Kept vs Things 3
We'll say it plainly: Things 3 is one of the finest pieces of software ever shipped on Apple platforms, and Kept exists partly because Cultured Code proved that calm wins. Two Apple Design Awards, a decade of restraint, one-time pricing with no subscription, and an interface that still embarrasses most of the category. If software craft matters to you, Things has earned your respect and ours.
| Kept | Notion | Sunsama/Akiflow | Atoms | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Setup required | None · useful in 60s | Build it yourself | Guided ritual, daily | Minimal |
| Files itself | Yes · one-line capture | No | Partial | n/a |
| Whole life (work + body + mind) | Yes | Work/docs | Work | Habits only |
| Identity engine | Yes · vow & votes | No | No | Yes |
| Mobile-first & calm | Yes | No | Desktop-first | Yes |
| Price | Free to start; fair annual | Free → $10–20/mo | ~$17–34/mo | ~$120/yr |
Competitor details as of June 2026; see their sites for current pricing.
What Things gets genuinely right
The design, obviously · but the deeper win is restraint. Things has a strong opinion about what a task manager should be (Today, Upcoming, Anytime, Someday) and has held it for years while competitors chased dashboards. The one-time price is honorable: about $50 on Mac, $10 on iPhone, $20 on iPad, and sync is free · Cultured Code even spent recent years quietly rebuilding Things Cloud from scratch rather than shipping gimmicks.
It's also fast, keyboard-driven on the Mac, and utterly reliable. For people who enjoy the small daily ritual of collecting, tagging, and scheduling their own tasks in a beautiful environment, Things is the endgame · there is genuinely nothing better at that job.
Everything in Things is by hand
The honest limit: Things does none of the work. You collect the task, you file it to a project, you tag it, you set the date, you decide what today holds, you reorder when the day collapses. The calm you feel is real, but you are producing it manually, every day. Skip the ritual for a week and the Inbox becomes the same pile every other tool accumulates.
And the intelligence isn't coming from inside the app. As of mid-2026 Things' only AI is Apple's own Writing Tools passthrough in notes; deeper Siri integration is announced groundwork, not shipped. The calendar shows your events but Things doesn't plan around them or write into them. Habits, training, meals, focus, and any memory of what you said last month are out of scope entirely. Things holds tasks with perfect manners. It doesn't hold a life.
What Kept does instead
Kept keeps the temperament and moves the labor. Say one line and the task is filed, dated, prioritized · or it's an event on your real calendar, or a note next to the work it serves. The day assembles itself from your goals, your calendar, and what you've promised; your job is a thirty-second glance and the living of it. It's the Things feeling, without the Things ritual.
The surface is also wider: tasks, calendar, notes, habits, training, food, and focus in one place, pointed at an identity you chose. Every kept promise is a vote, counted quietly. And like Things, Kept is native on iPhone and Mac · capture is one keystroke (⌃Space) from anywhere, because we share Cultured Code's belief that speed and calm are the same feature.
Who should pick which
Pick Things if the manual ritual is the pleasure: if collecting and arranging your own tasks in a beautiful, opinionated container is something you'll still enjoy in month six, and one-time pricing matters to you. It is the best hand tool in the category, full stop.
Pick Kept if you love Things' calm but keep falling off its wagon · if the Inbox pile and the daily arranging are the reason your system decays. The organizing happens in the background, automatically, and the calm is the default rather than the reward.
Things 3 pricing (one-time: $49.99 Mac, $9.99 iPhone + Apple Watch, $19.99 iPad; no subscription; free Things Cloud sync, rebuilt 2025) and AI status (Apple Writing Tools passthrough; Siri integration announced but not shipped) verified July 2026. See culturedcode.com for current details.
Say it once. It’s filed.
One calm app, not six · free to start, iPhone first.