Ora vs Microsoft To Do: Which is a better fit?

Jonathan T.: I'm Jonathan, I'm the owner of a small web and graphic design firm, and I give Ora, five out of five. When I was trying to make the decision on a task and project management software that I wanted to use... I've had a lot of experience over a number of years, lots of different things, Trello, and Asana, and Basecamp, all sorts of different things. And I came across Ora, I gave it a try, and that's what I went with in the end. I ended up going with Ora for a number of reasons. First, I came across it when it was a lifetime deal, so that was of course appealing to me. But if it was a piece of junk, I wasn't going to keep it. As I started to use it more I started to love more and more of the features. I had been in the past using softwares where I have to choose between cards and the Kanban-style of managing my tasks, or a list, or a calendar, or [inaudible 00:00:59], whatever it is. And Ora, gives me the ability to switch between all of those things. So, if I'm in the mood to be looking at, if it just works better for those tasks to do a list, I can see a list. If I want to do cards, I can see cards. I can even do multiple views within a project. So right now, I'm working with somebody to develop their website, and membership site. So, I've got the tasks for their site in a set number of [inaudible 00:01:24], to do, working on, ready for review, done. I have a set for that for their site. I have a set for tutorial videos I'm making. And I have another view in that same project looking like that, with those columns, for my admin work to emails or video chats with them or whatever it is. So, it's just a great way of organizing the tasks that I have. It's customizable, there's actions. I'm a big fan of all the automatic actions that can happen if I drag a particular card into a certain column, I can make it so any card that goes in that column automatically starts the time tracker or assigns it to somebody, or does all sorts of different things. I've used Ora to organize the work that I do, but then also streamline it and make it easy to do. The onboarding process with Ora has been, I think, interesting is the word, maybe. I find it very easy to use, it clicks with the way my mind works. I have another business that I run with a little bit of a large team, still pretty small. We tried Ora there, it just didn't work well with just the way some of those team members thought about tasks, or I think we just maybe got a little drowned in the number of different features and ways you can work about with things. And so, we just petered out and we've now moved on to something else with that business. I use Ora, personally, my design business is right now a one person show. And so, it works for me, I use it. There is a functionality where I can invite my clients to come in and view their project, their boards or whatever. And I've done that with some of my clients. Some of them just don't want that [inaudible 00:03:08], they don't need to see it. I've done it with others and that's gone well, they can get in as an observer, they can comment on different tasks, approve things. So, again, I'm not bouncing around with emails and there's some communication here, some there with those clients that I'm able to onboard, and that's pretty smooth. Send them a link, they sign up, I think, and then they can comment and all that. So now I've got my comments there right on the project that I'm working on, and they can view my uploads and all that right there. So if you're considering Ora, I'd say, give it a shot, look into it. One thing I think you should know is that it is still relatively new on the block, and it's not going to have this gigantic dev team and budget. That's something bigger and more established and more name brand like Asana, or Trello or something like that is going to have. So, some of the updates while they certainly are constant, might not be as fast to come out, but you do get, I think a little bit more of a personal touch because you can interact a little bit more directly with the people making it. They're still relatively small, but certainly around and making great progress and making a great product. I'm not worried that they're just going like disappear in a week, but because they haven't been around for 10 years, they're still getting some of the features rolled up or online. And so, just make sure, do a trial or sign up for a month or two and just make sure it's going to do what you want it to do. It works great for me. Only testing it out is going to give you that opportunity to test it and see if it works for you. (silence).

Andrew P.: My name is Andrew. I'm a director of Family Ministries. I give Microsoft To Do four out of five. And for more reviews like this, click below. Before we settled on Microsoft To Do, our team looked at ClickUp and Monday.com as possible alternatives. Both of those were very powerful. They also had additional cost and some additional work getting them integrated with the systems we were already using. Microsoft To Do fit in well with our Microsoft environment, and didn't come within the additional cost. We chose Microsoft To Do for a couple different reasons. The first is, as I said, it integrated well with the rest of our Microsoft environment. As an administrator, it was easy to head into Microsoft admin, go to the panel, turn it on, and get it working. That was easy to do. And because it was part of an environment our users were used to experiencing, that learning curve was a little bit less steep as well. We also appreciated how many improvements Microsoft To Do has made, particularly in the last year. It started to have features much like you might find in other kinds of task management, project management software. In particular, we are really impressed by the calendar view that Microsoft had made some significant improvements in that area. In terms of onboarding folks into Microsoft To Do, the main thing that we needed to do was to let folks know that this product was there, in the midst of all of our other Microsoft products. The other thing that took a little bit of time and a little bit of finagling was helping folks understand the different places where Microsoft To Do can live. It can live inside of a Microsoft Teams group. It can also be imported and be a web object inside a SharePoint site. So letting folks know this is the same information, the same tasks viewable in several different places, that was the hardest part of getting folks onboarded and comfortable using the product. If you are considering using Microsoft To Do, a couple things to keep in mind. The first is if you are a Microsoft environment already, chances are it's included with your Office 365 or Microsoft 365 subscription. So take a look. It might be exactly what your team needs, using the tools that you already use and are experienced in administering. If you are thinking about it among other options, you also might consider the price point, particularly as for a whole organization. Something like ClickUp or Monday.com can run into real money. Those tools are a little bit more powerful and a little bit more intuitive, at least from my perspective, so that's something to weigh. How much are you willing to put up with a little bit of a UI that might need some refinement versus a tool that costs considerably more, but has those refined features and details? Those are what I would encourage folks to keep in mind.