Daily Planner Apps
Dec 24
Daily planner apps aren't going away.
Many people love them for their combination of calendar and to-do list features, which allow them to better manage their daily routine. But what makes them so helpful?
Daily planner apps are powerful tools for planning your week ahead and organizing priorities and tasks in one place. Many tools and resources can help, from paper to powerful task management tools that can help you plan more effectively. Let's explore the best recommendations for planning your time.
What is a daily planner app?
Daily planner apps are a combination of to-do list apps & calendar apps. They are designed to help you time-block your tasks onto your calendar to see what you need to focus on. They can cost between $10 and $25 per month and come with various features, including task consolidation, team planning, and AI tools.
15 Top Daily Planner Apps
Here is a glance at all of the planner apps in this list:
- Motion is an AI-focused planner.
- Akiflow combines task consolidation in one.
- Routine is a minimal planner app with notes.
- Sunsama is more mindful of task management.
- Ellie Planner is a lightweight tool that uses time-boxing.
- Structured is easy to use for lightweight daily planning.
- Timestripe is the perfect daily planner for zooming out.
- Todoist is a to-do list app with a good calendar ability.
- TickTick combines habits, tasks & calendars in one.
- Morgen is a calendar app that has planner abilities.
- Amazing Marvin is popular for ADHD daily planning.
- Amie is a calendar app with superpowers of email, tasks & more.
- Notion is an all-in-one workspace for planning.
- Rise Calendar is a calendar app with focus, tasks & more.
- Twos is a note-taking app with task & journal abilities.
1. Motion
Motion is probably the most advanced daily planner on this list. It uses AI to serve your daily and weekly schedule better, help you reorganize clashes, and help with one of everyday people's most significant pain points: prioritization. Busy professionals are flocking to Motion to take the weight from their inability to judge the importance of a task and better take the administration of planning out of the day.
Motion learns from you over time to make better decisions, but this doesn't come cheap. Motion charges $19 per month (billed annually) for planning for you, which many people are happy to pay. Motion combines a calendar, project management (with team abilities, too), and meeting scheduling for finding times with others, alongside all this powerful AI auto-scheduling.
Pros:
- Reduces productivity administration using AI
- Auto-schedules and moves tasks based on priorities
- Comes with project management & calendar features
- Developing new features & better team features
- Good for replacing tools like Calendly for meeting bookings
Cons:
- Lacks task consolidation made popular in Akiflow & Sunsama
- Many people find Motion to be an expensive option
- AI re-scheduling can be aggressive
Pricing:
Motion is priced at $19 per month, billed annually, or $34 per month (monthly). There is no free plan.
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2. Akiflow
Akiflow is designed to be your dashboard for tasks. That's the best way to describe this tool. It combines a calendar with task management and something called task consolidation. This allows a user to manage and time-block tasks into their calendar in Akiflow and from other apps like ClickUp, Notion, Gmail, and even more. This is becoming a helpful way to reduce switching between apps (thanks to 2-way task sync) and consolidate tasks into one place for better focus during a workday.
Much like Motion, busy professionals flock to Akiflow as a base for their tasks. This has made it a popular tool, with freelancers and small teams working across many task management tools or apps during their busy workdays. It also comes with guided planning features, meeting scheduling abilities, and a good set of features in the calendar for planning and time-blocking, but with Motion's $19 per month pricing (billed annually), which many people are open to paying thanks to the all-in-one feel without the stress of moving work management tools that you already use in your day.
Pros:
- Turns all your tasks into one dashboard
- Consolidation for bringing tasks in from other task apps
- It comes with guided planning assistance for planning ahead
- Great calendar customization and meeting scheduling features
- Comes with regular updates including new AI features
Cons:
- Deemed expensive by many people
- Doesn't come with advanced AI features like Motion
Pricing:
Akiflow is priced at $19 per month, billed annually, or $34 per month, billed monthly. There is no free plan.
3. Routine
Routine is a minimal planner application that combines tasks, calendars, and light note-taking.
