Comparison

ByDesign

Routine

ByDesign vs Routine

Routine gathers your work in one place. ByDesign plans your life from the goal down.

Routine is an all-in-one workspace: tasks, calendars and pages with blocks and backlinks, a Console for natural-language entry, an AI assistant with agents and meeting notes, time blocking, Pomodoro and time tracking, on every platform. ByDesign starts from the goal: AI builds the tasks and schedules them around your hours with a preview you approve, and habits with streaks, goal pages, Hub courses, a year-to-day canvas and team chat come with it.

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What you get with ByDesign that Routine doesn’t offer

AI that starts from the goal
Say a goal and get tasks, subtasks, courses and deadlines on your calendar, with a goal page that tracks progress. Routine’s assistant creates tasks and meetings, finds time when you ask and summarises meetings; it doesn’t build a plan from a goal or fill your week around your hours for approval.
Habits, goals and courses, not just databases
A habit tracker with streaks and stats, goal pages with progress, and Hub courses you can schedule. Routine has recurring tasks, custom databases and a journal; templates are marked “soon”, and there is no dedicated habit tracker or goals feature.
Your whole year on one canvas
Year, quarter, month, week and day on one zoomable surface, with sticky notes, images and pinned pages. Routine shows a day, week, month or agenda, with board, timeline and chart views on its databases.
Outlook, and a team that can talk
Two-way Google and Apple sync with Outlook and ICS subscriptions, and chat built in. Routine’s help centre says Outlook Calendar is “not supported yet”, and comments are marked “soon” on its pricing page.

ByDesign vs Routine, feature by feature

Only the differences. What both apps do the same is listed underneath.

Included
Limited
Not available

Feature	ByDesign	Routine
AI planning
AI goal plans	Included: Built and scheduledTasks, subtasks, courses and deadlines land on your calendar; AI and AI Plus plans	Not available: Assistant creates tasks and meetingsChatGPT-like assistant with agents and meeting notes; no plan built from a goal
AI scheduling with a preview you approve	Included: Preview, then acceptConflicts shown; nothing saves until you say so; AI and AI Plus plans	Limited: On requestAsk the assistant to schedule tasks or find gaps; no auto-fill around your hours with a preview is described
Auto-schedule around your hours	Included: Rules you setWork hours, breaks, buffers, max hours a day, split long tasks	Limited: Working hoursA setting for the agenda; Smart Planning, which plans for you, is marked “Coming soon”
Voice control	Included: Mic and hands-freeOptional wake phrase; AI and AI Plus plans	Limited: Voice commands and dictationRebuilt in version 2.3
Calendar and views
Two-way calendar sync	Included: Google and AppleEdit events in either place; Outlook and ICS subscriptions too	Limited: Google and CalDAVOutlook Calendar is “not supported yet” as of October 2026, per its help centre; Apple Calendar is a requested integration
Year-to-day planning canvas	Included: Year to dayYear, quarter, month, week and day on one zoomable surface; AI and AI Plus plans	Limited: Day, week, month and agendaNo year view
Sticky notes, images and pinned pages on the calendar	Included: Yes	Not available: No
Habits, goals and learning
Habit tracker	Included: Check-ins and streaksSkip a day, stats, habits with friends	Not available: No dedicated habit trackerRecurrences and an Activity layout “best for habits”; no streaks
Goals with progress	Included: Goal pagesTasks, resources, percent complete, shareable	Not available: Projects and custom databases instead
Courses and roadmaps from the Hub	Included: The HubCourses, roadmaps and a habit library; schedule a roadmap straight onto your calendar	Not available: Templates marked “soon”
Collaboration and platforms
MCP for Claude, ChatGPT and other assistants	Included: YesClaude Desktop, Claude Code and ChatGPT guides	Limited: Local MCP serverDesktop only, per its help centre
Built-in chat	Included: Direct and groupThreads, reactions, polls	Not available: Comments marked “soon”; @mentions exist

AI planning

AI goal plans
ByDesign
Included: Built and scheduledTasks, subtasks, courses and deadlines land on your calendar; AI and AI Plus plans
Routine
Not available: Assistant creates tasks and meetingsChatGPT-like assistant with agents and meeting notes; no plan built from a goal
AI scheduling with a preview you approve
ByDesign
Included: Preview, then acceptConflicts shown; nothing saves until you say so; AI and AI Plus plans
Routine
Limited: On requestAsk the assistant to schedule tasks or find gaps; no auto-fill around your hours with a preview is described
Auto-schedule around your hours
ByDesign
Included: Rules you setWork hours, breaks, buffers, max hours a day, split long tasks
Routine
Limited: Working hoursA setting for the agenda; Smart Planning, which plans for you, is marked “Coming soon”
Voice control
ByDesign
Included: Mic and hands-freeOptional wake phrase; AI and AI Plus plans
Routine
Limited: Voice commands and dictationRebuilt in version 2.3

