GoodPlans / Compare / Best time blocking apps
The 10 best time blocking apps in 2026
Disclosure: this page is published by the team behind GoodPlans, which is why GoodPlans leads the automatic section — it's the cheapest app here that genuinely schedules for you. It's also the most limited: iPhone and iPad only, with no web version and no sync between your own devices. We say so in its entry and again at the bottom. Prices were checked against each vendor's own pricing page in August 2026 and change often.
How this was put together: prices and features come from each vendor's own pricing and documentation pages, not from other roundups — those contradicted each other badly, and several had Trevor AI's price wrong by roughly four times. We describe what each app does rather than how it feels to use, because we haven't lived in all ten for a month and won't pretend otherwise. We build GoodPlans, so read its entry as a vendor description rather than a review — the limitations section at the end lists what you'd otherwise discover after paying.
The quick answer
| App | Best for | Price | Who blocks? |
|---|---|---|---|
| GoodPlans | One person on an iPhone who can't get started | $29.99/yr · free tier | The app |
| Motion | Scheduling a whole team | ~$12.73/seat/mo annually | The app |
| Reclaim.ai | Defending focus time around meetings | Free Lite · from ~$10/seat/mo | The app |
| FlowSavvy | Auto-scheduling on Android or web | $10/mo billed yearly · free tier | The app |
| Trevor AI | Cheap auto-scheduling in the browser | ~$5/mo billed yearly · free tier | Both |
| Sunsama | A calmer, guided daily ritual | $17/mo billed yearly | You — guided |
| Structured | Seeing the whole day as one timeline | ~$29.99/yr · lifetime ~$99.99 | You |
| Akiflow | Work arriving from fifteen places | $19/mo billed yearly | You — assisted |
| Morgen | Any OS, including Linux | $15/mo billed yearly | Both |
| TickTick | A to-do list that grew a calendar | $49.99/yr | You |
Prices checked against each vendor's own pricing page in August 2026. Approximate figures are marked with a tilde. Google Calendar is free and covered separately below, because it's less an app you choose than the default you're deciding whether to leave.
Manual or automatic: where the planning work lands
Every app below puts your tasks on a calendar. What separates them is who does the deciding.
Manual tools treat the planning as the valuable part — worth doing yourself rather than handing over. For plenty of people that's the right call. It also means a daily cost in planning energy, and a day derailed by one long meeting has to be rebuilt by hand. That rebuild cost, more than the subscription, is what usually ends the habit. Longer version of that argument here.
Automatic tools vary more than their marketing suggests. At the shallow end, an app takes your list in order and drops each task into the next free opening: whatever you added first ends up first, and a big task due Friday sits untouched until Friday. Three questions separate that from an app that's actually deciding:
- Does it start big work early, on its own? A six-hour task due Friday needs to begin on Tuesday. A good planner works that out without being asked.
- Does it choose each block, or fill the next gap? The difference between a considered day and your list in the order you typed it.
- Can you trust it with everything? If small things sink to the bottom and never resurface, you'll keep a second list in your head — and then you've stopped using the app.
Automatic: the app builds your blocks
1. GoodPlans — the most considered scheduler for a single person
GoodPlans
Smartest planner for one person$4.99/month or $29.99/year · free tier up to 5 active tasks · 7-day unlimited trial, no credit card · iPhone & iPad only
The narrowest app here, and the one doing the most thinking about your day. You give it a task, roughly how long it'll take, and when it's due. From there it keeps track of how much time you genuinely have left before that deadline and how much of the work is still ahead of you — so a six-hour task due Friday starts claiming quiet blocks on Tuesday, on its own, without you deciding that. Nothing waits until the night before, because nothing has to be remembered by you.
It also picks each block deliberately rather than filling gaps top to bottom. Every time there's a slot to fill, it works out what actually deserves that moment given everything already scheduled — so the thing that matters isn't buried behind whatever you happened to add first, and the small stuff still gets done before it's late. You can put everything into it and trust that nothing quietly disappears.
You never rank tasks one by one, either. Importance comes from the category you file a task under, so you decide what matters once and the app works out when it happens. And if one task can't start until another is done, it won't be scheduled early.
All of that runs on-device. The other auto-schedulers here are cloud services — you need an account, and your schedule is computed on their servers. GoodPlans works yours out on the phone itself, which is why it needs no account, keeps your tasks off anyone's server, and has nothing to meter. Long tasks are split into focus sessions sized for sustainable attention with breaks between them, everything fits around the events already in your calendar, and each session is written into a dedicated GoodPlans calendar in your iCloud.
