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OmniFocus

OmniFocus

Overview

What is OmniFocus?

OmniFocus is a project management platform for iOS: Mac, iPad, and iPhone. It has features such as task management, Siri capture, and workflow automation.

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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

OmniFocus is a versatile project and task management tool that is widely used by businesses and individuals alike. With its comprehensive …
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Popular Features

View all 18 features
  • Task Management (12)
    10.0
    100%
  • Mobile Access (12)
    10.0
    100%
  • Scheduling (10)
    9.9
    99%
  • Resource Management (7)
    7.0
    70%
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Pricing

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Web Add-On Subscription

$4.99

Cloud
per month

Cross-Platform Subscription

$9.99

Cloud
per month

OmniFocus 3 Standalone (Mac only)

$49.99

Cloud
per month

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services
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Product Demos

OmniFocus to DEVONThink task migration demo

YouTube

Demo: Keyboard Maestro + OmniFocus - Creating a Dashboard Layout

YouTube

Demo - Keyboard Maestro + OmniFocus: Toggling between detailed view to simplified view

YouTube

Demo: Creating Today's Task List -Copy selected OmniFocus tasks to an Apple Note.

YouTube
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Features

Project Management

Project management software provides capabilities to streamline management of complex projects through task management, team collaboration and workflow automation

7.9
Avg 7.5

Professional Services Automation

Features that support professional services organizations

2.7
Avg 7.4
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Product Details

What is OmniFocus?

OmniFocus Technical Details

Deployment TypesSoftware as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationApple iOS, Android

Frequently Asked Questions

OmniFocus is a project management platform for iOS: Mac, iPad, and iPhone. It has features such as task management, Siri capture, and workflow automation.

Reviewers rate Task Management and Support for Agile Methodology and Mobile Access highest, with a score of 10.

The most common users of OmniFocus are from Small Businesses (1-50 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(31)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

OmniFocus is a versatile project and task management tool that is widely used by businesses and individuals alike. With its comprehensive features and intuitive interface, it allows users to effectively control their current and future work activities. Users have found OmniFocus to be the best task manager for keeping them organized, tracking deadlines, and prioritizing work. It is particularly useful for small business owners who rely on it for general planning and organizing of projects and ideas, both for business and personal use.

OmniFocus caters to different project types and facilitates coordination of tasks, whether they need to be done in parallel or sequentially. Its ability to capture, organize, schedule, and execute work seamlessly makes it an excellent planning tool for individual use and is particularly valuable for small groups or projects managed by a single person. Moreover, organizations recognize its effectiveness as an organizational tool and often suggest using OmniFocus to employees, sometimes even offering reimbursement for its purchase.

Legal practices also benefit from the core accountability and planning features of OmniFocus. It helps keep track of deadlines, plan cases, and inform clients of case status. In addition, marketing departments utilize OmniFocus to manage content creation, daily tasks, long-term planning, and projects across multiple departments.

Overall, OmniFocus has proven to be an invaluable tool in helping users manage their tasks and projects effectively. Its robust feature set offers a comprehensive way of tracking projects at a granular level. However, it's important to note that while it excels in individual task management, it may not be suitable for team collaboration.

Rich Functionality and Flexibility: Reviewers have consistently praised the product for its rich functionality and flexibility, allowing for rapid and friction-free user adoption. Many users appreciate the wide range of features available, which cater to various needs and preferences. The flexibility of the product has been highlighted as a major advantage by numerous reviewers.

Cross-Device Synchronization: The cross-device synchronization feature is highly valued by users, enabling seamless switching between desktop, laptop, tablet, and smartphone. This ensures real-time access to data from anywhere, providing convenience and enhancing productivity. Several reviewers have commended this feature for its effectiveness in keeping their tasks synchronized across multiple devices.

Effective Task Management Capabilities: Users highly regard the task management capabilities of the product. They find it efficient in syncing tasks to mobile devices and other computers, making it easy to stay organized and on top of their responsibilities. Multiple reviewers have specifically mentioned how this feature has improved their workflow and helped them manage their tasks more effectively.

