Comparison

Notepad+ Pro vs Things 3 for iPad

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

Head to head
About

Notepad+ Pro

This app transforms your iPad into a digital notebook for taking notes, sketching, and annotating documents. It offers a variety of templates, editing tools, and export options to enhance productivity and creativity.

Highlights
  • Take notes and sketch digitally
  • Annotate PDFs and other files
  • Organize notes on virtual boards
  • Password protection for notes
  • Export notes in PDF or image format
  • Customizable templates
  • Apple Pencil support with palm rejection
Read full description

Fully optimized for iPad Pro and Apple Pencil! Notepad+ is pen and paper right on your iPad exactly when you need them. Take notes, draw, make sketches, annotate PDFs, create lists and memos, export your notes, and discover other great features. From now on you can be more productive than ever! CREATE & ANNOTATE - Take notes in lectures, seminars, business meetings, and conferences - Аnotate and edit files in various formats: PDF, Excel, Keynote, Numbers and more - Organize notes on a virtual board - Quickly assign a unique title to each note - Change the template of any note in seconds - Protect sensitive notes with a password - Always pick up where you left off with the autosave feature CUSTOMIZE & EDIT - Move images easily from other apps using iOS 11 Drag and Drop - Choose your template from 8 template galleries (Basic, Education, Lifestyle, Business, Sports, Games, Photo Frames, Music) - Enjoy the editing options you're used to: easily cut, copy and paste any content - Make the most of ink pens, highlighters and colors for true handwriting experience - Enlarge parts on your screen to better see words and images with Magnification Tool - Zoom in and out to pay attention to details while sketching or drawing - Add photos to make your notes more visually appealing - Use helpful Icons, funny smileys and add text next to them to make your notes more catchy and emotional - Hide sensitive content with a single tap using Blur - Reorganize your notes with a drag-and-drop gesture, sort them by date created or modified - Use the iPad keyboard to type your notes - Experience all the advantages of maximum portability when using Smart Keyboard for iPad Pro - Use your finger or stylus when writing or drawing - Use Apple Pencil to create sketches or take notes without accidental marks or blots applying palm rejection function - Adjust the palm rest to prevent marks - Photo extension: mark up images right in your iPad's Photos app, use pens and highlighters to add notes and captions easily. - Create notes by importing and editing files in numerous formats: Excel (.xls), Keynote (.key), Numbers (.numbers), Pages (.pages), PDF (.pdf), Powerpoint (.ppt), Word (.doc), Rich Text Format (.rtf), Rich Text Format Directory (.rtfd), Keynote ’09 (.key), Numbers ‘09 (.numbers), Pages ‘09 (.pages) EXPORT & SHARE - Share a page or the whole notebook - Select a format (PDF or image) for better manageability - Email, print, save to Photos or iTunes - Use the Quick Search to find important notes in an instance GET 24/7 SUPPORT - Ask questions about the app and get immediate help with managing your notes - just contact us at support@apalon.com Notepad+ gives you the best of a digital notebook, all in one place. AdChoices: http://www.apalon.com/privacy_policy.html#4 For complete access to all Notepad+ features, you will need to allow access to the following: *Photos – so you can import your snapshots, mark them up, and save them. *Camera – so you can take photos and edit them within the app. *Contacts – so you can add them to documents and email your notes.

About

Things 3 for iPad

This app helps you organize your life by planning your day, managing projects, and tracking progress toward your goals. It offers a user-friendly interface to get tasks organized quickly, from daily routines to long-term aspirations.

Highlights
  • To-Do management
  • Project planning with headings
  • Area organization
  • Today and Upcoming task views
  • Reminders and repeaters
  • Calendar integration
  • Tagging and filtering
Features
Read full description

Get things done! The award-winning Things app helps you plan your day, manage your projects, and make real progress toward your goals. Best of all, it’s easy to use. Within the hour, you’ll have everything off your mind and neatly organized—from routine tasks to your biggest life goals—and you can start focusing on what matters today. “Things offers the best combination of design and functionality of any app we tested, with nearly all the features of other power user applications and a delightful interface that never gets in the way of your work.” —Wirecutter, The New York Times KEY FEATURES • Your To-Dos Your basic building block is the almighty To-Do—each a small step toward a great accomplishment. You can add notes, tag it, schedule it, and break it down into smaller steps. • Your Projects Create a Project for any big goal, then add the to-dos to reach it. Use headings to structure your list as you outline your plan. There’s also a place to jot down your notes, and a deadline to keep you on schedule. • Your Areas Create an Area for each sphere of your life, such as Work, Family, Finance, and so on. This keeps everything neatly organized, and helps you see the big picture as you set your plans in motion. • Your Plan Everything on your schedule is neatly laid out in the Today and Upcoming lists, which show your to-dos and calendar events. Each morning, see what you planned for Today and decide what you want to do. The rest is down to you :) MORE THINGS TO LOVE As you dive deeper, you’ll find Things packed with helpful features. Here are just a few: • Reminders — set a time and Things will remind you. • Repeaters — automatically repeat to-dos on a schedule you set. • This Evening — a special place for your evening plans. • Calendar integration — see your events and to-dos together. • Tags — categorize your to-dos and quickly filter lists. • Quick Find — instantly locate to-dos, headings, or tags. • Type Travel — jump from list to list with your keyboard; just start typing! • Magic Plus — drag the + button to insert to-dos anywhere in a list. • Share extension — create to-dos with content from other apps. • Widgets — see lists on your home/lock screens. • Mail to Things — forward an email to Things; now it’s a to-do. • Markdown — structure & style your notes. • And much more! MADE FOR IPAD Things is tailored to the iPad, with excellent pro features as well. Chief among them is the outstanding support for your keyboard & trackpad. You can edit your to-dos without touching the screen, utilize plenty of shortcuts, and navigate your lists at blistering speed—just start typing! “Things has the best implementation of external keyboard support I’ve ever seen in an iPad app.” —Federico Viticci, MacStories You can also enjoy a beautiful dark mode at sunset, connect your calendars, open multiple windows, add a variety of widgets, scribble with Apple Pencil, create to-dos via Siri, import from Reminders—Things can do it all! There’s even Shortcuts integration if you want to automate your workflows. AWARD-WINNING DESIGN Made in Stuttgart, with two Apple Design Awards to its name, Things is a fine example of German engineering: designed not only to look fantastic, but to be perfectly functional as well. Every detail is thoughtfully considered, then polished to perfection. “It’s like the unicorn of productivity tools: deep enough for serious work, surprisingly easy to use, and gorgeous enough to enjoy staring at.” —Apple GET THINGS TODAY Whatever it is you want to accomplish in life, Things can help you get there. Install the app today and see what you can do! • Things is also available for Mac, iPhone, Apple Watch, and Apple Vision Pro (sold separately). • Sync is provided for free via our Things Cloud service. • A free trial is available for Mac: www.things.app If you have any questions, please get in touch. We provide professional support and will be glad to help you!

