Taskade vs Things 3

TL;DR: Taskade is a Free Forever AI workspace on Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android, and web, with Pro at $10/mo billed annually for up to 10 seats. Things 3 is Apple-only personal task management, sold once per device: $49.99 Mac, $9.99 iPhone, $19.99 iPad (verified October 2026). Try Taskade Genesis free →

Gantt Chart, Actionsheet, and Org Chart need a paid Taskade plan. Every other view is on Free Forever.

See the alternative working — clone in 60 seconds

No signup, no credit card. Live neon task manager

What is Taskade?

Taskade is a flexible AI workspace founded by John Xie, Dionis Loire, and Stan Chang in 2017 (Y Combinator-backed). It combines task management, projects, AI agents, durable automations, and an app builder in one platform. Tasks are the foundation. AI agents and Taskade Genesis apps act on them.

Taskade is a strong Things 3 alternative because it runs everywhere — Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android, and web — and adds the AI workspace layer Things does not offer. You can create unlimited tasks and projects on the Free Forever plan, then scale into a team with chat, video, and agents when you need it.

What is Things 3?

Things 3 is a personal task manager built by the German developer Cultured Code. Cultured Code says Things has been honored twice with the Apple Design Award, and it is often held up as the design benchmark for native Apple productivity apps.

Things at a glance (verified October 2026): Mac, iPhone and Apple Watch, iPad, and Vision Pro. One-time purchase per device on the App Store, with no subscription: $49.99 for Mac, $9.99 for iPhone and Watch, $19.99 for iPad. A 15-day free trial runs on the Mac only. Personal task manager with no shared projects and no built-in AI agents.

Things organizes work into Areas and Projects, and each to-do can hold tags, a checklist, a start date, a deadline, and a time-based reminder. The Today list shows your calendar events above your to-dos, and the Upcoming list lays out the coming days. Quick Find and Type Travel on the Mac let you jump anywhere by typing. Mail to Things turns a forwarded email into a to-do, and Siri and Shortcuts support makes Things scriptable on Apple devices.

Things excels at one job: a focused personal to-do list with careful typography and a satisfying interaction model. If you live entirely inside Apple devices and want a single-purchase task app, Things 3 is hard to beat for that job.

What Taskade adds on top of task management

AI Agents that act on your tasks

AI agents work as digital teammates with built-in tools (web search, file analysis, image generation, code execution, project management, and more), persistent memory, and the option to embed publicly inside Taskade Genesis apps. Things 3 has no agent layer. An agent in Taskade can read a project, sort a messy list into sections, draft the next steps, and assign due dates.

Taskade Genesis turns prompts into live apps

Describe a customer portal, an ops dashboard, an intake form, or a CRM and Taskade Genesis returns a live app at a shareable URL. Apps include email-and-password sign-in on every plan, password protection on Pro and above, and custom domains on Pro and above. Browse the Community Gallery for real apps shipped from a single prompt, and clone any of them.

100+ bidirectional integrations

Connect Slack, Gmail, Google Calendar, Stripe, HubSpot, Notion, Shopify, Google Sheets, GitHub, Calendly, and more. Triggers pull external events in. Actions push data out. Automations run on a reliable workflow engine that retries a step when it fails.

Real-time collaboration

Multiplayer editing, chat, and video meetings live inside every project. Permissions follow role-based access from Owner to Viewer. Things 3 is single-user, and collaboration is not part of its scope.

Multiple project views

List, Board, Table, Mind Map, Docs (Beta), Gantt Chart, Calendar, Actionsheet, and Org Chart render the same tasks any way you need them, with no data duplication. Gantt Chart, Actionsheet, and Org Chart need a paid plan.

Capture and daily focus

Things users care most about capture and the daily list, so Taskade covers both:

• Quick Add is a global shortcut (Cmd or Ctrl + Shift + T) that drops a task or note into any project from anywhere on your desktop.
• My Tasks collects every task assigned to you across all workspaces, with filters for due date, tag, and project.
• Reminders push a notification at a set time, separate from the due date.
• Recurring tasks create the next instance when you complete the current one.
• Taskade Calendar syncs due dates two ways with Google Calendar and Outlook.

Use Things 3 and Taskade together

Many people keep Things for personal errands and use Taskade for shared work. The two apps do not share a database, but you can bridge them with one Taskade automation and Mail to Things, which works once you turn on Things Cloud.

Example automation: "send my assigned tasks to Things"

1. Open Automations in your Taskade workspace and create a new flow.
2. Pick the Task Assigned trigger and select the shared project to watch.
3. Add a Branch step that continues only when the assignee is you.
4. Add a Gmail Send Email action. Put your Mail to Things address in the To field.
5. Map the task title to the subject and the task link and due date to the body.
6. Turn the flow on and assign yourself a test task.

The task arrives in the Things Inbox with a link back to the Taskade project. The team keeps one source of truth in Taskade, and you keep your personal Today list in Things. For the reverse direction, Things shows Apple Calendar events in its Today list. If you add your Google account to Apple Calendar, the Taskade due dates that sync to Google Calendar appear there too.

Add an agent step before the email to write a one-line summary that reads well on an Apple Watch.

The Workspace DNA advantage

Taskade is built on Workspace DNA — a self-reinforcing loop between three pillars.

