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NocoBase's agent stack drops its session MCP endpoint for a CLI skill and managed ACP adapters.
Comparison · PM
Ellie Planner vs Productboard
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Ellie Planner and Productboard — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Ellie Planner vs Productboard: 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 Productboard?
Productboard v2 adds exact-match text filters as the data model keeps widening.
Productboard's v2 API spent the summer closing v1 parity gaps, then in September made entity types an open, workspace-specific string. Since then the data model has kept widening: rich text accepts tables and checklists, relationships hold their own field values, and as of October 15 entity search supports exact-match filtering on text fields.
Ellie Planner vs Productboard: 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.
Productboard v2 adds exact-match text filters as the data model keeps widening.
◆ Current state
Productboard's v2 API spent the summer closing v1 parity gaps, then in September made entity types an open, workspace-specific string. Since then the data model has kept widening: rich text accepts tables and checklists, relationships hold their own field values, and as of October 15 entity search supports exact-match filtering on text fields.
◆ Where it's heading
With parity mostly done, v2 is extending the data model and making it queryable. Workspace-defined entity types and relationship fields push schema decisions into each workspace's configuration, and filter operators like eq let integrations match records precisely instead of scanning with contains.
◆ Prediction
Expect filtering and search to reach relationship fields next, following the pattern of new data shapes gaining query operators a few weeks later. Whether the beta customer score endpoint leaves beta isn't signalled by the entries.
Alternatives to Ellie Planner and Productboard
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 Productboard.
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.
Hive
Hive makes its AI proofer a named approver and lets workflow buttons open prefilled Forms.
See all Ellie Planner alternatives → · See all Productboard alternatives →
Recent activity from Ellie Planner and Productboard
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 3d agoProductboardv2 - 2026-10-15 - Exact-match text field filter
- 10d agoProductboardv2 - 2026-10-08 - Relationship field values and Documents API references
- 26d agoProductboardEntityType moves from fixed enum to workspace-specific open string ⚡
- 27d agoProductboardv2 - 2026-09-21 - Tables, checklists and code languages in rich text
- 1mo agoProductboardv2 - 2026-09-09 - Search tag field values
- 1mo agoEllie PlanneriPad Week Calendar, Pomodoro, Quick Capture, rich notes, and MCP ⚡
- 3mo agoProductboardAdd beta endpoint for aggregated customer importance scores on hierarchy entities
- 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 Productboard?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Productboard is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 3.8), with 1 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 Productboard?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Productboard is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 3.8), with 1 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 Productboard?
Top Productboard alternatives in PM are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Productboard alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/productboard for the full list with editorial commentary on each.