Things 2.0 or OmniFocus?

Simplicated said:

Yes, yes, yes, I know there is no shortage of comparisons between the two, but just earlier today Things 2.0 was released, with one of the most anticipated features (finally) included, Things Cloud, making the decision much harder to make.

OmniFocus has had its own syncing service for a while now, but from what I've heard it will only sync every hour and on application quit. I am not sure how Things 2.0 works, does it sync immediately whenever a change is committed, or does it sync at regular intervals like OmniFocus does?

A little background information here: I am not a GTD follower, as I know nothing about it (yet).

What's your opinion? Thanks for your input!

Click to expand...

A vote here for Things 2.0.
Why?
I've both for iPhone and Mac and I find Things simpler and cleaner.
It has a very nice UI (OF lacks in this) and the Things Cloud is amazing, a lot better than OmniServer.

I just started with Things 2.0 and it's pretty nice. Over the LAN at least things sync quickly. Not sure about over a cell network, but since I'm the only user it doesn't matter.

Of note is that although 2.0 is a significant upgrade it was FREE to previous owners. Very nice. And tagging is awesome in Things; dunno about Omni but Things has been on tagging since the start. It also integrates with MailTags; Things projects show there.

I've been an OmniFocus user for a while, and don't know what I would do without it. I tried Things (v1.X) but the inability to support a start date on a task was a deal breaker for me. OF's cloud syncing has been bulletproof for me, and it's an area where Things has fallen short in the past. I can't speak to v2 though--maybe they finally got it straightened out.

Just a correction on your statement regarding OF's syncing--yes, it does sync automatically every hour and on application quit, but it also syncs automatically 1 minute after any change has been made, so again, OF syncing is pretty much bullet proof.

However, I will caution that OF follows GTD methodology pretty strictly. If you haven't read the book and don't really follow the process, you may be better off with something else.

i started with Things years ago.. yes, it has a very clean and nice/simple UI/UX.

BUT - the cultured code folks were very slow at giving updates etc...

I switched to Omnifocus about a year back and it's been great acorss iOS and Mac.. it just works for me..

I did beta test Things Cloud and yes, it works...I used v2 across iOS and Mac yesterday... it still has the best UI/UX of the two apps, but Omnifocus still wins for me because of the schedule time alert for a task (debated to death on the Things forum... just don't know why CC don't add this feature!)... and also Siri integration/workaround in Omnifocus works well...

If things had those 2 features, for my workflow, I'd switch back, but I feel it will be a good while seeing as how slow they are to update.

Not sure if Omni still offer a 30 day money back guarantee - even via App Store.. so if you want, take them up on that offer and give it a whirl

Omnifocus will make your eyes bleed. I waited so long for Things to sync automatically just because Omnifocus was so ugly.

What about free one called Base. It's free and has free osx app too. Also the syncing between ios and osx is simply amazing. What do you think?

Hands down Things 2.0! It is such an elegant and easy to use app. They did take their time to implement the cloud feature but they did it right and also gave the update for free to existing users. Very nice!

Omnifocus if you're serious about project management, Things if you're a consumer who wants a better version of Reminders.

Before doing anything you should check out Appigo Todo. They started with iPhone, then iPad and now have Mac app. They all sync with iCloud or you can pay for their Todo Online web app.

http://www.appigo.com/apps

(I have no affiliation with Appigo at all, just a happy customer)

The UI may not be as slick as Things, but Todo has lists, contexts, tags, projects, special task types, notifications, badge updating and more.

I for one and a bit shocked at the high ratings Things gets on the App Store. This app did not have cloud sync for over 1.5 years. Users on their forums were very upset at the lack of communication from the developer. It seemed a perfect example of form (nice UI) over function. Maybe 2.0 has corrected all that...

Here's a vote for OF, use them across my mac, iPad, iPhone.

Another vote for OmniFocus. I've been using it for a good year now and it keeps getting better. I am hoping that the Mac version gets the forecast view that the iOS versions have.

As far as the syncing goes, OmniFocus has never missed a beat. The sync will automatically happen every hour, but will also happen, as another response mentioned, within a minute of any change. You can also click the sync button at anytime to perform a sync. I use OmniFocus everyday across my iPad, iPhone and Mac. Another big feature for me was also mentioned earlier and that was the task start date. When I create a task I want to have the due date, but if it is something that will take some time, I also want a start date so that it will remind me I need to start this task if I plan to finish it on time.

I was a huge advocate for ToDo and I still like the app, I started with that on the iPhone and then iPad, but when I got the Mac switched to OmniFocus. I have tried ToDo on the Mac but I kept having sync errors, so OmniFocus wins out for me.

hchavarria said:

Here's a vote for OF, use them across my mac, iPad, iPhone.

