Pinwork and Things 3 are close neighbors. Both are task apps built for Apple devices only, with no Windows version, no Android version, and no browser client, so anyone who needs the same list on a non-Apple machine should stop here and look at a cross-platform service instead. Both give a task a planned day and a separate final date, and both are paid products with no permanent free tier. The choice comes down to how a task collects its details, what each app does with a deadline and an estimate once the task exists, what the app costs once more than one device is involved, and whether syncing asks for another account.
At a glance
| Pinwork | Things 3 | |
|---|---|---|
| Platforms | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch | Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch |
| Account for the app | None | None for a single device |
| Sync | Private iCloud database | Things Cloud account |
| Free tier | None. Seven-day trial on the subscription plans | None. Trial for the Mac app |
| Recurring price | $4.99 monthly or $34.99 yearly | No subscription |
| One-time price | $79.99 lifetime | List prices: $49.99 Mac, $9.99 iPhone, $19.99 iPad |
| Devices per purchase | Every supported Apple device | The platform that was bought |
| Planned date and deadline | When and Deadline | When and Deadline |
| Reminders and repeats | Included; Task Reminders switch on in Settings | Included |
| Deadline warnings | Separate from task reminders, lead time set in Settings | Reminders attach to the When date only |
| Time estimate | On every task, typed or picked | None |
| Apple Calendar | Creates a linked event from a task, with Calendar access | Shows events beside to-dos; changes happen in Calendar |
| Statuses | Not Started, In Progress, Done, Canceled; Waiting and Someday/Maybe in GTD mode | Open, completed, canceled |
Capture: one typed sentence, or the date controls
Pinwork reads the sentence itself. Typing Prepare slides tomorrow at 10am 2h by next Monday at 5pm #client >Marketing can produce a task called Prepare slides, a When date of tomorrow at 10:00 AM, a Deadline of next Monday at 5:00
PM, a two-hour estimate, the client tag, and placement in an existing
Marketing project. The title stays clean because the recognized parts are
removed from it. The typed capture guide lists the
full syntax.
Two details matter more than the syntax list. A Deadline marker such as by,
due, due by, or deadline has to sit immediately before a date phrase, so
ordinary wording like Send it by email stays in the title. And the metadata
commands currently use English grammar even when the rest of the interface is
localized.
The parser runs in the in-app Quick Add field, the iPhone scheduling sheet, the Mac menu bar Quick Add, Siri and Shortcuts capture, the Action Button, Apple Pencil capture on iPad, the quick add deep link and AppleScript command, and supported title edit paths. The Share Extension keeps shared text as supplied. Apple Watch capture applies a smaller set of fields: the title, When, tags, and Deadline when the parser supplies one. Renaming a task is also protected, so a new date typed into a title that already has a When date will not move the task. The capture guide covers each entry point.
Things takes the other approach. Date phrases such as tomorrow, next monday,
or in 3 days are typed into its When and Deadline controls, and the to-do
title is kept as typed. The result is the same two dates, set in two controls.
Two dates: the plan and the real due date
Both apps separate the day the work is planned from the day it is due, and both call the first one When.
In Pinwork, When decides where the task appears. A task scheduled for today lands in Today, a future date puts it in Upcoming, and a task with no When date stays in Inbox or another unscheduled view. Deadline sits beside it and defaults to End of Day. One task can carry both fields, and a task can carry neither.
Deadline warnings are configured separately from ordinary task reminders, so a real due date can announce itself further ahead. Clearing a When date on a recurring task also clears the recurrence rule, because the repeat needs an anchor date to calculate the next occurrence. The When and Deadline comparison works through when the second date earns its place, and the scheduling guide documents the pickers.
What Pinwork adds once the task exists
Every Pinwork task can carry an estimate, typed as 2h or ~30min or picked in
the task details. The estimate sets the length of a linked Calendar event,
filters and sorts lists, shows on Apple Watch rows, and carries over to the next
occurrence of a repeating task. Things has no estimate field on a to-do.
