Comparison

Things 3 for iPad vs Nirvana for GTD

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

Head to head
About

Things 3 for iPad

This app helps you organize your life by planning your day, managing projects, and tracking progress toward your goals. It offers a user-friendly interface to get tasks organized quickly, from daily routines to long-term aspirations.

Highlights
  • To-Do management
  • Project planning with headings
  • Area organization
  • Today and Upcoming task views
  • Reminders and repeaters
  • Calendar integration
  • Tagging and filtering
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 locate to-dos, headings, or tags. • Type Travel — jump from list to list with your keyboard; just start typing! • 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 IPAD Things is tailored to the iPad, with excellent pro features as well. Chief among them is the outstanding support for your keyboard & trackpad. You can edit your to-dos without touching the screen, utilize plenty of shortcuts, and navigate your lists at blistering speed—just start typing! “Things has the best implementation of external keyboard support I’ve ever seen in an iPad app.” —Federico Viticci, MacStories You can also enjoy a beautiful dark mode at sunset, connect your calendars, open multiple windows, add a variety of widgets, scribble with Apple Pencil, 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. 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, iPhone, Apple Watch, 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

Nirvana for GTD

This app helps you capture, organize, and focus on your to-dos using the Getting Things Done methodology. It offers a flexible system to manage tasks without pressure, ensuring nothing gets missed across all your devices.

Highlights
  • Capture to-dos instantly
  • Organize with Projects, Areas, and Tags
  • Focus on what matters now
  • Smart views (Next, Scheduled, Someday)
  • Cross-device synchronization
  • Flexible and pressure-free system
Features
Read full description

Inspired by Getting Things Done®, Nirvana is your trusted space to capture all your to-dos, organize with intention, and focus on what matters right now. Ever feel like you're juggling too much? Nirvana offers a gentle, flexible way to get things done—no pressure, no clutter, no guilt. Here's how it works • Capture to-dos as they pop up • Clarify what needs doing and what can wait • Organize using Projects, Areas, and Tags • Review regularly to stay on track • Engage with what's most important right now Smart views that help you focus • Next — things you can do anytime • Scheduled — to do in the future • Someday — ideas on the back burner Everything stays in sync across your devices, so you can check in whenever, wherever. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - "Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them." — David Allen Whether you're balancing work, creative projects, family life, or all of the above, Nirvana frees your mind with the confidence that everything is captured and nothing gets missed. "It's by far the best GTD app I have used (and I've tried them all!)." — Damian Surr - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Questions, suggestions, or want to learn more?  Visit https://www.nirvanahq.com or email us at support@nirvanahq.com - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - GTD® and Getting Things Done® are registered trademarks of the David Allen Company. Nirvana is not affiliated with or endorsed by the David Allen Company. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Apple's Standard EULA is here: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Nirvana for GTD4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Nirvana for GTD at Free against Things 3 for iPad's $19.99. Nirvana for GTD also leads on device support (4 vs 1). Things 3 for iPad's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 5) and rating (4.9 vs 4.5). On review sentiment, ads 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

Nirvana for GTD is free to download; Things 3 for iPad costs $19.99 up front. Nirvana for GTD sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Things 3 for iPad asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Things 3 for iPad holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Things 3 for iPad has 12K ratings behind it against 285, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 79% of Things 3 for iPad's written reviews are positive against 75% of Nirvana for GTD's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Things 3 for iPad ships an update every 8 days, Nirvana for GTD every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 27, 2026 and October 23, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Things 3 for iPad versus Nirvana for GTD: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterThings 3 for iPadNirvana for GTD
Price$19.99Free — better
Rating4.9 (12K ratings) — better4.5 (285 ratings)
Positive reviews79.4% of reviews — better75.4% of reviews
Number of ratings12K — better285
Update frequencyEvery 8 days — betterEvery 2 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFree with in-app purchases — better
DevicesiPadiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better
Requires iOS16.415.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size66 MB41 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperCultured Code GmbH & Co. KGNirvanahq

Customer experience

Things 3 for iPad

All ratings11,820 ratings
Positive97.7%
Neutral1.2%
Negative1.1%
Written reviews816 reviews
Positive79.4%
Neutral8.1%
Negative12.5%

Nirvana for GTD

All ratings283 ratings
Positive87.6%
Neutral2.8%
Negative9.5%
Written reviews191 reviews
Positive75.4%
Neutral8.9%
Negative15.7%

User reviews

Things 3 for iPad

From 12K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Efficient and intuitive
  • 👍 Clean and simple interface
  • 🔋 Helps stay organized and productive
  • 💡 Excellent for GTD workflow
  • 🚀 Seamless syncing across devices

Room to improve

  • 💰 Expensive for full ecosystem
  • 🔒 No end-to-end encryption for sync
  • 🔍 Limited filtering and sorting options
  • 🔍 Repeating tasks could be improved

Nirvana for GTD

From 285 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Fantastic app
  • 👍 Best GTD app
  • 👍 Simple and clean interface
  • 👍 Excellent GTD implementation
  • 👍 Great for organizing tasks

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Sync issues
  • 🐛 Recurring tasks don't work as expected
  • 🐛 Glitchy on iPad
  • 🐛 Slow performance
  • 🐛 Outdated UI

Bugs and requests

Things 3 for iPad

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Sync issues and data loss reported
  • Siri integration not working well in some languages

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add location-based reminders
  • Improve task prioritization and urgency indicators
  • Implement mass editing and batch actions
  • Introduce web app and Windows support

Nirvana for GTD

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Recurring tasks duplicating
  • Spam tasks appearing
  • App freezing or going blank
  • Sync issues causing data loss

Requested features

8 requests
  • iOS widgets
  • Calendar integration
  • Siri/IFTTT integration
  • Location-based reminders
  • Attachment support
Show 3 more
  • Improved multi-task editing
  • More frequent updates
  • Collaborative features

In-app purchases

None

Things 3 for iPad

No in-app purchases

5 purchases

Nirvana for GTD

Subscriptions3
  • Nirvana Pro$4.991 Month
  • Nirvana Pro$35.991 Year
  • Nirvana Pro7 Days trial$36.001 Year
One-time2
  • One Year Subscription$29.99
  • Lifetime Subscription$49.99

Questions

Is Things 3 for iPad free?
Things 3 for iPad costs $19.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Nirvana for GTD free?
Nirvana for GTD is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Things 3 for iPad or Nirvana for GTD?
Things 3 for iPad is rated higher. Things 3 for iPad averages 4.9 out of 5 from 12K ratings, while Nirvana for GTD averages 4.5 from 285 ratings.
Do Things 3 for iPad or Nirvana for GTD have ads?
Neither Things 3 for iPad nor Nirvana for GTD shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Things 3 for iPad or Nirvana for GTD?
Things 3 for iPad ships an update every 8 days, and Nirvana for GTD every 2 weeks. Most recently, Things 3 for iPad was updated on October 27, 2026 and Nirvana for GTD on October 23, 2026.

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