ForumsQuestionsWhat does Toodledo do that the others don't?


What does Toodledo do that the others don't?
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pawelkaleta

Posted: Oct 21, 2018
Score: 1 Reference
I started my research for alternative services and I found that having below features is not as popular as I thought - only some of them are ususally available but not all of them at once as in Toodledo:

Start Dates
Export of data
Viewing tasks in a grid mode (not to mention ability to adjust order of columns to user's needs)
Marking individual tasks with Star
Negative priority (to hide tasks) or similar option
Dividers
Quick filters and sorting options for individual views


This message was edited Oct 21, 2018.
Ummagumma

Posted: Oct 21, 2018
Score: 1 Reference
Posted by DrFrankBuck:
The proposed new pricing structure with the features included is a concern on this forum. (Probably the understatements of the year). Many long-time users talk of moving to another service.

I thought it would be good to talk about what features Toodledo offers that gives it a leg up over the competition. I'll start. Please feel free to add and correct me where I have things wrong. (Aaron and Sam, please add your thoughts.)

1. Three levels of sort
2. Toodledo Bookmarklet (I use this all the time and it's fast.)
3. Location-based reminders on the free plan
4, Use of the screen. Toodledo uses the entire screen left to right.
5. A timer for each task. (Granted, most of us don't need to know what long we have been working on each individual task, but for those who bill by the hour, this could be significant.
6. The Importance sort formula
7. The ability to add as many of few fields as desired and arrange them in the order desired.
8. Habits tracker (I don't use it, but others swear by it.)
9. The Notes module. (I use Evernote. But for those looking for something simple this one will work.)

What other services offer these? What points have I left out. As we make our own decisions about what we will use to manage our tasks, I would certainly welcome a complete list of the reasons to stay.


Let me offer my perspective, as someone who’s been with Toodledo since at least 2007.

Here’s a couple things that Toodledo doesn’t offer:

1) Integration with desktop, especially Outlook / Exchange. “Only” the most common workplace productivity tool.
2) Decent mobile clients (iOS, WatchOS)
3) An easy way to use project templates.

It’s a great service, but only within it’s limitations.

Here are the features that I used, of course everyone’s different:

1) Start date. Surprisingly, very few services offer this feature.
2) Custom filtering / saved views, specifically the ability to create a “Focus” view (in process, due, overdue, Top priority) and have it automatically populated
3) Quick sorting by Due date, Priority, or Subject.
4) Subtasks... although I could go without.
5) Hiding tasks using Negative priority

Going with GoodTask on iOS, I gain:

1) Start Date (although it requires setting Due date, can’t use Start without Due)
2) Excellent custom filtering / saved views
3) Quick sorting
4) Sync with Outlook while preserving Start Dates and Tags
5) Excellent mobile clients, including WatchOS
6) The ability to generate tasks directly from Outlook email or OneNote projects or iThoughts mind maps
7) Hiding tasks via Tags

I lose:

1) Subtasks, to an extent (it supports some kind of a primitive checklist inside tasks)
2) File attachments on mobile (which I don’t have with Toodledo anyway). I can still have attachments in Outlook.
3) Fields like Status, Context, Star, or Goal. I can replicate them with tags, if needed.

The cost ? $15 for Office Home Use program that I update once every few years; $5 or so for GoodTask, once.

And with the new Toodledo pricing, I could easily subscribe to Office 365 for just a few dollars more per year, and get full Office and 1TB of storage.
J.O.D.

Posted: Oct 21, 2018
Score: 0 Reference
I have finally decided to stay with Toodledo for the nearest future. The reasons:
- Start date
- Importance
- Saved searches

And these three combined together mean: - the system flexes to me, and not vice versa. I can reorganize my workflow and Toodledo does that to me.

Other options I have tested so far simply do not allow me to do that.
MM1772

Posted: Oct 21, 2018
Score: 1 Reference
@pawelkaleta Export is very important to me. I want to be able to export to do my own analysis and I also like to export in case a company goes under.

One of the tools I'm investigating didn't have Export under any of the menus. However, when I googled "export from [toolname]" I found that their backups are in .CSV format. In other words, I just had do do a backup and download that.

One thing I'm going to miss [if I change software] is Toodledo's Notes feature. Yes, it could be better (rich text editing), but it was nice to have things there that I could access quickly while out. For example, what size furnace filter do I need? Is it 16 x 25 x 1 or some other size? I do have an Evernote acct, so I might check that out. If the free plan allows notes, I may keep them there after my subscription expires in January, and wait to see how Toodledo develops.


