Apple Reminders vs Todoist vs Things 3: The Definitive 2026 Guide

If you're an Apple user choosing a task manager in 2026, the field has narrowed to three clear frontrunners: Apple Reminders, Todoist, and Things 3. Each represents a distinct philosophy about how productivity software should work. Apple Reminders is deeply woven into the operating system, free, and private by default. Todoist is the universal power tool — cross-platform, collaborative, and featureful. Things 3 is the design-obsessive's choice — a one-time purchase that makes getting things done feel genuinely pleasant. Rather than comparing spec sheets, this guide is built from real daily usage of all three. We'll tell you what they're actually like to live with, where each one stumbles, and — most importantly — which one fits your specific situation.

What's the quick verdict?

All three apps are polished, capable, and well-maintained. The right choice depends almost entirely on your ecosystem, budget, and workflow style — not on raw feature counts. Here's a high-level summary before we go deep:

How much do they cost?

Apple Reminders is completely free and always has been. It ships pre-installed on every iPhone, iPad, and Mac, requires no account beyond your Apple ID, and has no feature paywalls. Every capability — smart lists, tags, subtasks, attachments — is available at no cost. For many users, this alone is a compelling reason to stay.

Todoist offers a free tier, but it's meaningfully limited. Free accounts are capped at five active projects and five collaborators per project, with no reminders via push notifications and no comment threads on tasks. The Pro plan, at $4 per month (billed annually), unlocks reminders, 300 projects, file uploads, and themes. The Business plan at $6 per user per month adds team management features, an admin console, and priority support. If you're evaluating Todoist seriously, assume you'll be on the Pro plan.

Things 3 uses a one-time purchase model with separate apps for each platform: $9.99 for iPhone, $19.99 for iPad, and $49.99 for Mac. Buying all three comes to $79.97 total, with no subscription, no feature paywalls, and free updates included indefinitely. For users who bristle at recurring software subscriptions, this model is genuinely attractive — though the upfront cost is higher than a couple of months of Todoist Pro.

Which app has the best task creation experience?

Todoist is the clear winner on natural language input. Type "Call dentist Friday at 2pm #health p1" and it instantly parses the due date, time, project, and priority without any extra taps. The parsing engine is one of the best in the business, and it works consistently across platforms. For people who think in plain sentences rather than structured forms, this alone can justify the subscription.

Apple Reminders shines through Siri integration. "Hey Siri, remind me to submit the expense report when I get to the office" creates a location-triggered reminder in seconds, with no app-switching required. The integration between Siri, Apple Intelligence, and Reminders is tight in ways that third-party apps simply can't replicate — tasks suggested from your Calendar, Messages, and Mail are a genuinely useful feature in iOS 18 and later.

Things 3 counters with a global Quick Entry shortcut on Mac. Press the configurable hotkey from anywhere — browser, Xcode, wherever — and a minimal input window appears over your current work. Type your task, optionally tab to set a deadline and notes, then hit Return. It disappears instantly. It's frictionless in a way that reduces the mental cost of capturing tasks throughout a busy day. Things also supports natural language for dates ("next Monday", "in 3 days"), though it isn't as comprehensive as Todoist's parsing.

Which is best for organizing tasks?

Things 3 has arguably the most thoughtful organizational structure of the three. The app separates "Areas" (ongoing life domains like Work, Home, or Health) from "Projects" (finite efforts with a completion point). Within projects, tasks can be grouped into Headings, creating a clear visual structure without requiring nested sub-projects. The "Today" view is curated manually — you drag tasks into your day intentionally, which forces a small but useful planning ritual.

Todoist leans on labels, filters, and priority levels. Projects can be nested, and you can build powerful saved filters using a query language — for example, "due before: +3 days & label: work & priority: 1" surfaces exactly the high-stakes near-term work items. This makes Todoist the strongest option for users who want to slice and dice their task list in custom ways, or who maintain dozens of active projects simultaneously.

