Glad to hear it’s meeting your needs and fun too. 
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I will respect the OmniGroup’s request to keep OmniFocus beta test builds private but, now that I’ve got my grubby little hands on OF 3, I will say this. Oh my! Oh my! Oh my!
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When they say private they mean don’t share the actual application/login credentials to get it, you can share screenshots and write about it providing you clarify that it’s a beta!
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Time to share those amazing pictures lol.
You might be interested in a post on The Productivity Guild discourse.
It’s got a lot of great images and it’s evolving with time.
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Same here !
So much to learn, especially on how others view the two apps and others similar to them.
True. Unless you’re tapped on the project name in a perspective or some other place (such as search). It is only one more tap to select a task in that project, then another tap top open the inspector, then another tap to select the project, then another tap to select ‘yes, leave this and go to project’ option. This is everywhere in OF, multiple taps. It is death by a million cuts.
Agree
I’m convinced much of the discussion comparing apps is school yard rivalry. “Get on my team. We are the best.”
Sometimes the captains have even read a review. Of course, there folks have enough experience with the apps to know what suits them. Their voices are sometimes difficult to sort from the chatter.
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Just in case this hasn’t been mentioned yet, one distinction between Things 3 and Omnifocus is their licensing model and how it is impacted by Apple’s Family Sharing. Apple does not allow in-app purchases to be shared across a family, so Omnifocus’s in-app purchase model adds up really quick when compared to Things 3.
For iOS Things 3 is $9.99 for the iPhone and $19.99 for the iPad, or $29.98 for up to six people on a shared family plan. Omnifocus Standard is $39.99 and Pro is $59.99, and because both are in-app purchases that cannot be shared, you multiply this cost for each person in your family.
On the Mac side it’s the same scenario. Things 3 is not a in-app purchase so $49.99 for one license shared with up to 6 people using family sharing. Omnifocus Mac is $39.99 for standard and $79.99 for pro as an in-app purchase, so again multiply by the number of family members. However unlike the iOS apps, you can purchase a license code directly from Omnifocus for the Mac that could be “shared” with multiple family members, but this may be in violation of the license terms so I would not go this route without confirming from Omnigroup this is allowed. Assuming it is not, let’s look at what it would cost to license an iPhone, iPad and Mac for a shared family plan of 2 people and the maximum of 6 people.
A family plan with two people:
- Things 3 - $9.99 (iPhone) + $19.99 (iPad) + $49.99 (MacOS) = $79.98
- Omnifocus Standard - $39.99 (iOS) + $39.99 (MacOS) x 2 = $119.97
- Omnifocus Pro - $59.99 (iOS) + $79.99 (MacOS) x 2 = $219.97
A family plan with six people:
- Things 3 - $9.99 (iPhone) + $19.99 (iPad) + $49.99 (MacOS) = $79.98
- Omnifocus Standard - $39.99 (iOS) + $39.99 (MacOS) x 6 = $279.93
- Omnifocus Pro - $59.99 (iOS) + $79.99 (MacOS) x 6 = $539.93
Omnigroup switched to in-app so they could allow people to install and try out the app before purchasing it and to be able to provide discounted pricing for those owning a previous version of their product. Culture Code is not able to do either trial periods or discounts but the license can be shared. So the above is all a result of Apple’s restrictions and not Omnigroup trying to scam anyone out of more cash. Hopefully someday we can get the best of both approaches.
If anything is incorrect or missing, please reply so as a community we have all the right info!
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An additional aspect are the upgrading options and educational discounts.
Things offered a two-week window for buying a new version at a 20% discount, after this window upgrading is full price.
Omnigroup offers a continuous 50% upgrade discount, even for upgrading v1 --> v3, or from non-pro previoys version to pro-v3.
Next, Omnigroup offers a significant educational discount, both on licenses as upgrades. Things offers no educational discount to individuals.
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On the individual household family sharing Omnifocus Support have an official statement:
https://support.omnigroup.com/about-our-software-licenses/
In the same way we’ve adapted our single-seat licenses to better accommodate individual users, we are also providing better licensing options for family members living in the same household. While we are not able to precisely match Apple’s Family Sharing plan, a single-seat license purchased from us may be used by direct family members living within that same household only. It’s important to note that this exception is not for business use, and doing so would be in violation of our licensing terms.
Thanks for the link @Sander ! That confirms Omnifocus allows sharing a single-seat license key purchased on their website with multiple family members if it’s for personal use.
