When comparing Nirvana vs Task Coach, the Slant community recommends Task Coach for most people. In the question“What are the best cross-platform task apps?” Task Coach is ranked 22nd while Nirvana is ranked 49th. The most important reason people chose Task Coach is:
With access to the source code, savvy users can make under-the-hood tweaks to suit their work style.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Streamlined for Getting Things Done
Designed specifically for the Getting Things Done methodology as created by David Allen.
Pro One of only few faithful implementation of GTD approach
The Nirvana approach is one of the few that successfully encapsulates the spirit of Getting Things Done.
Pro Flexible structure for simple to complex usages and workflows
Pro Clean layout
It has a very simple, understated design.
Pro Useful history of actions
Nirvana offers a chronological look at completed tasks that is good for reporting and improving future estimations. That said, it could be improved by incorporating a true journal view rather than a simple list broken up by week.
Pro Free and open source
With access to the source code, savvy users can make under-the-hood tweaks to suit their work style.
Pro Unlimited nesting of items and lists
When things grow in complexity, their parts can be turned into discrete task items within a hierarchical structure.
Pro Tracks hours and budget
Task Coach allows you to track how long it actually takes to complete a task and can be used to analyze the resulting impact on billing and budget.
Pro Tracks percent finished
Cons
Con No native OS X & Windows apps
There are currently no native apps for Windows or OS X, although the company has claimed to be working on them.
Con The Pro service tier still does not have common features
Common features such as notifications and sharing between applications aren't available, even in the Pro-tier. Its only native integration with other applications is adding tasks via a specialized email address generated for your account.
Con No updated package for recent linux distros
deb package available to download does not install app
Con Multiple users can access a file over a network, but there’s no web-based interface for straightforward collaboration
A task file may be opened by several instances of Task Coach, either running on the same computer or on different ones (on a network share for instance). When you save, Task Coach will merge your work with whatever has been saved on the disk prior. Conflicts are automatically resolved, usually by you winning the conflict.
This serves two use cases: 1) A single user opening the task file on several computers (work, home, laptop) and 2) several users working on the same task file.
The first case is the most common and the most secure. The second case may be dangerous. Most network disk sharing protocols do not support the kind of file locking that would make this 100% secure. A list of common protocols and their behavior can be found in the Task Coach help file.
