Software Alternatives & Startups

Things VS Adapt

Compare Things VS Adapt and see what are their differences

Note: These products don't have any matching categories. If you think this is a mistake, please edit the details of one of the products and suggest appropriate categories.

Things logo Things

Things is an easy to use task manager.

Adapt logo Adapt

The universal AI agent for work.
  • Things Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-01-17
Not present

Adapt is the universal AI agent that runs on your company brain. Gets instant answers for complex questions, automate workflows on-demand, schedule tasks, and build internal apps with full context of your business. Set it up once and everyone can use it on Slack, web, or mobile.

Things

$ Details
-
Platforms
-
Release Date
-
Startup details
Country
Germany

Adapt

Website
adapt.com
$ Details
paid Free Trial
Platforms
Slack Microsoft Teams
Release Date
2026 January
Startup details
Country
United States
State
California
Founder(s)
Jim Benton, John Andrew Entwistle, Sean Smith
Employees
10 - 19

Things features and specs

  • User Experience
    Things is known for its clean, intuitive, and beautifully designed user interface, making it easy to use.
  • Integration with Apple Ecosystem
    Seamlessly integrates with macOS and iOS devices, offering features like Handoff and deep Apple Calendar integration.
  • Powerful Task Management
    Supports projects, areas, headings, and tags, providing a robust system for managing complex tasks and workflows.
  • Quick Entry
    Provides a quick entry function allowing users to capture tasks efficiently, which can later be categorized and detailed.
  • Updates and Support
    Regularly updated with new features and enhancements, backed by reliable customer support.
  • Keyboard Shortcuts
    Offers extensive keyboard shortcuts for power users to navigate and manage tasks quickly.
  • Natural Language Processing
    Allows users to input tasks using natural language, which is then intelligently parsed and scheduled.

Possible disadvantages of Things

  • Cost
    Things requires a one-time purchase for each platform (macOS, iOS), making it relatively expensive compared to some subscription-based competitors.
  • Platform Limitation
    Only available on Apple devices (macOS and iOS), making it inaccessible for users on Windows, Android, or other platforms.
  • No Collaboration Features
    Lacks built-in collaboration tools, which can be a drawback for teams looking to share and manage tasks collectively.
  • Learning Curve for Advanced Features
    While the basic interface is user-friendly, fully utilizing advanced features can require time and a deeper understanding.
  • Limited Automation
    Offers fewer automation options and integrations compared to some competitors like Todoist or Microsoft To Do.

Adapt features and specs

  • Ask questions across systems
    Adapt pulls live data from connected tools, runs analysis, and returns evidence-backed answers without requiring dashboards or SQL.
  • Use Adapt in Slack, web, or mobile
    Teams can ask Adapt questions in Slack or the web app, with mobile access for work on the go.
  • Automate workflows and scheduled tasks
    Create recurring workflows such as daily briefings, pipeline reports, systems monitoring, and other multi-step tasks across business systems.
  • Build internal apps and dashboards
    Describe the internal tool, calculator, dashboard, or utility you need and Adapt can build and deploy it for your team.
  • Security, access controls, and audit logs
    Adapt encrypts data in transit and at rest, provides granular access controls and audit logging, and is SOC 2 Type I certified.

Possible disadvantages of Adapt

  • Cost
    Adapt can be relatively expensive, which may be a barrier for small institutions or individual educators.
  • Learning Curve
    Despite its user-friendly design, some users may still find there is a learning curve when initially working with the platform's more advanced features.
  • Limited Reporting Features
    The reporting tools may not be as robust as some organizations require, limiting the ability to generate detailed insights.
  • Dependency on Internet
    Being a web-based platform, Adapt requires a stable internet connection, which may not be available in all educational environments.
  • Customer Support
    While generally reliable, customer support response times can vary, potentially causing delays in resolving critical issues.

Analysis of Things

Overall verdict

  • Things is widely regarded as an excellent productivity tool, especially for Apple ecosystem users. It combines elegance with functionality, making it a top choice for those who prefer a minimalist but powerful task manager.