Many people are drawn to it because of its clean look and feel, but not only this but also the smaller features that make capturing things into Routine enjoyable. Those who will find Routine suitable for them don't need the advanced AI features we see in tools like Motion or task consolidation like in Akiflow, but the ability to bring all three core productivity systems (notes, tasks, and calendar) into one house. Easy on the eyes, Routine is one of the most attractive-looking daily planner apps.
Suppose you're looking for a middle ground between Sunsama and Todoist. In that case, this might be the best application as it allows you to coordinate tasks and plan ahead but also allows you to capture notes. It works well on all devices to better capture all that in one.
Pros:
- Attractive, minimal design & look
- Good week views for calendar modes
- It comes with note-taking abilities, too
- Capturing items is excellent on desktop
- Less expensive than tools like Akiflow or Motion
Cons:
- Lacks an Android app right now
Pricing:
Routine is free now, with a $12 monthly pricing coming soon.
Free Buyer's Guide to To-Do List Apps
Gather insights on how to pick your to-do list app, the personalities of a to-do list user & the best recommendations for to-do apps on the market for your needs. Unlock this free PDF report & insights.
Download Free Report4. Sunsama
Sunsama is a mindful day planner popular with those who zoom out. Guided planning makes Sunsama the best mindful planner. It helps you zoom out of tasks by helping you plan the day and close the day you've just had by asking questions and reflecting on the tasks on your to-do list.
For day planning, plotting tasks into Sunsama's week view and using their planning features like timer, AI channel allocation, and flagging when you're overloading your list with tasks is perfect for planners who like to take a holistic approach. Planning using guided planning in Sunsama is very nice for those who need help planning. For some people, taking time to rethink what they need to do is something they neglect every day, which could be damaging to what they're working on and the projects they're allocating their time to.
Sunsama is best for those who want a day planner with more work-life balance tools. Those who struggle to juggle many tasks need to rethink how they manage what they have on their plate.
Pros:
- The most powerful for mindful planning
- Easy-to-use planning experience
- Comes with task consolidation
- Brings a good quality app for tasks
Cons:
- Can be expensive for many
Pricing:
Sunsama comes at $16 per month, billed annually, or $20 per month, billed monthly. No free plan.
5. Ellie Planner
Ellie Planner is a lightweight daily planner that looks like Sunsama. Ellie is designed to help you plan your week using a week Kanban view, tally your tasks in lists, and help you flag your tasks as important. Many people like it for the time-boxing abilities, the time-boxing method is used by people like Elon Musk to plan.
Ellie Planner has a good brain-dumping area, which helps you drag tasks into your week plan for later planning and sort the unsorted tasks. It is a good free daily planner app with unlimited task creation. Ellie Planner isn't as popular for busy professionals; we'd recommend it more for those who are planning light and want to see their tasks in a calendar view. Many people say that this is a combination of Todoist and Sunsama.
Pros:
- Easy to use and get started with
- Apple & Google Calendar integrations
- Time-boxing concepts and features
- Developed independently
Cons:
- Features aren't released routinely
- Lacks Android app
Pricing:
Ellie Planner is $9.99 per month and has a freemium tier.
Free Buyer's Guide to To-Do List Apps
Gather insights on how to pick your to-do list app, the personalities of a to-do list user & the best recommendations for to-do apps on the market for your needs. Unlock this free PDF report & insights.
Download Free Report6. Structured
Structured is a superb lightweight daily planner app for MacOS that works best when planning your day. This is thanks to its planning style, which uses a day view so you can add tasks in order of what you need to do next. This makes it popular with those who want to create routine tasks and plan using time-based tasks. Structured is not available on Android.
Structured works best for iOS users who want something to plan their week using a timeline view of their day allowing them to add in tasks as they go. People tend to like to plan housework, errands, and even their personal lives like movies and work.
Free Buyer's Guide to To-Do List Apps
Gather insights on how to pick your to-do list app, the personalities of a to-do list user & the best recommendations for to-do apps on the market for your needs. Unlock this free PDF report & insights.
