Life has a way of pulling us in countless directions. Between work deadlines, family obligations and lastly personal goals. It is easy for things to slip through the cracks. Relying on memory or scattered notes often isn’t enough. That’s where finding an online planner comes in. Helping you keep everything organised in one place for a clearer view of your day to day life or workload.

Of course, finding the right planner can feel like another task on your list. That’s why I’ve done the work for you. As I tested the most popular apps to see how well they handle everything from daily todo’s to full scale team projects. In this post, I’ll walk you through what I discovered. So you can find a planner that fits the way you work and live.

Why use an online planner?

The best planners are designed to boost productivity and reduce stress.

Here’s what makes them so useful:

• Access anywhere: Your schedule is always in sync and available on your phone, tablet, or computer. No matter where you are.
• Built-in collaboration: Whether you are sharing tasks with a partner or coordinating a team project. Using a online planners make collaboration simple and seamless.
• Timely reminders: Stay on top of deadlines, appointments and recurring tasks with smart, customisable alerts.
• Unlimited space and fast search: Store years of notes, events and plans. Then find what you need in seconds with built-in search.
• Time-saving automation: From recurring meetings to project templates, digital planners can automate repetitive tasks and free up your time.

1. Notion

Notion isn’t just a planner. It’s more like a digital toolbox. It doesn’t fit neatly into one category because it can be whatever you need: a minimalist note-taker, a detailed project manager, a habit tracker, a personal wiki or all of these at once.

The platform is built around pages and blocks. A block can be anything such as text, an image, a checklist item, a heading, or lastly even a full database. You arrange and structure blocks however you like. Giving you the freedom to build a fully personalised planning system from the ground up.

For planning, Notion shines with its database feature. Tasks and projects can be viewed in multiple formats tables, lists, Kanban boards, calendars, or galleries. You can create a master task database and display it in different views across your workspace. For instance, your dashboard might show a weekly view, while a separate planning page pulls the same data into a full monthly calendar.

Notion does have a steeper learning curve than more traditional planners. But the upside is its massive community and extensive library of free templates—ranging from daily task lists to all-in-one life planners. It’s ideal for anyone who enjoys building their own systems from scratch.

Key Features

• Highly customisable: Build your own workflows, systems, and planners.
• Robust databases: Use relations, rollups, and formulas to organize complex info.
• Flexible views: Switch between table, board, list, calendar, and gallery formats.
• Slash commands: Quickly insert any block by typing /.
• Large template ecosystem: Thousands of free templates to jumpstart your setup.

Pricing

• Free – Core features, great for individuals
• Plus – $10.00/user/month
• Business – $20.00/user/month
• Enterprise – Custom pricing

2. Motion

Motion takes a bold, AI-driven approach to planning by doing the scheduling for you. If juggling tasks and meetings feels like playing Calendar Tetris. Motion offers a smarter alternative. An intelligent assistant that automatically builds your day.

Start by adding your todo’s, projects, deadlines and priorities. Motion’s AI then analyses your calendar and workload to generate a detailed, optimised schedule. Slotting tasks into open time blocks for you.

One of the standout feature is Motion’s dynamic rescheduling. If a meeting gets added, a task takes longer than expected or simply your plans change. Motion instantly reshuffles your schedule to adapt. No manual dragging or reordering—just seamless updates.

It is ideal for busy people who have unpredictable days such as freelancers. Or even anyone who wants to spend less time planning and more time doing. Rather than just managing tasks or events. Motion functions as a full fledged time automation tool. Helping you maximise every minute.

Key Features

• AI-powered scheduling: Automatically creates your daily plan based on deadlines and task priorities.
• Real-time rescheduling: Your day adjusts instantly when conflicts or changes arise.
• Project tracking: Organise and monitor tasks by project.
• Smart meeting assistant: Simplifies booking and manages availability.
• Unified calendar + task view: See meetings and tasks together in one streamlined interface.

Pricing

• AI Workplace – $19.00/user/month (billed annually)
• AI Employees – $29.00/user/month (billed annually)
• Enterprise – Custom pricing

3. Any.do

Any.do has been a staple in the digital planner world for a while. It’s known for its clean design and focus on personal organisation. It blends a todo list, calendar and reminders into one simple, easy to use app. Making it an great choice for those who manage daily life outside of a corporate setting.