Apple Reminders has improved its organizational model substantially in recent years. Smart Lists can surface tasks matching criteria like date, tag, or priority. Tags work across lists, which allows a flat but flexible organizational style. The grocery list template with auto-categorization by store aisle is a thoughtful touch for household management. That said, Reminders still lacks project-level views and Gantt-style features — it is a personal task manager, not a project management tool.

Which works best across devices?

If you live entirely in the Apple ecosystem, both Apple Reminders and Things 3 deliver seamless iCloud sync that is effectively instant. Add a task on your iPhone and it appears on your Mac in under a second. There's no perceived latency, no manual refresh, and the apps look native on every Apple device they support because they are native.

Todoist is the undisputed champion of cross-platform breadth. It runs on iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, Linux, and the web, plus browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. If you regularly work on a Windows machine at the office and an iPhone at home, Todoist is practically the only viable choice in this comparison. The apps maintain feature parity across platforms better than most competitors, and the web client is genuinely good — not a fallback.

Apple Reminders and Things 3 simply do not exist on Android or Windows. If you have colleagues or family members on non-Apple devices, neither app can accommodate them. This is a hard constraint, not a preference — and it's worth factoring in before committing to either Apple-only option.

Which has the best collaboration features?

Todoist is the only serious choice for team collaboration. You can share projects with colleagues, assign individual tasks to specific people, leave threaded comments on tasks, attach files, and see activity logs showing what changed and when. The Business plan adds a team inbox, admin controls, and billing management. If you manage a team, freelance with clients, or run any workflow where other people need to see and interact with your task list, Todoist is the clear answer.

Apple Reminders supports shared lists — you can invite contacts to collaborate on a list via iMessage or email, and everyone with access can add, complete, and delete items. This works well for simple shared contexts: grocery lists with a partner, household chores with roommates, light project coordination with a small family. It does not support task assignment, comments, or activity history, so it breaks down quickly for professional workflows.

Things 3 has no collaboration features whatsoever. It is a strictly personal task manager. You cannot share a project, assign a task, or invite anyone to view your lists. This is a deliberate design choice — Things is built for individual clarity, not team coordination — and for solo users it's a non-issue, but it's worth stating plainly for anyone evaluating it for team use.

Which is most private?

Apple Reminders stores your data in iCloud, which Apple protects with end-to-end encryption under Advanced Data Protection (available on iOS 16.2 and later when you opt in). This means Apple itself cannot read the content of your reminders. For users who keep sensitive personal information in their task lists — medical reminders, financial to-dos, private goals — this is a meaningful distinction.

Things 3 also syncs via iCloud, so it inherits the same privacy properties as Apple Reminders when Advanced Data Protection is enabled. Your task data stays within the Apple ecosystem and is encrypted in transit and at rest.

Todoist stores your data on Doist's own servers, governed by their privacy policy. The data is encrypted in transit and at rest, and Doist has a strong track record as a company, but their terms of service allow them to access task content for support and debugging purposes. Todoist also uses your task data to improve their product. This is standard for cloud software, but it does mean your tasks are processed by a third party rather than stored exclusively within Apple's encrypted infrastructure. For most users this is an acceptable trade-off, but for those with heightened privacy requirements, it's worth noting.

Which has the best keyboard shortcuts?

Things 3 is legendary in the Mac productivity community for its keyboard-first design. Nearly everything can be accomplished without lifting your hands from the keyboard: creating tasks, moving them between projects, scheduling them, logging them as complete, and navigating the entire app. The Quick Entry shortcut works system-wide, and once you've learned the core shortcuts, the entire app becomes a keyboard-driven command surface. It's the kind of keyboard UX that inspires genuine loyalty.

Todoist provides solid keyboard support, particularly in the web and Mac desktop clients. There are shortcuts for creating tasks, jumping between views, and editing due dates. The task creation shortcut works well, and Todoist has invested in making the keyboard experience more complete over recent years. It's not on Things' level, but it's comfortable for keyboard-heavy users.