Incompatibility with Windows: Several users have expressed frustration that the product is only compatible with Apple devices, leaving Windows users unable to use it.

Lack of web interface: Some reviewers have mentioned that the absence of a web interface limits access to the product via a web browser, making it less convenient for those who prefer working on multiple devices or don't own an Apple device.

Missing features and limited functionality: A number of users have reported that certain features available on MacOS are not available in the iOS implementation, resulting in minor inconveniences. This has led some users to feel that the product lacks comprehensive functionality and may not meet all their task management needs.

Users commonly recommend the following:

  1. Familiarize yourself with the Getting Things Done (GTD) principle before using the software. They suggest reading Getting Things Done to understand how to make the most of the software's features.

  2. Spend time going through the tutorials, FAQs, and online videos provided by the software. This will help you fully comprehend its unique features and customizations.

  3. Highly recommend using the software for personal project management and as a personal time management tool. It is excellent for organizing complex sets of tasks and projects, particularly valuable for self-employed individuals who use Mac and iOS devices. However, it may not be the best option for team task management or project management.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-12 of 12)
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Rob Gokee | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
As a film & TV composer, I often juggle many projects at once. I've used just about every task manager in existence in my 15+ years in the industry, and OmniFocus does the best job at keeping me organized, letting me know when things are due, and what I need to work on next.
  • Repetitive tasks
  • Organization of tasks by Folder and Project
  • Consistent updates and improvements
  • Most expensive task manager on the market
  • Can be daunting if you're a new user
  • Needs the ability to attach files and handle hyperlinks smoother
OmniFocus is great for power users - if you're someone who's managing multiple projects at once, or a combo of work and home projects, it's the best at keeping you organized. If you're more of a daily task person, someone who just wants to know what has to be done that day and you don't catalog long term projects, then it's probably too much for you.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
OmniFocus is used as a task list and project management tool to help organize all sorts of projects. It is currently in use by our Marketing Department to manage content creation, daily, weekly, and quarterly tasks, as well as long term planning for more comprehensive projects that span multiple departments and business units.
  • Easy task list creation using keyboard shortcuts
  • Great at-a-glance look at weekly due dates
  • Tasks can be organized within projects
  • It would be great to see a dark mode in OmniFocus
  • Their upgrade strategy involves having to purchase new versions when they are released
  • It would be good to have a quarterly view of tasks and due dates.
I'm a big fan of OmniFocus for task management. It's my go-to task manager, and is very useful for those that have bought into the Mac and iOS ecosystem, as all my tasks quickly sync between my MacBook Air, iPhone, and iPad. Obviously this means it's not as good of a choice for web or Windows users.

OmniFocus uses their own server to sync, and although it works great and I haven't had any issues with it, it's strange that they choose not to use iCloud syncing.