One of the best feature is the Any.do Moment. Which is a daily planning prompt that encourages you to review your tasks each morning. It helps you prioritise what to tackle, postpone or delete. Bringing intentionality to your day without overwhelm.

It even integrates with WhatsApp which allows you to receive reminders directly in your chats. Meeting you where you already are.

While it does offer team plans, Any.do’s real strength lies in helping individuals and families stay organised. Whether you are managing errands, planning your week or keeping everyone in the house on the same page. It’s a reliable and intuitive solution.

Key Features

• Any.do Moment: A daily check-in to help you plan with clarity and purpose.
• Smart reminders: Set one-time, recurring, or location-based notifications.
• WhatsApp integration: Get reminders directly in your messaging app.
• Family planning tools: Share tasks, lists, and calendars with loved ones.
• Cross-platform support: Use it on mobile, desktop, and the web—everything stays synced.

Pricing

• Personal: Free with core features
• Premium: $4.99/month (billed annually)
• Family: $8.33/month for up to 4 members (billed annually)
• Teams: $4.99/user/month (billed annually)

4. Todoist

Todoist is a longtime favourite for anyone who values simplicity, speed and structure. With its clean and distraction free design. It helps you stay focused on what really matters. Getting things done. One of its best features is the natural language input where Todoist will automatically set up a recurring task with the correct dates.

You can organise tasks into projects, add labels for context and use priority levels to spotlight what is most important each day. While it began as a simple list app, Todoist also includes a Kanban style board view. Giving you a visual way to manage tasks. Great for tracking progress on ongoing projects without overcomplicating things.

Todoist shines as a personal task planner. But it also supports lightweight collaboration. You can share projects, assign tasks, and leave comments. While it doesn’t offer the depth of tools like Asana or ClickUp for complex teamwork. It’s a solid option for individuals or small teams who just need a simple, fast workflow. Also, there is dark mode which is available for late night productivity.

Key Features

• Natural language input: Add tasks and dates using everyday phrases.
• Recurring tasks: Easily set up repeating to-dos to support habits or maintenance.
• Productivity tracking: Visualise progress with streaks and completion trends.
• Project templates: Quickly spin up projects using templates for goals, meetings, content, and more.
• App integrations: Connect with Google Calendar, Slack, Dropbox, and hundreds of others.

Pricing

• Beginner: Free — up to 5 projects and 5 collaborators per project
• Pro: $4.00/user/month (billed annually) — includes up to 300 projects, reminders, and more
• Business: $6.00/user/month (billed annually) — adds team roles, permissions, and up to 1,000 projects

5. Trello

If you are a visual thinker. Using a traditional to-do lists might feel limiting. That is why Trello was built with people like you in mind. It brought the Kanban board into the mainstream. Turning task management into an intuitive, drag and drop experience that is as flexible as it is satisfying to use.

At its core, Trello is simple. Create a board for your project, add lists to represent stages (like “To Do,” “In Progress,” and “Done”) and fill them with cards for individual tasks. As work moves forward. So do the cards it gives you a clear visual overview of progress.

But those cards are more than just labels. Each one can hold detailed descriptions, checklists, attachments, due dates, labels and team assignments. This makes Trello great for both personal organisation and team collaboration.

Trello’s real flexibility comes through Power-Ups. Optional integrations and features that expand what your boards can do. Add a calendar view, automate task workflows, connect to tools like Slack or Google Drive. Or set recurring cards for repeated tasks. You can start simple and layer in complexity as your needs grow.

Key Features

• Kanban-style boards: Visual task management that’s intuitive and flexible
• Customisable cards: Add checklists, files, deadlines, comments, and more
• Automation tools: Create rules and workflows with Trello’s built-in automation (Butler)
• Power-Ups: Extend functionality with integrations like Calendar, Slack, Google Drive and more
• Template gallery: Start with a ready-made setup for work, personal goals or household planning

Pricing

• Free: $0 — Up to 10 collaborators per workspace
• Standard: $5.00/user/month (billed annually) — Unlimited boards, custom fields, advanced checklists
• Premium: $10.00/user/month — Timeline, Calendar and other advanced views
• Enterprise: Starts at $17.50/user/month for 50 users. Which includes advanced admin controls and security

6. Asana

While Trello is great for visual workflows, Asana is built for teams managing complex projects with many parts. It is a full scale work management platform designed to bring clarity, accountability and alignment. Especially when you are coordinating with multiple people across goals, timelines and lastly deliverables.

