Comparison

First Thingy vs Garden

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

First Thingy

Features
Read full description

Most productivity apps give you more ways to make longer lists. One Thing gives you one task. Set the one thing that matters most right now. Work on it. When you're done, mark it complete. If you give up, you have to say why — in your own words, saved permanently. That's it. Why only one task? Because you can only do one thing at a time anyway. The list is the lie. One Thing removes the lie. Why must you explain yourself? Because excuses are easy when no one is watching. One Thing is watching. Not to judge — to help you see the patterns you hide from yourself. The Honest Record Every task you've set, completed, or abandoned lives here. No editing. No deleting. Just the truth about how you spend your time and attention. Features: • Set one active task at a time — enforced • Abandoning requires a written explanation • Permanent honest record of all your tasks • Daily reminder at a time you choose • Light and dark mode • No account needed, no cloud sync, no tracking Your data stays on your device. Always.

About

Garden

This app offers a minimalist approach to note-taking and mindfulness. It features quick note capture, a single daily task reminder, and a calming visual experience to encourage presence and reduce digital distraction.

Highlights
  • Quick-capture notes with custom categories
  • Single daily task checkbox with confetti reward
  • Calming wheat field visualization
  • No notifications or streaks
  • Offline note storage
  • iCloud sync across Apple devices
  • Markdown export
Features
Read full description

Garden is a quiet iPhone app for presence and clarity. It does three things, and only three things: — Quick-capture notes, organized by the categories you create. A grocery list, a half-formed thought, a thing your kid said, an idea for a side project. Pick a category, type, hit add. — A single daily checkbox: "I did the one thing today." When you check it, you get a small burst of confetti, a soft haptic, and permission to put your phone down. — A wheat field on the Calm tab. Eighty blades, gently swaying. Watch it for ten seconds and remember why any of this matters. That is the whole app. What Garden won't do • No notifications. Garden never asks for your attention. • No streaks. No "you're on a 7-day roll." Streaks are anxiety machines dressed as motivation. • No badges, red dots, or "come back" prompts. • No social features. Garden is yours. Nothing leaves your phone unless you choose to share it. • No accounts, no tracking, no telemetry. Sign in to iCloud and that's it. Where your notes live • On your iPhone, in a real local database — works offline, persists through restarts. • In your iCloud, synced automatically across your signed-in Apple devices. • Available as a markdown file you can export anytime, to anywhere — Files, iCloud Drive, email, AirDrop. A portable copy you own outright. Three layers, each protecting against a different way you might lose them. None of them ours. Designed for fewer minutes, not more Garden is built on the belief that the best phone app is the one you can put down. The aesthetic is calm: cream paper, sage ink, an Instrument Serif word here and there. Spring animations that feel hand-tuned. Haptics on the moments that matter. No dopamine loops. If you check the one thing and close the app, Garden has done its job. Privacy Garden does not collect, transmit, or sell any data. Your notes sync only through your own iCloud account. Garden has no servers, no analytics, and no third-party SDKs. The privacy nutrition label says "Data Not Collected" because nothing is collected. Read more in the Settings tab and at the privacy URL below. For who Garden is a personal tool. It was built for one person and is shared with friends. Made with care, on iPhone, with SwiftUI and SwiftData.

Screenshots

First Thingy4 screens
Garden1 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is iOS requirement: First Thingy at 15.1 against Garden's 17.6. On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
First Thingy versus Garden: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFirst ThingyGarden
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings—1 — better
Update frequency—Weekly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
Monetization—Free
DevicesiPhone, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.1 — better17.6
Further details — not scored
Size36 MB1 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperANTON KENT GUNNAR KARLSSONChad Stewart

In-app purchases

None

First Thingy

No in-app purchases

None

Garden

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is First Thingy free?
First Thingy is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Garden free?
Garden is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do First Thingy or Garden have ads?
Neither First Thingy nor Garden shows ads.

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