags shows only items that carry all of them. Todoist's equivalent is labels, which also work inside filters.

Reminders

In Things you set a time on a to-do and it notifies you then. Cultured Code marks these notifications as time-sensitive, so they can get through a Focus. I found no current Things support page on location-based reminders.

Todoist adds a reminder by default whenever a task gets a date and a time, 30 minutes before unless you change it. On Pro and Business you can add several custom reminders per task, and location reminders that fire when you arrive at or leave an address. Those location alerts arrive only on your phone.

Working with other people

This is the clearest difference. Cultured Code's support page says Things does not support real-time sharing of to-dos or lists. You can send the text of a list to someone through the share menu, but that is a copy, not a shared list. Family Sharing shares the app purchase with your family.

Todoist shares whole projects. On the Beginner and Pro plans a personal project can have up to 5 collaborators, who can add, assign and complete tasks and see comments and files. Each task has one assignee. Business plans add team projects with up to 250 members and guests from outside the team.

Everything else, side by side

The rest, from both help centers and the US App Store, checked in October 2026.

Which one I'd pick

If you work alone, only on Apple devices, and want to pay once and stop thinking about it, pick Things. Its fixed views, especially the split between Today, Anytime and Someday, do a lot of the planning for you.

If anyone else needs to see your list, or you use anything other than an Apple device, pick Todoist. The same goes if you want to shape your own views with filters, or type a whole task with its date, project and priority in one line. Start on the Beginner plan and see whether 5 projects and 3 filters are enough before you pay.

Both work for a GTD-style setup, and I compare more apps for that in the best GTD apps. Whichever you pick, it only helps if the thought gets into it while you still have it.

Capture into the one you picked, in one step

Into Things: say "In Things, remind me to call the garage tomorrow at 10 AM" to Siri. From Safari or another app, use the share sheet; Things appears there once you add it under Edit, and selected text lands in the to-do's notes. Or forward an email to your Mail to Things address and it lands in the Inbox. Quick Entry, the window that pops up over any app, is a Mac feature; on an iPhone the routes above are the ones Cultured Code describes.

Driftto doesn't write to Things, so for Things these native routes are the ones to use.

Into Todoist: say "Add call the garage in Todoist" to Siri. On iOS 18 and later, add Todoist's Add task control to Control Center, the Lock Screen or, on iPhones that have one, the Action button. Or share a link or file into Todoist from another app, and Quick Add opens with it attached.

With Driftto, you open it to a capture field with the keyboard already up, type or say the thought, and tap Todoist. It lands in the project you set up once. The whole note becomes the task's title; nothing goes into the description. You can also say "Hey Siri, new capture in Driftto", or send the same note to Todoist and another destination at once.

Questions

Driftto is in the App Store now.