I used Workflowy for a few years and it was my goto app. I then switched to Dynalist for the last year and hardly use it at all. I’m now returning to Workflowy.

I think the main reason for my switch back is that dynalist on an iPad Pro is woeful. As this is my mobile tool it creates a lot of friction. I’ve also come to realise that I don’t use the wiki-links, or attach files much. The dates option is more problematic than useful as dated things usually need export, which is another major problem for me with Dynalist. I also found the line change from normal to edit mode extremely annoying when editing a lot of entries.

In the end I miss the simplicity of Workflowy. That’s why I used it so much. My calendar does diary, my files are in icloud. I just need a good plain text notebook.

Would appreciate any thoughts on others who have used both.

I've used both, and other tools like Checkvist. Workflowy's big strength to me is the single tree idea, and the way it really handles extremely long outlines very, very well.

I use Dynalist mainly on Mac and Windows 10, and find I've been using it more. The web version in Edge on Windows 10 is great for me at work, where I do not have a Mac -- I can drag emails from Outlook, files, etc., and set up tasks as calendar events with the Google calendar integration. The sync is very fast. Dynalist is a great way to pick up a file needed for a task and quickly move it over to another machine.

I don't think I could do all this with Workflowy.

I prefer Dynalist, but agree that if I were just selecting between the two iOS apps right now I might use Workflowy instead. It has been clear from the beginning that the Dynalist developers don't really use their own app on mobile, and certainly not on iOS. If they did, I'm sure the mobile experience would be much better. Having said that, they are making constant improvements. Check out their monthly blog to see what they've been doing:

https://blog.dynalist.io/

I have free accounts on both services and just decided to try them out again in the web versions on my Mac. I pasted a TaskPaper document as well as an OMPL file from my clipboard. Dynalist seems a more comprehensive (and complicated) product, but I think that Workflowy was easier to work with, and faster, so for now I think I like it a bit more.

Checkvist still seems uglier and more ungainly, though perhaps that's only skin deep. (But I don't want to scratch the surface to find out.)

I also opened up OmniOutliner for the Mac and the templating and weird font-level formatting just made me angry at it all over again.

Ae the advantages of the paid version of WorkFlowy sufficient justification to upgrade?

The free Workflowy plan I have (I think there are a couple of tiers) limits you to 500 new items a month. If it's a service you use, you will hit the limit of the free plan pretty quickly. If you're concerned about the security your lists (unlimited in Pto) the paid plan lets you back up to Dropbox.

Basically, if you intend to really use it, the $50/yr Workflowy Pro plan is needed. With Dynalist/free you can have unlimited lists, but if you want niceties (unlimited bookmarks, image/file attachments, Dropbox/Gdrive backup, push items to Google Calendar), you need to pay $95/yr.

satis wrote:

I have free accounts on both services and just decided to try them out
again in the web versions on my Mac. I pasted a TaskPaper document as
well as an OMPL file from my clipboard. Dynalist seems a more
comprehensive (and complicated) product, but I think that Workflowy was
easier to work with, and faster, so for now I think I like it a bit
more.

Checkvist still seems uglier and more ungainly, though perhaps that's
only skin deep. (But I don't want to scratch the surface to find out.)

I also opened up OmniOutliner for the Mac and the templating and weird
font-level formatting just made me angry at it all over again.

Apologies for the previous post. I was editing on mobile and accidentally hit post before I wrote my content!

satis wrote:

I also opened up OmniOutliner for the Mac and the templating and weird
font-level formatting just made me angry at it all over again.

Totally agree. In fact a couple of years ago I had a long exchange with omni on their forum about the ludicrous styling preferences that make it a nightmare to style.

satis wrote:

The free Workflowy plan I have (I think there are a couple of tiers) limits you to 500 new items a month. If it’s a service you use, you will hit the limit of the free plan pretty quickly. If you’re concerned about the security your lists (unlimited in Pto) the paid plan lets you back up to Dropbox.

This has now changed to 100 per month. The free version is now basically a couple of days trial as you hit a hundred new items really quickly.

I'll give Workflowy a try. I agree with the frustrations with Omni Outliner. I spend more time trying to remove the formatting that seems to accumulate.

Simon wrote:

>The free Workflowy plan I have (I think there are a couple of tiers)
>limits you to 500 new items a month.

This has now changed to 100 per month.

I have two Workflowy accounts, one of which I notated as 'largefreeacct' and the other as 'smallfreeacct'. It's a little hazy but I think what happened was that the Workflowy team at one point lowered it from 500 to 250 but instituted a referral program that could increase it back to 500, or even more. I think I upgraded myself to 500 by referring a different email address of mine. But it's hard to remember exactly.