• Memory (Projects) — Tasks, files, docs, and structured data become the substrate every agent reasons over.
• Intelligence (AI Agents) — Custom agents with built-in tools, persistent memory, and custom tools you define.
• Execution (Automations) — Reliable workflows triggered by external events that read from Memory and act through Intelligence — then write the results back into Memory.

Things 3 organizes your day. Taskade runs the loop where the day's work becomes the input that AI builds, automates, and executes against. Read the Workspace DNA explainer.

Pricing comparison

Things 3 prices are US App Store figures, verified October 2026. Apple sets local prices in other countries.

How the costs compare over time. A solo Apple user pays $79.97 once for Things on Mac, iPhone, and iPad, and Taskade Free Forever costs $0 for the same personal use. Things has no shared projects at any price, so a team that wants shared lists needs a second tool. Taskade Pro covers up to 10 people for $120 per year billed annually, with AI agents, automations, and Taskade Genesis apps in the same plan.

On Free, you earn free AI credits with referrals and invites, and you can upgrade any time.

Choose Things 3 if

• You want the most refined native Apple task app. Things is built only for Apple platforms, and Cultured Code says it has won the Apple Design Award twice. Type Travel, the Today list with calendar events, and the Apple Watch app feel at home on every Apple device.
• You prefer to pay once. Things is a one-time purchase per device with no subscription, which suits people who dislike recurring software bills.
• You script your life with Apple Shortcuts. Siri and Shortcuts support, Mail to Things, and the URL scheme give Apple power users deep personal automation without a web service.

Choose Taskade if

• You use Windows, Linux, Android, or the web, or a mix of platforms.
• You want AI agents acting on your tasks, not only reminding you about them.
• You want to ship apps, dashboards, and portals from a prompt with Taskade Genesis.
• You want 100+ bidirectional integrations and reliable workflow automations.
• You want one app for personal tasks and team collaboration.

Move from Things 3 to Taskade

1. Pick one Things Area to move first, for example Work.
2. Select its to-dos in Things, copy them, and paste them into a new Taskade project. For a larger list, use the CSV importer.
3. Ask Taskade AI to group the tasks into sections and suggest due dates.
4. Set recurring tasks for the repeating to-dos.
5. Turn on Taskade Calendar sync so due dates show in Google Calendar or Outlook.
6. Keep Things running for a week, then compare the two lists before you retire the old Area.

Frequently asked questions

Does Taskade work on Windows, Linux, Android, and the web?

Yes. Taskade ships desktop apps for macOS, Windows, and Linux, mobile apps for iOS and Android, browser extensions, and a full web app. Things 3 runs on Mac, iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad, and Vision Pro only.

How much does Things 3 cost in 2026?

Things 3 costs $49.99 for Mac, $9.99 for iPhone and Apple Watch, and $19.99 for iPad on the US App Store (verified October 2026), or $79.97 for all three. Each is a one-time purchase, and the Mac has a 15-day free trial.

What does Taskade cost compared to Things 3?

Taskade has a Free Forever plan with unlimited projects, 2 workspace members, 3 Taskade Genesis apps, and 1 AI agent. Pro is $10 per month billed annually for up to 10 seats, and Business is $25 per month billed annually.

Can I use Things 3 and Taskade together?

Yes. A Taskade automation can email each task assigned to you to your Mail to Things address, so it lands in the Things Inbox. See the example automation above.

Does Taskade have quick capture and a daily view like Things 3?

Yes. Quick Add captures a task from anywhere on your desktop, My Tasks shows everything assigned to you across workspaces, and Taskade Calendar syncs due dates with Google Calendar and Outlook.

Which AI models does Taskade use?

Taskade Genesis runs frontier models from top AI labs, with TSK-Auto as the default. Built in, with no key, paid plans can pick OpenAI GPT models, xAI Grok and open-weight models such as DeepSeek, Qwen, Kimi and GLM. On Pro and up, you can bring your own OpenAI, Anthropic or Google Vertex AI API key (BYOK), so Claude runs in your agents on your own Anthropic account. In automations, the OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, Groq and OpenRouter connectors run on your own key. Model lineup as of October 2026.

Related comparisons

• Free Todoist Alternative - Cross-platform tasks with AI agents
• Free OmniFocus Alternative - GTD power with a team workspace
• Free TickTick Alternative - Personal planning plus automations

Explore Taskade

• AI App Builder — Build complete apps from one prompt
• AI Agent Platform — Digital teammates with built-in tools
• Workflow Automation — Durable workflows across 100+ integrations
• Vibe Coding — Natural-language app creation
• AI Second Brain — Train agents on your data

Build without code

• AI App Generator — Full apps from prompts
• AI Dashboard Generator — Business dashboards
• AI Form Generator — Smart intake forms
• Browse Community Apps — Clone and customize

Related reading

• The Build Without Permission article — Our manifesto
• How Workspace DNA Works — The architecture
• Origin of Living Software — Where apps are headed
• Vibe Coding for Non-Developers
• Agentic Workflows That Replace Busywork

Keep Things for you, add Taskade for everyone else

Things 3 keeps a personal day calm on Apple devices. Taskade adds the shared workspace, AI agents, and automations that move work between people and apps, on every platform. Build with Taskade Genesis →