Ellie Planner vs Motion: Comprehensive Comparison
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Overview
In today's fast-paced world, choosing the right productivity tool can make all the difference. This comprehensive comparison between Ellie Planner and Motion will help you understand which tool best fits your workflow and productivity needs.
⚡ Quick Summary
Aspect | Ellie Planner | Motion |
|---|---|---|
Best For | A minimalist daily planner app focused on time-blocking with drag-and-drop task scheduling and calendar integration. | Motion uses AI to automatically plan your day, considering tasks, meetings, and personal time. Motion offers features like smart rescheduling and priority-based task management, aimed at enhancing efficiency and reducing stress. |
Pricing | Free Plan available. Pro: $9.99/month, $99.99/year, or $299.99 lifetime. | $19 per month, annually |
Platforms | Web, iOS, Mac, Windows | Web, iOS, Android, Mac, Windows |
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.
🌟 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.
What is Motion?
Motion is an AI-powered productivity superapp that automates scheduling, task prioritization, and project management by analyzing workloads, calendars, and deadlines to optimize daily plans. It integrates calendar management, task scheduling, project management, and meeting coordination into a single platform, automatically prioritizing and rescheduling tasks based on user availability and preferences. This level of automation and personalization sets Motion apart from traditional task managers.
🌟 Key Features of Motion
✦AI Scheduling Assistant: Motion automatically prioritizes, reschedules tasks, and builds time blocks based on urgency, availability, and dependencies, providing an experience akin to having a personal assistant.
✦Project Management with AI: Motion offers project management with boards, lists, kanban views, task dependencies, and AI-generated project templates for effective task organization.
✦Meeting Tools with AI: Motion includes auto-scheduling, summaries, recordings, transcripts, and action item tasks, with customizable preferences for duration and buffer time.
✦Comprehensive Task Management: The app integrates tasks, projects, notes, and team management in one place, with AI assisting in the optimal scheduling and organization of these elements.
✦Time Blocking Calendar: Motion's calendar syncs with external calendars and automatically creates and reschedules time blocks while avoiding meeting overlaps.
✦Team Collaboration Features: Motion provides auto-plan updates, progress visibility, in-context communication, and AI employees for team productivity.
📊 Feature Comparison
Feature | Ellie Planner | Motion |
|---|---|---|
📅 Calendar Integration | ✓ Yes | features an intelligent calendar that integrates with existing calendars |
✅ Task Management | ✓ Yes | includes ai-driven task prioritization and dynamic scheduling adjustments |
⏰ Time Blocking | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
🗣️ Natural Language Processing | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
🔔 Notifications | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
🌍 Time Zones Support | ✗ No | ✓ Yes |
📆 Scheduler | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
📈 Analytics | ✓ Yes | ◐ Limited |
🔗 Integrations
Ellie Planner
Apple Calendar, Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, Slack, Notion, Zapier
Motion
Google Calendar, Gmail, Google Sheets, Slack, Notion, Todoist, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Teams, Asana, Trello, HubSpot, Zoom, Calendly, Zapier
💰 Pricing Comparison
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.
Motion
$19 per month, annually
Motion offers three pricing tiers: Pro AI at $19/seat/month (annually), Business AI at $29/seat/month (annually), and Enterprise with custom pricing. Monthly billing available at higher rates.
💡 Things to Consider
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.
When Choosing Motion
→You Want AI-Powered Automation: Motion's AI scheduling can save significant time but requires initial setup and learning to optimize effectiveness.
→You're an Individual or Small Team: Motion works best for professionals and small teams under 50 people, but may lack advanced features needed for complex enterprise workflows.
→Budget and No Free Plan: Motion requires paid subscription with no free tier, so evaluate if the AI automation benefits justify the cost through their 7-day trial.
⭐ User Reviews
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."
Motion
"Motion is a comprehensive AI-powered productivity tool that excels in automating task scheduling and calendar management. It combines multiple productivity tools into one platform with strong AI capabilities for automatic rescheduling and prioritization. However, it has no free plan, requires a steep learning curve for setup, and may be better suited for individuals and small teams rather than large enterprises with complex project management needs."
🎯 Conclusion
Both Ellie Planner and Motion are excellent productivity tools with their own strengths.
Ellie Planner excels in 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., while Motion shines with AI Scheduling Assistant: Motion automatically prioritizes, reschedules tasks, and builds time blocks based on urgency, availability, and dependencies, providing an experience akin to having a personal assistant.. 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.
