Akiflow Review (2024)

Is Akiflow worth it and is it right for you?

Akiflow is one of the most interesting, more recent daily planning applications that has been talked about a lot in the market. It has a higher price, but is it worth it for your productivity? Let’s explore in this review.

What is Akiflow?

Akiflow is, very simply, a daily planner app that combines calendar tasks and task consolidation.

Who is Akiflow best for?

Akiflow is probably best suitable for busy professionals looking to organize themselves with their calendar tasks from other project management apps and tasks that they need to get done for the week ahead.

Many people who use Akiflow, typically those who have a bit more of a bigger budget and want to consolidate their calendar and tasks in one location, find that Akiflow helps them to do that by presenting a combination of features, allowing them to do their project management as well inside of the application and book meetings in one.

So, many people think of Akiflow as more of an all-in-one productivity software that they can use to better organize their day. However, we’ve also seen many people use Akiflow that don’t particularly have those criteria; many people like it for the guided planning functionality that allows them to think ahead and see what they can do in a more formalized way of planning for their week.

Initial Impressions of Akiflow

Our initial impressions of Akiflow have been pretty good, largely.

The application has a combination of features all housed in one, at a little bit of a steep pricing. It does present itself as a more premium productivity application, but a lot of people have been saying that the application, combining all of these features, saves money in the long-term and presents their productivity in one space.

I’ve been using and testing Akiflow for a few weeks and have been impressed with the offering, although it does take a little bit of time to get used to having and housing all of those ideas in one location, which is pretty good.

Feature 1: Task Consolidation

Used for Bringing Tasks Together

Task consolidation is an interesting experience with Akiflow and many people are tempted by this because it combines what you have in multiple applications into one house.

For many people, their control at work is not very much; for example, those who want to organize their productivity are limited to the applications and tools given to them at work. For some, that’s fine, but for others, they want that dashboard or way to control their tasks for the week ahead. Task consolidation in Akiflow allows you to do that, and after playing with it for some time, it’s been very easy to get started with.

You can connect multiple Google Calendar accounts, Gmail, Slack, Notion, ClickUp, Outlook Calendar, Microsoft Teams, Todoist, Jira, and many more different resources. These native integrations are nice because they are very customizable and allow for two-way sync with many of them, which allows for better collaboration and less context switching between those applications, and it just gives you more control in general.

When I was testing this, being able to tick off a task that was in ClickUp was nice because I didn’t have to go into ClickUp, and I didn’t necessarily have to even open ClickUp once I integrated the software, which makes it more of a house for organizing all of your tasks in one location.

The ability to have a unified inbox in Akiflow is actually a really nice function that just allows you to see what you’re going to do for the day, and if you need to head back to that link that is in clickable Slack or not, there is a way to do that, allowing you to instantly go into that experience. So, one of the offerings they have is the ability and customization of native integrations to have things appear that click on certain criteria, for example, in Slack and Gmail, there are ways to star stuff or save it as a bookmark that only appear inside the account instead of everything.

This is really nice because it helps to reduce the flood of information coming in. Task consolidation is an interesting offering in Akiflow for those not sold on the concept.

This is part of Akiflow’s system, and if you aren’t fully sold on it, maybe tools like Motion are probably more suitable. They don’t have task consolidation but have the daily planning functionality that you might like.

Feature 2: Time Blocking

Used for Organizing Tasks & Calendar

Time blocking is again sold as one of the features inside the application that really takes you to the next level, much like many other daily planner applications. It offers a way for you to start organizing your calendar and tasks in unison. What I appreciated about this was the fact that you can see all of your tasks and pin them on your calendar, but it also applies to the context of being able to bring task consolidation as well.

For example, if I received a message in Slack that I needed to address something later from a team member, I could save that, and then I could organize it into my time blocking area, which is perfect for just dragging it into the calendar and seeing it on the task list as well. This ability will be loved by many people who appreciate time blocking as a concept, and it just makes it much easier to do. In our opinion, time blocking is very simple, but there’s also a feature here inside of Akiflow that allows you to create time slots.

Time slots are essentially a way to manage multiple tasks at once, and we love this feature because it bundles those tasks even further, and you can even incorporate those from other applications, which really enhances the time blocking experience inside of Akiflow. And in our opinion, both Akiflow and Motion do the best job at time blocking.

Feature 3: Rituals

Used for Guided Planning

A feature that Akiflow introduced, inspired by Sunsama, is guided planning, referred to as "rituals." This function essentially allows users to conclude their day, an activity many appreciate as a daily ritual. It is designed to trigger automatically at a specific time, perfectly suited for users to reassess their focus for the following day.

