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Workflowy

The Workflow IOS Automation app is now free

GeneralEdward Kiledjian

Automation can be help with simple tasks like converting a webpage to PDF or can become a complex monster saving you hundreds of hours a year. Until the Workflow app came to IOS, true automation was an Android only benefit.

The $5 app is now permanently free because Apple acquired them. 

The Workflow app has been around for a couple of years and is a distant cousin (functionally) to IFTTT. It allows users to string together a series of actions, tasks, conditions and inputs and perform all kinds of useful tasks.

It can:

  • Encode media
  • Record Audio
  • Post on social media
  • Automate app functionality where a URL scheme is exposed
  • Send emails
  • Pull RSS feeds
  • much much more

What we don't know yet is what Apple will do with the team and the app. It was made free but there is always the risk Apple will kill the app and move some of the functionality to:

  • a new Apple branded app
  • into a new version of IOS
  • into a new service running on iCloud

Workflowy Pro review

WorkflowyEdward Kiledjian

On September 2 2011, I reviewed Workflowy and although I thought the clean and simple interface was good, it wasn’t good enough for me to use it on a daily basis. For a service to truly win me over, I need multi-platform clients as a bare minimum (before any fans get angry with me, an html5 interface which works in a browser is not the same thing as a native client).

One of my original questions was about how the company would monetize their service... At the time no one wanted to say but now we know. They are using the fremium model where free users get a bunch of free functionality but demanding users can pay $4.99 a month (of $49 per year pre-paid) and upgrade to their pro version. To see the benefits of the pro version or to subscribe, look at the bottom right corner of the Workflowy interface for the "Go Pro" link.

In exchange for $50 of your hard earned money, they will give you:

  • Ability to create an unlimited number of lists (non pro users are limited to 500 per month)
  • Automatic backups to dropbox
  • Access to a future update which will somehow enable offline access
  • Access to a future update which will enable the ability to share partial lists with selected users (protected by passwords).
  • Ability to customize the look and feel of workflowy

I don't feel that the features justify the cost. I still want to see Workflowy get picked up but Evernote and its features built-in to it.