When comparing Things 2 vs GTDNext, the Slant community recommends GTDNext for most people. In the question“What are the best cross-platform task apps?” GTDNext is ranked 13th while Things 2 is ranked 24th. The most important reason people chose GTDNext is:
All the “Get Things Done” lists you would expect: next actions, someday, waiting, and scheduled.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Cloud sync
Users need to create an account for Things Cloud (the account can be created from any device). Once signed up, cloud sync will be active, and you’ll have to login on all of your devices to complete setup. From that point on, syncing happens in the background. It is invisible and always reliable.
Pro Daily review
At the beginning of every day, a yellow box appears at the top of the Today section, displaying all tasks scheduled for this day. You can investigate them, and then decide which ones you’ll have for that day and which one you’d rather want to delay.
Pro Easy to set up and use
Things 2 works from the moment you start it up. Simply add a task and when you want it done by. You can also add notes to tasks or tag when you need them. Things allows you to quickly and easily start keeping track of your tasks.
Pro Project support
Things 2 has a projects feature that allows you to organize your tasks together. You can select a project you need to get done and Things helps you focus on each task to get it done. You can even group projects together to focus on the most important aspect of your life at the time.
Pro Great for GTD
Things is one of the best apps of doing Getting Things Done.
Pro Nested tags
It's very easy filtering tasks that belong to various areas (etc private vs work)
Pro Responsive and easy naviagation
Logical and responsive navigation and editing. Easy to operate.
Pro Customized calendar
The calendar view (when selecting a due date for a task) is a customized, scrollable version of the default iOS calendar view. This makes it look familiar, but also functional for Things 2's requirements.
Pro GTD style lists
All the “Get Things Done” lists you would expect: next actions, someday, waiting, and scheduled.
Pro Automatic next actions
When it comes to choosing your next action, most to-do apps suffer from the same problem: All of your actions (sometimes hundreds in total) are visible to choose from. This can overwhelm users and cause them to give up on the system. GTDNext is different. In the "Next Action" view, only the very next action is shown for each of your projects. This results in a nicely consolidated view of only the things that need your immediate attention.
Pro Unlimited levels of projects and actions
In GTDNext you can set up an unlimited number of levels for your projects and actions, allowing you to plan your project and sub-projects in as much detail as needed.
Pro Areas of Focus
GTDNext supports the “Areas of Focus” methodology from Getting Things Done. You can filter all of your tasks to just show your work tasks, side project tasks, or personal tasks. There is also a global filter, so that when you’re hard at work you can focus only on your work projects and tasks.
Pro Option to visualize all projects and tasks in a single outline view
This is really useful because it prevents you from having to navigate through each project individually.
Pro Many keyboard shortcuts available
The number of keyboard shortcuts makes it easy to log or add tasks without removing your hands from the keys.
Cons
Con Expensive if you buy apps for Mac, iPhone and iPad (all sold separately)
As at May 2016 if buying all three apps it cost $80! That said there is no annual subscription and I've been using Things for years and have only paid once so far.
Con Poor calendar view
Could be more convenient with calendar interaction. Not an ordinary approach for visual people, if you want to see all the calendar events in the familiar format.
Con No file attachment available
Con No supported time based/location based alarms
Other apps have these abilities, and they are very useful. Especially for a $10 app, it would be great to include these premium features.
Con No mobile app available
Con Web only
GTDNext does not have native apps for other devices, but it does work across PC/Mac/Linux on the web client.