Things 3 vs Onyx Focus
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- To-Do management
- Project organization
- Area categorization
- Daily planning
- Reminders and repeaters
- Calendar integration
- Share extension
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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!
Onyx Focus
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Every app blocker lets you cheat. You delete it, or tap "ignore for today", and you're back in the feed. Onyx is the one you can't. Monk mode has no stop button and freezes your app list, so you can't delete your way out until the timer ends. Pick your apps and websites once, then block them right now, on a weekly schedule, or in Pomodoro rounds. When you open a blocked app, a calm shield stands in the way and sends you back to what matters. BLOCK NOW Choose a duration from 15 minutes to 10 hours and start. The apps stay blocked until the timer runs out. Monk mode makes it strict: no stopping early, no deleting apps, until it ends. SCHEDULES Workday, Night, Weekend, or your own days and hours, overnight included. Onyx blocks automatically every week, even when the app is closed. POMODORO Focus in rounds, rest in between. Apps are blocked while you work and free on your breaks, with a notification at every switch. ALWAYS ALLOWED The apps you really need stay usable, even inside a blocked category. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No account, no server, no tracking. Everything runs on your iPhone through the Screen Time system built into iOS. Onyx cannot even see which apps you chose. FAIR PRICE Try everything free for 7 days. Then one fair yearly price, or pay once and keep it forever. Cancel anytime in your Apple ID settings. Onyx needs the Screen Time permission, which iOS asks for on first launch. It blocks apps on this iPhone, for you, not for managing someone else's device. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://onyxfocus.app/privacy
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Onyx Focus at Free against Things 3's $9.99. Onyx Focus also leads on update cadence (every 2 days vs fortnightly). Things 3's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 3) and chart position (#3 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
Onyx Focus is free to download; Things 3 costs $9.99 up front. Onyx Focus sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Things 3 asks for nothing beyond the download.
Things 3 ships an update fortnightly, Onyx Focus every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on September 28, 2026 and September 10, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Things 3 | Onyx Focus |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $9.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.8 (28K ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 76.3% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 28K — better | — |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | Every 2 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Paid | — |
| Best chart rank | #3 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, Apple Watch — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 16.4 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 118 MB | 2 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Cultured Code GmbH & Co. KG | Ramona Furter |
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
Onyx Focus
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Things 3
No in-app purchases
Onyx Focus
- Onyx Pro Monthly$4.991 Month
- Onyx Pro Yearly7 Days trial$24.991 Year
- Onyx Pro Lifetime$99.99









