While I was playing around with Everdo and trying to figure out if I wanted to switch to this app, I came across Nirvana GTD… and it looks almost 99% identical. Why is this?
Don’t get me wrong, I love the layout and design of them both, but why would I choose Everdo over Nirvana when one already has established a mobile app, cross-platform sync, and a web interface, along with most of the current stable features in Everdo?
Hi there!
I’m the developer of Everdo. I’ll try to be objective. I have used different GTD apps myself, including Nirvana, which really is an amazing app, one of the best.
The reason Everdo exists is to provide a few benefits hardly available anywhere else:
On the other hand, here’s a few things you should also keep in mind about Everdo:
Hope this helps. Luckily it’s easy to try different apps and see what feels best, as I did myself 
Once you get a license, you no longer depend on a third party for any functionality
You get to keep all your (or your company’s) private data, never having to send it to a third party unencrypted
I think these are the main advantages.
better keyboard navigation
Not yet, but maybe soon (at the moment Nirvana seems to have the better keyboard navigation)
It’s cheaper in the long run compared to subscription-based web apps (I’m talking a few years)
This, unfortunately, is not true. Nirvana life-time access costs 49$ only.
My view of this is certainly biased by plans and personal preferences, but there are big improvements.
For example, in it’s current version, Everdo allows processing the Inbox almost entirely without using the mouse: you can open items, move to next/someday, assign time and energy, focus and due date via inline commands.
And you’re right it is only going to improve.
Sorry about that. This is probably the first time I see a SaaS app claiming to provide “life-time” service.
All good points, and while I am growing fonder of Everdo, my biggest goal for this app taking over my GTD process is the use of fewer apps. I do not like having to go back and forth between Trello, Evernote, Everdo, Hitask, Things, BaseCamp, OmniFocus, Google Calendar, etc, etc… So if a merge or discontinuation of an app is possible, I’d dump that app in a heartbeat if it meant one less app to deal with.
(Sidenote: I am not saying that I want Everdo to become an All-In-One solution, I’m simply stating my disinterest in using multiple apps to organize my work.)
On a note of improvement or feature request: I can see the Notebooks section taking over the primary function of Evernote and would love to see just a simple notepad module within Notebooks alongside the basic listing functionality.
That’s interesting… I’ve followed Nirvana for years and never noticed a lifetime offer. It must be really new.
Nirvana has a long history of shutting down their user forum, not communicating with their customers, not providing a development roadmap, and very slow development in general. Their blog is a good example.
Before the forum was shut down, there was a period of months where the users were nearly begging for some sort of “hello” from the Nirvana staff.
Having said all that, Nirvana is a GREAT piece of GTD software.
Indeed, and while I’m going back and forth on Everdo and Nirvana, things are looking more and more identical and/or similar, which honestly is good.
I can live without a mobile app for the moment, and with the sync improvements happening I can honestly say that I’m liking Everdo more with each passing task.
Hi!
Being a long time Nirvana user, I came across Everdo and confirm what ChapDaddy65 said about it being 99% identical. This is not a few elements from different apps and keeping the best, or just GTD concepts that are inherently similar. This is an exact copy of the design.
I have to say I was a bit surprised to see this, and sort of wondering if this is even legal. (Like he said, I also like the look, it’s more a question of why and if there is a risk of being forced to redesign the whole thing or if Nirvana is aware of this, etc.)
Anyays, just throwing it back there as that aspect was not answered and I was looking around thinking, surely some else noticed this.
Thanks
Thanks for your question, I’ll try to answer it the best I can 
I assume you probably haven’t used Everdo for long, so you mostly see the user interface. It’s more than that. Most importantly, Everdo is a fully autonomous, offline, cross-platform app. For Everdo users this difference alone amounts to a lot. Many wouldn’t even consider a SaaS app at all.
If one thinks Everdo is only 1% different from any other app (as you claim), then one should absolutely stick to the more popular SaaS options, as in such case there’s really not much value in choosing Everdo at the moment.
On the other hand, I can say with complete confidence that, despite any superficial similarities, Everdo is a one of a kind app considering what it offers, at least at this moment. This is because there’s very little upside in the segment we target, so no one else goes for it.
Put in different words, Everdo is hardly a competitor, let alone a threat to any of the SaaS products. No one will choose Everdo over dozens of well-know SaaS apps just because it looks prettier than some or is similar to some. Just look up “Everdo Sync Guide” on this forum to understand why.
First, one can’t really redesign a to-do app. Unless one goes completely crazy re-inventing the wheel and making it a pain for the user, It will still end up looking more or less like a twin to at least a few of the existing ones.
If you do a thorough review of all popular todo apps (I reviewed about a few dozens before starting Everdo), you will notice how very similar they all are. There’s nothing novel/unique about the design of any of them.
Whole portions of the UIs look the same between apps, with some creative change, often to the worse. There’s also a whole lot of copying of UI ideas and elements from material design, MacOS interfaces, the new MS tile-based design, and such.
Admittedly, there are those experimental apps that use unfamiliar concepts and require learning. So those are indeed different, but I can’t judge if that’s effective in the end.
My point is that, with some tweaks, Everdo can be made to look as different as any two to-do apps are. That would be a complete waste of effort, of course, and no one whatsoever would benefit from it.
Good news is, there are a few ideas that would actually be a move in the right direction UX-wise. With a few changes like this, the whole “99% similar” thing would be over and in this case it will be for something.
EDIT:
I do know how many to-do apps look. As an example of extreme similarity of such products, check out doit.im, launched a long time ago. It’s not clear what inspired that design. Notice the structure of the sidebar, collapsible lists, the focus feature, the item layout. It’s a good design - you can’t really make it much better. You can only make it more sleek, which they did by now, so the modern UI looks even less distinct (see for youself if you’d like)
Hi, thanks for the detailed response. I feel we might be going in circles so no need to extend this discussion further. Just want to clarifiy that by 99% I meant only the UI aspect. I’m stricktly speaking of design (I’m a front-end developer). So not at all questioning functionality and I’m sure everdo is unique (in fact I could also vouch for that having used many dozens of todo apps).
Linux is supported by everdo and not by the others.