Taskpaper is abandoned, no updates as developer has started with a new app. No iOS app. Those two factors are good enough for me not to look that way.
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The monthly/yearly subscription also gets you web access as well which the one time purchase does not. You have to pay $5 a month for that.
Prefer to subscribe to OmniFocus on a monthly or yearly basis? An OmniFocus subscription, available for $9.99 a month or $99.99 for an entire year, unlocks OmniFocus Pro on all supported Apple devices, and includes access to OmniFocus for the Web from any web browser.
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Or you’re just not the cheapskate that I am. 
there used to be automation differences between the two versions but basically I do not need apple to gatekeep my apps. it has not even been a month since the mac appstore meltdown that blocked people from updating apps or even launching the appstore. not to mention, people cannot back up their legacy versions conveniently if they are dependent on apple. apps purchased are mysteriously removed. there are lots of reasons. the mac appstore is a dumpster fire. Even this thread has examples of problems with people buying OF from the appstore. I upgraded directly from OG, downloaded the ios apps and they automatically unlocked when I entered my sync credentials.
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A price of $100/year makes it easier to resist. 
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I’m just a regular user of Omnifocus, not a power user. I just want to say that I’m disappointed with version 4 (which was a free upgrade). I had been a happy user of version 2, I guess I upgraded to version 3 because 2 no longer worked with my OS (I just guess here, but remember that I had no particular feature reason to upgrade at the time.)
Running version 4 in parallel with 3, version 4 uses 1/3 more RAM, is noticeably slower (I still use Intel Macs), and from what I see has no new functionality. And frankly it’s no better than version 2. I’ll stick with 3 and not bother to “upgrade”. Of course YMMV, perhaps if you use the Pro version.
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I have found the improvements to the Today view in the Forecast to be very helpful for me (reordering things, flagged items in Today, etc). It has made the system more flexible.
That being said, the app’s UI is in dire need of a complete redesign. I am baffled every time they talk about how the design is all-new. To me, it’s like they keep moving the shelves around in an IKEA closet. I wouldn’t call that a redesign.
I’m still on the beta. I will probably upgrade shortly. I wish I was happy with other apps, but I feel a little like a hostage at this point.
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Same. There is a design puzzle they can’t or don’t want to solve (I’ve argued they are short a least one full-time designer on staff since the layoffs.) But the app is so useful. And I am on board with the basic premise that an outliner is a nice way to structure and view work. I’ve been using 4 the last couple of years and don’t like 3.0 as much anymore when I open it for comparison, so thankful for the good fit.
Probably $75 one time, since (I think) you owned OF 3.
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My issue is pragmatic. I’m a tinkerer by nature and OF will let you tinker all day and do no work. I would end up continually crafting and recreating perspectives and then tweaking them to the latest Todo philosophy. Then changing all the views and changing them again.
All in all I would not be productive in OF. I’m safest with a notebook and pen. 
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A one-time price of $75 for the upgrade including all platforms (without web, which I do not care about) potentially for several years to come sounded to me being quite a good and reasonable deal.
So, I took the offer and I am back on the OmniFocus train. I am impressed about the progress they have made during the beta. The user interface has evolved significantly (I was not pleased back in 2021 to be honest) with the release version.
“Resistance is futile.” 
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A little classical education is a terrible thing. 
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Being one of the people you mention,I’d like to point out that the Mac App Store has the advantage of not having to store yourown license credentials and as far as I know MAS licenses are not tied to one seat so gotchas like these upgrades are just a nuisance over the convenience of getting a new computer and not having to worry about removing licenses from the older one and so on.
Aftr trying the betas and running a cursory OF4 review at home, I don’t see any significant new features that would merit being into a major release. The UI feels very Mac-native, but a Mac from a decade ago (nothing wrong with that, though).
I believe the reason is that what has been changed is the underlying UI framework from something older (Cocoa? I lost track of Apple’s frameworks) to the latest from Apple (I guess now it’s SwiftUI or something like that, hence the Universal App licensing model). That’s no small feat for such complex application and reminds of the Evernote 10 release: the company feels like they need to get in order their end-of-lined foundational technology and hence new, more bold features like a radical redesign need to be pushed forward in the roadmap.