Calendar and views

Two-way calendar sync
ByDesign
Included: Google and AppleEdit events in either place; Outlook and ICS subscriptions too
Routine
Limited: Google and CalDAVOutlook Calendar is “not supported yet” as of October 2026, per its help centre; Apple Calendar is a requested integration
Year-to-day planning canvas
ByDesign
Included: Year to dayYear, quarter, month, week and day on one zoomable surface; AI and AI Plus plans
Routine
Limited: Day, week, month and agendaNo year view
Sticky notes, images and pinned pages on the calendar
ByDesign
Included: Yes
Routine
Not available: No

Habits, goals and learning

Habit tracker
ByDesign
Included: Check-ins and streaksSkip a day, stats, habits with friends
Routine
Not available: No dedicated habit trackerRecurrences and an Activity layout “best for habits”; no streaks
Goals with progress
ByDesign
Included: Goal pagesTasks, resources, percent complete, shareable
Routine
Not available: Projects and custom databases instead
Courses and roadmaps from the Hub
ByDesign
Included: The HubCourses, roadmaps and a habit library; schedule a roadmap straight onto your calendar
Routine
Not available: Templates marked “soon”

Collaboration and platforms

MCP for Claude, ChatGPT and other assistants
ByDesign
Included: YesClaude Desktop, Claude Code and ChatGPT guides
Routine
Limited: Local MCP serverDesktop only, per its help centre
Built-in chat
ByDesign
Included: Direct and groupThreads, reactions, polls
Routine
Not available: Comments marked “soon”; @mentions exist

Routine column based on pricing and features, AI assistant, Console, planning and scheduling, Outlook, MCP, integrations, views, Smart Planning and changelog on October 26, 2026. If something has changed, email info@bydesign.io.

Both apps cover the basics

An AI assistant inside the app
Natural-language task entry
Time blocking
Tasks with priorities, labels and recurring schedules
Pages with blocks, sub-pages and backlinks
Kanban boards
A dashboard page
Pomodoro timer
Time tracking
Workspaces with assignments and @mentions
Per-seat team plans
Web, Mac, Windows, iOS and Android apps

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Why people switch from Routine to ByDesign

Say the goal. Get a scheduled plan.

Tell ByDesign what you want to achieve. It asks a few questions, then builds the tasks, subtasks, courses and deadlines and schedules them around the life you already have. Replan in one message.

Routine: Routine’s Console turns “Prepare email draft on Monday at 2pm for 3h” into a scheduled task, and the assistant can find you two hours this week on request. The goal, the steps to reach it and the schedule to fit them stay yours to write.

ByDesign AI goal plan with tasks, tags and durations

A schedule you approve, not one you drag

Set your hours, breaks and buffers once. ByDesign places tasks into the gaps, splits long ones, shows the proposed week and waits for your OK. Replan after a busy day in one message.

Routine: Routine has working hours and drag-and-drop time blocking, and the assistant reschedules meetings or finds time when asked. No auto-fill around your hours with a preview to approve is described.

ByDesign week view with the planning assistant previewing changes

Habits, goals and focus, built in

Track habits with streaks and stats, keep goal pages with progress, run a Pomodoro and track time on any task. Open ByDesign in the morning and it already works.

Routine: Routine has a Pomodoro timer and task-specific time tracking on Professional, with recurring tasks and a journal. There is no habit tracker with streaks and no goal pages.

ByDesign reminders, habits and deadlines on iOS

A workspace your team can live in

Share pages with view, comment or edit access, assign tasks, @mention people in comments and chat without leaving the app. Add seats from the app on a team plan.

Routine: Routine’s Business plan adds access-controlled workspaces, and tasks can be assigned and teammates @mentioned. Comments are “soon” on its pricing page, and there is no built-in chat.

Don’t take our word for it.

From Callio
Can I just say I love you. Finally, a good-looking app that isn’t complex as hell. There are tears in my eyes. I’ll happily pay for this!💯
From Narovsky
Hello! Just found byDesign less than 8 hours ago, and I’m blown away. It has the best of Workflowy (10 yr customer now), Notion, Google Calendar and ICQ (haha)! Oh and a neat Facebook too -- minus the obscure relatives and friends that rant-post too often. Anyhoo, just wanted to say you guys are working on a winner here
From TuneOutlyson003
I just wanna say that I have FINALLY found a to-do list app where I can have recurring tasks and habit/org systems in one place. This is awesome because I keep wondering if one day my autonomous self will break....this is awesome so far!

See All The Love →

Make the switch in three steps

No setup project. Start free, connect the calendar you already use, and give ByDesign your first goal.

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Connect your Google, Apple or Outlook calendar.
Say your first goal and watch the plan land on your calendar.

Ready to plan from the goal, not just the workspace?

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