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.
OmniFocus Keeps You Focused on What's Important
The best task manager for iOS and Mac users is OmniFocus
Limited use cases, but it's the best if it fits.
OmniFocus a great tool for GTD followers
OmniFocus overview from a small business/personal perspective
Great, but would be better if it were multi-platform
OmniFocus: single user task manager that will greatly increase your successes at work and home
A powerful for personal task management
Simply The Best Productivity Application on the Market!
In a class by itself
Forget what you need to do with confidence!
Use Omnifocus to get you and your business organised
Popular Features
- Task Management (12)10.0100%
- Mobile Access (12)10.0100%
- Scheduling (10)9.999%
- Resource Management (7)7.070%
Pricing
Web Add-On Subscription
$4.99
Cross-Platform Subscription
$9.99
OmniFocus 3 Standalone (Mac only)
$49.99
Entry-level set up fee?
- No setup fee
Offerings
- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Product Demos
OmniFocus to DEVONThink task migration demo
Demo: Keyboard Maestro + OmniFocus - Creating a Dashboard Layout
Demo - Keyboard Maestro + OmniFocus: Toggling between detailed view to simplified view
Demo: Creating Today's Task List -Copy selected OmniFocus tasks to an Apple Note.
Features
Project Management
Project management software provides capabilities to streamline management of complex projects through task management, team collaboration and workflow automation
- 10Task Management(12) Ratings
This includes the ability to plan, track, collaborate and report on tasks.
- 7Resource Management(7) Ratings
Resource management is workload planning to maximize resources.
- 10Gantt Charts(2) Ratings
Gantt charts are charts that show tasks or events along the y-axis displayed against time along the x-axis.
- 9.9Scheduling(10) Ratings
Scheduling capabilities allow users to set schedules on tasks, and create timelines and milestones.
- 7Workflow Automation(5) Ratings
Workflow automation is the ability to route work requests along an approval process automatically.
- 7Team Collaboration(3) Ratings
Team collaboration capabilities let team members work directly with each other and provide team updates.
- 10Support for Agile Methodology(3) Ratings
Agile is a time boxed, iterative approach to development that builds software incrementally instead of trying to deliver it all at once near the end.
- 10Support for Waterfall Methodology(2) Ratings
Waterfall methodology is a tradition development method that is linear and sequential.
- 4Document Management(5) Ratings
Document management provides for centralized management of all project documents.
- 5Email integration(7) Ratings
Email integration allows work requests to be made directly from email.
- 10Mobile Access(12) Ratings
Mobile access is the ability to access the software from a smartphone or tablet.
- 6Timesheet Tracking(2) Ratings
Timesheet tracking is the ability to track all billable and non-billable hours for each project.
- 10Change request and Case Management(2) Ratings
Change request and change management enables tracking of all customer requests including priority and timeframe.
- 5Budget and Expense Management(2) Ratings
Budget and expense management provides the capability to track all expenses by employee or department and link them back to department. It also enables hourly rates to be set.
Professional Services Automation
Features that support professional services organizations
- 7Quotes/estimates(2) Ratings
Ability to create, manage and send project fee proposals to customers
- 1Invoicing(1) Ratings
Ability to create, manage and send invoices to clients during or after completion of a project
- 2Project & financial reporting(1) Ratings
Ability to analyze project and financial data based on custom criteria to gather insights and improve business performance
- 1Integration with accounting software(1) Ratings
Real-time, two-way sync with accounting or financial software to facilitate project and financial reporting
Product Details
- About
- Tech Details
- FAQs
What is OmniFocus?
OmniFocus Technical Details
Deployment Types | Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based |
---|---|
Operating Systems | Unspecified |
Mobile Application | Apple iOS, Android |
Frequently Asked Questions
Comparisons
Compare with
Reviews and Ratings
(31)Community Insights
- Business Problems Solved
- Pros
- Cons
- Recommendations
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:
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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.
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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.
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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
(1-5 of 5)OmniFocus Keeps You Focused on What's Important
- 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
- Task Management
- 100%10.0
- Resource Management
- 70%7.0
- Gantt Charts
- 100%10.0
- Scheduling
- 100%10.0
- Workflow Automation
- 70%7.0
- Team Collaboration
- 70%7.0
- Support for Agile Methodology
- 100%10.0
- Support for Waterfall Methodology
- 100%10.0
- Document Management
- 40%4.0
- Email integration
- 50%5.0
- Mobile Access
- 100%10.0
- Timesheet Tracking
- 60%6.0
- Saves time
- Overall is cheaper than hiring an assistant to keep track of this stuff for me
- Keeps me from forgetting tasks or missing appointments (calendar integration)
- Microsoft Project, Todoist: To-Do List & Task Manager and myTaskEasy
The best task manager for iOS and Mac users is OmniFocus
- 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.
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.
- Task Management
- 100%10.0
- Resource Management
- 60%6.0
- Document Management
- 80%8.0
- Mobile Access
- 100%10.0
- OmniFocus helps us stay focused on what is most important.
- OmniFocus helps us not to miss even smaller tasks, as it gives great visibility into everything due and upcoming.
- OmniFocus ensures we meet deadlines.
OmniFocus: single user task manager that will greatly increase your successes at work and home
- 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.
- Task Management
- 100%10.0
- Resource Management
- 100%10.0
- Workflow Automation
- 100%10.0
- Support for Agile Methodology
- 100%10.0
- Email integration
- 90%9.0
- Mobile Access
- 100%10.0
- OmniFocus keeps our tasks moving forward. Using a free script you can search all your current projects for projects that have no next step assigned to it to ensure nothing falls through the cracks.
- When we serve our clients, the attention to detail we are able to give them comes from accurate tracking of what we need to deliver.
- We complete projects 25% faster than before and we can see where the bottlenecks are immediate. We have also been forced to document tasks in a more concrete manner which allows for better execution.
Forget what you need to do with confidence!
- 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.
- 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
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.
- Task Management
- 100%10.0
- Scheduling
- 70%7.0
- Document Management
- 20%2.0
- Mobile Access
- 90%9.0
- It has allowed some key directors to stay more focused and get things done faster and on time.
- Merlin, Planner, Project, ToDo and Wunderlist
Using it is not as easy as others, but not as complicated as some (I'm looking at you Project!).
The developers are also top notch. They don't release bad software, and while they don't update it to full versions often (V1, V2, V3?), that does mean you don't pay for upgrades often either. New features are added to the version you already have at a remarkable rate.
Use Omnifocus to get you and your business organised
- 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.
- Task Management
- 100%10.0
- Resource Management
- 90%9.0
- Gantt Charts
- 10%1.0
- Scheduling
- 10%1.0
- Workflow Automation
- 10%1.0
- Team Collaboration
- 10%1.0
- Support for Agile Methodology
- N/AN/A
- Support for Waterfall Methodology
- N/AN/A
- Document Management
- N/AN/A
- Email integration
- N/AN/A
- Mobile Access
- 100%10.0
- Timesheet Tracking
- 10%1.0
- Change request and Case Management
- 10%1.0
- Budget and Expense Management
- 10%1.0
- Quotes/estimates
- 10%1.0
- Invoicing
- 10%1.0
- Project & financial reporting
- 20%2.0
- Integration with accounting software
- 10%1.0
- Neither really, although it has enabled an excellent means of capturing all projects and actions.