Capacities 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 Capacities and Ellie Planner will help you understand which tool best fits your workflow and productivity needs.

⚡ Quick Summary

What is Capacities?

Capacities is an object-based note-taking app that functions as a personal knowledge management studio, integrating notes, calendar events, tasks, and AI to build networked knowledge graphs. It enables users to create typed objects with custom properties, linking them into a flexible graph structure for organizing thoughts, projects, and knowledge.

Visit Capacities →

🌟 Key Features of Capacities

• ✦Object-based notes with custom types, templates, properties, and bi-directional links

• ✦AI assistant for contextual queries, idea generation, and content interaction

• ✦Calendar integration with auto-creation of objects from events and daily notes

• ✦Advanced queries for surfacing content with offline-first cloud sync

• ✦Visual graph exploration and backlinking for knowledge discovery

• ✦Quick capture tools and integrations with 7,000+ apps via Zapier

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

Capacities

Google Calendar, Microsoft Calendar, Readwise, WhatsApp, Telegram, Todoist, TickTick, Google Tasks, Microsoft To-Do, Things, Apple Reminders, Kindle, Raycast

Ellie Planner

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

💰 Pricing Comparison

Capacities

Free, Pro from $11.99/mo

Free tier with 5GB storage, Pro/Believer at $11.99-$12.49/month or $119.88/year with AI Assistant and unlimited storage

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 Capacities

• →Best suited for users wanting personal knowledge base with rich linking rather than simple note-taking

• →Learning curve required for object-based thinking and custom property setup

• →Free tier has storage limitations and lacks AI features compared to competitors like Notion

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

Capacities

"Strong for networked knowledge management with object-based structure and calendar integration. Praised for daily notes workflow and AI features. Limited by pricing constraints on free tier, iOS app still in development, and some planned features like OCR not yet available."

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

Capacities excels in Object-based notes with custom types, templates, properties, and bi-directional links, 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.