Comparison

Things 3 for iPad vs Handled

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

Handled

Features
Read full description

Handled (formerly Zephr) is a calm, private daily planner that brings your tasks, notes, calendar, and habits into one beautiful place — and works fully offline, on every Apple device. No account required. Everything lives on your device by default. Sign in only if you want to sync across iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch. — PLAN YOUR DAY — • A single Today view: your next meeting up front with a live countdown and one-tap Join, the rest of the day stacked neatly behind it. • Browse any day, jump back to today in a tap. • Tasks with folders, due dates, reminders, subtasks, and drag-to-reorder — overdue tasks reschedule in one tap. • Habits to build the routines that matter. — NOTES THAT DO MORE — • A rich, Notion-style editor: headings, checklists, quotes, code, and drag-to-reorder blocks. • Turn a checklist item into a real task automatically. • Record a voice note and get a clean, on-device AI summary — overview, action items, and key points. Your audio never leaves your device. — MEETINGS, HANDLED — • Meeting notes with transcripts, summaries, and proposed follow-up tasks you approve. • Connect the tools you already use — Fathom, Fireflies, Granola — and their meeting notes flow in automatically. • Import your tasks and pages from Todoist and Notion. — YOUR CALENDAR, CONNECTED — • Two-way sync with your device calendar and Google Calendar. • Day and week views, a fast month picker, and your meetings right on the Today screen. — ON EVERY SCREEN — • Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets: today's schedule, the date, a today + tomorrow agenda, a morning summary, and your to-dos. • A Live Activity that counts down your next meeting on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island — and rolls to your next task when you're free. • An Apple Watch app for your day at a glance. — PROFILES — • Keep Work, Personal, and Freelance separate. Switch context in a tap and see only what's relevant. — PRIVATE BY DESIGN — • Local-first: your planner works with no account and no network. • Voice transcription and AI summaries run entirely on-device. • If you choose to sync, your data goes only to your own private account — never sold, never used for tracking. — HANDLED PRO — Handled is free to use on a single device. Handled Pro unlocks secure cloud sync across all your devices and meeting-tool connections. • Monthly or yearly subscription with a free trial. • Subscriptions auto-renew unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the period; manage or cancel anytime in your App Store account settings. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://myhandled.app/privacy Consider it handled.

Screenshots

Handled4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Handled at Free against Things 3 for iPad's $19.99. Handled also leads on update cadence (every 3 days vs every 10 days) and device support (4 vs 1). Things 3 for iPad's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 2) and iOS requirement (16.4 vs 18.0). On ads 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

Handled is free to download; Things 3 for iPad costs $19.99 up front. Handled sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. Things 3 for iPad asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Things 3 for iPad ships an update every 10 days, Handled every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and August 9, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Things 3 for iPad versus Handled: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterThings 3 for iPadHandled
Price$19.99Free — better
Rating4.9 (12K ratings) — better—
Positive reviews79.4% of reviews—
Number of ratings12K — better—
Update frequencyEvery 10 daysEvery 3 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaid—
DevicesiPadiPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch — better
Requires iOS16.4 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size65 MB32 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperCultured Code GmbH & Co. KGAkhil Krishnan

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

Handled

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Things 3 for iPad

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

Handled

Subscriptions2
  • Zephr Pro (Monthly)7 Days trial$3.991 Month
  • Zephr Pro (Monthly)7 Days trial$24.991 Year

Questions

Is Things 3 for iPad free?
Things 3 for iPad costs $19.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Handled free?
Handled is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Things 3 for iPad or Handled have ads?
Neither Things 3 for iPad nor Handled shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Things 3 for iPad or Handled?
Things 3 for iPad ships an update every 10 days, and Handled every 3 days. Most recently, Things 3 for iPad was updated on September 24, 2026 and Handled on August 9, 2026.

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