Asana offers multiple ways to view projects: choose from a list view, Kanban board, calendar or timeline (Gantt-style) to suit different team preferences. The same project data can be visualised in different formats. Keeping everyone on the same page in the way that works best for them.

One of the major strength of Asana is clear ownership. Every task is assigned to one person with a due date. So there’s no uncertainty about who is doing what. You can also create task dependencies to control the order of execution and prevent bottlenecks.

For managers, the Portfolios and Workload views. Offers a high level overview of all active projects and each team member’s capacity. Which helps prevent burnout and keep progress on track. And for goal-driven organisations. Asana makes it easy to link tasks and projects to strategic company goals. Giving every team member insight into how their work contributes to the bigger picture.

Key Features

• Multiple project views: List, board, timeline, and calendar
• Task dependencies: Link tasks to ensure work happens in the correct order
• Portfolios: Monitor progress across multiple projects in one dashboard
• Workload tracking: Visualise each team member’s capacity
• Goal alignment: Link tasks and projects to company-wide objectives

Pricing

• Personal: Free — up to 10 users
• Starter: $10.99/user/month — includes timeline view, workflow builder, unlimited dashboards
• Advanced: $24.99/user/month — adds portfolios, workload view, goals and advanced reporting

7. ClickUp

ClickUp promises to be “one app to replace them all”. And it lives up to the claim with an huge suite of features which covers nearly every aspect of work and productivity. It’s a planner app, task manager, document hub, whiteboard and communication tool.

It offers 15+ views for your work. Including List, Kanban style Board, Calendar, Gantt and even Mind Maps. Its powerful hierarchy system Workspaces > Spaces > Folders > Lists > Tasks. Allows for deep organisation. Though it can be a bit much for new users.

Where ClickUp truly shines is customisation. You can create custom fields, build detailed automations, define custom statuses and save unique view layouts to fit your workflow perfectly. It is ideal for those who want total control over how their planning system functions.

It goes beyond task management, ClickUp includes Docs, Whiteboards, goal tracking, notes, in-app chat and built-in time tracking. Letting teams manage everything in one place. While the platform has a learning curve. Its all in one approach makes it a powerful choice for teams looking to reduce app-switching and centralise operations.

Key Features

• 15+ work views: From lists and boards to Gantt charts and mind maps
• Extensive customisation: Tailor tasks, fields, and workflows to your needs
• All-in-one toolkit: Includes tasks, docs, whiteboards, goals, time tracking and chat
• Scalable structure: Organise everything using a flexible hierarchy
• Time tracking: Monitor how long tasks take without third-party tools

Pricing

• Free Forever: $0 — Core features with 60MB of storage
• Unlimited: $7.00/user/month — Adds unlimited integrations, dashboards and custom fields
• Business: $12.00/user/month — Adds advanced time tracking, timelines and workload management
• Enterprise: Custom pricing — Includes advanced permissions, on-boarding and security features

8. Sunsama

In a culture that celebrates doing more, Sunsama takes a refreshing approach by asking, “What’s the most important work I can do today?” Designed for professionals overwhelmed by their workload. Sunsama encourages intentional, sustainable productivity rather than packing your day to the brim.

Each day starts with a guided ritual: you pull in tasks from tools like Asana, Trello or Slack, review your calendar and decide your focus. Then, by dragging tasks onto your calendar, you time-box your day. Building a realistic, visual plan. This daily practice helps prevent over commitment and keeps your priorities clear.

Sunsama’s core is its workload management feature. Which shows how much time you’ve scheduled versus what’s reasonable. Helping you stay honest about what you can realistically accomplish and avoid burnout.

It’s not a full project management platform but a focused daily planner that integrates deeply with your existing tools. Acting as a calm command centre for your day. Sunsama is a premium option for those willing to invest in a more mindful and productive routine.

Key Features

• Guided daily rituals: Structured planning and reflection at the start and end of each day
• Timeboxing: Visually schedule tasks by dragging them onto your calendar
• Workload insights: Balance planned tasks with realistic expectations
• Deep integrations: Aggregate tasks from multiple platforms into one view
• Focus mode: Minimalist interface designed to keep distractions at bay

Pricing

• $20.00/month or $16.00/month when billed annually