Overall, I highly recommend OmniFocus for Mac/iOS users.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
OmniFocus is the best individual task manager out there. However, it is NOT suitable for use across teams. It doesn't support multiple users, and it only runs on Apple hardware. While that makes it limited, and a poor choice for teams, it offers a more robust feature set than any other to-do style application.
  • It doesn't get bogged down or confusing, even with hundreds or thousands of tasks.
  • Custom perspectives are superior to competitors' "saved searches."
  • The mobile app is just OK, but there are several missing features, and some things require a lot of taps.
  • There's no support for teams.
If someone is in the Apple ecosystem, it's the best choice. Far beyond a simple task manager, OmniFocus is the only software I've found that can reliably track every aspect of one's life. If I want anything in my life to be different than it currently is, there's a place for it in OmniFocus.
Ryan Stasel | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I'm the primary user of OmniFocus within my org. I use it daily to keep track of tasks, projects, and overall my time and task management during the day. As someone that read "Time Management for System Administrators" years ago (and reread since) and "Getting Things Done," it's been an enormous boon to my time management during the days/weeks.
  • Task management
  • Syncing to mobile and other computers
  • Learning curve is a little higher than some basic task tools.
  • Cost is a little high given some "free" tools that are available (Microsoft Tasks is looking more and more appealing).
For those that are Mac users and iOS users, I recommend OmniFocus regularly if they have the budget to cover it. It's a great tool, and I use it daily. The biggest hurdle isn't the software, but getting in the habit of using it. This is true for ANY task/time management, even on paper.
Brian Bliss | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
As a small business owner, I use OmniFocus for general planning and organizing of projects and ideas for both business and personal. It allows for the organization of various project types and allows you to tie specific contexts to each of them. It also allows you to coordinate projects and tasks in a way that is helpful in terms of if it is a single project or something done in parallel or sequentially.
  • Brainstorming
  • Project planning
  • The initial setup can be a little cumbersome.
  • Mobile integration is lacking.
I think OmniFocus does a nice job in the area of brainstorming and getting projects and ideas out of your head and into a usable form. Depending on the extent of your project, OmniFocus could be a good help for some initial organization of your thoughts and ideas. For some, it might be overkill and something more straightforward like Todoist or Drafts might do the trick.
Che Odom | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
As an organization, we suggest the use of OmniFocus as an organizational tool for our employees. We offer reimbursement for the purchase of the app. It is not used as an enterprise solution because it only works with iOS, and our computers are PC's, however, we do have Apple mobile devices and believe that it helps to act as a todo list and organizing tool for many of our employees. It certainly helps me to organize my projects and break them down into meaningful task actions. We have found that those team members who use OmniFocus do have slight upticks in productivity, which is why we have started encouraging its use through reimbursement.
  • Maintains to do lists
  • Breaks projects into meaningful tasks
  • Reminders
  • A place to store important ideas and thoughts to come back, review and assign tasks to.
  • Integration with other apps and products.
  • Would love to see OmniFocus come up with an App that works with Windows so that it could sync for multiplatform users, that is a HUGE blind spot for me personally right now.
I believe that OmniFocus is well suited as a personal organizational tool and can be encouraged to be used through organizations, although mandating use is difficult because of its lack of usability on multiple platforms (Windows, Linux, etc.). I believe that it helps to beat procrastination by giving a place to accurately enter and understand the projects that you have on your plate, and break them down into small achievable tasks. I also think it is a great way to ensure that things don't just disappear from memory after a meeting or discussion. If you simply write down notes in a meeting but never reflect on them, for example, to enter into OmniFocus or revisit them, it is easy to forget that the tasks require your attention.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
OmniFocus is an amazing planning tool. In our organization it's used at an individual level as it only recently started getting features that allow you to share tasks with others, so for very small groups and projects that are managed by a single person, it's one of the best we've ever used. OmniFocus solves many issues but for us, it does this: helps you understand all the projects at hand. All the projects that you can actually move forward with the resources available to you at that exact time. Your next step on each project that can be done at that moment.
Allows us to unblock bottlenecks caused by dependencies on others as we can see tasks that are stalled or in 'waiting' status. Our sales cycles are more based on our ability to engineer solutions more than a decision by the client, so in our CRM the to-do list and next step feature isn't helpful so we offload those sales steps into. OmniFocus to keep them moving far more efficiently.

