TL;DR
Reminders vs Things: Things still wins for anyone who wants a structured, beautiful personal productivity system. Reminders’ Tahoe 26 intelligence features raise the free baseline, but they do not replace Areas, Projects, and temporal views. Pick by ambition, not hype. Score the decision on three questions: Do you need shared lists? Do you manage multi-week projects with phases? Will you pay once for a better daily ritual? Shared lists point to Reminders. Multi-week projects and a paid ritual point to Things. Needing both still points to running both.
Which is better: Reminders or Things?
Reminders is the top pick for most Mac users looking at task management. It is free and installs in one Homebrew command. Things is the stronger choice if you want tasks. As of September 2026, both install with brew install --cask reminders and brew install --cask things.
Reminders vs Things
Which is the better task management for Mac in 2026?
We compared Reminders and Things across 6 key factors including price, open-source status, and community adoption. Read our full breakdown below.
Reminders
Built-in macOS task management app for creating to-do lists with alerts and Siri integration.
Things
Award-winning personal task manager for Mac with a clean design and powerful organization features.
Our Verdict
Things still wins for anyone who wants a structured, beautiful personal productivity system. Reminders’ Tahoe 26 intelligence features raise the free baseline, but they do not replace Areas, Projects, and temporal views. Pick by ambition, not hype. Score the decision on three questions: Do you need shared lists? Do you manage multi-week projects with phases? Will you pay once for a better daily ritual? Shared lists point to Reminders. Multi-week projects and a paid ritual point to Things. Needing both still points to running both.
Feature Comparison
| Feature | Reminders | Things |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Paid |
| Open Source | No | No |
| Replaces | Things 3 ($49.99) | — |
| Best for | tasks, to-do, apple | tasks, to-do, gtd |
| Install | brew install --cask reminders | brew install --cask things |
| Category | Productivity | Productivity |
Quick Install
brew install --cask remindersbrew install --cask thingsLearn More
In-Depth Overview
What is Apple Reminders?
Apple Reminders is the built-in task manager on every modern Apple device: Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, HomePod, and Apple Vision Pro. It is free with no in-app purchases and syncs through iCloud. By August 2026 it is far past the simple checklist era. Smart lists cover Today, Scheduled, Flagged, Assigned, and All, plus user-built smart lists filtered by tags, dates, locations, priorities, and flags. Lists support sections, subtasks, five priority levels, hashtags, attachments, and a column/Kanban view. Grocery lists auto-sort items by aisle using on-device learning. Collaboration via iCloud remains a core strength: shared household lists, real-time completion, and assignee support. Location reminders still fire when you arrive or leave a geofence. On macOS Tahoe 26, Apple Intelligence can propose action items from mail, notes, or web content and optionally categorise reminders into sections; system updates also highlight urgent reminders and smarter Smart List filters. Natural language via Siri (and expanding Siri AI actions) remains the fastest capture path of any Mac task app. Reminders will never match a dedicated GTD tool for multi-project portfolio management, but for free everyday tracking, errands, and family coordination it is the default that ships on billions of devices. In practice, most Apple households already have Reminders configured through Family Sharing without a setup wizard. The grocery list feature remains uniquely strong for shared shopping: members add items from their phones while someone else shops, and completion syncs instantly. Tags let power users recreate lightweight contexts such as @errand or @waiting without abandoning the free tier. Compared with May 2026 content that treated Reminders as merely 'good enough,' the Tahoe cycle makes it a credible primary tool for students and small households who never wanted a dedicated GTD product.
What is Things?
Things is Cultured Code’s award-winning personal task manager for Apple platforms only: macOS, iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, and visionOS. The company, based in Stuttgart and founded in 2007, has spent nearly two decades refining a GTD-inspired hierarchy: Areas of Responsibility hold Projects, which hold To-Dos with checklists, tags, deadlines, and Markdown notes. Headings break projects into phases. Temporal views structure the day: Inbox for capture, Today for focus, Upcoming for calendar-aware planning, Anytime for unscheduled active work, Someday for deferred ideas, and Logbook for completed history. Quick Entry is a global keyboard shortcut that floats a capture sheet from any Mac app with natural-language date parsing. Repeating schedules, evening tasks, Shortcuts, and URL schemes serve power users. Sync uses Cultured Code’s cloud rather than raw iCloud documents. Things 3.22 (15 September 2025) delivered full OS 26 Tahoe compatibility, a refreshed interface, Control Center integration, Clear-style widgets, Vision Pro Writing Tools support, and Spotlight to-do creation on Mac. Refinement releases continued into August 2026 (3.22.13 on 3 August), Things 3.23 is in external beta, and OS 27 compatibility work is already on the public status board. Pricing remains one-time per platform with no subscription: Mac about $49.99, iPhone & Watch about $9.99, iPad about $19.99, Vision Pro sold separately. Things is still the gold-standard personal system for people who want structure without team collaboration. What has not changed is Cultured Code's product philosophy: personal focus over team collaboration. There is still no shared project, no assignee field, and no multiplayer inbox. That constraint is intentional. Things optimises for calm individual execution rather than work-management chat. For freelancers, solo founders, and knowledge workers who already coordinate team work in Linear or Slack, that trade-off remains correct. For family grocery coordination, it remains the wrong tool, which is why hybrid Reminders-plus-Things setups stay popular.