It enables them to review their day's accomplishments, the goals they met, the events they participated in, and what needs to be aligned for the next day. This feature provides a grounding experience for many users, making such functionalities highly desirable in apps and software. Hence, the "rituals" feature is available in every Akiflow account.

Pros & Cons of Akiflow

Here’s our experience of using Akiflow and what was good and bad in a quick round-up:

Advantages

• Clean, minimal user interface
• Command bar for capturing tasks and organizing
• Routinely updated application with constant improvements
• Great level of customization on calendar abilities
• Useful integrations offering

Disadvantages

• Overwhelming experience with many functions
• Steep pricing at $19 per user per month
• Projects feel underdeveloped for full project management use

Using Akiflow Daily: Experience

I used Akiflow for a few days as part of this review and was impressed with how it operated. Being able to use time blocking was really fluid and something that I think a lot of people will get on with because it does such a good job of being able to quickly drag an item onto the calendar.

I think as well the experience under this app that is killer is task consolidation, which was even bringing in my tasks really quickly from other applications without even having to worry, and this is nice because I could just get things going.

How much does Akiflow cost?

Akiflow costs $19 per month if billed annually, with a free seven-day trial.

Akiflow Pricing & Plans

Akiflow pricing is more expensive if you want to bill monthly at $34, and there is no free plan, minus a seven-day free trial that you can check out as part of your exploration. Use KEEPPRODUCTIVE30 for 30% off your first 3 months.

Is Akiflow good value?

One of the biggest questions I encounter when exploring Akiflow is whether it offers a good experience. This question is quite challenging. If you currently spend between $5 to $10 for your to-do list application, free to $8 for your calendar app, and use an additional service like Calendar, which you might pay for, then your total costs could be around the $15 mark. For some, paying the $19 per month pricing that Akiflow offers isn't a huge leap because it consolidates features and perhaps offers more capabilities in one location.

Therefore, many people might find Akiflow appealing as it can potentially save money by providing more packed value in one experience. However, for those who are currently using a $5 per month to-do list experience, this might not be suitable. And if you're using something like Todoist, which might gain calendar abilities in the future, Akiflow might not represent as good value in the long term. But a feature like task consolidation probably elevates it above that.

Akiflow Comparisons with Other Apps

Comparing the length of Akiflow to other similar tools, Sunsama and Motion are a good way to go. For example, Sunsama does such a good job at guided planning and has some task consolidation abilities, so these two applications are probably most similar, whereas Motion provides not task consolidation but AI abilities that you can use from day one.

What makes Akiflow different?

From reading online, some people did complain about the task consolidation aspects of the native integrations not working. Sometimes this does take a bit of time to get used to in terms of setting up because you have to choose what comes in, what folders they come in from, so making sure that’s right is important, but I was aware that there were some early issues and bugs when they got started with the native integrations, so I can imagine those slightly ironing out over time.

Verdict: Should I get Akiflow?

Should you opt for Akiflow? Is it worth the excitement, and should you utilize it as your daily planning application?

I would likely recommend Akiflow for a busy professional who aims to organize themselves in one location. If you're tired of apps like Notion due to their lack of structure and desire something that offers tasks, a calendar, and the ability to incorporate tasks from other apps, Akiflow merits consideration.

Although it comes with a higher price tag, it introduces some truly interesting features within an application that receives regular updates. The offering itself seems quite reasonable given how it's presented.

Features such as task consolidation, meeting links, project management, and tasks and calendar for time blocking provide substantial benefits, allowing for comprehensive organization in one place. If you're in search of something more mindful, consider Sunsama; if your preference leans towards artificial intelligence-driven planning, Motion or Reclaim might be worth exploring for scheduling tasks in a calendar-like format. Overall, Akiflow presents an appealing choice, especially for a busy professional interested in consolidating everything in one spot, with a strong orientation towards tasks.

Is Akiflow easy to get started with?

Akiflow is relatively easy to get started with. It might be a little bit overwhelming to get started with because you have to set up the native integrations, and for some people, that might be a lot, but launching the application is approachable, allows you to start using the time blocking concept, and is good from day one.

Future Features of Akiflow

There’s no initial hints of where Akiflow is going in the future, but they recently released project management, so you can share your task inside of Akiflow with others, a little bit like Sunsama has already.

Best Akiflow Alternatives

The best Akiflow alternatives include Sunsama, Motion, and Todoist as other alternatives. We’ve done a much more in-depth feature on Akiflow alternatives on the market; feel free to check it out.

Related Reading

• Sunsama vs Akiflow - go deeper with an evaluation between Sunsama and Akiflow
• Motion vs Akiflow - the same but with AI based calendar and task app Motion