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Comparison · PM
Backlog vs Super Productivity
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Backlog and Super Productivity — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Backlog vs Super Productivity: at a glance
What is Backlog?
Backlog ships steady Gantt and chart refinements, but the feed is mostly Nulab site furniture.
Only two entries in this window carry actual release content, and both are monthly digests: chart groups gaining a start/end date bar with issue counts and status breakdown on hover, personal charts dropping the parent-subtask relationship, an Android 3.0.1 redesign, Markdown in iOS custom-field text areas, plus quarterly-scale Gantt charts for Premium and Platinum plans and child-issue status filtering. The rest of the window is navigation, support links and marketing copy scraped from nulab.com — including rows that belong to sibling products Cacoo and Nulab Pass rather than to Backlog.
What is Super Productivity?
A local-first task manager quietly rebuilding itself into a sync engine with a plugin platform on top.
Super Productivity ships minor releases every week or two where the visible feature work is thin and the real effort sits in sync. Across the last six releases the operation-log sync layer picked up field-level merging of concurrent edits, queued background requests, conflict replay, and encrypted-only enforcement for SuperSync. The plugin system absorbed the Azure DevOps and Trello issue providers and gained OAuth hooks plus local secret storage. Task and planner work continues at a steady incremental pace alongside it.
Backlog vs Super Productivity: editorial side-by-side
Backlog
0.0PM
Backlog ships steady Gantt and chart refinements, but the feed is mostly Nulab site furniture.
◆ Current state
Only two entries in this window carry actual release content, and both are monthly digests: chart groups gaining a start/end date bar with issue counts and status breakdown on hover, personal charts dropping the parent-subtask relationship, an Android 3.0.1 redesign, Markdown in iOS custom-field text areas, plus quarterly-scale Gantt charts for Premium and Platinum plans and child-issue status filtering. The rest of the window is navigation, support links and marketing copy scraped from nulab.com — including rows that belong to sibling products Cacoo and Nulab Pass rather than to Backlog.
◆ Where it's heading
The real work is concentrated on planning views — Gantt scale, chart grouping, issue filtering — and on closing gaps between the web app and the mobile clients. Several changes are explicitly gated to Premium and Platinum plans, so view sophistication is being used as tier differentiation. Nothing here suggests a change of direction; it is a mature tracker refining how work is visualised.
◆ Prediction
Given the run of chart and Gantt scale work, the next planning-view change is likely another axis of aggregation or filtering rather than a new surface. The scraped entries make cadence unreliable, so any stronger call would not be grounded.
A local-first task manager quietly rebuilding itself into a sync engine with a plugin platform on top.
◆ Current state
Super Productivity ships minor releases every week or two where the visible feature work is thin and the real effort sits in sync. Across the last six releases the operation-log sync layer picked up field-level merging of concurrent edits, queued background requests, conflict replay, and encrypted-only enforcement for SuperSync. The plugin system absorbed the Azure DevOps and Trello issue providers and gained OAuth hooks plus local secret storage. Task and planner work continues at a steady incremental pace alongside it.
◆ Where it's heading
The arc is a single-user local app growing the two things multi-device users demand — sync they can trust and third-party integrations — without standing up a server the project has to operate. Sync is being pushed toward fail-closed defaults: encryption is enforced rather than offered, plaintext downloads are refused, stale-key uploads are blocked, and the local REST API now demands a bearer token. Integrations are moving the other way, out of core and into plugins that can authenticate on their own. Plainspace collaboration is the one thread pointing past single-player use.
◆ Prediction
Expect the opt-in split-file delta sync format to become the default once conflict replay settles, and more built-in issue providers to follow Azure DevOps and Trello out of core into plugins.
Alternatives to Backlog and Super Productivity
Other PM products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Backlog or Super Productivity.
Everhour
The public feed is a time-tracking SEO mill — comparison listicles, no product releases in sight.
Process Street
Process Street's feed is a marketing blog; the only product signal is an already-shipped MCP server.
NocoBase
The no-code platform is rebuilding itself around AI employees and Portals, in public, in alpha.
MeisterTask
MeisterTask is wiring itself into AI assistants while filling in the admin features enterprises expect
monday.com
monday.com is opening its board data to outside AI agents while grinding through admin gaps.
See all Backlog alternatives → · See all Super Productivity alternatives →
Recent activity from Backlog and Super Productivity
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 2d agoSuper ProductivityEncrypted-only sync enforced; local REST API now needs a token
- 16d agoSuper ProductivityRecurring task settings fold into the planner's schedule dialog
- 23d agoSuper ProductivityConcurrent edits to the same task now merge field by field
- 27d agoSuper ProductivitySync fix: project move replays now converge
- 1mo agoSuper ProductivityTodoist import, Android widget, opt-in split-file delta sync
- 1mo agoSuper ProductivityPlugins gain OAuth hooks and local-only secret storage ⚡
- 3mo agoBacklogBacklogAll-in-one project management
- 4mo agoBacklogCacooReal-time visual collaboration
- 4mo agoBacklogNulab PassEnterprise-grade security
- 5mo agoBacklogChart groups gain date-range bars; Android 3.0.1 redesign lands
- 5mo agoBacklogSupportNulab AccountCacooBacklogNulab PassView Nulab Help Center
- 6mo agoBacklogLearnProject ManagementSoftware DevelopmentCollaborationDesign & UXStrategy & PlanningView all topics
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Backlog and Super Productivity?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Super Productivity is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 vs 0.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is Backlog better than Super Productivity?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Super Productivity is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 vs 0.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other PM products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to Backlog?
Top Backlog alternatives in PM are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Backlog alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/backlog for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to Super Productivity?
Top Super Productivity alternatives in PM are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Super Productivity alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/super-productivity for the full list with editorial commentary on each.