Detailed Feature Comparison
Cost and Accessibility
CriticalFree on every modern Apple device with just an Apple ID. No purchase, no subscription and no setup beyond iCloud. Everyone in the family already has access if they have an iPhone or Mac.
One-time purchases on the App Store, about $49.99 for Mac, $9.99 for iPhone and Watch, $19.99 for iPad and a separate Vision Pro purchase. No subscription, but three platforms is about $80 together, and each person buys their own.
Verdict: Reminders' zero cost and pre-installation make it the most accessible option.
Siri and System Integration
HighDeepest system hooks: Siri/Siri AI capture, Messages and Mail creation, Safari share sheet, Calendar awareness, location geofences, HomePod and CarPlay. Tahoe 26 Apple Intelligence can surface action items into Reminders from content you are already reading.
Solid Shortcuts and URL-scheme automation plus Spotlight create-to-do on Mac after 3.22, but voice capture remains less natural than native Reminders. No location geofences.
Verdict: Reminders' native Siri integration is unmatched by any third-party app.
Project Management and Structure
CriticalReminders supports lists, sections, and subtasks. Column view provides basic Kanban. However, there are no 'projects' as a concept, no areas of responsibility, and no temporal views beyond 'Today' and 'Scheduled'. Organization is flat and list-based. Smart lists and sections help, and Apple Intelligence can auto-bucket items, but you still lack first-class project completion criteria, area dashboards, and Someday/Anytime semantics.
Full GTD stack still unique: Areas > Projects > Tasks with Headings and checklists, plus Today/Upcoming/Anytime/Someday/Logbook. August 2026 refinement builds keep the model stable while 3.23 betas improve repeating to-dos. Review rituals map cleanly: weekly review lives in Upcoming + Someday; daily execution lives in Today. That mapping is why many long-time OmniFocus and Todoist switchers land on Things for personal systems.
Verdict: Things' project management capabilities are vastly more structured and powerful.
Design Quality
HighReminders looks like Apple made it, clean and familiar with column and Smart List views. It is pleasant enough for daily lists but does not aim to delight. It feels like a system app because it is.
Things is the design reference for task apps on Apple platforms. The 3.22 refresh updated the icon and chrome on OS 26 without losing the calm density that earned its Design Awards, and it still feels considered in daily use.
Verdict: Things' design is in a different league.
Shared and Family Lists
MediumReminders supports shared lists via iCloud with real-time collaboration. Family Sharing integration makes it easy to share grocery lists and household tasks. Assign tasks to specific family members. Household chore charts, shared packing lists for trips, and partner errands remain the highest-value free collaboration surface in Apple productivity software.
Things is a personal task manager with no sharing or collaboration features. If your workplace needs shared task ownership, look at Linear, Asana, or Reminders—not Things.
Verdict: Reminders' sharing capabilities are essential for family and team task coordination.
Location-Based Reminders
MediumTrigger reminders when arriving at or leaving a location. 'Remind me to buy milk when I'm near Whole Foods' uses geofencing to alert at the right moment.
Things does not support location-based reminders. Tasks can only be scheduled by date and time.
Verdict: Location-based reminders are a unique and valuable Reminders feature.
Keyboard Shortcuts and Quick Entry
MediumReminders supports basic keyboard shortcuts on Mac but lacks a global quick entry mechanism for capturing tasks from any app. You must open the Reminders app or use Siri for hands-free capture. Quick Notes can link to Reminders but the workflow is indirect.
Global Quick Entry remains the signature Mac power feature: capture with natural language dates and assign to a project without leaving the current app. Helium browser autofill support landed in the February 2026 refinement builds.
Verdict: Things' global Quick Entry is significantly superior for capturing tasks without context switching.
Automation and Shortcuts Integration
MediumReminders integrates with Apple Shortcuts and can be automated with various triggers. Create reminders from emails, messages, or calendar events using built-in system integrations. The automation capabilities are solid but limited to Apple's Shortcuts framework.
Things supports Apple Shortcuts, URL schemes, and x-callback-url for automation. Power users can build sophisticated workflows that create tasks from other apps, import data, and trigger actions. The URL scheme documentation is comprehensive and enables deep integration with tools like Drafts and Scriptable.
Verdict: Both apps offer solid automation through Apple Shortcuts, with Things providing additional URL scheme power and Reminders offering deeper system-level triggers.
Who Should Choose Which?
1The Apple Ecosystem Loyalist
If you own a Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and HomePod, Reminders is deeply woven into every touchpoint. You can say 'Hey Siri, remind me to call the dentist tomorrow at 9am' from any device and it appears everywhere instantly. Reminders integrates with Maps for location-based triggers, Messages for shared lists, and Calendar for deadline visibility , all without installing a single third-party app. For users who want zero friction and maximum Apple integration, Reminders is unbeatable.