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is monetization model: Notepad+ Pro at free against Things 3 for iPad's paid. Notepad+ Pro also leads on iOS requirement (8.0 vs 16.4). Things 3 for iPad's advantage is update cadence (every 10 days vs every 2 months) and rating (4.9 vs 4.6). On price, ratings volume, ads and in-app purchases 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

Notepad+ Pro costs $19.99 and Things 3 for iPad $19.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Things 3 for iPad holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.6. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 6.3K and 12K respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 61% of Notepad+ Pro's written reviews are positive against 79% of Things 3 for iPad's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Notepad+ Pro ships an update every 2 months, Things 3 for iPad every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on October 14, 2026 and October 12, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Notepad+ Pro versus Things 3 for iPad: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterNotepad+ ProThings 3 for iPad
Price$19.99$19.99
Rating4.6 (6.3K ratings)4.9 (12K ratings) — better
Positive reviews60.8% of reviews79.4% of reviews — better
Number of ratings6.3K12K — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 10 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree — betterPaid
DevicesiPadiPad
Requires iOS8.0 — better16.4
Further details — not scored
Size57 MB65 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMosaic S.r.l.Cultured Code GmbH & Co. KG

Customer experience

Notepad+ Pro

All ratings6,340 ratings
Positive90.3%
Neutral4.6%
Negative5.1%
Written reviews1,188 reviews
Positive60.8%
Neutral12.7%
Negative26.5%

Things 3 for iPad

All ratings11,793 ratings
Positive97.7%
Neutral1.2%
Negative1.1%
Written reviews815 reviews
Positive79.4%
Neutral8.1%
Negative12.5%

User reviews

Notepad+ Pro

From 6.3K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Easy to use
  • 👍 Useful templates
  • 🚀 Responsive with Apple Pencil
  • 👍 Great for note-taking and sketching
  • 👍 Versatile for various use cases

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Templates won't download
  • 🐛 Laggy or unresponsive writing experience
  • 🐛 Inability to organize notes into folders
  • 🐛 Limited color and pen options
  • 🐛 Compatibility issues with newer devices

Things 3 for iPad

From 12K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Efficient and intuitive
  • 👍 Clean and simple interface
  • 🔋 Helps stay organized and productive
  • 💡 Excellent for GTD workflow
  • 🚀 Seamless syncing across devices

Room to improve

  • 💰 Expensive for full ecosystem
  • 🔒 No end-to-end encryption for sync
  • 🔍 Limited filtering and sorting options
  • 🔍 Repeating tasks could be improved

Bugs and requests

Notepad+ Pro

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Frequent crashes or freezing
  • Disappearing or corrupted notes
  • Inability to open or export PDF files
  • Unresponsive or 'dead' areas on the screen
  • Inconsistent performance with Apple Pencil

Requested features

5 requests
  • Ability to create custom templates
  • Improved palm rejection and gesture support
  • Sync and backup capabilities across devices
  • More advanced text editing and formatting options
  • Conversion of handwritten notes to digital text

Things 3 for iPad

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Sync issues and data loss reported
  • Siri integration not working well in some languages

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add location-based reminders
  • Improve task prioritization and urgency indicators
  • Implement mass editing and batch actions
  • Introduce web app and Windows support

In-app purchases

None

Notepad+ Pro

No in-app purchases

None

Things 3 for iPad

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Notepad+ Pro free?
Notepad+ Pro costs $19.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Things 3 for iPad free?
Things 3 for iPad costs $19.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Notepad+ Pro or Things 3 for iPad?
Things 3 for iPad is rated higher. Notepad+ Pro averages 4.6 out of 5 from 6.3K ratings, while Things 3 for iPad averages 4.9 from 12K ratings.
Do Notepad+ Pro or Things 3 for iPad have ads?
Neither Notepad+ Pro nor Things 3 for iPad shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Notepad+ Pro or Things 3 for iPad?
Notepad+ Pro ships an update every 2 months, and Things 3 for iPad every 10 days. Most recently, Notepad+ Pro was updated on October 14, 2026 and Things 3 for iPad on October 12, 2026.

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