A Pinwork task can become a linked Apple Calendar event from its context menu, from the action bar, in a batch, or from a typed command, and a setting can do it automatically whenever a task gets a When date. The event carries the title, the notes with a link back to the task, the When time, the estimate as its length, and the Deadline as an alarm. Once the task has a When date, a change to the time or the title on either side syncs across, and when both sides changed, the task wins. This needs full Calendar access, which the calendar guide walks through. Things shows Apple Calendar events beside its to-dos and hands off to the Calendar app for changes; it does not create an event from a to-do.
The two dates also part ways at notification time. Task Reminders, once switched on in Settings, fire at the When time. Deadline warnings have their own setting for how far ahead they arrive, so a real due date can announce itself ahead of the task reminder. Things attaches reminders to the When date, and a deadline cannot carry one.
Pinwork tasks move through Not Started, In Progress, Done, and Canceled, and GTD mode adds Waiting and Someday/Maybe with their own lists, so a task that is blocked on somebody else leaves Today without losing its dates. The statuses guide lists what each state changes. Things has open, completed, and canceled.
Inside a Pinwork list, Filter and Sort narrow the view by status, When, Deadline or overdue state, snooze, recurrence, estimate, tags, project, or date range, offering the choices that make sense for that list, and sort by When, Deadline urgency, estimate, created date, modified date, or alphabetically, remembered per list on that device. Things keeps manual order with automatic grouping and has no alphabetical sort.
On iPhone, a focus session started from a task shows up as a Live Activity on the Lock Screen and, on supported models, in the Dynamic Island, with pause, resume, and complete controls, and Apple Watch shows it in the Smart Stack.
On the Mac, the menu bar item, once enabled in Settings, holds Quick Add and a panel with up to five Today and five Inbox tasks. Command-K opens a command palette on Mac and on iPad with a keyboard attached.
Price: one purchase across devices, or one purchase per platform
Things is bought outright, once per platform. At list price that is $49.99 for the Mac app, $9.99 for the iPhone app, and $19.99 for the iPad app, each bought on its own. The Apple Watch app is listed together with the iPhone app. There is no subscription and no higher tier, so reminders and repeating to-dos are part of the app rather than an upgrade. Somebody who works on one Mac and nothing else pays once and is finished.
Pinwork sells one purchase that covers every supported Apple device signed in with the same App Store Apple Account. That is $4.99 monthly, $34.99 yearly, or $79.99 as a lifetime purchase with no subscription expiration. Adding an iPad or an Apple Watch later costs nothing extra: Restore Purchases brings access to the new iPad, and the Watch takes its access from the paired iPhone. The plans and lifetime guide explains the states in detail.
The three Things apps at list price add up to $79.97, within pennies of the Pinwork lifetime purchase at $79.99. One device makes Things cheaper. All three cost about the same as Pinwork.
Neither app has a free tier. The Pinwork subscription plans start with a free seven-day trial through the App Store, and lifetime access is a one-time purchase. Without active access the app enters read-only recovery, where tasks, projects, tags, and the archive stay visible while creating, editing, completing, rescheduling, and deleting are blocked until access is restored. Things offers a trial for its Mac app.
Sync and accounts
Things can run on one device with no account at all. Syncing between devices, including the Apple Watch app, uses Things Cloud, which is an account with the app maker.
Pinwork has no account of its own. Each device keeps a local task database, and when iCloud is available the tasks, projects, tags, checklist items, dates, estimates, and recurrence rules sync through the private iCloud database attached to the Apple Account already on the device. The CloudKit container belongs to the app, but the records live in the private iCloud scope, and no separate task-sync server receives the database.
Sync timing is decided by iCloud rather than by the app. Check Sync Status saves pending local changes, refreshes what has already arrived, and reports the current state. If iCloud is signed out, out of quota, or rate limited, syncing pauses while the local copy keeps working. The iCloud sync guide covers the status messages.
Who each app suits
Things suits someone who works on one Mac or one iPhone and wants to pay once for that platform.
Pinwork suits people who capture in a hurry and want the structure to survive the moment of typing. It fits when the planned day and the real due date need to stay separate and each needs its own warning, when a task should carry an estimate and become a linked Apple Calendar event, when tasks arrive from Siri, Shortcuts, the Action Button, or the Mac menu bar, and when one purchase should cover an iPhone, an iPad, a Mac, and an Apple Watch without buying the app again for each one.
Pinwork can import selected Apple Reminders lists into projects, which helps anyone whose list currently lives there.