Things 3 vs Todoist, and when neither fits

Both apps are excellent, and both have earned loyal followings, so an honest things 3 vs todoist comparison is less about which one is objectively best and more about how you want a task manager to feel. One is a quiet, Apple-only workspace you buy once. The other is a flexible, cross-platform service you subscribe to. Below is a verified 2026 side-by-side on design, platforms, pricing, and collaboration, plus the question both apps quietly leave unanswered: are these even the right tasks in the first place? For a lot of people that last question is the one that actually matters, and it points to a calmer third option worth putting on the table from the start.

The short answer

Choose Things 3 if you live entirely on Apple devices and want a calm, one-time purchase with no subscription. Choose Todoist if you need Android, Windows, a browser, or shared projects with a team. Both are genuinely strong at what they set out to do, and neither is a wrong answer for the job it was built for.

But if you are reading a “Things 3 vs Todoist” comparison at all, there is a good chance the real friction is not platforms or price. It is that tasks keep piling up without ever connecting to a goal, and no amount of tweaking either list will fix that. For that reader, the app we would actually recommend is Vekto: a calm, editorial planner for iPhone, iPad and Mac that keeps what both apps already do well, then adds the goals and reflection layer neither one was built to hold. We will compare all three fairly below, so you can see exactly where each app wins before you commit a year of your daily routine to any of them.

Things 3, Todoist and Vekto at a glance

The table below reflects pricing and platform support verified in 2026. Todoist raised its Pro and Business prices in December 2025, so older comparisons often still quote the outdated figures. Read across each row with one lens in mind: how well does each app hold a calm daily list that ladders up into real goals and an honest weekly review?

Design, platforms, and price

Things 3 is made by Cultured Code, a small studio based in Stuttgart, Germany, and it ships only for Apple hardware: Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Vision Pro. There is no web version, no Android app, and no Windows client. In return for that focus you get a genuinely native app that feels handcrafted rather than wrapped in a browser, with typography and animation most cross-platform tools never bother with. Its pricing follows the older software model: you buy each platform once, roughly $49.99 for Mac, $19.99 for iPad, and $9.99 for iPhone, so owning all three costs about $80 with no recurring fee. If you are shopping specifically for macOS, our roundup of the best to-do apps for Mac shows where Things sits among the native options.

Todoist, made by the fully remote company Doist, goes the other way. It runs on iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, Linux, the web, and as browser extensions, so your list looks the same everywhere. It uses a subscription: a Free “Beginner” plan capped at five personal projects, Pro at $5 per month billed yearly ($60 a year) or $7 month to month, and Business at $8 per user per month on the annual plan. That reach is a real strength if your life genuinely spans several operating systems. Over a few years the recurring cost adds up, though, which is the trade you make. If the subscription is your sticking point, it is worth reading through the Todoist alternatives before you commit.

Vekto takes the calmest parts of both and drops the parts that create friction. It is Apple-only like Things (iPhone, iPad and Mac, on iOS 18 and macOS 15 or later), so it shares that native, editorial feel, right down to a strict 0px-radius design, curated accent colors, and a proper full dark mode. On price it avoids the two things people dislike most: there is no per-device tax and no complicated tier ladder. You get a genuinely long 60-day free trial, then one simple monthly or yearly plan, with no ads, no tracking, and no data selling. That is the honest middle path between paying $80 up front and renting a feature set you only half use.

How each one feels to use

All three apps offer natural-language input. Type “Call Anna tomorrow 14:30” into any of them and the date and time are parsed for you, so you rarely touch a date picker. Vekto adds dictation on top, which matters when the thought arrives while you are walking rather than sitting at a keyboard. From there the three philosophies split apart.

Todoist is built for volume and teamwork. It has labels, saved filters, priority levels, shared projects, task assignment, comments, and a Karma point system that rewards streaks. That structure is genuinely powerful when you are juggling hundreds of items or coordinating a team, though the gamification and the sheer number of options are not to everyone’s taste. If prioritizing is where you tend to freeze, a simple method usually beats more features, which is the whole point of our guide to how to prioritize tasks. Things 3 is deliberately sober by contrast: no points, no collaboration, just Areas, Projects, and clean Today and Upcoming views that get out of your way. It is a lovely place to think for one person.

Vekto is built for the reader who wants that calm and a sense of direction in the same place. The Today view lets you switch between a plain List, a Timeline, or Both, so you can plan by priority or by time without leaving the screen. A 7-day Week board handles the near term. Projects hold timeless entries and a free text area for context, small Notes catch stray thoughts, recurring to-dos handle the repeats, and an “Open from yesterday” carry-over pulls unfinished items forward instead of letting them silently vanish. It speaks 10-plus languages and offers an optional read-only Google Calendar view. Nothing here is bolted on for a screenshot: every piece serves the plan, execute, reflect loop, which is why the app stays quiet even as it does more than a bare list.

Collaboration, sync, and lock-in

If more than one person needs to see the list, the comparison is short and Todoist wins outright. It was designed for shared work: you can invite people to a project, assign each task, leave comments, and watch items move as they get done. Things 3 and Vekto are both single-user tools and make no attempt to compete there, so a household or a small team coordinating shared work should lean Todoist. That is a real, honest point in its favor, and worth weighing first if collaboration is your actual need.

Sync and lock-in cut the other way, and this is where Vekto is strongest. Todoist keeps your data on its servers, which is what makes the web app feel effortless but also ties your list to an active account and a connection. Things stores data locally and syncs privately through Things Cloud, which many people prefer, at the cost of ever reaching it from a Windows machine. Vekto is offline-first: your plan is fully usable on a plane or a dead subway platform, then reconciles across your devices through fast, event-driven sync the moment you are back online. And because it exports to plain text, your work is never trapped. No ads, no tracking, no data selling means the app has no incentive to hold your attention hostage, which is the quiet luxury of a tool you actually pay for.

Things 3 and Todoist both help you finish the list. Vekto is the one that asks whether the list was ever pointed at something worth finishing.

The verdict: which one should you actually pick?

Here is the honest part that most “Things 3 vs Todoist” pieces skip. Both apps are, at heart, better lists. They help you capture and complete tasks with real polish, but neither is designed to answer the harder question sitting underneath: are these the right tasks at all? If you have ever cleared your entire list and still felt adrift, the tool was never the problem. Tasks without a goal above them are just motion, and that gap is one of the most common reasons goals quietly fail: the daily app and the yearly intention live in two separate places and never meet.

• You need Android, Windows, a browser, or shared team projects. Todoist, comfortably. It is the safe cross-platform pick with the deepest collaboration.
• You want a pure, one-time-purchase Apple list and nothing more. Things 3, still the reference for a beautiful single-user task manager.
• You want calm plus goals plus a reflection habit in one place. Vekto, without hesitation. It is the tool this comparison was quietly missing.

For most people asking the question, that third case is the real one. Vekto is built for the missing middle layer: it keeps the natural-language quick-add, the focused Today view, and the seven-day board that make Things and Todoist pleasant, then adds Goals at four horizons (weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly) with progress drawn from the to-dos you link to them, and a short Reflection on each goal as free text, guided questions, or a simple 1-5 rating, so you actually notice what moved. It is offline-first, exports to plain text, speaks 10-plus languages, and runs a 60-day free trial before one simple plan, with no ads and no data selling. If you plan by calm days that add up to real goals, and you want to close each week knowing whether it counted, Vekto is the recommendation. Its motto is the whole promise, plain on purpose: plan, execute, reflect.