Doodle vs Ellie Planner: Comprehensive Comparison

Overview

In today's fast-paced world, choosing the right productivity tool can make all the difference. This comprehensive comparison between Doodle and Ellie Planner will help you understand which tool best fits your workflow and productivity needs.

⚡ Quick Summary

What is Doodle?

Doodle is a scheduling tool that simplifies finding mutual availability for meetings, events, and polls by letting users propose times and participants vote, eliminating email back-and-forth. It offers both group scheduling polls and individual booking pages for sharing availability via links.

Visit Doodle →

🌟 Key Features of Doodle

• ✦Group scheduling polls with participant voting

• ✦Booking Pages for sharing availability via links

• ✦1:1 meetings and Book on Behalf functionality

• ✦Video integrations (Zoom, Teams, Google Meet)

• ✦Calendar sync with Google Calendar and Outlook

• ✦Payment collection via Stripe and PayPal

What is Ellie Planner?

Ellie Planner is a minimalist daily planner and time-blocking app that combines tasks and calendar events to help users plan and visualize their day. It features drag-and-drop task scheduling, a brain dump area for quick capture, and built-in time tracking with analytics. The app includes AI assistant capabilities for task organization and scheduling optimization.

Visit Ellie Planner →

🌟 Key Features of Ellie Planner

• ✦Time Blocking with Drag-and-Drop: Core feature allowing users to drag tasks from a Kanban-style list directly into their calendar view for visual time blocking and day planning.

• ✦Brain Dump & Task Management: Quick capture inbox area combined with comprehensive task management including lists, priorities, due dates, labels, subtasks, and recurring tasks.

• ✦Built-in Timer and Analytics: Time tracking capabilities with analytics on how you spend your time, providing insights into productivity patterns and time allocation.

• ✦AI Assistant: AI-powered features for bulk task creation, smart organization, time estimation, automated scheduling, finding free time, and priority guidance (Pro feature).

• ✦Calendar Integration: Syncs with Google, Apple, and Outlook calendars to provide a unified view of appointments and tasks in one interface.

• ✦Cross-Platform Access: Available on web, iOS, Mac, and Windows with native apps and browser-based access for flexible planning anywhere.

📊 Feature Comparison

🔗 Integrations

Doodle

Google Calendar, Outlook, Office 365, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, Webex, Stripe, Zapier (2000+ apps), Slack (via Zapier)

Ellie Planner

Apple Calendar, Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, Slack, Notion, Zapier

💰 Pricing Comparison

Doodle

Free, Pro from $6.95/mo, Team from $8.95/user/mo

Free plan available. Pro: $6.95/user/month (annual) or $14.95/month. Team: $8.95/user/month (annual) or $19.95/user/month

Ellie Planner

Free Plan available. Pro: $9.99/month, $99.99/year, or $299.99 lifetime.

Free Plan: $0 with unlimited tasks and braindump. Ellie Pro: $9.99/month, $99.99/year, or $299.99 one-time lifetime purchase.

💡 Things to Consider

When Choosing Doodle

• →Best suited for group meeting polls and simple 1:1 booking, but less ideal for complex team scheduling or project management needs

• →Free plan includes ads and limited features - paid plans needed for branding, unlimited booking pages, and advanced automation

• →Occasional calendar sync issues and limited customer support responsiveness may impact users with mission-critical scheduling needs

When Choosing Ellie Planner

• →You Value Visual Time-Blocking: Ellie Planner excels at drag-and-drop task scheduling into calendar views, making it ideal if you prefer visual daily planning over text-based task lists.

• →You're Willing to Pay for Core Features: The free plan is quite limited, so you'll need Pro ($9.99/month) for time-blocking, calendar integration, and most useful features - consider if this fits your budget.

• →You Use iOS/Web/Desktop: Best experience is on iOS and web platforms. Skip if you need Android support or prefer fully native desktop applications over web-based interfaces.

⭐ User Reviews

Doodle

"Users praise Doodle for its simplicity and effectiveness in group scheduling, eliminating email back-and-forth. Main complaints include ads on free plan, limited customization options, occasional calendar sync issues, and slow customer support responses."

Ellie Planner

"Ellie Planner is praised for its intuitive, minimalist interface and effective time-blocking capabilities with drag-and-drop functionality. Users appreciate the brain dump feature, calendar integration, and responsive indie developer support. However, the free plan is quite limited, pricing is considered high compared to alternatives, there's no Android app, and it offers fewer advanced features than comprehensive tools like Sunsama. Best suited for individual users who prioritize visual time-blocking and simplicity over complex workflows."

🎯 Conclusion

Both Doodle and Ellie Planner are excellent productivity tools with their own strengths.

Doodle excels in Group scheduling polls with participant voting, while Ellie Planner shines with Time Blocking with Drag-and-Drop: Core feature allowing users to drag tasks from a Kanban-style list directly into their calendar view for visual time blocking and day planning.. The best choice depends on your specific needs, workflow preferences, and budget.

We recommend trying both tools to see which one fits better with your productivity style.