Apple Reminders vs Things 3: Which Should You Use in 2025?
If you've been wrestling with the Apple Reminders vs Things 3 debate, you're not alone. It's one of the most common questions iPhone users ask when they're serious about getting organised. Both apps live on your iPhone, both help you capture tasks, and both promise to reduce the mental chaos of modern life — but they serve very different types of users. One is free, deeply integrated into iOS, and better than ever. The other costs $14.99 and has a devoted following of productivity enthusiasts who swear by it. So which one actually belongs on your home screen? Let's dig in.
The Case for Apple Reminders in 2025
Apple Reminders has come a long way from its clunky early days. After a major overhaul in iOS 13 and continued improvements through iOS 17 and 18, it's now a genuinely capable task manager that most people will never outgrow.
What Apple Reminders Does Really Well
It's free, and it works everywhere. Reminders syncs instantly across iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and even Siri. If you say "Hey Siri, remind me to call the bank tomorrow at 9am," that task is captured in seconds without unlocking your phone. For time-sensitive reminders, this frictionless capture is hard to beat.
Location-based reminders are underrated. You can set a reminder to trigger when you arrive at or leave a specific location — like reminding yourself to grab the dry cleaning when you drive past the cleaner. Things 3 doesn't offer location-based reminders at all.
Smart Lists and Tags. Since iOS 15, Reminders has included smart lists that automatically filter tasks based on tags, dates, or priority. You can create a "Focus" list that surfaces only your high-priority, today-due tasks across every project — a genuinely useful feature.
Natural language input. Type "Submit report every Friday at 4pm" and Reminders parses the date, time, and recurrence automatically. Research from productivity researchers at the University of California, Irvine has shown that reducing friction in task capture is one of the strongest predictors of whether people actually use a system. Reminders nails this.
iCloud sharing. Need to share a grocery list or a project checklist with a partner or colleague? Reminders lets you share lists and even assign tasks to other iCloud users. It's simple, functional, and costs nothing extra.
The Honest Limitations of Apple Reminders
- No visual project management. There's no Kanban view, no drag-and-drop scheduling interface, and organising large projects with subtasks can feel clunky.
- Limited today/upcoming planning. The "Today" and "Scheduled" views are functional but basic — there's no thoughtful workflow for reviewing and intentionally planning your day.
- No built-in goal or habit layer. Reminders is a list app. It won't help you build habits, reflect on your week, or connect tasks to longer-term goals.
If you're looking to turn your task list into a real productivity system — one connected to personal growth, daily wins, and intentional habits — Reminders alone won't cut it. That's why many users pair it with a purpose-built task management system for personal growth.
The Case for Things 3
Things 3, made by Cultured Code, is widely regarded as the gold standard of iOS task management. It costs $14.99 on iPhone (plus separate purchases for Mac and iPad), and it's earned every dollar of that reputation.
What Things 3 Does Better Than Almost Anyone
The design is genuinely beautiful. This isn't just aesthetics — thoughtful design reduces friction and makes you want to open the app. Things 3 uses a clean, distraction-free interface where each element has been carefully considered. Opening it feels calming, not overwhelming.
The Today view is exceptional. Things 3 separates "This Evening" from the rest of your day, encourages intentional morning planning, and lets you see exactly what you've committed to. It nudges you toward the kind of deliberate daily scheduling that research on implementation intentions (Gollwitzer, 1999) shows dramatically improves follow-through.
Projects and Areas of Responsibility. Things 3 structures your life into Projects (things with an end date) and Areas (ongoing responsibilities like "Health" or "Finance"). This maps directly onto how our brains categorise commitments and is one of the most psychologically sensible organisation systems in any task app.
Upcoming view with a calendar strip. You can see your tasks mapped against real calendar events, which helps with realistic planning. Overcommitting your day is one of the biggest reasons tasks don't get done — the calendar integration in Things 3 directly addresses this.
Repeating tasks with precision. Things 3 lets you set sophisticated recurrence rules — "the last business day of every month" or "every 6 weeks on a Tuesday." For complex personal or professional routines, this level of control is genuinely useful.
Offline first, privacy-respecting sync. Things uses its own encrypted sync system that works instantly and never stores your data on third-party servers in plaintext. For privacy-conscious users, this matters.
Where Things 3 Falls Short
- No collaboration. Things 3 is a solo tool. You cannot share lists, assign tasks to others, or collaborate in real time.
- No location-based reminders. Unlike Reminders, Things 3 can't trigger a task based on where you are.
- It costs money. $14.99 for the iPhone app is fair, but you'll need to spend more if you want it across all your Apple devices.
- No habit tracking. Despite its excellence as a task manager, Things 3 has no built-in mechanism for tracking daily habits or streaks — a significant gap for people focused on personal development.
- The learning curve is real. New users often feel overwhelmed by the Areas/Projects structure. It takes time to set up properly.
