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Comparison · PM
Ellie Planner vs NocoBase
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Ellie Planner and NocoBase — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Ellie Planner vs NocoBase: 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 NocoBase?
NocoBase's agent stack drops its session MCP endpoint for a CLI skill and managed ACP adapters.
NocoBase runs two tracks: the 2.x line, now mostly fixes, and the agent-driven app-* stack its notes call NocoBase 3, released as dated betas. Beta 2026-10-18.1 published 35 packages. Its acp-bridge replaces the built-in agent-session MCP endpoint with the Studio CLI and a shared Skill (bridge protocol 3, which needs a matching CLI upgrade), installs pinned Codex and Claude Code ACP adapters once instead of fetching them with npx per session, and lets any compatible ACP agent open sessions. Most of the other entries are bare package tags from the same publish.
Ellie Planner vs NocoBase: 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.
NocoBase
8.8PM
NocoBase's agent stack drops its session MCP endpoint for a CLI skill and managed ACP adapters.
◆ Current state
NocoBase runs two tracks: the 2.x line, now mostly fixes, and the agent-driven app-* stack its notes call NocoBase 3, released as dated betas. Beta 2026-10-18.1 published 35 packages. Its acp-bridge replaces the built-in agent-session MCP endpoint with the Studio CLI and a shared Skill (bridge protocol 3, which needs a matching CLI upgrade), installs pinned Codex and Claude Code ACP adapters once instead of fetching them with npx per session, and lets any compatible ACP agent open sessions. Most of the other entries are bare package tags from the same publish.
◆ Where it's heading
The new stack keeps hardening the plumbing around third-party coding agents: faster session start, reuse of the agent discovered on the draft page, run retry budgets, revocable runner registrations and automatic cleanup of finished task directories. Moving agent tooling from MCP to a CLI-plus-Skill model is a deliberate interface choice that every bundled agent now follows. The 2.x line stays in maintenance mode.
◆ Prediction
Expect further dated betas tightening acp-bridge, agent-runner and session behaviour, with more breaking protocol bumps likely while the stack is pre-1.0. The entries still don't say when or how 2.x users migrate.
Alternatives to Ellie Planner and NocoBase
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 Ellie Planner or NocoBase.
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.
Hive
Hive makes its AI proofer a named approver and lets workflow buttons open prefilled Forms.
Fibery
Fibery hands integrations to AI: describe any HTTP API and it builds, tests and hosts the connector.
See all Ellie Planner alternatives → · See all NocoBase alternatives →
Recent activity from Ellie Planner and NocoBase
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 9h agoNocoBaseNocoBase beta moves agent sessions to a CLI skill, pins ACP adapters
- 9h agoNocoBase@nocobase/[email protected]
- 9h agoNocoBase@nocobase/[email protected]
- 9h agoNocoBaseNocoBase MSSQL driver package tagged 0.1.0-beta.5
- 9h agoNocoBaseNocoBase Oracle driver package tagged 0.1.0-beta.5
- 9h agoNocoBase@nocobase/[email protected]
- 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 NocoBase?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. NocoBase is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 8.8 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 NocoBase?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. NocoBase is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 8.8 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 NocoBase?
Top NocoBase alternatives in PM are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "NocoBase alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/nocobase for the full list with editorial commentary on each.