Is Things 3 worth the price?
Things 3 is a rare premium app that respects your wallet: one-time purchases of $49.99 (Mac), $19.99 (iPad), and $9.99 (iPhone) with zero subscription fees.
The full Apple ecosystem suite costs $79.97 total — less than two years of Todoist Premium or 14 months of TickTick Premium. Cloud sync between devices is free and included.
The trade-off is clear: no web app, no Android, no Windows, no collaboration features, and no API. Things 3 is a personal task manager for Apple users, and for that specific audience, the value proposition is exceptional.
If you need cross-platform or team features, look elsewhere.
Pricing Plans
Mac
$49.99/once
One-time
- Full features
- iCloud sync
iPhone
$9.99/once
One-time
- Full features
- Widgets
iPad
$19.99/once
One-time
- Full features
- Widgets
Hidden Costs & Gotchas
Each platform is sold separately. If you want Mac + iPad + iPhone, that is $79.97 total, not a single purchase. There is no bundle discount.
No web app means you cannot access your tasks from a Windows PC, Chromebook, or any non-Apple device. If you switch platforms, your investment is lost.
Major version upgrades (Things 2 to Things 3) have historically been paid upgrades with no discount for existing users. Things 3 launched in 2017 at full price. A future Things 4 would likely require repurchasing.
No API or third-party integrations. You cannot connect Things to Zapier, Shortcuts automations are limited, and there is no way to programmatically add tasks from other apps (beyond basic URL schemes and Mail to Things).
Things Cloud sync is proprietary. You cannot export your data to a standard format easily, creating vendor lock-in within the Apple ecosystem.
No collaboration or shared lists. If you need to assign tasks to teammates or share project lists, Things cannot do this at all.
How Things 3 Compares
Individual professional managing personal tasks across Mac and iPhone, calculated over 3 years
Which Plan Do You Need?
For under $60 total, you get a beautifully designed task manager on your two most-used devices with free sync, no recurring fees, and no ads. Compare that to Todoist Premium at $48/year — Things pays for itself in 15 months and costs nothing after that.
Things 3 is arguably the best GTD implementation on Apple platforms. Areas, projects, headings, tags, and the Today/Upcoming/Anytime/Someday structure map directly to GTD methodology. The full suite across all devices costs less than one year of most competing subscriptions.
At $9.99 with no subscription, Things for iPhone is one of the best deals in productivity apps. You get a polished task manager with natural language input, calendar integration, and Things Cloud sync — all for the price of two months of Todoist Pro.
Our Recommendation
Worth it if...
You are fully committed to the Apple ecosystem (Mac + iPhone at minimum), prefer a one-time purchase over subscriptions, value beautiful design and a focused feature set, and manage tasks primarily as an individual. Things 3 is one of the best-designed productivity apps ever made, and the one-time pricing model makes it the cheapest option over any multi-year period.
Skip if...
You use any non-Apple device for work, need to collaborate with teammates on shared task lists, require third-party integrations (Zapier, Slack, API), or want a web app for access from any browser. Also skip if you follow a methodology that requires features Things lacks, like time tracking, Kanban boards, or recurring task streaks.
Negotiation tips
No negotiation possible — App Store pricing is fixed. However, Things occasionally appears in curated App Store sales or editorial features. The Mac version has a free 15-day trial at things.app, so test before committing to the $49.99 purchase. Buy the iPhone version first ($9.99) to evaluate the design philosophy before investing in the full suite.