Changing what’s behind the hood without disrupting the release of new features is hard enough per se, but I guess it’s impossible without a healthy subscription based model hence why Omni has been pushing subscriptions without alienating the loyals that are wary of subscriptions.
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A lot of what Omnigroup has said about this launch is more about what it means for them, at least at this stage, than what it means for the user. They’ve simplified and offered choices about how you can pay for the app and found a way to offer upgrade prices in the app store (good for users, but a one-off benefit: once you’ve decided how to pay, that’s it. It’s not become cheaper). They’ve done a lot behind the scenes so they can leave behind a creaking code base. They’ve unified the app across the Apple ecosystem (maybe good for users, but very, very good for the developers)
What they haven’t done is change that cluttered, database-type UI much and the design still hurts my eyes. There are still many strange frustrations (e.g. in how you can build perspectives - what you can and can’t search on, why you can’t build your own perspectives that include calendar events etc…) in what is a quintessential power user app. Complicated and powerful things are possible with this app but really easy things are too complicated and time-consuming. There are too many irritations: for example, you can’t show the project name in a list without also showing their cryptic symbols for the type of project (parallel or sequential)
And it took YEARS to get to this point.
I hope I’m wrong, but unless the refactoring delivers real improvements very quickly, and a development trajectory that benefits users more directly, I see omnifocus becoming ever-more niche until it disappears. I say that as someone who relied on OF3 for many years and who has been through the long and hard learning curve. As Peter Akkies said: the disappointment comes from the huge potential not (yet) delivered.
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For me this is a good thing. Although i love the design from for example Things 3, for me Things is more about form over function. Omnifocus is a very ‘functional’ application for me, and i hope they do not move away from the ‘database like UI’, i can imagine that many Omnifocus users like the current design because I think it work much better when you have a lot of data in Omnifocus.
Some applications just work better in a more ‘classic’ design, which is also why I’m more productive on a macOS compared to an iOS. (for example: file management, e-mail clients all work better in a more classic UI in my opinion)
There are certainly improvements possible in the UI.
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Some of us have this problem too.
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I agree with this, with the added difficulty that the productivity/task management arena is becoming harder and harder.
In productivity apps I see a trend similar to what went from “note taking” to “linking thoughts” in the notetaking space:apps becoming more about managing the big picture with different strategies rather than focusing on specific task juggling, which is Omnifocus power move.
This means that the potential for new users becomes smaller, it’s not that you are not competing with classic compeetitors like Things or Todoist, now you are competing with Bento, Reclaim, Cron, Morgen, the timeblockers/calendaring apps., and of course the ever growing sherlocking menace from Apple itself!
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I’m curious if this is really the case. In my personal and work environment and also at school (University) most people are still using traditional note taking tools and task managers. People at work use Microsoft Todo or Todoist (it’s a Windows world over there) and people using macOS and/ or iOS use Todoist or Things and some know of Omnifocus.
Sure the linking thought is something that is something we, as power users and enthousiasts are aware of and interested in, but I think most people do not even know it exists.
I might be wrong, but I think alle the linking thoughts and notes tools and time blocking apps are still a niche mainly used by enthousiasts, power users and also a lot in the academic world. Most people probably still use ‘traditional’ tools voor tasks, notes and calendar, and they will probably do for a long time coming. I must admit most people will probably also not use a tool like Omnifocus.
But my view on this is limited… it might be totally different in other parts of the world and in the younger generations 
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Indeed! A heavy foundation in the classics, some Greek and Latin, philosophy (including several sub-disciplines, especially epistemology), history, theology, apologetics, et al. add a depth of understanding, worldview coherence, and perspective that, sadly, the majority of contemporary students and adults lack, and therefore, are too easily manipulated, often falling prey to a lazy chronological snobbism.
But I digress! None of these courses, however, help one resist switching apps! I could still fall prey to OF if I’m not careful. There is much I like about the app and the developers!
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