  • Ease of viewing your projects at a high-level.
  • Ease of viewing what tasks need to be done at the present moment and the sorting of those tasks by availability, due date, start date, needed resources, and project.
  • The visual interface is really nice to work with, the UX/UI is intelligent and intuitive.
  • It's the most extensible software I've used. There is a community of people that publish compatible scripts for Omnifocus at no charge.
  • The code is robust and I've almost never had a bug or a glitch that resulted in issues.
  • The software syncs in the cloud between MacOS and iOS seamlessly and faster than other To-Do software. The sync aspect is available free of charge.
  • The development team at Omnifocus is on top of bugs and they have been adding releases regularly to increase functionality and performance.
  • While OmniFocus adheres to the GTD (Getting things done) principles, it can be used in almost any manner and you aren't stuck with just that methodology.
  • While the software wasn't designed for team use, it would be amazing if it was improved to allow team use.
OmniFocus is great for a single user setting. If you'd like to organize your work and home life, you won't find anything better. It can track projects by step, date, subject, context, category (home, work, hobby). It's not suited for team use if you need to collaborate on specific projects together, however, for the solo worker or a person that manages a project and doles out the tasks, it's quite powerful.
John Rougeux | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
OmniFocus is used by individuals on a personal basis. Since it's not really geared toward team collaboration, it's better suited for individual task management. For me, it helps provide a comprehensive way of tracking projects at a very granular level. By using OmniFocus, I am much less likely to forget a task, whether that's following up on an email or spending time making progress on a creative project.
  • Managing projects at both a broad and a granular level.
  • Allowing you to build customized views of your work.
  • Helping you review projects that have not been looked at in while.
  • Separating projects from different aspects of your life (e.g. work, home, consulting)
  • I'd like to see more customization options for keyboard navigation. There are two preconfigured sets of settings, but no option to modify.
  • Sometimes synchronization between desktop and mobile doesn't push, and I need to manually refresh.
  • Attachment support is clunky.
OmniFocus is good for "power users" who favor a system that's fast over one that's pretty. It has a little bit of a learning curve, so it's probably overkill for simple task management. However, if you're willing to invest the time in learning OmniFocus and customizing it to suit your needs, it works quite well. I'd especially recommend it for someone who struggles with losing track of ideas and requests, and needs a good system for adding items at one point and then filing later on.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Every employee within the business uses OmniFocus. It is the primary tool for management of projects and activities for each team member. The primary use case is for effective control of current and future work activity; however, given its power and flexibility everyone also uses its for personal task management as well. OmniFocus provides a platform for ubiquitous capture, organisation, scheduling and execution of work (everything from simple chores and tasks through to complex projects).
  • Rich in functionality but flexible at the same time meaning that user adoption is rapid and friction-free; more exotic features and functions can be introduced over time as the user builds his/her familiarity with the product
  • Allows my users to follow their productivity method of choice (most of us are fans of David Allen's GTD method but OmniFocus isn't rigid or prescriptive in its implementation
  • Cross-device synchronisation means I can seamlessly switch from desktop to laptop to tablet to smartphone and have access to my data in real-time; this means I can always have access to the data no matter where I am or what I am doing
  • Apple-device compatible only so Windows users can't use the product
  • No web-interface available to allow me access via a web browser
  • A few features not available on iOS implementation that are available on MacOS such as being able to set projects as auto-close on last task completion - not showstoppers but minor inconveniences
1) Great for managing your work and personal activities.
2) One of the best implementations of the Getting Things Done method.
3) Not really suited for collaborative work management; OmniFocus is managed on a per-user basis so you can't share/assign tasks.
December 12, 2017

In a class by itself

Brad Pearce | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
OmniFocus is the core accountability and planning tool of my legal practice. I use it to keep track of deadlines, to plan cases from start to finish, to keep track of legal or factual issues that pop up, and as a reminder for keeping clients informed as to case status and surprises that inevitably occur.

