Zero-Friction Tasks vs. Things 3

The Honest Trade-Off

Things 3 is one of the best-designed productivity apps ever shipped. Its planning model — Today, Upcoming, Anytime, Someday, plus Areas and Projects — is a thoughtful interpretation of Getting Things Done. The animations are crisp, the typography is considered, the whole product feels like furniture. If you are an Apple-only user with money to spend and a deep planning practice, Things 3 will be a better fit than Zero-Friction Tasks on those axes.

Most people are not Apple-only and do not have a deep planning practice. They have a list of things to do, a Windows machine at work, and an iPhone in their pocket. For that profile, Zero-Friction Tasks beats Things 3 on every practical axis. The rest of this page is the detail.

The Price Gap

Things 3 uses a premium one-time pricing model: $9.99 for iPhone, $19.99 for iPad, $49.99 for Mac. Buying the full suite costs $79.97 — and that is per-platform, not per-user, so a family with multiple Macs effectively pays again. There is no upgrade pricing across major versions; Things 4 will be a separate purchase whenever it ships.

Zero-Friction Tasks is €0 forever for 50 tasks, 3 lists, and 3 active reminders — the typical level of usage for a personal todo list. If you outgrow that, Pro is €5.99/month or €49/year — meaning you pay annually only if you actively use the unlimited features, and you can stop paying without losing access to the free tier.

For users who want polished software and have a Mac-only workflow, $79 once is a reasonable price for a tool you use every day. For everyone else, free is hard to beat.

Apple-Only Versus Cross-Platform

Things 3 is the most platform-restricted of any major task manager. It runs on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. There is no Windows version, no Android version, no web version, no Linux version. If you want to glance at your tasks during a meeting on your work Windows PC, you cannot. If your family uses Android, they cannot share a list with you.

This is not an accident of resource constraints — Cultured Code has deliberately stayed Apple-only since Things 1 in 2008. The integration depth (Shortcuts, Focus, Reminders import) requires it. But the cost is real: every year of using Things 3 is a year of inability to use the same task system across the devices you actually have.

Zero-Friction Tasks runs natively on iPhone, Android, Windows (with Alt+Space global hotkey), macOS (Apple Silicon), and the Web. Same data, same UX, same sync code on every platform. If you ever switch jobs and get handed a Windows laptop, your list comes with you.

The Sync Question

Things 3 uses Things Cloud — Cultured Code's own sync service tied to your Things account. It is reliable, encrypted in transit, and stored on their servers. Like most operator-key systems, Cultured Code holds the keys; their staff can technically read your data if required for support or legal compliance.

Zero-Friction Tasks uses AES-256 end-to-end encryption with a zero-knowledge architecture. Your sync code never leaves your devices. The server stores ciphertext it cannot decrypt. For task content that touches health, finances, work projects, or relationships, this matters.

See the encryption deep dive for the technical detail.

Design Philosophy

Things 3 optimizes for considered planning. The UI rewards opening the app, looking at Today, reviewing Upcoming, and deliberately scheduling work into time slots. It is a Getting Things Done practice manifested as an app, and for people who run that practice it is sublime.

Zero-Friction Tasks optimizes for fast capture. The premise is that the moment of remembering a task is the most fragile moment in personal productivity — if capture takes more than a few seconds, the task gets dropped. Alt+Space on Windows, lock-screen widgets on iOS, and the no-account onboarding all serve that single goal: get the thought into the list before you forget it.

These are different products for different users. Things 3 is a planning tool that happens to capture tasks. Zero-Friction Tasks is a capture tool that happens to support light planning.

Migrating From Things 3

Things 3 supports export to text and via the iCloud-backed sync database. Practical migration: pick the Areas and Projects you actually use, copy the active task text into a corresponding Zero-Friction Tasks list, leave the rest behind. Most people find that "Areas" collapse cleanly into "Lists" and that Today/Upcoming distinctions become "pinned vs. unpinned" in Zero-Friction Tasks.

The pragmatic test: try Zero-Friction Tasks for a week on whichever device you use most often. Keep Things 3 installed in parallel — it is paid software, you might as well get the value. After seven days you will know whether the simpler model is enough.

When Things 3 Is Still the Right Choice

Three concrete cases where Zero-Friction Tasks will not serve you and Things 3 will: (1) you exclusively use Apple devices and have no foreseeable Windows or Android requirement; (2) you run a deep GTD planning practice with Areas, Projects, Today/Upcoming reviews, and you genuinely use those distinctions; (3) you place high value on app craftsmanship and visual polish in your daily tools and are willing to pay for it.

For everyone else — especially anyone who has ever wished their iPhone tasks were also on a Windows PC, or anyone who has paused on the $79 price tag — Zero-Friction Tasks is the simpler answer.