If you love Things 3, you already believe in the idea behind Drift: an app should feel calm, not crowded. Things does that for to-dos. Drift does it for ideas, and for everything a creative project needs after the idea.
The short answer
- Choose Things 3 if you want a clean personal to-do list and prefer a one-time purchase.
- Choose Drift if your head is full of ideas and you want one simple place to catch them, sort them and turn them into projects with writing, boards and tables.
Catching ideas
Things has a quick-entry window and works with Siri to add a to-do. Drift is built around catching thoughts: talk from the app, a widget, the Action Button, Control Centre, Apple Watch or Siri, even offline. Drift turns what you said into a titled idea, suggests where it belongs and pulls out any tasks.
Planning the day
Things is known for Today, This Evening, Upcoming and Someday. Drift keeps it just as simple: Today split into Morning, Afternoon and Evening, today's 3, repeating tasks, reminders and a calendar. On a Mac, Drift also lives at the notch, quietly showing your next task and running a focus timer.
Everything in one package
A Things project is a list of to-dos with headings and notes. A Drift project also holds full-screen writing, a free-form board for images and notes, and tables for shot lists, schedules or budgets. If your projects are films, videos, articles or anything you make, that means one app instead of four.
Where Things 3 is the better pick
- You only need a to-do list and want nothing else in the app.
- You prefer paying once over a subscription.
Price
Things 3 is a one-time purchase, bought separately for iPhone, iPad and Mac. Drift has a small free plan, and one Pro subscription covers every device. With Pro, Drift also lets you share an area with someone, which Things does not.
Drift at a glance
- iPhone, iPad and Mac, with capture on Apple Watch. Android, Windows and the web are planned for later.
- The app comes in 10 languages, and you choose the language you speak in separately: read Drift in Dutch and talk in English, or the other way round.
- Capturing works offline, on a plane or without signal, and syncs when you are back online.
- Search across everything you have caught, and add images to your projects and boards.
- Tasks sync with Apple Reminders both ways: tick a reminder and the task is done, add one to a Drift list and it becomes a task. Timed tasks go to Apple Calendar, and your calendar events show in Drift.
- Export your writing as Markdown, and tables as PDF or CSV.
- Share an area with someone, view-only or with editing, as part of Pro.
- Your account and ideas are stored in the EU, in Ireland.
- Pro starts with a 14-day free trial.
Full transparency
Drift is built and maintained by one person: Sjoerd, a filmmaker in Haarlem. The parts that make Drift feel easy, turning your voice into clean text, giving every idea a title and suggesting where it belongs, run on paid servers, so every capture costs real money. That is why Drift cannot be free forever.
There is a free plan so you can try it properly, but it is limited on purpose: 10 captures a week and up to 6 areas. Pro is €4.99 a month, or €47.90 a year, which works out at €3.99 a month. Pro starts with a 14-day free trial, so you can try everything before you pay. Low enough to be easy, and enough to keep Drift going and getting better.
And one promise that costs nothing: your ideas and writing are never used to train models.
Drift is on the App Store for iPhone, iPad and Mac, with capture on Apple Watch. Start with the free plan and see if it fits the way you think.