Todoist vs Things vs OmniFocus in 2026: Picking a Task App You Will Actually Open Tomorrow

A task manager is the most personal piece of software most knowledge workers own. The right one feels like an extension of memory, the wrong one becomes a graveyard of half-finished projects and ignored notifications. Todoist, Things 3, and OmniFocus 4 are the three apps that consistently top the conversation in 2026, and choosing between them has surprisingly little to do with feature lists. It has more to do with which philosophy of productivity you accept, how many platforms you need to cover, and how much money you are willing to spend up front. This guide compares all three across the dimensions that decide whether you will still be using the app twelve months from now, which is the only metric that matters.

The three philosophies

Todoist is the cross-platform pragmatist. It runs everywhere, the entry barrier is low, natural language input (“read book every Sunday at 9am”) works reliably, and the freemium model lets anyone start without commitment. The aesthetic is utilitarian, the philosophy is “capture everything, filter later,” and the API is the most developer-friendly of the three.

Things 3 is the opinionated Apple-native option. The design language is calmer than Todoist, the interface rewards a smaller, more curated task list, and the app pushes users toward a gentle structure of Today, Anytime, and Someday rather than the more rigorous GTD waterfall. The result is that Things tends to attract users who want their task app to feel like a designed object rather than a database UI.

OmniFocus is the power user’s GTD purist. Every part of the interface assumes the user knows what a “project,” “context,” and “next action” mean in the David Allen sense, and the customization (perspectives, AppleScript automation, focus modes) goes far deeper than the alternatives. The audience is professionals who run complex multi-project workloads and treat their task system as critical infrastructure.

Pricing and platforms

App	Free tier	Paid tier	Platforms
Todoist	Limited (5 active projects, no reminders)	Pro $5/mo, Business $8/user/mo	All major platforms incl. Windows, Linux, Web
Things 3	None (paid up-front per platform)	iPhone $9.99, iPad $19.99, Mac $49.99, watchOS bundled	Apple ecosystem only
OmniFocus 4	14-day trial	$99 per platform Pro one-time, or $14.99/mo subscription	iOS, iPadOS, macOS, visionOS, web companion

Todoist is the cheapest and most cross-platform. Things has the most unusual pricing (no subscription, separate purchases per Apple platform) which makes total cost of ownership $80 for the full Apple suite. OmniFocus is the most expensive and reaches that cost regardless of subscription versus license.

For cross-platform users (Windows, Linux, or a mix of Apple and Android), Todoist is the only realistic option from this list. The other two are Apple-only.

Natural language input

All three apps support natural language input for due dates and recurrences, with meaningful quality differences.

Todoist’s parser is the most aggressive and the most forgiving. “Read article tomorrow at 3pm #reading @home” creates a task with date, time, project, and label in one keystroke. The parser handles “every other Wednesday,” “every weekday at 9am,” and “in 3 days” reliably.

Things has a quieter natural language parser that focuses on date-only (“tomorrow,” “next Monday,” “in 2 weeks”). Tags are added with hashtags inline. The implementation is slower than Todoist’s but feels less aggressive about auto-converting your typing.

OmniFocus has the weakest natural language input by default but the most powerful structured entry. Users who want speed typically pair OmniFocus with TaskPaper-format quick entry or a third-party utility like Drafts.

GTD and the workflow philosophy

If you follow David Allen’s Getting Things Done with discipline, OmniFocus is built for you. The app supports custom perspectives (saved views of tasks filtered by tag, project, energy level, time available), sequential versus parallel project types, deferred start dates, and a weekly review mode. The flexibility is also the cost: a casual user opening OmniFocus for the first time often bounces off the complexity.

Things 3 implements a simplified, friendlier GTD pattern through its Today, Anytime, Upcoming, and Someday lists. The structure is opinionated and small. For users whose lives fit into that structure, Things feels lighter and more humane than OmniFocus. For users whose lives require more granular structure (multi-step sequential projects, energy-based contexts, formal weekly reviews), Things eventually feels constraining.

Todoist sits in the middle. It supports projects, labels, filters, and priorities, and these can approximate a GTD setup. Strict GTD practitioners typically find Todoist’s review story weaker than OmniFocus’s, but its capture and daily-use story is the best of the three.

Apple integration

Things and OmniFocus both feel deeply native on Apple platforms. Widgets, Shortcuts integration, Apple Watch complications, and visionOS support are all first-class. The Mac apps are the only ones in this category that feel like Mac apps rather than Electron wrappers.

Todoist is cross-platform and the Mac app is acceptable rather than excellent. The web app is the most polished surface, the mobile apps are good, and the desktop clients are functional. Power users on Mac often feel the tradeoff.

The honest recommendation

Pick Todoist Pro if you use Windows, Linux, or Android. The cross-platform reality matters more than any feature comparison. Pair it with a good password manager and a calendar that handles invites well, and you have a productivity stack that works everywhere.

Pick Things 3 if you live entirely in the Apple ecosystem, your task volume is moderate (under 200 active items), and you value design polish over feature depth. The one-time price stings up front and pays itself back over years of stable use.

Pick OmniFocus 4 if you are a serious GTD practitioner, your workload includes complex multi-step projects with conditional sequencing, and you treat your task system as a piece of professional equipment worthy of professional pricing. The learning curve is real but the ceiling is the highest of the three.

The wrong choice for most users is to spend a week comparing all three and then ship nothing. A task app earns its keep by being open and being used. Pick the closest match, commit to 90 days, and only re-evaluate after that. Most app-switching is procrastination wearing a productive disguise.

Frequently asked questions