Why this product is good

  • Things by Cultured Code is highly acclaimed for its clean, intuitive design and effective task management features. It provides a seamless user experience with its natural language input, powerful integration with macOS and iOS, and features like projects, areas, deadlines, and reminders that help users organize their tasks efficiently. The app is particularly praised for its focus on simplicity and ease of use, which allows users to focus on their tasks without being overwhelmed by features.

Recommended for

    Things is ideal for individuals who are deeply integrated into the Apple ecosystem and appreciate a minimalist design approach. It's perfect for users who prefer a straightforward, no-frills task management system that emphasizes ease of use, efficiency, and aesthetic appeal.

Things videos

Brandon's Cult Movie Reviews: THINGS

More videos:

  • Review - Things 3: Full Review (2019)
  • Review - OmniFocus vs. Things 3 review: which is best for you?

Adapt videos

Adapt explainer video

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Things and Adapt)
Task Management
100 100%
0% 0
Sales Tools
0 0%
100% 100
Project Management
100 100%
0% 0
Lead Generation
0 0%
100% 100

Questions & Answers

As answered by people managing Things and Adapt.

Who are some of the biggest customers of your product?

Adapt's answer:

Adapt publicly lists or features the following customers and customer examples:

  • Wander
  • RevSend
  • Stamped
  • DoNotPay
  • Landingsite.ai
  • QC Growth

What makes your product unique?

Adapt's answer:

Adapt is different because it is built as a shared AI agent for company work, not a private chatbot or single-purpose automation bot.

Teams can ask natural-language questions across connected business systems, get cited answers grounded in live company data, and then take action from the same workflow. Adapt works in Slack and the web app, can automate recurring workflows and scheduled tasks, and can build internal apps and dashboards from live company data.

The strongest difference is the shared-work model: a Slack thread can become an investigation, a report, a workflow, or an internal tool that the team can see, refine, and keep using together.

Why should a person choose your product over its competitors?

Adapt's answer:

Choose Adapt when the work you want AI to handle crosses multiple tools, teams, and data sources.

Many AI assistants are either personal chatbots, search tools, or single-app automations. Adapt is designed for shared business workflows: it can gather context from connected systems, reason over the information, provide evidence-backed answers, and take action such as posting to Slack, creating reports, updating records, or triggering workflows.

Adapt is especially useful for teams that already work in Slack and need AI to operate with company context. It also includes business-grade controls such as organization-level access controls, audit logging, encryption in transit and at rest, and SOC 2 Type I certification.

How would you describe the primary audience of your product?

Adapt's answer:

Adapt is built for business teams at startups and scaling companies whose work spans multiple systems: data warehouses, CRMs, support tools, billing platforms, project management systems, Slack, and internal docs.

The primary audience includes leadership, operations, sales, marketing, product, engineering, customer support, and data teams. It is a strong fit for teams that need fast answers from company data, recurring reports, cross-system workflows, and internal tools without waiting on data, engineering, or operations teams for every request.

Adapt is especially useful for teams that already collaborate in Slack and want AI to work where decisions and follow-up already happen.

What's the story behind your product?

Adapt's answer:

Adapt was built around a simple belief: the most valuable work in a company is shared, but most AI tools are still personal and disconnected from the systems where work actually happens.

The product grew from the need for one AI agent that can understand company context, investigate across business tools, and help teams act together. Adapt's public product framework is Ask, Understand, Act: ask in natural language, let Adapt gather context from connected tools, then use the answer to create reports, update systems, automate workflows, or build internal apps.

Adapt also uses its own product internally. In its blog post "How Adapt uses Adapt," the team describes using Adapt across engineering, marketing, sales, leadership, and product workflows, from debugging production issues to competitive intelligence, daily company briefings, and CRM updates.

Which are the primary technologies used for building your product?

Adapt's answer:

Adapt's public documentation focuses on product architecture and capabilities rather than publishing a full internal engineering stack.