And it doesn't stop at drawing the block. It runs the session — a focus timer with lengths you choose, a Live Activity putting the task and a live countdown on your lock screen, and Siri and Shortcuts to start hands-free. Work done off-plan gets logged in one tap and fed back in. When the day collapses, one tap reshuffles everything left into the best remaining slots. Scheduling and execution are the same loop here, which is the part every other auto-scheduler leaves to you. Exactly how it decides what comes first →
Strengths
- Starts long tasks days early on its own — nothing ambushes you
- Chooses each block deliberately instead of filling the next gap
- Nothing you add gets quietly forgotten or left too late
- The only app here that both schedules the block and runs it
- Works on your device — instant, no account, nothing metered
- Priority lives on categories, so there's no per-task triage
- Cheapest genuine auto-scheduler at $29.99/year
Weaknesses
- iPhone and iPad only — no web, Android, Windows or Mac
- Tasks don't sync between your own devices; only the calendar does
- Requires iCloud Calendar — it isn't optional
- No integrations, no sub-tasks, no tags
- No team or project features of any kind
Verdict: the most thought-through plan of any app here for one person's day, at the lowest price on the list — provided you're on Apple hardware. Genuinely the wrong pick if you work from a browser, split your day across a Mac and a phone, or need tasks arriving from Slack and Jira. See how it compares head-to-head with the others →
2. Motion — best if you're scheduling a team, not just yourself
Motion
Most powerful engine$19/seat/month, about $12.73/seat/month billed annually · 7,500 AI credits per seat per month · no permanent free tier · iOS, Android, desktop, web
Motion is built for coordination, not for one person's day. Motion takes tasks, durations, deadlines and priorities across an entire team and continuously rebuilds everyone's calendar as work moves between people, on top of projects, capacity planning and booking links. If several people's schedules have to fit together, nothing else on this list comes close. Deciding one person's day well is a different problem, and a much cheaper one to solve.
The catch is that you buy the whole platform. For one person scheduling one person, it's a great deal of machinery — and a great deal of money — for the tenth of it you'll use, with AI usage metered in credits on top of the seat price.
Strengths
- Schedules across a whole team, not just one person
- Runs everywhere — web, desktop, iOS, Android
- Projects, capacity planning, Gantt charts, booking links
- Deep integrations with the rest of a work stack
Weaknesses
- By far the most expensive option for a single person
- No permanent free tier
- AI credits are metered, so cost isn't fully predictable
- No focus timer — it plans the block, you start it alone
- Substantial setup before it earns its keep
Verdict: the right answer if you're scheduling a team. Overkill at a premium price if you are the team. GoodPlans vs Motion, head to head → · Cheaper Motion alternatives →
3. Reclaim.ai — best when meetings are what's eating your day
Reclaim.ai
Best free tierFree Lite tier, forever · paid plans from around $10 per seat per month · Google Calendar and Outlook
Now owned by Dropbox and still running as its own product. Reclaim isn't really a task manager — it's a defender. It automatically blocks focus time, habits and buffer time into your working calendar, then moves those blocks when someone drops a meeting on top of them. If your problem isn't deciding what to do but keeping any uninterrupted time at all, that's precisely the problem it solves.
The Lite tier is free forever with a one-week scheduling horizon, which makes it the cheapest way to find out whether automatic blocking suits you at all.
Strengths
- Free forever tier — no trial clock
- Reschedules focus blocks automatically when meetings land on them
- Strong Google Workspace and Outlook integration
- Works across a team without Motion's pricing
Weaknesses
- Built for work calendars — a poor fit for personal life
- Requires Google or Outlook; not an Apple-first tool
- Free tier capped at a one-week horizon
- Weaker as a task manager than as a calendar defender
Verdict: the obvious first thing to try if you live in Google Workspace and other people's invitations are the enemy — and it costs nothing to find out.
4. FlowSavvy — best automatic blocking outside the Apple ecosystem
FlowSavvy
Best for Android and web$14/month, or $10/month billed annually · free forever tier · 7-day Pro trial · web, iOS, Android
The most direct like-for-like automatic time blocker without a platform bolted on. You give it tasks, durations, deadlines and the hours you're available; it lays the work out around your existing calendar and reshuffles when things shift. It syncs with Google, Outlook.com and iCloud, and Pro pushes FlowSavvy's own blocks back into those calendars so your plan is visible everywhere.
