quik.md vs Things: Calm Manual Planning or AI Capture?

quik.md vs Things 3 is a choice between an AI-first capture inbox and a deliberately manual Apple-only task app. quik.md routes voice notes and messy thoughts into projects automatically and runs in any browser. Things is a beautifully restrained planner that asks you to file and plan by hand. Both are respected. They are aimed at different people.

How do quik.md and Things 3 compare at a glance?

The two apps share a love of personal task management and disagree on almost everything else. Things leans calm and manual. quik.md leans fast and AI-assisted. The table below covers the axes people actually weigh when switching from one to the other.

Category	quik.md	Things 3
Platforms	Web, iOS via PWA, Android via PWA	macOS, iOS, iPadOS, watchOS only
Capture friction	One hotkey, one field	Quick Entry on Mac, share sheet on iOS
Voice support	Native, transcribed, routed	Siri quick entry, no transcription
AI routing	Built-in, task-first	None
Manual planning ritual	Optional, AI does it by default	Core to the product
Today and Upcoming views	Yes	Yes, the flagship feature
Markdown export	Native, lossless for tasks	No native markdown export
Team sharing	No	No
Pricing	Free tier, Pro paid	One-time per platform, roughly $10 to $50

Choose quik.md if

• You want an inbox that routes thoughts without you building a system.
• You use Android or Windows and need the same tool on every device.
• Voice capture matters and you talk in full paragraphs, not single tasks.
• You want tasks in portable markdown you can move anywhere.
• You already know the planning ritual is not what helps you ship.

Choose Things 3 if

• You live entirely on Apple devices and like it that way.
• A calm, deliberate planning ritual is part of why you feel on top of work.
• You prefer one-time purchases over subscriptions.
• UX polish is a real value for you, not a marketing word.
• You do not want AI touching your tasks and would rather file by hand.

Where do they actually differ?

Platforms and cross-device reality

Things 3 is Apple-only. If your phone is a Pixel, or your work laptop is a ThinkPad running Linux, Things cannot be your daily tool. quik.md runs in any browser and installs as a PWA on Android, Windows, Linux, and Apple devices. For people who have an Android phone and a MacBook, this is not a minor difference, it is a hard constraint. For more context on cross-platform task apps, read Todoist alternatives.

Capture and voice

Things has excellent Quick Entry on Mac and a share sheet on iOS. Siri can add a single task by voice. quik.md records a full voice note, transcribes it with Whisper, extracts any todos, and files them in the right project. A three-minute walk-and-talk that contains six action items becomes six routed tasks in quik, and a single note to listen to later in Things.

AI routing versus manual filing

Things is deliberately AI-free. You add the task, pick the project, set Today or Upcoming, and move on. That restraint is part of its calm. quik.md does the opposite: the AI classifies the capture, extracts todos, proposes a due date if the text implies one, and routes to a project. Neither is better in the abstract. One trusts the user. The other trusts the model. For the routing pipeline, see AI task manager.

Planning ritual

Things is built around a daily planning ritual: Today, Upcoming, Someday, Anytime. Many people adopt it specifically for that flow and find it calming. quik.md does not enforce a ritual. If you want one, you can run a daily review, but the default path is capture-now, resolve-later. The question is honest: does the ritual help you ship, or does it just feel good?

Markdown and portability

quik.md is built on markdown. Every item, every export, every project is markdown you can move elsewhere. Things has no native markdown export. You can copy tasks out, but the structure does not survive cleanly. If portability matters to you, read markdown task management.

When is quik.md not the best fit?

quik.md is not a calm, opinionated manual planner. If the reason you love Things is the daily ritual of moving cards from Upcoming to Today by hand, quik will feel like it skipped the part you enjoy. quik is also web-first, which means there is no native Mac menubar app with the polish Things has spent a decade refining. If you want a tool that feels like a piece of furniture in macOS, Things wins and quik will not convince you otherwise. quik earns its place when the bottleneck is capture, not planning.

FAQ

Is Things 3 worth it in 2026?

Yes, if you are deep in the Apple ecosystem and want a calm manual planning ritual. Things is still one of the most polished task apps ever shipped, and the one-time purchase model is refreshing. Skip it if your workflow is voice-first, cross-platform, or needs AI routing. It deliberately does not do those things, and Cultured Code has been clear about that stance for years.

Can I use Things on Android or Web?

No. Things 3 is macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and watchOS only. There is no Android app and no web version. If you use a Pixel, a Windows desktop, or a Linux laptop, Things cannot be part of your daily flow. quik.md runs in the browser and as a PWA on any device, so an Android phone plus a macOS laptop is a first-class pair instead of a broken one.

Does Things have AI?

No. Things 3 does not ship AI features. No task extraction, no auto-routing, no voice transcription, no natural language due date parsing beyond the classic quick-entry shortcuts. That restraint is part of its charm and part of the reason it feels calm. quik.md ships AI as a core capability: classification, extraction, routing, and voice transcription all run on capture.

Which has better voice capture?

quik.md has better voice capture. It transcribes with Whisper, extracts todos from what you said, and files them in the right project automatically. Things supports Siri quick entry on Apple devices, which adds a single task by voice, but it does not transcribe free-form monologues or route extracted items. For long voice notes that contain several todos, the gap is large.

For the Things 3 official site, visit culturedcode.com/things.