Comparison

Things 3 vs Vela

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, projects, and life areas, making it easy to focus on what matters.

Highlights
  • To-Do management
  • Project organization
  • Area categorization
  • Daily planning
  • Reminders and repeaters
  • Calendar integration
  • 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

Vela

Features
Read full description

Vela is a private mood tracker and reflection journal designed to help you understand how you feel, one check-in at a time. With Vela, you can quickly log your mood, add notes, record what influenced your emotions, and look back at your personal mood history. It gives you a calm, simple space to reflect without pressure, clutter, or unnecessary complexity. Whether you want to understand your emotions, keep a private mood diary, notice emotional patterns, or simply pause and reflect on your day, Vela helps you create a clearer picture of your wellbeing over time. Private by Design Your mood entries and reflections are personal. Vela is designed for private mood tracking, with your reflections kept on your device and available even offline. No cloud account is required to start reflecting. Key Features Mood Tracking Log how you feel in seconds with a simple mood check-in. Add emotions, tags, notes, and context so each entry captures more than just a mood. Reflection Journal Use Vela as a private space to write about your day, your thoughts, and what affected how you felt. Keep reflections short or detailed — it is entirely up to you. Mood History Look back at your previous mood entries and see how your emotions change over time. Your timeline helps you understand your personal emotional patterns. Mood Insights Review simple mood insights based on your check-ins, including emotional trends, common tags, and recurring patterns in your reflections. Gentle Reminders Set optional reminders to check in with yourself. Vela reminders are designed to be calm and flexible, helping you pause when it feels right. Personalisation Make Vela feel like your own private reflection space with calming backgrounds, expressive emoji packs, and a warm visual style. Badges & Milestones Celebrate small reflection milestones as you continue using Vela. Badges are designed to encourage consistency without turning the app into a habit tracker. Privacy Lock Keep your personal reflections protected with privacy features such as app lock, passcode, or biometric access where supported. Vela Plus Upgrade to Vela Plus to unlock premium personalisation and deeper reflection features, including advanced mood insights, premium backgrounds, expressive emoji packs, and more ways to customise your private mood journal. Why Vela? Vela is designed to feel calm, private, and easy to use. It does not try to diagnose, treat, or overwhelm you. Instead, it helps you pause, name how you feel, and understand your emotional patterns over time. Use Vela to: Track your daily mood Keep a private mood journal Record emotions and mood tags Add notes to your check-ins Review your mood history Notice emotional patterns Reflect on your day Set optional mood reminders Personalise your journal space Keep reflections private and offline Perfect For Vela is useful if you are looking for: Mood tracker Mood journal Mood diary Emotion tracker Feelings tracker Daily reflection app Private journal Offline journal Self-awareness app Mood log Wellness journal Mindfulness journal Reflection journal Emotional wellbeing app Start With One Mood Check-In You do not need to write a long journal entry to understand yourself better. Sometimes, one small mood check-in is enough. Vela helps you pause, reflect, and return to your day with a little more clarity. Start tracking your mood privately with Vela today. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://vela.blumint.app/#privacy

Screenshots

Things 34 screens
Vela4 screens

Verdict

The call

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

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

Scorecard3 real differences · 8 level
Things 3 versus Vela: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterThings 3Vela
Price$9.99Free — better
Rating4.8 (28K ratings) — better—
Positive reviews76.5% of reviews—
Number of ratings28K — better—
Update frequencyFortnightly—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaid—
Best chart rank#4 — better—
DevicesiPhone, Apple WatchiPhone, iPod
Requires iOS16.415.1 — better
Further details — not scored
Size120 MB83 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperCultured Code GmbH & Co. KGBlumint Digital

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

Vela

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Things 3

No in-app purchases

3 purchases

Vela

Subscriptions2
  • vela Plus$2.991 Month
  • vela Plus$19.991 Year
One-time1
  • vela Plus$39.99

Questions

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

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