2The Productivity-Conscious Professional
Professionals managing multiple concurrent projects still outgrow Reminders' list model. Things Areas and temporal views remain the cleaner daily system in August 2026, and 3.22/3.23 keep it current on Tahoe.
3The Shared Household Manager
Families managing shared grocery lists, chore assignments, and household tasks benefit from Reminders' native sharing via iCloud. Any family member with an Apple device can view and complete shared list items in real time. The integration with Messages means you can assign reminders to specific people with @mentions. Things has no sharing features whatsoever , it is strictly a personal task manager, making Reminders the clear winner for household coordination.
4The Student
Students juggling assignments, exam prep, extracurricular commitments, and personal tasks benefit from Things' visual clarity. Creating a Project for each course with Headings for 'Assignments', 'Readings', and 'Exam Prep' provides an straightforward overview that Reminders' flat list structure cannot match. The Someday list is perfect for parking ideas like 'research summer internships' until the right time. At $9.99 for the iPhone app, the investment pays for itself in reduced academic stress.
5The Zero-Cost User
Reminders is still free and, with Tahoe 26 Apple Intelligence suggestions plus urgent filters, more capable than the May 2026 baseline. If paying for a task app is off the table, stay here.
6The GTD Practitioner
Things implements the core principles of Getting Things Done: an Inbox for frictionless capture, Projects with clear outcomes, Areas for ongoing responsibilities, a Today view for focused execution, and a Someday list for deferred ideas. While not as rigorous as OmniFocus, Things strikes a balance between GTD methodology and approachable design that helps practitioners maintain their system without it feeling like work. Reminders lacks the structural vocabulary to support any formal productivity methodology.
Migration Guide
Reminders → Things
No official one-click import. Recreate Areas and Projects manually, or bridge via Shortcuts/CSV export. Expect to lose location triggers and shared-list collaboration. Budget an afternoon for a clean GTD rebuild rather than a dump of every old list item.
Things → Reminders
Export via Shortcuts or URL schemes into Reminders lists. You keep titles, notes, and dates in simplified form, but Areas, Headings, Anytime/Someday semantics, and Quick Entry habits do not transfer.
Pro Tips
Many people run both: Reminders for Siri errands and family groceries, Things for personal deep work. That hybrid still works well in 2026. When migrating, archive completed Reminders first so Things does not inherit years of noise. Keep shared lists in Reminders even after moving personal projects to Things.
Final Verdict
Things
Winner
Runner-up
Scores are Bundl.run editorial ratings out of 10 across 8 criteria (the feature comparison above), last reviewed August 2026.
Things still wins for anyone who wants a structured, beautiful personal productivity system. Reminders’ Tahoe 26 intelligence features raise the free baseline, but they do not replace Areas, Projects, and temporal views. Pick by ambition, not hype. Score the decision on three questions: Do you need shared lists? Do you manage multi-week projects with phases? Will you pay once for a better daily ritual? Shared lists point to Reminders. Multi-week projects and a paid ritual point to Things. Needing both still points to running both.
Bottom Line: Choose Things for GTD-structured work with a one-time purchase. Choose Reminders for free shared lists, Siri capture, and Apple Intelligence triage. Revisit the choice only if Cultured Code ships collaboration or if Apple ships true Areas and project deadlines inside Reminders—neither had shipped as of 9 August 2026.
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Sources & References
Fact-CheckedLast verified: Aug 9, 2026
Key Verified Facts
- Things for Mac 3.22.13 shipped 3 August 2026 with preparatory work for repeating to-do improvements and first-sync fixes.[cite-things-release-notes]
- Things App Store pricing remains one-time per platform, with Mac listed at $49.99 in the US store.[cite-things-appstore, cite-things-pricing]
- macOS Tahoe 26 integrates Apple Intelligence with Reminders for action-item suggestions and automatic section categorisation.[cite-apple-tahoe-reminders, cite-apple-reminders-guide]
- Things 3.22 (15 September 2025) delivered full compatibility with macOS 26 Tahoe across Mac, iPad, iPhone, Watch, and Vision.[cite-things-status]
- 1Apple Reminders User Guide for Mac
Accessed Aug 9, 2026
- 2macOS Tahoe 26 — Apple Newsroom (Reminders + Apple Intelligence)
Accessed Aug 9, 2026
- 3Things — Cultured Code
Accessed Aug 9, 2026
- 4Things App Store Pricing
Accessed Aug 9, 2026
- 5Things Status Board
Accessed Aug 9, 2026
- 6Things for Mac Release Notes
Accessed Aug 9, 2026
- 7Things 3 on the Mac App Store
Accessed Aug 9, 2026
- 8What's new in the updates for macOS Tahoe
Accessed Aug 9, 2026
Research queries: Things 3 Cultured Code release notes August 2026; Apple Reminders macOS Tahoe 26 Apple Intelligence; Things 3 pricing Mac iPhone iPad 2026