Author vs OmniFocus 4
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Author
This app serves as a companion to its macOS counterpart, offering a minimalist and powerful writing experience on iOS devices. It allows users to create and manage their written content seamlessly across platforms.
- Minimalist writing interface
- Powerful writing tools
- iOS companion app
- Syncs with macOS version
Read full descriptionHide full description
The iOS companion to Author macOS.
OmniFocus 4
This task management application helps busy professionals organize and prioritize their work. It offers a unified interface across multiple Apple devices, allowing users to create, organize, and focus on tasks efficiently. A free trial is available.
- Unified interface across Apple devices
- Task creation and organization
- Perspectives Bar for navigation
- Focus mode for specific projects
- Secure, end-to-end encrypted sync
- Universal cross-platform purchase
Read full descriptionHide full description
OmniFocus is powerful task management software for busy professionals. With tools to help tame the chaos, you can focus on the right tasks at the right time. Two-week free trial! OmniFocus 4 introduces a modernized, unified interface across Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Apple Vision Pro. Centered around your task outline, OmniFocus 4 brings a consistent experience, optimized for each device type, to all of your Apple devices. Easily create tasks anytime–from anywhere–and organize them with projects, tags, and dates. Quickly navigate OmniFocus on any device using the Perspectives Bar, Quick Open, and Back and Forward history. With Pro, use Focus to help focus your attention on specific projects or folders, and customize OmniFocus to only display the information most relevant to you. New to OmniFocus? The simple, efficient OmniFocus 4 interface will help you discover and implement a trusted system that works and grows with you. Upgrading from a previous version of OmniFocus? In OmniFocus 4, discover enhanced versions of all the powerful task management features you already rely on, along with new features that will level-up your workflow. Omni offers a free and secure sync service, protected with end-to-end encryption, ensuring only devices you authorize can access your data. And now, for the first time ever, OmniFocus is available as a universal cross-platform purchase: get full access to OmniFocus 4 on your Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Apple Vision Pro with a single license purchase. Accomplish more every day–anywhere you go–with OmniFocus 4.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: OmniFocus 4 at Free against Author's $19.99. OmniFocus 4 also leads on rating (4.0 vs 3.0) and ratings volume (335 vs 5). Author's advantage is review sentiment (73% vs 52%). On ads, in-app purchases, monetization model and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
OmniFocus 4 is free to download; Author costs $19.99 up front. Author sells 2 one-off in-app purchases and OmniFocus 4 sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
OmniFocus 4 holds the better App Store score, 4.0 against 3.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: OmniFocus 4 has 335 ratings behind it against 5, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 73% of Author's written reviews are positive against 52% of OmniFocus 4's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Author ships an update every 2 months, OmniFocus 4 every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 22, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Author | OmniFocus 4 |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $19.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 3.0 (5 ratings) | 4.0 (335 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 73.1% of reviews — better | 52.5% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 5 | 335 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Vision Pro | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Vision Pro — better |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 18.2 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 4 MB | 138 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | The Augmented Text Company LTD | The Omni Group |
Customer experience
Author
OmniFocus 4
User reviews
Author
From 5 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- ✨ Clean, minimalist interface design
- 💡 Innovative concept mapping and mind mapping features
- 📚 Excellent citation and reference management
- ⌨️ Useful keyboard shortcuts and productivity features
- 🎯 Powerful outlining and document folding capabilities
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent crashes and data loss issues
- 📱 iOS/iPad app severely broken and non-functional
- 🔄 Syncing problems between devices
- 🎨 Limited formatting and customization options
- 📊 Poor image handling capabilities
OmniFocus 4
From 335 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Streamlined and better than ever
- 🔒 End-to-end encrypted
- 👍 Universal interface across devices
- 🚀 Powerful task management features
- 👍 Customizable perspectives
Room to improve
- 🐛 Buggy, crashes, and laggy
- 👎 Clunky and confusing user interface
- 👎 Degraded user interface compared to previous version
- 🐛 Sync issues and slow synchronization
- 👎 Lacks important features like time-sensitive notifications
Bugs and requests
Author
Reported bugs
20 issues- App crashes frequently, causing data loss
- iOS app shows blank screen and won't open documents
- iPad app completely non-functional
- Text disappears or becomes greyed out during iCloud saves
- Vision OS app lacks cursor for text input
Show 15 moreShow fewer
- Ask AI feature shows infinite loading spinner
- Unexpected Russian pricing text displayed to US users
- App doesn't launch or open on some systems
- Files not detected in Downloads folder
- Cannot open documents created in desktop version on iOS
- Automatic file conversion to Liquid format breaks iOS compatibility
- Text rendering issues (white text on white background)
- Table function broken - cannot write in cells
- App lags and deletes lines when typing quickly
- Highlight feature not working
- Citations not resolving automatically
- Markdown export only exports preamble
- Copy-paste functionality issues
- French localization not working despite being advertised
- App not compatible with iOS 18 and latest macOS versions
Requested features
20 requests- iPad and iOS app that actually works
- Typewriter scrolling mode
- Variable screen width for large displays
- Complete LaTeX export with full file support
- Markdown support
Show 15 moreShow fewer
- Better image handling and integration
- Find and replace functionality
- Dark mode for older macOS versions
- Inline predictive text support
- Nested list creation and editing
- Paragraph indentation options
- Photo support on macOS version
- Keyboard shortcut reference guide
- Table editing improvements
- Integration with reference management software (Zotero, EndNote)
- Local AI endpoints or BYOK (Bring Your Own Key) for privacy
- Better onboarding and UI guidance for new users
- Typeface options (Courier, American Typewriter, serif fonts)
- Line spacing options (1.5, double spacing)
- Color themes and dark mode options
OmniFocus 4
Reported bugs
6 issues- View options button not working consistently
- Custom perspectives not persisting in sidebar
- App crashing on launch
- Drag and drop functionality issues
- Incorrect task completion when adding new tasks
Show 1 moreShow fewer
- Inconsistent behavior when changing due dates
Requested features
6 requests- Markdown support in notes
- Gantt view for projects
- Ability to reorder perspectives in the sidebar
- Print to PDF with due dates and completed dates
- Natural language processing for task creation
Show 1 moreShow fewer
- Board view for projects
In-app purchases
Author
- Export & AIFree
- Eng$1.99
OmniFocus 4
- Legacy Subscription$9.991 Month
- Legacy Subscription$99.991 Year
- Upgrade to v4 from v1-v3$37.49
- Upgrade v4 to Pro from v1-v3$37.49
- Unlock Standard (Mac Promo)$56.00
Show 5 moreShow fewer
- Unlock Standard$74.99
- Upgrade from Standard to Pro$74.99
- Upgrade to v4 Pro from v1-v3$74.99
- Unlock Pro (Mac Promo)$111.99
- Unlock Pro$149.99
