Comparison

Things 3 vs Orbit

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

Orbit

Features
Read full description

Track habits and routines at your own pace. Orbit shows what needs your attention today, from daily habits to yearly reminders, without streak pressure. Choose how often you want to do something. Orbit uses your check-ins to work out how you're keeping up and gives you a focused shortlist for today. ROUTINES THAT FIT REAL LIFE Set daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, or custom rhythms. Keep the gym, reading, changing the sheets, calling family, and occasional life admin together. LOG TIMES OR MINUTES Track how often you do something or how much time you spend. Three workouts a week and 180 minutes of reading can live in the same list. SEE WHAT NEEDS YOU TODAY Find the routines that need attention now. Everything else stays in Later until it matters. PROGRESS WITHOUT STREAKS See your history and how your pace changes over time. Miss a day and keep going, with no streak counter to reset. REMEMBER LAST TIME Add a useful note to a check-in, then see it again when the routine needs your attention. Keep the detail you would otherwise forget. QUIET REMINDERS Choose reminders for occasional routines or a daily summary of what needs attention. YOUR ROUTINES, YOUR DATA No Orbit account is required. Routines are stored on your device and can sync through your iCloud. Anonymous usage analytics help improve the app without collecting routine names or the notes you write. ORBIT PRO Ongoing routine management and logging require Orbit Pro. See the plans, prices, and any eligible trial in the app before purchasing. If access expires, your routines and history remain available to read. Some routines aren't daily. Orbit paces the rest. Terms of Use: https://orbithabits.lovable.app/terms Privacy Policy: https://orbithabits.lovable.app/privacy

Screenshots

Things 34 screens
Orbit4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Orbit at Free against Things 3's $9.99. Orbit also leads on update cadence (every 5 days vs fortnightly). Things 3's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 3) and chart position (#3 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

Orbit is free to download; Things 3 costs $9.99 up front. Orbit sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Things 3 asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Things 3 ships an update fortnightly, Orbit every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 22, 2026 and October 1, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 6 level
Things 3 versus Orbit: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterThings 3Orbit
Price$9.99Free — better
Rating4.8 (28K ratings) — better—
Positive reviews76.5% of reviews—
Number of ratings28K — better—
Update frequencyFortnightlyEvery 5 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaid—
Best chart rank#3 — better—
DevicesiPhone, Apple Watch — betteriPhone
Requires iOS16.4 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size120 MB19 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperCultured Code GmbH & Co. KGAkram Saouri

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

Orbit

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Things 3

No in-app purchases

3 purchases

Orbit

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly$4.991 Month
  • Yearly3 Days trial$19.991 Year
One-time1
  • Lifetime$49.99

Questions

Is Things 3 free?
Things 3 costs $9.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Orbit free?
Orbit is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Things 3 or Orbit have ads?
Neither Things 3 nor Orbit shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Things 3 or Orbit?
Things 3 ships an update fortnightly, and Orbit every 5 days. Most recently, Things 3 was updated on October 22, 2026 and Orbit on October 1, 2026.

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