The best daily planner app depends on how you plan your day

Most of the lists that rank for this search are written by a company that makes one of the apps on the list. So is this one: we build Dayboard. Read what follows as our perspective, not as a neutral review.

Our view is that the apps people call daily planners plan a day in at least six different ways, and that the best one for you is the one whose way matches how you already work. The facts about other apps come from their own pricing and help pages, read on 5 October 2026 and linked so you can check them. We have not ranked anyone. Most of these apps have a free plan or a trial, and an afternoon with two of them will tell you more than any list, including this one.

Decide how you want to plan before you compare features

Each of these apps is built around one idea of what a planned day looks like. The features follow from that idea, so we think it is quicker to choose the idea first.

The seven apps at a glance

Prices are in US dollars as each vendor published them on 5 October 2026. They change, so check the linked page before you decide.

A list for today: Todoist and TickTick

Todoist

Todoist is built around two views, Today and Upcoming. Tasks live in projects, anything dated for today shows up in Today, and if you connect Google Calendar or Outlook your events appear in the same views on every plan.

The free Beginner plan allows 5 personal projects and 3 filter views. Pro costs $5 a month billed yearly, or $7 month to month, and includes the calendar layout and task durations (Todoist pricing).

TickTick

TickTick starts from a list as well, with a calendar close to the middle of the app. You drag a task onto the calendar to give it a time, and an Arrange tasks panel lists the tasks that have no date yet so you can drag those in too. Habit tracking is part of the same app.

The free plan covers 9 lists, 99 tasks per list and 5 habits, with a basic calendar view. Premium is US$49.99 a year and adds the remaining calendar views and task durations (TickTick Premium).

A timeline of the day: Structured

Structured shows the day as one vertical timeline. Each task takes a slot on it with its own icon and colour, and you drag to rearrange. Tasks without a time wait in an inbox until you place them.

The timeline, inbox, subtasks and notes are free. Recurring tasks, calendar import and the AI features are part of Structured Pro, sold as a monthly or yearly subscription or a one-time purchase at a price that depends on your region (Structured's free and Pro features). Some features are specific to a platform, so check the list for the device you use.

A guided morning plan: Sunsama

Sunsama is organised around a daily planning routine. Each morning it takes you through the same steps: choose the tasks for today, give each one a duration, then place them on your calendar. It pulls tasks in from other tools and calendars, so the plan is assembled from work that already exists somewhere else.

Sunsama has a 14-day trial that needs no card, and no free plan. Pro is $17 a month billed yearly or $22 month to month (Sunsama pricing).

A calendar that fills itself: Motion

Motion does the scheduling for you. You add tasks with a priority and a deadline, and it places them into free slots in your calendar, then moves them when a meeting lands or a task runs over. Projects and documents are part of the same product.

Motion offers a trial and no free plan. Its pricing page lists plans from $19 per seat a month (Motion pricing).

A calendar with a task list attached: Google Calendar and Google Tasks

If your meetings already live in Google Calendar, Google Tasks adds a to-do list to it at no cost. A task with a date appears on the calendar next to your events. A task without one stays in the list, as Google's own help page says: "To appear on your calendar, tasks must have a date" (Google Calendar help).

Both apps are free with a Google account. Some planning features belong to paid Workspace accounts. Focus time, for example, needs a work or school account.

A board for the whole day: Dayboard

This is the one we make, so here we can tell you why it exists. Our founder built it for himself. His working day was spread across browser tabs, a notes tool where he kept prompts, and saved links he had stopped bookmarking long ago. He used the first version as his own dashboard for a month before turning it into a product. The full story is in our post on keeping a daily planner simple.

A Dayboard is a board of widgets, and you keep one for each part of your life, such as one for work and one for a side project. The Tasks widget is a plain checklist: add a line, edit it, tick it off. Around it you place what the work needs. Notes holds what you would otherwise keep in your head. Quick Links holds the tools you open every morning. The Calendar widget embeds your Google Calendar so meetings sit beside the list, and a Focus Session timer runs a block of work with breaks. There are 18 widget types, including Habit Tracker, Goals & Milestones and Time Zones.

Because the list, the calendar and the links share one screen, starting work means opening one tab instead of rebuilding yesterday's set of tabs.

The free Daily plan includes 2 Dayboards with 4 widgets each. Control is $6 a month or $61 a year for 5 Dayboards with 12 widgets each. Flow, at $19 a month or $194 a year, adds team sharing for up to 10 members (Dayboard pricing).

A quick way to decide

• You want a list and little else: Todoist, or TickTick if you also want habits and a calendar in the same app.
• Your day is appointments and timed blocks: Structured.
• You want a morning step that makes you choose: Sunsama.
• You have more tasks than hours, with real deadlines: Motion.
• You want it free and already use Google Calendar: Google Tasks.
• You keep losing the notes and links around the task: Dayboard.

Other apps you may come across

Several other well-known apps follow the same models. Things 3 is a Today list for Apple devices, bought once for each type of device. Akiflow combines time blocking with an inbox that collects tasks from email and chat; it has a trial and costs $19 a month billed yearly. Any.do has a My Day view that starts fresh each morning. Notion can become a daily planner too, though you build that planner yourself.

Questions people ask