A lighter, cheaper Things 3 alternative for your Mac

What Things 3 does well

Things has won two Apple Design Awards. According to Cultured Code’s documentation, it offers:

• Projects and areas, with headings to split a project into stages, plus tags, checklists and deadlines.
• Today, This Evening, Upcoming and Someday views, with your calendar events shown alongside your to-dos.
• Repeating to-dos and projects, time-based reminders and natural-language dates.
• Quick Entry on the Mac: press a shortcut (Control-Space by default) to add a to-do from any app, with an Autofill option that grabs the link to the current web page, email or file.
• Shortcuts support and a URL scheme, an Apple Watch app included with the iPhone version, and free sync through Things Cloud.

None of that is in SideList. If you use it, Things is worth what it costs.

How SideList is different

Most task apps are built to manage everything. SideList is built for what matters now:

• It lives in the menu bar. The list is always one click away, not a window you bring forward. See what’s next, tick it off, get back to work.
• Capture in a second. Type, press Return. No project to choose. Add an emoji if you like.
• A few focused lists instead of a system. Work, home, this afternoon: drag tasks to reorder them or move them between lists. No projects, tags or subtasks, deliberately.
• An archive that remembers. Completed tasks are searchable; restoring one puts it back in its original list.
• No account at all. Things syncs through Things Cloud, which needs a free account. SideList syncs through your private iCloud, with no sign-up, ads or analytics; its App Store label is “Data Not Collected”.

It also has local-notification reminders, works offline, can launch at login and shows a pending-task count. Native Swift and SwiftUI, 4.4 MB.

SideList vs Things 3 compared

US App Store prices as of October 2026. Things details come from Cultured Code’s support pages.

Who each one is for

Choose Things 3 if you run several projects, plan your week ahead, use tags and deadlines, rely on repeating tasks, or want calendar and to-dos in one view. The one-time price is fair for what it does, and there’s a 15-day Mac trial.

Choose SideList if you’re looking for a cheaper Things 3 alternative because you use a fraction of it, want a short list of today’s tasks in the menu bar, or prefer not to create an account. More options in our guide to to-do apps without a subscription.

Neither shares lists with other people (Cultured Code confirms Things doesn’t). For that, Apple Reminders is the obvious choice (see our Apple Reminders comparison).

Using Things 3 and SideList together

Already own Things? SideList can sit next to it:

• Things holds projects, areas and the long-term plan: the client project, the deadlines, the weekly review.
• SideList is the scratchpad for now: today’s next three actions, plus anything that comes up mid-task.

Plan in Things, keep the day’s list in the menu bar, and you’re not staring at every project at once. More in our guide to a focus to-do list.