NocoBase
NocoBase's agent stack drops its session MCP endpoint for a CLI skill and managed ACP adapters.
Comparison · PM
Ellie Planner vs Hive
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Ellie Planner and Hive — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Ellie Planner vs Hive: at a glance
What is Ellie Planner?
Ellie opens its task data to outside agents, eight months after its last changelog.
Ellie is a solo-built task and calendar planner spanning web, desktop, iPhone and iPad. After an eight-month gap, the catch-up release lands a real Week Calendar on iPad, Pomodoro sessions started from a task and restored across reloads, Quick Capture as a standalone window on a global shortcut, rich-text task notes with Markdown shortcuts, and MCP/API access in beta. Beneath the headline items sits the unglamorous work: recurring tasks, timezones, rollover, and calendar sync behaviour.
What is Hive?
Hive makes its AI proofer a named approver and lets workflow buttons open prefilled Forms.
Hive is shipping in tight batches aimed at professional-services and creative teams. After the Oct 13 batch (Hot sheets, inherited bill and cost rates, goal status rules, project-condition workflows), this week added Buzz as an AI approver stage in proof approvals, timesheet review straight from dashboard pivots, and workflow buttons that open a prefilled Form and file the result as a subaction.
Ellie Planner vs Hive: editorial side-by-side
Ellie opens its task data to outside agents, eight months after its last changelog.
◆ Current state
Ellie is a solo-built task and calendar planner spanning web, desktop, iPhone and iPad. After an eight-month gap, the catch-up release lands a real Week Calendar on iPad, Pomodoro sessions started from a task and restored across reloads, Quick Capture as a standalone window on a global shortcut, rich-text task notes with Markdown shortcuts, and MCP/API access in beta. Beneath the headline items sits the unglamorous work: recurring tasks, timezones, rollover, and calendar sync behaviour.
◆ Where it's heading
The consistent pattern across four years of releases is reach - Outlook and Google calendars, Slack, Notion, Todoist, iOS widgets - all aimed at making Ellie available wherever work originates. MCP applies that instinct to agents rather than apps, and the release frames it exactly that way. The in-app AI assistant from a year ago put a model inside Ellie; MCP inverts the arrangement and lets an agent the user picks hold the task data instead.
◆ Prediction
MCP access is explicitly beta and gated behind Power Features, so the open questions are whether it graduates and how it is priced. The entries do not say which clients have been tested against the endpoint.
Hive
5.0COLLABPM
Hive makes its AI proofer a named approver and lets workflow buttons open prefilled Forms.
◆ Current state
Hive is shipping in tight batches aimed at professional-services and creative teams. After the Oct 13 batch (Hot sheets, inherited bill and cost rates, goal status rules, project-condition workflows), this week added Buzz as an AI approver stage in proof approvals, timesheet review straight from dashboard pivots, and workflow buttons that open a prefilled Form and file the result as a subaction.
◆ Where it's heading
Hive is closing the loops between where work is tracked and where it gets checked: approvals, timesheets and intake now happen in place rather than on separate pages. Buzz moving from optional auto-review to a formal approver stage shows AI being slotted into existing governance steps, with humans able to override, rather than offered as a side tool.
◆ Prediction
Expect Buzz to appear in other review or approval steps and Forms-from-workflow to reach mobile, which this release explicitly excludes. The entries don't show whether AI approver reviews will carry usage limits or pricing.
Ellie Planner alternatives
Other PM products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Tap any card for the full editorial trajectory or compare directly with Ellie Planner.
Tracecat
Tracecat 1.2.0 goes stable in under two days: sub-cases, workflow forms and on-prem tunnels.
Float
Float is moving from who's-free scheduling toward staffing on experience and pricing on rate cards.
SmartSuite
SmartSuite's dashboard filters learn to exclude, as admin undo reaches deleted teams.
RentRedi
RentRedi opens tenant chats to teammates, part of a run of fixes for landlords with staff.
Fibery
Fibery hands integrations to AI: describe any HTTP API and it builds, tests and hosts the connector.
Hive alternatives
Other PM products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Tap any card for the full editorial trajectory or compare directly with Hive.
SiYuan
SiYuan's 3.8.8 alphas add DeepSeek agent tools on top of Gemini and database automation.
GitHub
GitHub makes open source license compliance a ruleset-enforced GA for Enterprise Cloud.
Teable
Teable ships an official MCP server, letting coding agents work its tables via OAuth.
Wiki.js
Wiki.js 3 beta.672 adds inline math and personal access tokens, and raises the floor to Postgres 17.
Wiki.js
Wiki.js 3.0 beta adds math, personal access tokens and nav automations; Postgres 17 now required.
Skedda
Skedda Companion can now be pushed to every laptop through MDM for full presence data.
Recent activity from Ellie Planner and Hive
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 2d agoHiveBuzz approver note reposted
- 2d agoHiveNew Open prefilled Forms from action workflow buttons
- 4d agoHiveNew Add Buzz as an approver
- 4d agoHiveNew Open someone's timesheet from a dashboard pivot
- 5d agoHiveWeekly Hot sheet project reports by email
- 5d agoHiveWorkflows add project conditions and reusable step scope
- 1mo agoEllie PlanneriPad Week Calendar, Pomodoro, Quick Capture, rich notes, and MCP ⚡
- 9mo agoEllie Planner🧹 Todoist integration, improved Slack/Notion integrations and more
- 1y agoEllie PlannerEllie AI, Task templates, "Add task" from calendar events and more ✨ ⚡
- 1y agoEllie PlannerNotion integration, Analytics, Rituals, Notifications and a ton more
- 2y agoEllie Planner🐹 Outlook Calendar Integration, iOS Widgets, Slack integration and more
- 3y agoEllie Planner📆 Mac menu bar, improved auto sync and more
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Ellie Planner and Hive?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Hive is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 vs 3.8), 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 Ellie Planner better than Hive?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Hive is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 vs 3.8), 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 Ellie Planner?
Top Ellie Planner alternatives in PM are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Ellie Planner alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/ellie for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to Hive?
Top Hive alternatives in PM are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Hive alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/hive for the full list with editorial commentary on each.