Download Free Report7. Timestripe
Timestripe is a goal-planning app with daily planning abilities. Timestripe allows you to add tasks that act as goals, meaning you can align these "goals" with your weeks and months ahead. Inside Timestripe, you can see your week, month, year, and beyond goals, making it the perfect daily planner for planning far in advance and coordinating what's ahead.
This does make it suitable for daily planning with a calendar view and the ability to add tasks and sub-tasks to each of these goals. Timestripe is a perfect daily planning app with goal planning and is used mainly by individuals to plan tasks and goals. For those who want to think more holistically, Timestripe is perfect. This allows you to view your goals ahead and have them alongside your plans for the day so you always keep sight of the goals and tasks you need to head towards.
Pros:
- Better for planning holistically
- Designed for goal-focused task management
Cons:
- Not as smooth to use as apps like Todoist or Akiflow
- Can be overwhelming to see goals next to tasks
8. Todoist
Todoist is the best-in-class to do application in our opinion. It provides a brilliant way to handle tasks, manage project lists, and even plot ideas with a Kanban board.
With over 10 years of experience, Todoist is a high-quality application that makes task management much easier. They now have a planner-like experience connecting with Google Calendar for better planning and time blocking for the week ahead.
Pros:
- Kanban and list views
- Comes with time-blocking
- Google Calendar integration
- All-rounder and easy to use for all job roles
Cons:
- Less powerful than other tools like Motion & Akiflow
- Lacks a faster development cycle (updates every 2-3 months)
Pricing:
Todoist is free to use with limits. Pricing starts at $5 per user per month with team plans.
Pros:
- A wide range of devices
- Well-built app and well-developed
- Pricing is reasonable
Cons:
- Too lightweight for some people
Pricing:
Ellie Planner is priced at $9.99 per month with limited free functionality.
9. TickTick
TickTick is one of the best friendly, approachable budget to-do apps. Unlike Todoist, it actually had a calendar experience within it at the time of our posting. TickTick allows you to plot tasks in the calendar view with week, month, and day modes to better align tasks at the right time. The issue is that this comes only in the paid plan.
Calendar mode is one of the big features in TickTick that allow us to feature it as a daily planner application. For many people some light calendar mode might be enough for them to consider TickTick as their planner application as it has due dates, progress bars and also fantastic ways to capture on multiple devices too. Habit tracking is great for creating healthy routines. This is a bonus feature of TickTick, but it allows it to be another layer in the daily planning system. Habits can help build healthy routines and use the application longer, too.
Pros:
- Easy-to-use design
- Good mobile access and availability
- Comes with Kanban, calendar, and timeline modes
- Habit-tracking feature included
- Reasonable pricing for what you get
Cons:
- Not as minimal and well-thought-out as Todoist
- Limits to how many tasks you can add the free plan
Pricing:
Priced at $35.99 per year, but has a generous free plan.
10. Morgen
Morgen is a calendar application at heart but it has been trying to bring both calendar and task into one hub. Whilst it isn't a pure breed daily planner application, we think it still is an option as you enter your decision making when looking for a daily planner application.
That combination between calendar events first and tasks, with task lists with the ability to time-block them into your calendar actually makes it a not bad solution. For one calendar it is free to use which makes it perfect for getting started and using the concept of tasks and calendar together without investing in some of the options above that do limit you.
Pros
- Combines tasks & calendar in one
- Comes with helpful time-blocking abilities
- Connects with a range of calendar apps, including FastMail
- Book meetings with people externally with booking links
- Book meetings using open invites as a one-off
- Morgen Assist looks promising as a way to automate activities
- Connect to popular tools like Todoist and Gmail to import tasks
Cons
- The limited free plan limits to one calendar connection
- It can be expensive as a standalone tool
- The mobile apps are read-only on the free plan
Pricing
Morgen is priced at $13 per month and has a free subscription too.
