Asana vs OmniFocus 2
When comparing Asana vs OmniFocus 2, the Slant community recommends Asana for most people. In the question“What are the best cross-platform task apps?” Asana is ranked 12th while OmniFocus 2 is ranked 36th. The most important reason people chose Asana is:
Asana has fantastic mechanisms for dealing with team collaboration. Not only can tasks be assigned to team members, but Asana lets users follow tasks and use hyperlinks to refer to team members within a task.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Powerful team collaboration features
Asana has fantastic mechanisms for dealing with team collaboration. Not only can tasks be assigned to team members, but Asana lets users follow tasks and use hyperlinks to refer to team members within a task.
Pro Free for up to 15 users
Pro Simple workflow
The Asana task workflow within a project is broken down into "Today," "Upcoming," and "Later." The tasks themselves have the status of either done or not done. There is also a subtask feature to group tasks together. Tasks can be assigned to other team members and are stored in the "Inbox" view for processing. This replaces email for some team communication.
Pro CSV export and print
Pro Very polished interface
Teams can have private (only visible to project members) and public (visible to anyone in the team) projects. Each member can also have their own personal projects.
Tasks can be viewed in list and calendar views. It's possible to display only the tasks assigned to the user or tasks organized by project or team. Single tasks can exist in multiple projects. Lists of tasks can be divided into sections and organized in many different ways – tasks that still have to be done, tasks that have been completed, by due date, by assignee, by popularity, etc.
Expanding a task will allow adding things like subtasks, tags, and attachments, as well as comments. Users can also subscribe to a task via RSS from this view. There's a separate view specifically for attachments.
Search lets you find what you’re looking for quickly.
Pro Tagging system allows easily filtering tasks
The tagging system enables project managers to easily filter tasks.
Pro Provides lots of help for getting started
There are many videos, tutorials, and reference documents to help you get up and running.
Pro Supports Kanban and list views
Asana provides a list view and a Kanban view which can be selected if a new project is created.
Pro Well thought out keyboard shortcuts
Keyboard shortcuts all involve the Tab key, so it is unlikely that they will interfere with shortcuts that have already been established.
Pro Integrates with Slack
It's possible to have tasks appear in a Slack channel.
Pro Organize tasks into projects
OmniFocus 2 allows you to organize tasks into Projects, allowing you to keep your tasks organized in the best way to stay efficient for that project. Each task also features summary dots. For example, red means the task is overdue and orange means its due soon. There is also a range of other dots that can be specific to projects.
Pro Forecast summary
The Forecast Summary shows a quick glance of the tasks you have that day. You can tap on any day to quickly see what tasks you have planned that day. For extra functionality you can connect the iPhones Calender app, which allows you to also see any other events you have planned that day.
Pro Excellent full stack support from phone, to tablet, to Mac
With very good synchronisation.
Pro See an overall view of tasks via "Perspective"
The Perspective section allows you to see an overall view of the tasks you have set. It also allows you to set contexts or see things you have flagged.
Pro Superbly customisable via Perspectives
Pro Picks up reminders added via Siri
Pro Best support for GTD in the marketplace
This really supports the implementation of David Allen's Getting Things Done
Pro Nearby and context-sensitive tasks
OmniFocus 2 allows you to set up contexts for tasks in certain areas. This makes sure you never miss a task when you're out running errands or happen to be near something you need to do. Just set contexts around places you frequent or set as a specific task.
Pro Client side encryption
Pro Apple Watch integration
You can send lists from your iPhone, and get notifications on your watch each morning with any tasks you have set for that day.
Cons
Con Mobile version lacks calendar
Asana's calendar is present in the web version but is conspicuously missing in the mobile app.
Con Unable to manage multiple workspaces
Each "workspace" or "team" in Asana is strictly isolated. You cannot see your personal tasks versus work tasks or collaborations together, you need to log in to a different profile.
Con No task dependencies in free version
Dependencies is only available only to Teams and Organizations on Asana Premium.
Con Can not use list view and board view for a same project
Asana can only choose one, either a list view or a board view.
Con Strange UX with strange workflow
Similar to task the manager in Todoist or Wunderlist, but not too complex for under four members.
Con UX Design is overly opinionated
The workflow is not very customizable, which forces you to use a flow that may not be your preferred or best option.
Con Very expensive
$40 for a to-do-list app is a bit much, even with all the other features it offers.
Con Limited to Apple devices
Must be used as a native Mac, iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch app. There's no cross-compatibility with Windows, Android, or web.
Con Only one context (tag or label)
This won't stay a con for long. With the pending version (Omnifocus 3) to be launched in 2018, Contexts are being replaced by Tags. Yes, finally...you can have as many contexts as you like for a particular action.
Con Slow sync in Europe