Head-to-Head: Key Feature Comparison
| Feature | Apple Reminders | Things 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | $14.99 (iPhone) |
| Siri integration | Excellent | Good |
| Location reminders | ✅ Yes | ❌ No |
| Today planning view | Basic | Excellent |
| Project structure | Limited | Excellent |
| Calendar integration | Basic | Good (visual strip) |
| Collaboration/sharing | ✅ Yes | ❌ No |
| Habit tracking | ❌ No | ❌ No |
| Privacy/sync | iCloud | Things Cloud (E2E) |
| Natural language input | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
| Apple Watch app | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
Who Should Use Apple Reminders?
Apple Reminders is the right choice if:
- You're new to task management and want to build the habit of capturing tasks before investing in a paid app.
- You need location-based reminders as part of your daily routine.
- You share lists with family or colleagues and need a simple, free collaboration tool.
- You're deeply embedded in Siri and voice capture, and want reminders to flow naturally into your existing workflow.
- Your task list is straightforward — you don't manage complex projects or multiple life areas simultaneously.
The truth is, for most casual users, Reminders in 2025 is genuinely excellent. The gap between it and premium apps has narrowed considerably. Don't let productivity influencers convince you that you need a fancy app to get organised — sometimes the built-in tool really is enough.
Who Should Use Things 3?
Things 3 is the right choice if:
- You manage multiple complex projects across different areas of your life (work, side projects, personal goals).
- You want a deliberate daily planning ritual. The Today view in Things 3 actively encourages you to sit down, review your commitments, and plan your day intentionally.
- You're a solo worker or freelancer who needs clarity across many moving parts without collaboration features.
- Design and user experience matter to you. You're more likely to use a system you enjoy opening.
- You've already tried Apple Reminders and outgrown it.
If Things 3 resonates with you but you're also trying to build better daily habits and connect your tasks to personal growth goals, it's worth exploring how a structured approach to daily task management can amplify the system you're already using.
The Missing Piece: Neither App Tracks Habits or Daily Wins
Here's something worth saying plainly: neither Apple Reminders nor Things 3 is a complete productivity system for personal growth.
Both apps manage tasks. Neither one helps you:
- Build and maintain daily habits with streak tracking
- Reflect on your progress and celebrate small wins
- Learn from books and apply insights to your daily actions
- Connect your task list to larger life goals and values
This is the gap that many high-performers feel even after optimising their task app. You can have the perfect project structure in Things 3 and still feel like you're running on a treadmill — busy but not growing.
Research from psychologist Teresa Amabile at Harvard Business School, published in The Progress Principle, found that tracking small, meaningful progress every day was the single biggest driver of motivation and long-term performance. Your task app needs to support that — not just check boxes.
The good news? You don't have to choose between using Things 3 or Reminders and having a habit and growth layer. You can use whichever task app suits your needs and build daily wins alongside it. Exploring a personalised daily task and habit system shows you what that integrated approach can look like in practice.
Practical Recommendation: A Decision Framework
Still not sure? Here's a simple way to decide:
Step 1: Do you have more than 3 active projects running at once?
- No → Start with Apple Reminders
- Yes → Consider Things 3
Step 2: Do you need to share tasks with anyone?
- Yes → Apple Reminders
- No → Either works; lean toward Things 3 for complexity
Step 3: Is your main goal habit-building and personal growth, not just task capture?
- Yes → Both apps need to be supplemented with a dedicated growth tool
Step 4: Are you willing to invest $14.99 in a better planning experience?
- Yes → Try Things 3 (it has a free trial period)
- No → Reminders is genuinely great and costs nothing
The honest truth is that the best task app is the one you'll actually use consistently. A mediocre system you stick with beats a perfect system you abandon.
Try DailyWins — The Free App That Goes Beyond Task Lists
If you've realised that what you really want isn't just task management but a system that helps you build habits, track daily progress, and grow a little every day — that's exactly what DailyWins was built for.
DailyWins is a free iOS app that combines:
- ✅ Daily task and habit tracking
- ✅ Book-backed learning (insights you can actually apply today)
- ✅ Progress streaks and daily win celebration
- ✅ A growth mindset framework to keep you motivated
Whether you use Apple Reminders or Things 3 for your project lists, DailyWins fills the gap that both apps leave open — the daily practice of showing up, doing the work, and becoming someone who actually follows through.
👉 Download DailyWins free on the App Store and start building daily wins today.
No subscription required. No complicated setup. Just open the app, pick your daily focus, and go.
Final Thoughts
The Apple Reminders vs Things 3 debate doesn't have a single right answer — it has a right answer for you. Apple Reminders is free, powerful, and perfectly capable for most people in 2025. Things 3 is a premium experience that rewards intentional planners with complex lives.
But whichever you choose, remember: the tool is never the transformation. The habits you build, the progress you track, and the daily wins you accumulate — that's what actually changes your life.
Ready to build a smarter approach to your daily productivity? Explore what a complete daily task and growth system looks like, and take your first step today.