Its free tier is unusually generous for this category: unlimited auto-rescheduling, a two-week scheduling horizon, one set of scheduling hours and three repeating tasks. Pro extends that to eight weeks with multiple scheduling profiles.
Strengths
- Real automatic blocking on web, iOS and Android alike
- Google, Outlook and iCloud sync
- Genuinely usable free tier, no usage metering
- Multiple scheduling profiles on Pro
Weaknesses
- No focus timer, lock-screen countdown or Siri support
- No projects, teams or third-party integrations
- Pro costs roughly four times GoodPlans
Verdict: the default recommendation for anyone not exclusively on Apple hardware. How FlowSavvy compares with GoodPlans →
5. Trevor AI — cheapest way into automatic blocking in a browser
Trevor AI
Best budget pickFree tier for personal use · Pro around $5/month billed annually ($6 monthly) · web, on both desktop and mobile
Trevor sits neatly between the two halves of this list. You can drag tasks onto the calendar by hand, or hit "Plan My Day" and let it lay the day out for you, or simply ask it in chat — and it suggests optimal slots as you go, which you accept with one click. It syncs both ways with Google, Microsoft and Apple calendars, and pulls tasks in from Google Tasks, Microsoft To-Do and Todoist.
It runs in the browser on both desktop and mobile rather than shipping a native app, so there's no lock-screen widget, no offline use and no Siri.
Strengths
- Automatic and manual blocking in the same tool
- The cheapest paid tier on this list
- Free tier for personal use
- Two-way sync with Google, Microsoft and Apple calendars
- Pulls tasks from Todoist, Google Tasks and MS To-Do
Weaknesses
- Web-only — no true native mobile app
- No focus timer or lock-screen countdown
- Advertised pricing often includes a signup discount, so verify the renewal rate
- Smaller team and ecosystem than the bigger names here
Verdict: excellent value if you want to try automatic blocking without committing much, and you're happy working in a browser tab.
Manual and guided: you build the blocks
6. Sunsama — best if planning is something you want to do better, not less
Sunsama
Best guided ritual$22/month, or $17/month billed yearly ($204/year) · 14-day trial, no credit card · no free tier · every platform
Sunsama structures planning as a daily ritual rather than removing it. Each morning it walks you through pulling in the day's work from its connected tools, choosing what fits, estimating each task, and warning you when you've overcommitted; there's a shutdown routine at night. It's the most deliberate, least automated product here, and that's the design intent, not a gap.
It's also the clearest illustration of what manual planning costs. The ritual is the product, and you pay it every single day — which is wonderful if planning calms you down and fatal if planning is the exact thing you can't make yourself do.
Strengths
- Calm, intentional and beautifully executed
- 20+ integrations pulling work in from everywhere
- Genuinely teaches realistic time estimation
- Runs on every platform
Weaknesses
- The most expensive yearly cost here at $204
- No free tier at all
- The daily ritual is a cost you pay every single day
- Won't help if planning is the thing you keep avoiding
Verdict: the strongest option here if the ritual is something you'd look forward to rather than avoid. GoodPlans vs Sunsama → · Sunsama alternatives →
7. Structured — a visual timeline you arrange yourself
Structured
Most visualPro around $6.99/month or $29.99/year · lifetime option around $99.99 · generous free tier · Apple, Android, web
Structured lays the day out as a vertical timeline you arrange by hand. It has one of the largest free tiers here and one of the few remaining lifetime purchase options. Seeing the day as a single visual column is the draw — useful if your problem is losing track of where the hours went rather than deciding what to do with them.
But it's a canvas, and someone still has to fill it. Pro adds AI-assisted planning, though the day remains fundamentally yours to arrange.
Strengths
- Visual day-timeline rather than a list
- Generous free tier and a rare lifetime option
- Built-in pomodoro timer
- Broad platform support for the price
Weaknesses
- You do the planning; it shows you the plan you made
- No deadline-driven scheduling across a whole week
- Recovering a derailed day means rearranging it yourself
Verdict: the one to buy if you like planning and want the nicest possible place to do it. GoodPlans vs Structured →
8. Akiflow — best when work arrives from fifteen different places
Akiflow
Most powerful inbox$34/month, or $19/month billed yearly · 7-day trial · no free tier · desktop and mobile
Akiflow's core feature is consolidation: a universal inbox that captures tasks from Gmail, Slack, Notion, Linear and others, plus a keyboard-driven flow for turning them into time blocks. It's the most integration-heavy option here, aimed at the problem of commitments being made in a dozen places and then lost.