OmniFocus works along with my calendar and my practice management apps. That said, I use OmniFocus far more than I use either one. OmniFocus is far more powerful for planning and tracking than either my calendar (Fantastical) or my practice management app.
  • Planning. I have created templates for case management that I can cut and past into new cases. I use OmniFocus not only to stay on track with big picture items, but to keep in mind interesting thoughts that occur to me.
  • Accountability. I am better able to work ahead of deadlines using OmniFocus. OmniFocus is OS agnostic. My daily planning is done on my MacBook. I often add tasks using OmniFocus for iOS. I often use Siri to add tasks to OmniFocus while in the car ("Siri, open OmniFocus"). The dictated action items go into my Inbox, and I organize them (and clean up the almost inevitable grammar errors) when I am back in front of my computer.
  • Organizing by life focus. This is my default way to organize in OmniFocus. My big categories are Family, Work, Heath, Household. Work is then broken down by (1) administrative tasks (e.g., trust accounting, billing), (2) client matters, (3) business development, (4) miscellaneous. I can get as granular as I want to get, but can always back out to the 30,000 foot view.
  • Organizing by deadline. You don't have to assign deadlines to every task, which makes it helpful to keep in mind what is really important (e.g., the deadline to file an appeal).
  • I would really like to see graphic presentations of how I allocate my time, what categories of tasks don't get accomplished, etc.
  • I would like to see OmniFocus include Gantt chart functionality, such as allowing me to see how long it took me to accomplish a task from start to finish. Allowing me to actually input time spent, and seeing it on a Gantt chart, would be icing on the cake.
OmniFocus is well suited for anyone who is serious about managing deadlines or accomplishing more in his or her life. I recommended it to the teenage son of a friend who has ADHD (the son, not the friend). I've bought it for my kids. OmniFocus works unobtrusively to make life better.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use OmniFocus as one of the preferred task management applications. We are primarily a Mac organization and OmniFocus is one of the best task management tools for individuals. It helps me and the others who use it organize all their To-Dos in a way that allows them to see what they need to see and nothing else. Tasks that are distractions or lower priorities can be hidden away to avoid "Mind Clutter".
  • Contexts! I use my own contexts to organize To-Dos. For example: Full Focus, Brain Dead, Short Dashes, Thinking, and Top 6. This allows me to easily find a short task I can do in the 15 minutes I have. Or if I'm mentally drained, I can find things that I can do at that time.
  • Perspectives is another great feature. These are custom searches that are saved as common "views". Using projects, context, due dates, defer dates, and Status allows me to have much more control over what I see. For example, I have a context that only shows me work To-do's that are due today. I have another that shows my personal/home to-dos. Another option is to use location services that can notify you or list things you can do based on location. This is a great way to separate home and work tasks.
  • Syncing across devices is important, particularly for productivity needs. OmniFocus sync works so well, you never think about it once it is set up.
  • The user interface is very easy to work with and looks nice. It is the kind of tool that allows you to work with it and not get in the way.
  • I would like to see more ways to set priority. Context can be used, but I find contexts better used for other things. You can only assign one context per item. There is a flag status, but I would like to see something more like red/yellow/green status indicators to visually scan a list and see the urgent vs the normal vs. the low priorities.
  • It can be a bit pricey vs. some other options, but it is still a very good value.
Who should use OmniFocus
  • Anyone with multiple projects
  • Anyone with multiple tasks that need to get done
  • Anyone who does not like to forget what to do
  • Anyone who prefers to stay organized
  • Anyone who is not told what to do and when to do it
I think I covered everyone with that list. It is a very good tool to manage your tasks in life. I try and follow the "Getting Things Done" approach. Each morning I think of everything I need to do, put it in Omnifocus (unless it takes less than 2 minutes, then I do it), then go about doing what I need to do. Context, due dates, and status lets me filter out the urgent from that which can wait.

That said, OmniFocus is not for everyone. It does require a strategy and sticking to the strategy. I've met some who struggled to use it or wasted time building the perfect workflow. For them, a basic checklist is probably better. However there are some GREAT resources from Merlin Mann and others that teach how to use it well.
Christian Payne | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Omnifocus is a fantastic application for project management. The ability to set up parent / child tasks and roll up into milestones and then individual projects, make it the most user-friendly project management tool. All users are able to access their tasks and (keep updating) via mobile devices (iPhones and iPads) to ensure that everyone has a real-time view of all current projects. It is extremely easy to assign people to tasks and each member can configure their own notifications of tasks that are higher priority and those which which are nearing deadline.
  • Marketing Campaigns......we are able to list the many facets of a marketing campaign and structure all the actionables required.
  • Development Projects......we are able to assign both internal personnel as well as external out-sourced partners to all tasks and projects. There is a review module within Omnifocus which makes it simple to keep on top of progress.
  • Personal Tasks......Omnifocus is also great for your personal tasks; whether it's a shopping list or a home DIY project.
  • Gantt Chart view as in Microsoft Project would be nice.
  • Interface with Evernote would also be great for better file storage.
  • Automatic Sync on mobile devices is missing.
I have found personally that Omnifocus is excellent for both home and business. I have used Omnifocus for quite some time and one of my fears is losing data or it getting corrupted. In all the time that I have used Omnifocus, I have never lost a single piece of information, so I am satisfied that this is bullet proof. An area I would like to see Omnifocus develop into is by providing a (push-task) to other users. Currently you can only assign tasks in your own database, but I would like to see more of a team collaboration suite.
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