I’m still confused on the iOS side however as in-app purchases cannot be shared, so I’m assuming the math above is still correct for iOS? And it would also apply if you purchased Omnifocus 3 for the Mac through the Apple store as this would also be an in in-app purchase?
Thanks again!
Developers have to follow apple’s guidelines for the iTunes Store. I think family sharing issues has been a hot topic for a while. Hopefully Apple will bend for the family sharing rules.
For IOS your math still holds, given the official approach.
For IOS an (non-official) alternative for sharing non-consumable IAPs that might work (as reported in by the helpdesk of the Dr. Panda kids app) would be to temporarily login the IOS device using the iTunes-account with which the initial purchase is made, restore the IAP, and then re-login with the original iTunes-account.
This approach is, however, not ideal.
another comparison from Eddie. He’s back to things…
I sincerely hope Eddie has found what he is looking for. I still struggle with Things and had more friction there. But, curiously enough, I don’t have that same friction with OmniFocus 3.
In one part of the video, he has all of his projects in expanded mode. I usually long press on the disclosure arrow and tape collapse all. Then I scroll through my projects and expand the project I need.
I’m still watching the video a little more to see if I missed something.
I think his workflow works best for him in things while others find that their system works better in OmniFocus, Todoist, 2Do or other apps.
It’s all about the workflow we build. Build a workflow and then find the app that fit.
Personally I think the review is the glue that makes everything work smoothly. if I don’t review, my database no longer reflects reality. Then I no longer trust it.
That’s just one part of his ideas of review I don’t harmonize with. But if it works for him, thats all that matters. I’d have a heart attack if I had piled up 45 projects to review. I’m not waiting for Sunday to review them. I’ll review each project when I need to.
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And now it has 
.
It’s a little disconcerting to see someone flit from one app to the next so publicly. He really seems somewhat anguished over all these months, spending countless hours tests, retesting, switching, rejiggering, and then publicly going forth about how one thing is so superior… only to drop it days later for something else (which is never quite perfect enough). I see that just days after showing off how Things was “killing it” in GTD he posted a video called “How I’m using OmniFocus 3 on iPhone X”. 
For me the key to the greatest productivity is not trying to find the perfect alternative, but the good enough one that I like. Too many people are dilettantes and make themselves unhappy when they should be aiming for satisficing their needs.
If Things/iOS had a free tier that would have let me test it out and sync with the Mac app - even for a few days - I might have tried it and bought into it. It does seem like a very nice app. But there were too many other cross-platform apps that offered trial experiences, and when I went through 2Do, Trello, Taskade and couple of other apps I wound up on the Premium version of Todoist, not because it was the best at everything but because it was good enough to spend a reasonable $29/year on for Premium… for at least a year. Todoist has a lot of clunky aspects to it but I’ve figured out how to get it to work well for me, even if it isn’t perfect.
Not sure I agree. I found an app with a workflow I could work with, and its unique features (like 2-way calendar sync, so date/time events go on the calendar and if I move the item while looking at the calendar it automatically changes in Todoist) got me to go with a workflow I otherwise might not have chosen, in part because the finer details would not have occurred to me at the time.
Yes, certain tools will emphasize a particular workflow. I also found that using trial demos allows me to explore new workflows. But to make a productivity workflow evergreen, I’d prefer having a solid foundation that can translate to any app. If I had to leave OmniFocus, I will certain miss the Review perspective. But I will build a review workflow that will fit in other apps. I don’t have collaboration features in OmniFocus. So I create another workflow to meet my needs and it doesn’t require OmniFocus. If I had to go with Things, I will miss defer dates. But I’ll find another workflow to help me compensate. Each app will have a feature set that the other apps don’t have.
If an app I love decided to go away, I would prefer having comfort that I can move 80% of my workflow to another app.
But I did read about focusing on the workflow and not the app in this blog post.
In another article, Mike Vardy suggests another idea
He suggests to go to paper for a week and see what gets done and what doesn’t get done. Going to paper breaks down my workflow to the basics and lets me distinguish what is essential and what is extra.
I don’t always use every feature in my task manager of choice. But I do use what works for me. And I’d like features that can translate to other apps.
Mike Vardy also suggest to focus on the app within us.
Developing a core set of habits and routines will create a stronger workflow that will last longer. If my productivity foundation was weak and not sufficiently built up enough, it won’t matter what app I use. The app will amplify my strengths but will also amplify any deficiencies in my workflow. An app can help in correcting some deficiencies and lets us develop new workflows. But the pieces might not fit if I switched to another app.
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… assuming you know the best possible workflow in advance. My point is that that’s not always the case.
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