Comparison

Things 3 vs ErgoShift

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

Head to head
About

Things 3

This app helps you organize your life by planning your day, managing projects, and tracking progress toward your goals. It offers a clean interface to manage tasks from daily routines to larger life ambitions.

Highlights
  • To-Do management
  • Project organization
  • Area categorization
  • Daily planning
  • Calendar integration
  • Reminders and repeaters
  • Share extension
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 find to-dos or switch between lists. • 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 IPHONE Things is tailored to the iPhone with deep system integrations as well. A great example is the Share extension, which allows you to create to-dos with content from other apps, such as a link to a website you want to get back to. You can also enjoy a beautiful dark mode at sunset, connect your calendars, add a variety of widgets, 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. MADE FOR APPLE WATCH Things comes with a great app for Apple Watch. Just raise your wrist to glance at your Today list, mark to-dos complete as you go, and dictate new ones on the fly—all synced instantly with your iPhone, iPad, and Mac. 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, iPad, 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!

About

ErgoShift

Features
Read full description

ErgoShift is a focus timer for people whose day has a shape. You lay out a shift once — settle in, deep work, stand up and drink, whatever your day actually looks like — and then you just walk down it. Each stage knows how long it lasts. When one ends, you hear it, even with the phone locked and the screen dark. THE RAIL A shift is a line of stages with your own names, emoji and durations. Drag them into order, repeat the whole shift if it comes round again (Pro), and start. The rail shows where you are without you having to think about it. BOUNDARIES YOU ACTUALLY NOTICE The end of a stage arrives as a sound you choose, with a 3-2-1 countdown before it, and a Live Activity on the Lock Screen counts the stage down while you work. No need to keep the app on screen. (The Lock Screen card follows your stages once you sign in with Apple.) APPS THAT STAY SHUT WHILE YOU WORK Pick the apps and categories that pull you away. They are shielded during work stages and open again the moment a break begins — nothing to remember, nothing to switch off. The choice is made with Apple's own picker, and the app never learns which apps you picked. BREATHING, WHEN IT IS TOO MUCH Two minutes of paced breathing, one tap away. It stops the shift and unblocks everything first, with no confirmation and no penalty. It is free forever, in every version — a calming exercise, not medical care. MUSIC UNDER THE WORK Attach an Apple Music playlist to work stages. It starts with the work and stops when the break does. (Pro. Needs an Apple Music subscription.) ON THE HOME SCREEN Widgets show the running stage, start a shift you pick in one tap, and put the breathing a tap away. (Pro.) FREE, AND PRO As many shifts as you like, as many stages in each, app blocking, your whole history, and every stage boundary of a running shift — free forever. So is the SOS breathing itself: help is never behind a paywall. ErgoShift Pro adds repetitions above one, shifts linked inside shifts, your Apple Music playlists under work stages, and the home-screen widgets. Pro is an auto-renewing subscription, offered monthly and yearly. Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase, and it renews automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the period ends. Manage or cancel any time in Settings — your name — Subscriptions. Pro pays for the server that keeps your boundaries arriving while the app sleeps. Privacy Policy: https://ergo-shift.app/privacy Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Things 34 screens
ErgoShift4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: ErgoShift at Free against Things 3's $9.99. Things 3's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 2) and chart position (#4 vs unranked). On ads 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

ErgoShift is free to download; Things 3 costs $9.99 up front. ErgoShift sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Things 3 asks for nothing beyond the download.

Scorecard4 real differences · 7 level
Things 3 versus ErgoShift: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterThings 3ErgoShift
Price$9.99Free — better
Rating4.8 (28K ratings) — better—
Positive reviews76.5% of reviews—
Number of ratings28K — better—
Update frequencyEvery 11 days—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaid—
Best chart rank#4 — better—
DevicesiPhone, Apple Watch — betteriPhone
Requires iOS16.4 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size120 MB52 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperCultured Code GmbH & Co. KGEvgenii Timofeev

Bugs and requests

Things 3

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Sync issues between devices
  • Occasional crashes or freezes

Requested features

5 requests
  • Ability to collapse headings and projects
  • Location-based reminders
  • Two-way calendar sync
  • Shared task lists
  • Customizable alert sounds

ErgoShift

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Things 3

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

ErgoShift

Subscriptions2
  • Ergo shift PRO monthly$2.991 Month
  • Ergo shift PRO yearly$29.991 Year

Questions

Is Things 3 free?
Things 3 costs $9.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is ErgoShift free?
ErgoShift is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Things 3 or ErgoShift have ads?
Neither Things 3 nor ErgoShift shows ads.

Other comparisons