Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Things VS Usage AI

Compare Things VS Usage AI and see what are their differences

Things logo Things

Things is an easy to use task manager.

Usage AI logo Usage AI

Usage's Automated Reserved Instance Manager buys/sells Flex RIs(3-yr-no-upfront RIs under the hood) to maximize your coverage and minimize your compute spend - up to a maximum 57% savings!
  • Things Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-01-17
Not present

Usage.ai is an automated cloud cost optimization platform designed to help companies reduce infrastructure spending across AWS environments. The platform focuses on optimizing commitment-based pricing such as AWS Savings Plans and Reserved Instances.

Instead of manually forecasting infrastructure usage and purchasing commitments, Usage.ai continuously analyzes real-time cloud consumption and automatically manages commitments to maximize savings while minimizing the risk of unused capacity.

Engineering and FinOps teams use Usage.ai to improve their effective savings rate, reduce manual cloud cost management work, and gain better visibility into infrastructure efficiency.

By automating commitment purchasing and optimization, Usage.ai helps organizations achieve predictable cloud savings while allowing engineering teams to focus on building products instead of managing cloud pricing complexity.

Things

$ Details
-
Platforms
-
Startup details
Country
Germany

Usage AI

Website
usage.ai
$ Details
free
Platforms
AWS Azure GCP
Startup details
Country
United States
State
New York
Founder(s)
Kaveh Khorram
Employees
50 - 99

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.

Usage AI features and specs

  • Cost Optimization
    Usage AI helps businesses optimize their cloud spending by analyzing usage patterns and providing actionable recommendations. This can lead to significant cost savings, especially for organizations with complex cloud environments.
  • Automated Recommendations
    The platform provides automated suggestions for optimizing cloud usage, making it easier for users to implement best practices without extensive manual analysis.
  • Comprehensive Reporting
    Usage AI offers detailed reports and insights into cloud usage, which can help organizations understand their spending patterns and areas for potential improvement.
  • Customizable Alerts
    Users can set up alerts for specific usage patterns or costs, allowing them to proactively manage spending and avoid unexpected charges.

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?

Usage AI videos

No Usage AI videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

Add video

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Things and Usage AI)
Task Management
100 100%
0% 0
Cloud Cost Optimization
0 0%
100% 100
Project Management
100 100%
0% 0
Productivity
98 98%
2% 2

Questions & Answers

As answered by people managing Things and Usage AI.

What makes your product unique?

Usage AI's answer:

Usage.ai automates cloud commitment management with AI, continuously optimizes savings across AWS, Azure, and GCP, and protects customers with Insured Commitments that reduce the risk of underutilized commitments.

Why should a person choose your product over its competitors?

Usage AI's answer:

Usage.ai doesn't just recommend savings - it automatically purchases, manages, and optimizes cloud commitments, backed by Insured Commitments that reduce financial risk and maximize long-term savings.

How would you describe the primary audience of your product?

Usage AI's answer:

Usage.ai is built for DevOps, FinOps, Cloud Architects, Engineering leaders, and IT decision-makers who want to reduce cloud costs across AWS, Azure, and GCP without manual commitment management.

What's the story behind your product?

Usage AI's answer:

Usage.ai was founded in 2020 after its founder saw companies either overpaying for cloud infrastructure or avoiding long-term cloud commitments because of the financial risk. The company set out to make cloud savings automatic, risk-free, and easy, helping businesses save without code changes or lock-in.

Which are the primary technologies used for building your product?

Usage AI's answer:

Primary technologies used by Usage.ai:

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) for commitment sizing and optimization
  • Machine Learning for usage analysis and savings recommendations
  • Cloud billing APIs from AWS, Azure, and GCP
  • Cloud cost analytics for spend, utilization, and commitment tracking
  • Automation for purchasing and managing cloud commitments
  • Secure billing-layer integrations with no code or infrastructure changes required

User comments

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Reviews

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

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.

Usage AI Reviews

We have no reviews of Usage AI yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Things seems to be a lot more popular than Usage AI. While we know about 58 links to Things, we've tracked only 3 mentions of Usage AI. 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

Usage AI mentions (3)

  • Stop bleeding money on cloud infrastructure
    Thanks for sharing your project! Cloud costs have gotten ridiculously out of control (an Andreessen Horowitz report estimates that the excess cost of public cloud is $500 billion per year [1]) and it's great to see more projects tackling this problem. I'm curious to see if you plan on implementing automation, or if the tool is focused on recommendations? We've built a tool at Usage.AI that automatically buys and... - Source: Hacker News / over 4 years ago
  • Comparing Bandwidth Costs of Amazon, Google and Microsoft Cloud Computing (2017)
    +1 on WalterGR's question. Google Cloud recently hiked prices (again), doubling prices for some of its services [1], though Amazon has a better track record of keeping prices steady (or even reducing them) [2]. There are also newer innovations that aren't discussed in that comparison, like Google's Commited Use Discounts and Azure Reserved VM Instances (their answers to Amazon's Reserved Instances). If you're... - Source: Hacker News / about 4 years ago
  • Show HN: Usage, Cut your AWS Bill by 50%+ in 5 Minutes
    FYI, you didn't provide a clear link or anything. Just the privacy policy in footer. Looks like it is this: https://usage.ai. - Source: Hacker News / over 4 years ago

What are some alternatives?

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

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

ProsperOps - Cost optimization tools and expertise from the creators of AWS' largest Managed Service Provider. Our customers increase savings an average of 34%.

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

CloudFix - CloudFix is the automatic, always-running way to optimize AWS cost and performance.

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

CloudZero - The world’s leading cloud cost optimization platform. Allocate 100% of your cloud spend to identify savings opportunities.