Things 3 Updated With Support for Dark Mode on iPhone and iPad

I’ve heard great things about Things but am having trouble justifying the cost: $10 for iPhone, $20 for iPad, and $50 for Mac. I’m currently using Wunderlist for free on all three platforms.

I rarely invest in software across platforms unless I absolutely see a need to. I also think some of the price tags for iOS are a little steep. I've also found myself returning to paid software versus free software; be that for the extra aesthetic touch, UI, or general (albeit relative personal preference/opinion) higher quality.

That being said, Things 3 is one the absolute best pieces of software/apps I've invested in recently. It's quick, minimal, beautiful, and can be as easy or in-depth as you want it to be. I would highly recommend Things 3 - I've relied heavily on it professionally, and I'm starting to bring it into my personal needs.

However, I will say, depending on work flow I would assume most people only need two instances of it: I have it on all three platforms; MacOS, iPhone and iPad. Was it worth the combined purchase? Definitely. Upon using it more and more, I've realized I favor two of the three platforms - in this case MacOS and iPhone. I don't regret the iPad purchase, and I do use it. Just not as frequently as I thought (but that could be my current work flow).

In other words, Things 3 is worth the investment - but look closely at your workflow, I think most people will find they only need it in two instances, and not across all three platforms!

TLDR; Highly recommend Things 3 (I rarely invest in software), but would recommend on two most-used platforms.

Assuming Things is on a 5 years release cycle, Things 3 will be 2 years old next summer. So Things still has a lot of value left. But I wonder about subscription vs. paid app model.

Even though Things 3 is now 30% into 5-year update cycle, we still have to pay the full retail price ($80 for all 3 platforms).

On the other hand, if Culture Code charges $4.99/year for the iOS versions, it works out to $24.95 over 5 years. Thanks to 15% subscription cut after 1-year, however, Culture Code's cut is $20.46 for subscription, as opposed to $20.99 for paid app model. So customers not only save $5 over 5 years AND have access to the latest version, Culture Code gets a reliable recurring revenue stream.

Culture Code would make roughly the same amount of revenue over 5 years with these subscription options:

* iPhone only: $1.49/year
* iPad only: $3.49/year
* macOS: $8.99/year

I'm holding on to Adobe CS6 for dear life. I'm not a huge fan of subscription based software. After a while you get locked into your workflow and don't need all the new bells and whistles (nor do you always have the time to learn). Paying a monthly (or yearly) fee for the newest and greatest isn't always necessary to me.

That being said, I'd rather plop down an upfront investment into a license purchase and use to my heart's content, versus paying a monthly/yearly fee.

Things 3 is worth the price!

Now if only Apple would add support for system-wide Dark mode. Many of my favorite apps, now including Things 3, already support it! I hope more developers continue to add this mode. There weren't many new features for developers to integrate this year, so they might as well work on this in the meantime as it seems likely that official support is coming at some point. Then they could just add a simple API call to deliver the UI based on the system preference, with perhaps an option in settings to override it.

Also I wish the Mac version would go on sale. Things, at least on iOS, is a great app—but I just don't think a Mac version is worth $50 for a glorified to-do list.

So I paid $10 (quite a bit for an iOS app IMO) for Things 2 back in the day, which seems to have very similar core functionality to this app, yet my purchase is no longer available since Things 2 has been removed from the App Store. And no discounted upgrade to 3? And if I spend $10 on 3, how long until they stop supporting 3, remove it from the store, and release 4?

Kind of soured my taste from them and goes against how I think the concept of an update should work with iOS apps.

Edit: just found out that in 2018 it’s still not a universal binary so you need to buy it separately for iPhone, iPad and Mac... all told $80 :eek:

Edit2: whoops, my bad. Poster below is right. I had bought Things for iPad, not Things 2, and it is still available in my purchases

That looks good. Dark mode is not as easy as "paint it black"

Things is a great application that fits very well into my workflow. I own it on MacOS and iOS, but I skipped the iPad as I feel that would be redundant in my workflow. The price is on the higher end, but the application is rock solid and extremely well done. For a tool that I use extensively it is a great value.

However, it is missing one feature I think any To Do app with sync support should have. End to End encryption. It should either use iCloud to offload that responsibility to Apple or implement it natively. My only gripe is that my To Do information is the reality that Things could look at my To Do data if they wanted to.

I am sure a bigger engineering challenge for them is key sharing between devices (for instance, you have a year's worth of To Do items and you install on your iPad which now needs to decrypt those items). But they could overcome this with key sharing occurring over continuity or some similar near field method. The feature could even be Opt In similar to multiple factor authentication allowing us technical users to help iron it out.

This was the major reason I held off buying the apps for so long...

Assuming Things is on a 5 years release cycle, Things 3 will be 2 years old next summer. So Things still has a lot of value left. But I wonder about subscription vs. paid app model.

