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

⚡ Quick Summary

What is Clockify?

Clockify is a **time tracking** and **timesheet** app for individuals and teams that lets you track work hours across projects, manage productivity, attendance, billable hours, scheduling, reporting, invoicing, and related time-management workflows. It offers web, desktop, and mobile apps and is free for unlimited users.

Visit Clockify →

🌟 Key Features of Clockify

• ✦Timer with one-click start/stop, manual entry, and continue previous activities

• ✦Timesheets with submit/approve functionality and reminders

• ✦Calendar view to visualize time, block hours, and add Outlook/Google events

• ✦Auto-tracking of apps, websites, documents with idle detection

• ✦Reports and analytics with dashboards, profit/cost tracking, and team performance

• ✦Projects and tasks management with budgets, assignments, and progress tracking

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

Clockify

80+ integrations including Trello, Asana, Google Calendar, Outlook, Jira, Todoist, ClickUp, Monday.com, Slack, GitHub, Salesforce, QuickBooks, Zendesk

Ellie Planner

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

💰 Pricing Comparison

Clockify

Free, from $3.99/user/month

Free forever plan with unlimited users and projects. Paid plans: Basic $3.99/user/month annually ($4.99 monthly), Standard $5.49/user/month annually ($6.99 monthly), Pro $7.99/user/month annually ($9.99 monthly), Enterprise $11.99/user/month annually ($14.99 monthly)

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 Clockify

• →Mobile app reliability issues - many users report bugs, slow performance, and timer sync problems, especially on Android

• →Key business features locked behind paid tiers - free plan lacks invoicing, advanced scheduling, GPS tracking, and advanced reporting

• →Limited customization in reporting and analytics - no custom fields and difficulty saving report templates compared to more advanced tools

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

Clockify

"Strong time-tracking tool with generous free plan but has mobile app reliability issues and limited advanced features on free tier. Good for core time tracking and billing with useful project breakdowns, but reporting is not very customizable and costs rise quickly as teams scale. Mobile apps are often buggy with sync issues, and key business features like invoicing and advanced scheduling are locked behind paid tiers."

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

Clockify excels in Timer with one-click start/stop, manual entry, and continue previous activities, 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.