TASKn

If you’re researching a Things 3 alternative, you already know the app has a loyal following. Things 3 has been one of the most beautifully designed to-do apps on iOS for years, and for a certain kind of user—someone who wants a polished, offline, one-time-purchase planner—it’s hard to beat. But “beautifully designed” and “actually keeps you on top of your day” aren’t always the same thing, and a growing number of iPhone users are looking for something that does more of the thinking for them.

TASKn takes a different approach. Instead of handing you a gorgeous blank canvas and trusting you to organize it perfectly every morning, TASKn uses a smart priority algorithm to figure out what you should be working on right now. In this comparison, we’ll look at design, features, pricing, and platform support so you can decide which app actually earns a spot on your home screen.

Design Philosophy: Curated Calm vs. Automatic Focus

Things 3 is known for its minimalist, Apple-native design—soft typography, magic plus button, and a today/upcoming/anytime/someday structure that longtime users genuinely love. It’s a manual system, though: you decide what goes in Today, you decide what gets bumped to tomorrow, and you decide how everything gets tagged and grouped.

TASKn keeps the same mobile-first simplicity but removes the daily curation step. Add a task, and TASKn’s smart priority algorithm ranks it against everything else on your plate automatically. There’s no tagging system to maintain and no morning ritual of manually rebuilding your Today list. If Things 3’s structure occasionally feels like a chore to maintain, TASKn was built specifically to remove that chore.

Key Features Compared

Nested tasks and projects. Things 3 supports projects with headings and to-dos, which covers most everyday planning. TASKn goes a level further with deeply nested tasks and projects, so you can break a big goal into as many sub-layers as the work actually requires—useful for anyone managing multi-stage projects rather than flat lists.

AI task creation. This is where the two apps diverge most. Things 3 has no AI features at all—every task is entered manually, exactly as it was in 2017. TASKn’s Pro plan includes an AI task creator that can turn a quick note or a messy brain dump into structured, prioritized tasks in seconds. For anyone who thinks in paragraphs rather than bullet points, that’s a real time saver.

Carry-over for unfinished tasks. Things 3 requires you to manually reschedule anything you didn’t finish—open the app, find the leftover task, drag it to today. TASKn automatically carries unfinished tasks into the next day, so nothing quietly disappears into an “Anytime” list you forget to check.

Daily streaks. TASKn includes streak tracking to help build consistency and daily momentum, which is especially useful for students and habit-focused users. Things 3 has no equivalent gamification or momentum tracking—it’s a pure list manager, by design.

Sync. Both apps sync in real time across devices. Things 3’s sync runs through Cultured Code’s own service and is limited to Apple hardware (iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch). TASKn syncs in real time across iPhone and Android, which matters the moment your household, team, or study group isn’t 100% Apple.

Platform Availability: The Biggest Practical Difference

This is arguably the most important difference for a lot of people. Things 3 is Apple-only—iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch. There’s no Android app and no web version, so if you ever switch phones or need to share task visibility with someone on Android, Things 3 simply can’t follow you there.

TASKn was built for real-time sync across both iPhone and Android from day one. If your family, roommates, or coworkers aren’t all on iOS, or if you just don’t want to be locked into Apple’s ecosystem for something as basic as a to-do list, that flexibility matters more than it might seem at first.

Pricing: One-Time Purchase vs. Freemium

Things 3 uses a one-time purchase model with no subscription, which a lot of users appreciate on principle. But the total cost adds up fast if you use more than one device: $9.99 for iPhone (which includes Apple Watch), $19.99 for iPad, and $49.99 for Mac—up to $79.97 if you want it everywhere. And because it’s a static one-time purchase, ongoing feature development is slower and there’s no AI roadmap to speak of.

TASKn takes the opposite approach. The free tier includes 50 tasks and 5 active projects, which is enough for most people to fully test the smart priority system and carry-over feature before paying anything. TASKn Pro, which unlocks the AI task creator and removes the free-tier limits, costs $2.99/month or $24.99/year—less than a single one-time Things 3 purchase, with active development and AI features included.

Which One Should You Choose?

If you love Things 3’s aesthetic, live entirely inside Apple’s ecosystem, and prefer full manual control over every list, it remains a genuinely well-crafted app—and a one-time purchase means no recurring bill. But if you want an app that actively helps you prioritize instead of just storing your list, carries unfinished work forward automatically, and works whether your circle is on iPhone, Android, or both, TASKn is built for exactly that.

The best way to know which fits your actual workflow is to try TASKn’s free tier for a week and see whether an app that thinks with you beats one you have to think for.

Get TASKn:
App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/taskn-ai-to-do-list-planner/id6478837256
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.taskn.mobile