Tasks

Should you build your own Things 3?

Build a polished personal task manager with areas, projects, tags, deadlines, and a today view

Buildable · the essentials fit in one project
Price $49.99 · onceEstimated time one sittingCategory TasksCatalog votes 0

The core loop is small enough for a capable coding agent to produce a useful local version in one sitting. For Things 3, build a polished personal task manager with areas, projects, tags, deadlines, and a today view. The hard boundary is exceptional native design, apple-device sync, shortcuts, and long-term maintenance, plus cross-device reliability and workflow polish.

ENOriginal research content in English. Original prompt preserved in English.

The complete prompt
Build a personal replacement for Things 3 in an empty repository.
Use Tauri 2, React, TypeScript, SQLite, and desktop notifications; do not offer alternative stacks.
The core loop is: capture tasks into areas and projects with tags and deadlines, schedule or repeat them, work from a focused today view, and keep history locally.
Make the first run work locally with one documented command.
Store all user data locally by default and make export straightforward.
Put secrets in .env, ship .env.example, and never commit credentials.
Create inbox, today, upcoming, someday, and completed views with fast keyboard capture.
Support projects, tags, due dates, start dates, priorities, notes, subtasks, and attachments.
Implement robust daily, weekly, monthly, and custom recurring rules with tests.
Add a focus view with one active task, timer, and optional desktop notification.
Provide search, saved filters, undo, and a completed-task archive.
Export and import a documented JSON format and make automatic local backups.
Include clear empty, loading, success, and recoverable error states.
Add input validation, safe filenames, and graceful handling of unavailable APIs.
Write focused tests for the core transformation and one end-to-end happy path.
Create a README with setup, architecture, permissions, data location, and backup steps.
Do not add accounts, billing, telemetry, analytics, or a hosted control plane.
Deliberately leave out team assignment and comments.
Deliberately leave out two-way calendar or email synchronization.
Deliberately leave out native mobile apps and cloud accounts.
Finish by running the tests and listing the exact commands used.

The prompt opens pre-filled in your agent. Review it before running. · this prompt is generated from the build plan · improve it via PR

Original prompt preserved in English.

What would building your own look like?

Capture tasks into areas and projects with tags and deadlines, schedule or repeat them, work from a focused today view, and keep history locally.

What you will need

Why paying can still make sense

People still pay for Things 3 because task software is sticky because trust, speed, and ubiquitous capture matter more than the database schema. The recurring cost buys recurrence edge cases, notifications, sync conflicts, calendar APIs, mobile capture, and backups, not just the visible interface.

What you lose

xexceptional native design, Apple-device sync, shortcuts, and long-term maintenance

xperfect mobile sync

xcalendar and email integrations

xshared workspaces

xbehavioral coaching polish

Share on X ↗"I just replaced Things 3 with one prompt"
Free alternatives

Prefer something ready-made?

Super ProductivityA local task manager with timeboxing, Pomodoro, and no account begging to be created21kAug 2026Open source↗VikunjaA capable Todoist replacement once you accept becoming its hosting department5.0kAug 2026Open source↗Apple RemindersThings minus the polish tax, provided every device in sight has an Apple logo$0Free↗

View all 4 alternatives to Things 3 →· Licença, instalação e limitações em cada alternativa.

Plans and pricing

How much does Things 3 cost?

In your currency · US DollarChecked on 10/20/2026
One-time licence
$49.99
Buy on the official site

You complete the purchase on Things 3’s site. Vibe Radar does not handle payments.

PlanMonthlyAnnual (per month)What is included
things for maccustom-1 Mac App Store license; 15-day direct-download trial.
things for iphone & apple watchcustom-1 iPhone/Apple Watch App Store purchase.
things for ipadcustom-1 iPad App Store purchase.
things for apple visioncustom-1 Apple Vision App Store purchase.

Free tierno free tier

Billing termsone-time purchase per Apple platform; no subscription or annual plan

Additional costsMac, iPhone/Watch, iPad, and Vision are separate purchases; there is no cross-platform bundle, though Things Cloud sync is free.

verified 2026-08-14 · source ↗

Build or buy

Is it cheaper to build or buy Things 3?

Adjust the numbers: hours to build, your hourly rate, running costs and the subscription price.

Subscribe
Build it yourself
Horizon
Subscribe$0
Build it yourself$1,520

Over 24 months, subscribing is cheaper.

Starting hours estimated from the analysis (one sitting). Does not price what you give up (support, integrations, security).

Frequently asked questions
Can I rebuild Things 3?

Yes. A competent AI coding agent (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor) can build a usable personal Things 3 replacement in one session with the prompt on this page. It runs on your own machine or server with no subscription.

How much does Things 3 cost?

Things 3’s pricing is usage-based or varies by plan · Separate one-time purchases: iPhone $9.99, iPad $19.99, Apple Vision $29.99 (US)..

What do I lose by replacing Things 3?

Honestly: exceptional native design, Apple-device sync, shortcuts, and long-term maintenance; perfect mobile sync; calendar and email integrations; shared workspaces; behavioral coaching polish. If any of those are load-bearing for you, keep paying.

Is there an open-source alternative to Things 3?

Yes: Super Productivity (A local task manager with timeboxing, Pomodoro, and no account begging to be created) Vikunja (A capable Todoist replacement once you accept becoming its hosting department) Apple Reminders (Things minus the polish tax, provided every device in sight has an Apple logo) All 4 curated free alternatives are at https://viberadar.si/things-3/alternatives. The prompt is for when you want it exactly your way.

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