This message was edited Oct 21, 2018.
Joyce

Posted: Oct 21, 2018
Score: 1 Reference
The thing that has me most upset about the price increase is that I know how to use Toodledo pretty well. This really is the core of it. not notes, not lists or outlines, but the straightforward handling of tasks, be they one time or repeats. I like subtasks but I can find workarounds for them.

Most of these other services seem to hide how to do things like create repeating tasks or make turning them off complicated. (Trello, you can archive a card but that won't end the repetition. and i can't see how to delete)

RTM has people asking in its forums if its development has stalled out too.

Please don't do a price hike that causes you to ultimately jump the shark!
M

Posted: Oct 21, 2018
Score: 1 Reference
Things that always bring me back to Toodledo are the flexible recurrences, and the pretty-powerful search. And the ability to export which, unfortunately, is probably going to be what I do: export and build an Excel workbook with macros that will let me complete/reschedule, and filter as I choose, without being at the whim of another task list provider (with the exception of Microsoft but, I suppose, if Excel ever sucks I'll have a problem again). I want to do SQL, but can't find a free database hosting service.
Robert_HOME

Posted: Oct 21, 2018
Score: 2 Reference
These are my highlights

*** Start Date - needed for MYN system ***
(Michael Linenberger recommends Toodledo for MYN, and provides training materials to support.)

Filtering - hide future tasks
Batch edit and entry of tasks
Sort on multiple columns: e.g. Priority, Star, Start Date
Priorities: Top, High, Medium, Low, Negative

Plus don't forget the time it takes to identify and move to a new task list service provider..... time is money.
aleding

Posted: Oct 21, 2018
Score: 4 Reference
Nothing being discussed in this thread actually justifies the new pricing model - not by a long shot...

The reason why we've all chosen TD is not due to discrete features. The reason why we've stuck w/ TD is due to its collection of key features under one umbrella for a given price point - that all translates into lots of value across a diverse set of users. Change any element of that equation and you also change the value proposition. With the new pricing structure, cost went up + functionality remained static ---> value went down - easy peasy...

As a comparison, look at something like monday.com - somewhat spendy service on the surface but when considering what they offer, not that bad at all. And rather than going with a startup-mentality of trying to get investors (or in our case, we the users) to pony up development capital, they first delivered a solid service and then they ask the users for the gold...

And to pre-empt pushback about monday.com's costs, they do offer a 2-user license at about $200\yr (so $100\user\yr; includes an 18% discount that doubles to 32% at 2y sign-up) but the web and mobile app are FAR SUPERIOR when compared to TD. Add to this the fact that they're actually discussing price reductions for the 1- and 2-user license (hopefully down to sub $70 for 1-user and sub $150 for 2-user) and I think they become a pretty strong value proposition when considering TD at $90\yr.


This message was edited Oct 21, 2018.
dismukemail

Posted: Oct 21, 2018
Score: -1 Reference
Posted by M:
Things that always bring me back to Toodledo are the flexible recurrences, and the pretty-powerful search. And the ability to export which, unfortunately, is probably going to be what I do: export and build an Excel workbook with macros that will let me complete/reschedule, and filter as I choose, without being at the whim of another task list provider (with the exception of Microsoft but, I suppose, if Excel ever sucks I'll have a problem again). I want to do SQL, but can't find a free database hosting service.


Well, if you have a reliable Internet connection you could always host it yourself.

http://www.cs.uakron.edu/~xiao/windows/MySQL-Installation.html

You could host it on your main computer or an old computer you might still have. Or you could even install Linux on an old Android phone you no longer use and use that to host the sql.

What you are talking about sounds cool. But it isn't exactly free when you consider the time you have to put into it and the money you could fetch if you used the same skills on some other project. Even at $90 per year, Toodledo is a bargain compared to the time that would take - unless it is something that you would get enjoyment from doing.

But I do share your concern about relying on cloud based services. I remember some years ago an online blogging platform that was destroyed overnight due to employee sabotage and no offsite backups https://idm.net.au/blog/006734-blogging-community-destroyed-lack-backup Hopefully most cloud services these days have learned from that and the odds of this happening now are more remote than then.

There is something to be said for locally stored data unless, of course, one has a hardware failure at just the wrong moment before a planned backup.
aleding

Posted: Oct 21, 2018
Score: 0 Reference
Posted by M:
Things that always bring me back to Toodledo are the flexible recurrences, and the pretty-powerful search. And the ability to export which, unfortunately, is probably going to be what I do: export and build an Excel workbook with macros that will let me complete/reschedule, and filter as I choose, without being at the whim of another task list provider (with the exception of Microsoft but, I suppose, if Excel ever sucks I'll have a problem again). I want to do SQL, but can't find a free database hosting service.


You can easily get a VPS host running MariaDB\mySQL\PostGRE for under $10\month...
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