Strengths
- Widest integration coverage on this list
- Extremely fast keyboard-first workflow
- Sub-tasks, meeting handling and an AI assistant included
Weaknesses
- The highest monthly price here at $34
- No free tier
- Deciding when each block goes is still your job
- Considerable overkill for planning one person's day
Verdict: worth every penny if scattered inputs are the real problem. Poor value if you just wanted your own day laid out.
9. Morgen — best on Windows, Linux, or an unusual calendar setup
Morgen
Most flexible$30/month, or $15/month billed yearly · 14-day trial, no credit card · Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, browser
Morgen deliberately refuses to pick a side: its AI planner will lay out your day automatically, and you can overrule any of it without a fight. It connects to Google, Outlook, iCloud, Fastmail and raw CalDAV, plus task tools including Notion, Todoist, Linear, ClickUp and Obsidian, with unlimited integrations on every plan — and it's very nearly the only serious option here that runs on Linux.
Strengths
- Automatic planning you can override freely
- The broadest calendar support here, including CalDAV
- Runs on Linux — almost unique in this category
- Unlimited integrations on every plan
Weaknesses
- No free tier, only a trial
- $30 if you pay month to month
- More configuration than one person's day requires
Verdict: the pick if you want automation but won't surrender manual control, especially on Linux or with a non-mainstream calendar.
10. TickTick — best if you want one app for lists and blocks
TickTick
Best all-rounderPremium $49.99/year · free tier limited to 9 lists and 99 tasks per list · all platforms, with sync included free
TickTick is a to-do list that grew a calendar, rather than a time blocker that grew a task list — and for a lot of people that's the right shape. It's mature, fast, available on everything, and syncing across devices costs nothing. If you already keep your tasks somewhere and just want to start scheduling them without adopting a second app, it's the least disruptive move on this list.
One thing worth knowing before you commit: the calendar and timeline views — the actual time blocking — are Premium-only. The free tier is a list app, so you can't properly evaluate the blocking without paying.
Strengths
- One app for capture, lists and time blocking
- Every platform, with free cross-device sync
- Mature and reliable, with a large ecosystem
- Cheaper than most dedicated planners here
Weaknesses
- Calendar and timeline views are locked behind Premium
- Free tier caps you at 9 lists and 99 tasks per list
- No automatic scheduling — every block is placed by you
- Time blocking is a feature here, not the design centre
Verdict: the sensible choice if you want one tool for everything and are happy to place the blocks yourself.
And the free baseline: Google Calendar
Worth saying plainly, because most roundups won't: if you're willing to drag blocks in by hand, Google Calendar does time blocking perfectly well and costs nothing. It's on every device, everyone you work with already uses it, and there's no subscription to justify. Any paid app on this list has to beat free and already installed, not beat nothing.
What it doesn't do is hold a list of unscheduled work, know what's due when, split a six-hour task into sessions, or rebuild your afternoon after a meeting overruns. That's the entire gap the apps above are selling into. If you've been blocking time in Google Calendar happily for a year, you may not need any of them — and if you've tried three times and stopped three times, that's your evidence that the blocking shouldn't be your job.
Where GoodPlans is the wrong choice
Since we make it, here's the honest boundary. Don't pick GoodPlans if:
- You work from a browser or a Mac. It's iPhone and iPad only.
- You want your tasks on several devices. Tasks live on the device that created them — only the schedule travels, via your iCloud calendar.
- You don't use iCloud Calendar. The calendar integration is required, not optional.
- Your work arrives from Slack, Jira or Notion. There are no integrations at all.
- You need sub-tasks, tags, projects or teammates. The task model is deliberately minimal, and that won't change.
If two or more of those apply, FlowSavvy or Morgen will serve you better, and we'd rather say so here than have you find out after paying.
If you've abandoned a planner before
The apps that stick are the ones that rebuild the day for you. GoodPlans blocks your week automatically — then starts the session with you.
Get GoodPlans free on the App Store
7-day unlimited trial · no credit card · $29.99/year afterwards