Click to expand...

+1

OF on the Mac is highly functional but the UI is ugly, l strongly prefer the IOS versions...sync works flawlessly from day one.

I waited for a very long time for Cultured Code to add cloud syncing to Things. I'm glad they finally did, as I like the interface, but I simply couldn't excuse their lack of responsiveness, given that other apps added that feature quite some time ago. Even though I didn't want to fork out the cash for OmniFocus, I eventually did. Soon after that, I deleted Things from my Macs and from my iPhone. OmniFocus, while more complex, is superbly powerful.

You may be interested in my post providing a 'dot point' comparison of the functionality of Things 2 and Omnifocus:

http://purplezengoat.com/2012/08/13/things-2-and-omnifocus-compared/

ozengo

Omnifocus is my choice. Although I'm not a huge fan of the mac app's UI, it's got a lot of great features that many people don't know about like geofencing. You can set up contexts with specific locations or even "searches" and get alerts when you're nearby.

For example, On my iPhone I have contexts for my home, for my office, and a remote office and I get alerted on arrival at each location of things I need to do. You can also make search-based contexts. I have a Grocery Store context that searches for nearby locations that match the grocery store search term. Anytime I'm near a grocery store — whether it's Safeway, Whole Foods, etc. — I get an alert that I need to pick up an item. Cool.

I've ditched both of them for Producteev. Now producteev is not as good as those feature wise, but since they added subtasks it does everything I need really. It has one advantage that is important to me. The ability to work in groups. I can have several groups, for work, projects, home etc. where I can assign tasks to other people and they can assign tasks to me. It is really a blessing to be able to work that way with people.

In general, Things 2.0 is easier to use but has (far) fewer features than OF -- that's one reason it is easier to use and learn. OF has incredible support, T2 has almost none (OmniGroup is a much larger company than Cultured Code).

You will have to decide whether you can do without the features that OF has that T2 doesn't, such as nested action groups, folders, fully customizable perspectives, explicitly define-able parallel and sequential tasks, and others.

T2 has two big advantages (syncing is not one of them -- both now do that just fine, T2 is faster but OF isn't slow enough to make it matter): (i) tags -- using tags you can put a task into, for example, two different contexts. OF can't do that. (ii) a better desktop UI (which is partially the result of it being simpler/less customizable/less features); the desktop version of OF needs a serious UI upgrade, which hopefully will include getting rid of the clunky Inspector. OF 2.0 is rumored. The iPad version of OF has the best UI (in my opinion) of all of them, even better than T2.

I have used both (including d/l T2 when it came out and seeing how it worked -- I'm sticking with OF because I need its nested action groups and other features). To me, the real difference is that T2 is a fancy to do list -- it is a "flat" list. I don't mean this as a criticism, just a fact. For many, a fancy to do list is all that is needed. If that is what you need, it's a really nice program, eons ahead of Reminders. OF, on the other hand, is much more about managing projects that contain actions to define a workflow.

Whichever you choose, do yourself a favor and RTFM and other resources. You can sort of dive into T2 without doing so, but in the long run you will be much better off if you spend some time figuring out how the program works before you dive in. There are some short beginner guides linked from the Cultured Code forum that are worth reading.

With OF, this is a must. In fact, if you want to use OF, buy this ebook, which I found invaluable.

Now that OmniFocus 2 has arrived, can anyone share any new thoughts?

The new OmniFocus looks very nice. But, it's still a heavy application that may take some training and time. And it's a bit expensive.

I use, and love, Appigo Todo. I use both the Mac and iPhone apps. You have projects, checklists, contexts, focus list and more. I've been very happy. They have struggled with pricing model for their cloud service but hopefully they have learned from past mistakes. As for features, Todo is very full featured.

I don't get how/why people stuck with Things. They were so late to add sync capability. Things really seems to be form over function. I'm interested to see how long it takes Things to update it's UI for iOS 7. Todo is already updated.

sigamy said:

The new OmniFocus looks very nice. But, it's still a heavy application that may take some training and time. And it's a bit expensive.

I use, and love, Appigo Todo. I use both the Mac and iPhone apps. You have projects, checklists, contexts, focus list and more. I've been very happy. They have struggled with pricing model for their cloud service but hopefully they have learned from past mistakes. As for features, Todo is very full featured.

I don't get how/why people stuck with Things. They were so late to add sync capability. Things really seems to be form over function. I'm interested to see how long it takes Things to update it's UI for iOS 7. Todo is already updated.

Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll give Appigo a try. Sure hope to see a Things update quickly, they seem to have slowed down quite a bit...