Even though Things 3 is now 30% into 5-year update cycle, we still have to pay the full retail price ($80 for all 3 platforms).

On the other hand, if Culture Code charges $4.99/year for the iOS versions, it works out to $24.95 over 5 years. Thanks to 15% subscription cut after 1-year, however, Culture Code's cut is $20.46 for subscription, as opposed to $20.99 for paid app model. So customers not only save $5 over 5 years AND have access to the latest version, Culture Code gets a reliable recurring revenue stream.

Culture Code would make roughly the same amount of revenue over 5 years with these subscription options:

* iPhone only: $1.49/year
* iPad only: $3.49/year
* macOS: $8.99/year

I'd prefer them not to go to a subscription model. If they do, I'll jump ship when I consider upgrading to something else.

Subscriptions have so many problems I could go on for days about why I am not a fan of that model. I'll just add a few here:

* Why should I lose access to the application if I decide to trim spending (after all $2 here and $3 there for every application ends up quickly turning into $300/m in application subscriptions weighing you down).
* Why should I be held hostage by developers? If I don't like future changes I either have to swallow it down and pay up or lose access to the application and all the data I've added to it. I can't keep my current version I like and skip the new version.
* I lose Family Sharing which I use a lot to share applications I purchase with my wife. It helps to soften the blow of expensive apps like Things and was a major reason I moved from Android to iOS.

And those are just a some of the annoyances I have as a user. I'm sure for a developer working on quality applications who care about user satisfaction it only adds stress. If Things was a subscription people would be forced to constantly stack it up against competitors on a monthly basis and decide if it is offering value compared to the next. So you have to find a way to make as many "big" updates as possible and rollout features as "quickly" as possible. The current pricing model allows Cultured Code to focus on making Things great. If they come out with 1 big update every 3 months or whenever users are already invested so they aren't as "antsy".

That's my $0.02 anyway....

Count me as a Things 3 advocate :). Very nice app with great developer support and communication. Glad to see dark mode with the app.

Things 3 is awesome and well worth the purchase price!

I remember paying less for it.

Things 2 hasn't been removed from the App Store. It's not for sale but it's still in your list of purchases. At least I see it in mine.

So I paid $10 (quite a bit for an iOS app IMO) for Things 2 back in the day, which seems to have very similar core functionality to this app, yet my purchase is no longer available since Things 2 has been removed from the App Store. And no discounted upgrade to 3? And if I spend $10 on 3, how long until they stop supporting 3, remove it from the store, and release 4?

I wish Apple allowed upgrade pricing in the App Store. Maybe add the capability to buy an upgrade as an in-app purchase

Subscriptions have so many problems I could go on for days about why I am not a fan of that model. I'll just add a few here:

* Why should I lose access to the application if I decide to trim spending (after all $2 here and $3 there for every application ends up quickly turning into $300/m in application subscriptions weighing you down).
* Why should I be held hostage by developers? If I don't like future changes I either have to swallow it down and pay up or lose access to the application and all the data I've added to it. I can't keep my current version I like and skip the new version.
* I lose Family Sharing which I use a lot to share applications I purchase with my wife. It helps to soften the blow of expensive apps like Things and was a major reason I moved from Android to iOS.

Responding to your last bullet point, if you use single Apple ID for the App Store, you can share in-app purchases (non consumables) and subscription between family members.

I understand the psychological barrier of subscription model:

* Rewarding developer with recurring revenue, whether they make meaningful improvements in the future or not.
* Possibility of losing access to your data the moment you cancel the subscription.
* Perpetual license offers the freedom of skipping major version upgrade.

I certainly would not want subscription pricing for every types of app. For instance, apps that I use once in awhile (e.g., NetSpot Wi-Fi analysis tool), apps that are rarely updated in a meaningful way (e.g., Parallels Desktop), and apps that provide very simple functionalities.

But I seriously consider subscription option for apps that I use regularly, provided (1) it is updated frequently in a meaningful way or includes valued cloud services and (2) subscription pricing is cheaper overall than equivalent perpetual license.

The best implementation of subscription pricing I've seen is IntelliJ developer tool. It costs $499/year, but decreases to $399 in its 2nd year, then to $299/year thereafter. Best of all, if you cancel the subscription, it converts to perpetual license to the current major version.

Going back to Things, ideally Apple would offer developers an option of upgrade pricing on the App Store. But I just don't see that becoming an option (some developers are offering it in a creative way, however). Some apps, such as Infuse, offer a choice of perpetual license and subscription pricing:

* Subscription: $0.99/month or $9.99/year
* Perpetual: $14.99 for the major version, $49.99 for lifetime

(In this particular example, subscription is worse as Infuse is typically on a 2-year or more major version upgrade cycle. But if I were to make a purchase today, I would feel more comfortable with subscription. Paying $14.99 now only to see a major new paid version in few months feels wrong.)