The core technologies and product components described publicly include:

  • An AI agent system built around the Ask, Understand, Act framework
  • Model routing to choose the best model for a task
  • Sub-agents for complex work that can run in parallel
  • Integrations that read from and write to business systems such as Slack, HubSpot, Linear, Snowflake, Stripe, Zendesk, Intercom, GitHub, and Google Workspace
  • Knowledge base, conversations, threads, scheduled tasks, and sandbox execution
  • Role-based access controls, audit logs, encryption in transit and at rest, and organization-level data isolation

In practical terms, Adapt is built to connect large language models with live company systems, permissions, workflow automation, and collaborative surfaces like Slack.

User comments

Share your experience with using Things and Adapt. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Things and Adapt

Things Reviews

11 Ayanza Alternatives
Things 3 is a multi-award-winning personal task manager that assists you in keeping track of your tasks. The environment of the application is attractive with a fresh new look, delightful integrations, and powerful features. It has been completely effective to boost efficiency with easy to use and is attractive to the eye. The themes are a creative and powerful feature that...
Five of the Best To-Do Apps for iOS
Things 3 is one of the few to-do apps that's not subscription based, and it costs $9.99 to purchase. Things 3 is also available for Mac and iPad, though each app must be purchased individually.

Adapt Reviews

Top 8 eLearning Authoring Tools: The Ultimate Comparison
Adapt is an open-source HTML5 authoring tool and is designed to let you author a multi-device responsive learning product through their Learning Pool Adapt Builder site. This is how it works. You enter a topic by tapping or clicking on the block and then scrolling down the page, working your way through the content, opening and closing tabs in accordions, narrative...

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Things seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 58 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Things mentions (58)

  • We don't need startups, we need Digital-Mittelstand
    Correct: https://culturedcode.com/things/ Looks like the different apps (desktop, mobile, iPad) have different prices, but all are one-time payments of $10-$50. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Essential Software for Mac Users: Three Recommended Efficient Tools
    Things 3is an award-winning task management application known for its clean, elegant interface and intuitive usability. It employs a minimalist design style, allowing users to easily add, organize, and view tasks, helping individuals efficiently manage daily affairs. While Things 3 does not support team collaboration features, it provides a smooth user experience on macOS as a personal task management tool. - Source: dev.to / almost 2 years ago
  • Show HN: I built a task manager that separates "Do" & "Due" dates
    How badly do Twos want to SEO rank on searches for Things? https://culturedcode.com/things/. - Source: Hacker News / almost 2 years ago
  • Ask HN: What macOS apps/programs do you use daily and recommend?
    Alfred - Productivity App for macOS [1] iTerm2 - macOS Terminal Replacement [2] Dropshare App - upload anything anywhere on macOS [3] Mimestream - A native macOS email client for Gmail [4] Things - To-Do List for Mac & iOS [5] [1] https://www.alfredapp.com [2] https://iterm2.com [3] https://dropshare.app [4] https://mimestream.com [5] https://culturedcode.com/things. - Source: Hacker News / about 2 years ago
  • Ready to advance from Evernote, looking at Obsidian
    Currently, I use Things (https://culturedcode.com/things/) for tasks and Evernote for notes, and experimented with Freeform (I love the visual aspect and simplicity). At work, I've used Notion, Mural, Miro, LucidChart, Quip, and many other collaboration-based knowledge systems. I never researched the best of personal knowledge systems until now. Source: almost 3 years ago
View more

Adapt mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Adapt yet. Tracking of Adapt recommendations started around Mar 2021.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Things and Adapt, you can also consider the following products

Todoist - Todoist is a to-do list that helps you get organized, at work and in life.

DiscoverOrg - DiscoverOrg is an IT sales intelligence platform providing technology marketers access to data, IT org charts, and real time projects.

TickTick - TickTickis a cross-platform to-do list app & task manager helps you to get all things done and make life well organized.

InsideView - InsideView aggregates and curates all the company and contact data, news and social insights, and professional connections you need to do business better.

Remember The Milk - Remember The Milk is a task and time management application for mobile devices.

Clearbit - Clearbit provides Business Intelligence APIs