App Showdown: Orchestra vs Remember the Milk
I loves me some to-do apps. I’m not a list-checker-off kinda person, you know, the kind that makes lists and lists of lists and delightedly ticks them all off one by one. Those people are weird. For me, it boils down to this: if I don’t write it down, it won’t get done.
You’d think making a good todo app would be easy, but apparently not. Every single one I’ve used falls prey to: easy to use, full featured and pretty. Pick two.
Orchestra and Remember the Milk (RTM) have been battling it out on my phone for Best App That Keeps Rachel On Task. Here’s my review of them:
Orchestra (Free, iOS)
I downloaded it because Lifehacker loooooooooves Orchestra and it’s FREE. I’ve used it for a couple months now.
Things I like: it’s pretty! Mmm, iOS goodness. It’s dead easy to use. I also like that you can easily share tasks and lists. My husband and I use it all the time for shopping lists assigning each other stuff to do (“buy Diet Coke” “get rid of MacBook box” “bite me”).
BUT. It’s seriously lacking some basic functionality. Reordering items in a list? Nope. Reordering lists by anything other than creation date? Nope. Reminders? NOPE NOPE NOPE. But hey, there’s a button to “ask for help on Facebook”. Awesome. Thanks guys.
I’m torn - I like, but find it very unwieldy to use when I have lots of lists or lots of tasks. You can’t tag items or reorganize all that well - the best you can do is create a new list and move tasks to it.
Remember the Milk (Free/$25 Pro)
This is todo software that lacks NOTHING in terms of features. I mean it. If I want to make a high priority task due at 8:16pm next Thursday, geotagged with a specific address, tagged with nine different categories AND have reminders set via iPhone app, Jabber and SMS? Bah, I can enter all that in ONE LINE.
The iPhone/iPad app is not awful - it’s not nearly as pretty as Orchestra, but it’s functional. A free account allows syncing once a day, which is basically useless and only good to try out what you’ll get with the pro version.
As for the bad, the web UI leaves quite a bit to be desired. I don’t know who decided floaty boxes that move with your mouse are the bestest place to do data entry, but that person should be kicked in the shin. Also the name is kind of dumb (and I know at least one person who refuses to use it based solely on that).
And the winner is….
RTM. I’m not in love with it, but honestly, I haven’t found anything to beat it in terms of features and organization of tasks. I’m looking forward to Orchestra’s next release, which hopefully should be ANY DAY NOW, right guys?
Notes