Apple Reminders on Mac has basic keyboard support — you can create and complete tasks without the mouse — but it lags behind both competitors in depth. There's no system-wide capture shortcut, no keyboard navigation between smart lists, and the app often requires mouse interaction for things that power users expect to do from the keyboard. This is one area where Reminders still shows its roots as an iOS-first app.

What about location-based reminders?

Apple Reminders wins this category decisively, and it's not close. Location-based reminders have been a core feature of the app since iOS 5, and they work reliably on both iPhone and Mac. You can set a task to trigger when you arrive at or leave any location — your home, office, a specific store, or a contact's address. The geofencing is handled by Apple's Location Services infrastructure, which is deeply integrated and accurate. It costs nothing extra and requires no additional setup.

Things 3 does not support location-based reminders at all. You can set deadlines and time-based reminders, but there's no mechanism to trigger a task based on where you are. For workflows that rely on location context — "remind me to buy coffee when I pass the grocery store" or "remind me to check in when I arrive at the client office" — Things simply can't help.

Todoist does support location reminders, but only on the Business plan at $6 per user per month. It's not available on the free tier or on the $4/month Pro plan. Considering that Apple Reminders offers the same feature at no cost, paying a premium for location triggers in Todoist is hard to justify unless you have other strong reasons to be on the Business plan already.

Which app has the best integrations?

Todoist has the deepest integration ecosystem by a large margin. It connects natively with Google Calendar, Outlook, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Gmail, and dozens of other tools. Zapier and Make (formerly Integromat) support Todoist extensively, enabling automated workflows that create tasks from form submissions, emails, Slack messages, or virtually any web trigger. For teams running on tools like Notion, GitHub, or Jira, Todoist's API and webhook support make it easy to build task pipelines without writing much code.

Apple Reminders integrates tightly with the Apple platform. Siri can create reminders from natural language dictation and can surface them contextually. The Shortcuts app offers extensive automation capabilities — you can build workflows that create reminders based on NFC tag taps, calendar events, or incoming messages. Apple Intelligence in iOS 18 and later can suggest reminders from email and message content. Calendar and Reminders share a unified timeline view. These integrations work beautifully within the Apple ecosystem, but they essentially stop at the Apple boundary.

Things 3 supports Apple Shortcuts for automation, which means it can participate in Shortcuts-based workflows and automations. However, it has no native integrations with third-party productivity tools, no Zapier support, and no public API. Power users have built unofficial workarounds using URL schemes and Shortcuts, but if third-party integrations are central to your workflow, Things' limitations will be frustrating.

Who should use which app?

The best task manager is the one you'll actually use consistently. Here's a plain-language framework for making the decision:

Can I make Apple Reminders even better?

Apple Reminders is a capable app that many users leave behind simply because it's too easy to forget. When you're deep in work, the mental cost of switching to a separate app — even a good one — is enough to skip capturing a thought entirely. That's the problem Side Reminder is designed to solve. It pins your Apple Reminders list to the edge of your screen as a persistent, unobtrusive sidebar, so your tasks are always visible without interrupting what you're doing. You can add new reminders via voice, check off completed items, and trigger a focus timer — all without leaving your current app. If you already trust Apple Reminders with your data, Side Reminder makes it a first-class citizen of your Mac desktop rather than an afterthought buried in the Dock.

Conclusion

All three of these apps are excellent pieces of software, and any of them will serve you well if you commit to using one consistently. The question isn't really which app is "best" in the abstract — it's which one fits the shape of your life and work.

Choose Apple Reminders if you're deeply embedded in the Apple ecosystem, value privacy, and want a capable app that costs nothing and requires no new habits to maintain. Choose Todoist if you need to work across platforms, collaborate with others, or build sophisticated task pipelines with third-party tools. Choose Things 3 if you're an Apple-only user who finds joy in well-crafted software, hates subscription fees, and wants a task management system built around intentional daily planning.

All three will keep your to-do list under control. The best one is simply the one you'll open tomorrow morning.