Comparison

Things 3 vs Rootsie

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

Rootsie

This app helps you manage home maintenance tasks with customizable reminders, cost tracking, and contractor information. It allows for household sharing and ensures your data remains private.

Highlights
  • Customizable recurring reminders
  • Task scheduling and rescheduling
  • Cost tracking per property and task
  • Contractor contact and rating storage
  • Household sharing and syncing
  • Data export to CSV
  • Privacy-first design with no tracking or ads
Features
Read full description

Your home runs on a hundred little tasks. Rootsie remembers all of them. Furnace filters, gutter cleaning, smoke detector batteries, deck staining, HVAC service, pest control — the work never stops, and it's almost impossible to keep in your head. Rootsie is a home maintenance tracker that reminds you what's due, records what you spent, and remembers who did the work — for one home or several, on your own or with your whole household. NEVER MISS A MAINTENANCE TASK - Set up recurring reminders on any schedule — weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually, or a custom interval like "every 3 months" or "every 2 years" - Set custom notifications to remind you before something's due - See what's overdue, scheduled, or done at a glance - Skip or reschedule tasks when life gets in the way TRACK WHAT YOU SPEND - Log the cost of every completed task - See total spending per property and per task - Export your full cost history as a CSV — perfect for taxes, insurance claims, or selling your home - Build a real maintenance record that actually tells you where the money goes REMEMBER WHO DID THE WORK - Save your plumber, electrician, HVAC tech, landscaper, handyman — anyone you'd call again - Store name, company, phone, and email in one tap-to-call list - Assign contractors to completed tasks so you always know who replaced the water heater two years ago - Rate the work so you remember who to call back ... and who not to SHARE IT WITH YOUR HOUSEHOLD - Turn on Family Sharing to invite the people you live with into a shared home, so everyone can keep up with what's due - Sign in with Apple to sync your homes across all your devices and pick up right where you left off - Family Sharing is completely optional — invite only the people you trust YOUR DATA STAYS YOURS Rootsie is built privacy-first: - No tracking, no analytics, no ads — ever - Device-first by default: skip Shared Workspaces and everything stays on your device, with no account required and nothing sent to our servers - Turn on Shared Workspaces only if you want it — then your homes sync securely so you can share them - Full data export anytime, so you're never locked in FREE TO USE Track 1 home, up to 10 home tasks, and unlimited contractors — free, forever. No trial, no subscription. You can even join a shared home someone else set up at no cost. ROOTSIE PRO — $19.99, ONE TIME - Unlimited properties (rentals, vacation homes, parents' place) - Unlimited tasks and reminders - Shared Workspace for your whole household - iOS Home Screen widgets - One lifetime purchase. No subscription. Forever. Whether you own one home or several — and whether you manage it solo or with your household — Rootsie turns the mental load of homeownership into a quiet, organized record you can rely on.

Screenshots

Things 34 screens
Rootsie4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Rootsie at Free against Things 3's $9.99. Things 3's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and ratings volume (28K vs 2). On rating, update cadence, 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

Rootsie is free to download; Things 3 costs $9.99 up front. Rootsie sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Things 3 asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Rootsie holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Things 3 has 28K ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Things 3 ships an update every 11 days, Rootsie every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 2, 2026 and October 17, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 6 level
Things 3 versus Rootsie: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterThings 3Rootsie
Price$9.99Free — better
Rating4.8 (28K ratings)5.0 (2 ratings) — better
Positive reviews76.5% of reviews—
Number of ratings28K — better2
Update frequencyEvery 11 days — betterEvery 2 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFree with in-app purchases — better
Best chart rank#4 — better—
DevicesiPhone, Apple WatchiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS16.416.4
Further details — not scored
Size120 MB72 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperCultured Code GmbH & Co. KGChristopher Lowcher

Customer experience

Things 3

All ratings28,060 ratings
Positive96.1%
Neutral1.7%
Negative2.2%
Written reviews1,895 reviews
Positive76.5%
Neutral8.4%
Negative15.1%

Rootsie

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

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

Rootsie

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Things 3

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Rootsie

One-time1
  • Rootsie Pro$19.99

Questions

Is Things 3 free?
Things 3 costs $9.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Rootsie free?
Rootsie is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Things 3 or Rootsie?
Rootsie is rated higher. Things 3 averages 4.8 out of 5 from 28K ratings, while Rootsie averages 5.0 from 2 ratings.
Do Things 3 or Rootsie have ads?
Neither Things 3 nor Rootsie shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Things 3 or Rootsie?
Things 3 ships an update every 11 days, and Rootsie every 2 weeks. Most recently, Things 3 was updated on November 2, 2026 and Rootsie on October 17, 2026.

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