11. Amazing Marvin
Amazing Marvin is a customizable planner app that uses a combination of features to help you build your week's schedule. Features include rescheduling tasks, a planner calendar, and plug-and-play strategies for making your week more effective, such as timers, task management systems, and more.
The software is popular with ADHD as people tend to like the range of features that you can pick for you.
Free Buyer's Guide to To-Do List Apps
Gather insights on how to pick your to-do list app, the personalities of a to-do list user & the best recommendations for to-do apps on the market for your needs. Unlock this free PDF report & insights.
Download Free Report12. Amie
Amie is a calendar application that has expanded much further to help you manage your week better. You can now connect tasks, emails, events, and more in one location. Amie wants to help bring that all into one location.
Pros:
- Focuses well on planning tasks next to the calendar
- It comes with a great way to capture tasks on iOS, macOS, and Windows
Cons:
- Lacks availability on Windows & Android
- Currently, only Google Calendar with iCloud & Outlook coming soon
Pricing:
Amie is priced at
13. Notion
Notion is an all-in-one workspace for managing notes, documents, and projects. It also serves as a planner, helping you organize everything in one location. You can use Notion to help build a calendar or to-do list widgets alongside your notes and ideas, all in one place. It might take you more time to build this inside of Notion, but the benefits are that they are a powerful way to craft your own plan of the week using the features.
14. Rise Calendar
Rise Calendar is a calendar tool for teams but serves as a planner experience. As part of their experience, it comes with task management that you can use as an individual. You can lightly use the project abilities, but the way you can add sub-tasks and organize your focus and time block is a helpful planner feature that makes it one of our recommended options.
Pros:
- Comes with task & project management
- Designed very well on all devices available on
- Comes as a cross-platform experience
- Well designed "My Focus" mode for focus
Cons:
- It is an expensive subscription if you upgrade
Free Buyer's Guide to To-Do List Apps
Gather insights on how to pick your to-do list app, the personalities of a to-do list user & the best recommendations for to-do apps on the market for your needs. Unlock this free PDF report & insights.
Download Free Report15. Twos
Twos is a note-taking application that has expanded into the planning experience. It allows you to plan tasks, organize them for the day, and plan ahead using a calendar. Twos is becoming a compelling lightweight way to plan your week ahead.
Help Picking Your Daily Planner
There is a wide variety of daily planner apps so let's narrow them down even further:
What is the best daily planner app for mindfulness?
The best day planner apps for mindfulness or more holistic planning are Sunsama and Timestripe, both apps that promote health and work-life balance.
What is the best daily planner app on iOS?
Structured is the best iOS daily planner app as it is perfect for on-the-go with timeline-like abilities for planning the day view and easily adding tasks on your iPhone or iPad apps.
What is the best daily planner app for students?
Students looking for daily planners should look at something cost-effective and good for planning workload at university or college, the best daily planner for students are Structured or TickTick both have lower costs, but help plan the day.
What is the best daily planner app on Android?
One of the best all-round day planner apps for Android is Any.DO offers a good way to balance tasks and calendars on Android with a good Google Play Store widget too. Alternatively, TickTick is also good for Android too.
What is the best daily planner app on Windows?
Akiflow works well on Windows for daily planning and helps you manage your tasks effectively there along with all the features like rituals, task consolidation & more.
What is the best daily planner on Mac?
Routine has one of the best MacOS features for daily planning called console that allows you to capture tasks, notes, and events using a command bar function.
What is the best daily planner for ADHD on iOS?
A lot of people credit both Sorted 3 and Structured as the iOS apps that best help them plan the day as they combat the day-to-day struggles of having ADHD.
What is the best daily planner for ADHD on Mac?
Those with ADHD tend to go with Amazing Marvin for handling their tasks and using the powerful tool add-on feature to add the tools that matter to them on macOS.
What is the free best daily planner on Android?
One of the best free day planners for Android users is TickTick. TickTick also comes with a calendar view (premium) and habit-tracking too.
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