Pachinko vs Things.
You already run your life in a task manager. Pachinko keeps what works - projects, areas, start dates, repeating tasks, a native Mac and iPhone app - and adds what Things doesn't have: Feeds and Functions that do the reading and drafting while you're away.
Your Things setup, imported in one pass - into a task manager that works nights.
Pachinko
|  Things | |
|---|---|---|
| tasks + notes | ||
| Tasks, projects, and areas | ✓ | ✓ |
| Rich notes with images | ✓ | ✕ |
| Repeating tasks | ✓ | ✓ |
| Calendar events beside your tasks | ✓ | ✓ |
| Apple Reminders beside your tasks | ✓ | import only |
| Quick Note: a global shortcut to type a note from anywhere | ✓ | ✓ |
| Quick Capture: a global shortcut that saves the selected text or current page | ✓ | no selected text |
| Browser extension | ✓ | ✕ |
| Share sheet on Mac and iPhone | ✓ | ✓ |
| views + organization | ||
| Card view with image previews | ✓ | ✕ |
| Status view | nine statuses, one-key filters | ✕ |
| Tags | ✕ | ✓ |
| Start dates | ✓ | ✓ |
| Deadlines | ✓ | ✓ |
| Upcoming view | ✓ | ✓ |
| Themes | 20 color schemes | ✕ |
| ai | ||
| AI chat over your notes and tasks | ✓ | ✕ |
| Functions: write an instruction once, run it forever | ✓ | ✕ |
| Feeds: scheduled imports saved as notes | ✓ | ✕ |
| Ready-made Powerups | 35 ready-made | ✕ |
| Semantic search | ✓ | ✕ |
| AI account | your Claude or ChatGPT account | ✕ |
| MCP server for outside AI tools | built into the app | ✕ |
| platforms + privacy | ||
| Platforms | macOS, iOS, iPadOS | macOS, iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, visionOS |
| Sync | iCloud | Things Cloud |
| End-to-end encryption option | with Advanced Data Protection | ✕ |
| AppleScript | ✓ | ✓ |
| price | ||
| Price | free app · Pro AI $9/mo or $229 lifetime | $34.99 Mac + $9.99 iPhone + $19.99 iPad + $29.99 Vision, one-time |
| Free tier | full task manager and notetaking, free | 15-day Mac trial |
choosing pachinko over things
Pachinko imports your whole Things database. The task manager is free: Today, Upcoming, areas, projects, repeating tasks, start dates, deadlines. You also get statuses, card view, and notes with images.
Feeds check what you follow so you don't have to: any RSS feed, YouTube transcripts, news topics, SEC filings, PubMed and arXiv papers, government feeds, weather, FRED economic data, GitHub trends, Strava workouts, PDFs, your Twitter bookmarks, and even custom feeds you build. It all shows up as notes, in the section you chose, on the schedule you set.
A Function is you telling Pachinko once what you want done with new notes. After that it happens every time. A filing shows up, and there's a note telling you what changed. A study shows up, and there's a note telling you what it adds to what was known.
You can ask Pachinko questions about your own notes and tasks, and search works even when you can't remember the exact words. All of it runs on your own Claude or ChatGPT account.
The Things column comes from their published pricing and documentation, compiled August 2026.