Tracecat
Tracecat's 1.3 alphas keep reworking agent plumbing: tunnels, multi-org MCP, pluggable runners.
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 Runner Agent gets conversation management, task links and agent switching mid-thread.
NocoBase ships two beta trains a day, and the latest center on its agent layer and on demo deployments. Beta 10-28.1 lets users manage Runner Agent conversations with task links, queued messages and usage, and swap agents without losing history; it also adds inline form validation and duplicate-submission protection to app templates. Beta 10-28.2 tightens demo mode so shared demo apps block requests with external effects.
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 Runner Agent gets conversation management, task links and agent switching mid-thread.
◆ Current state
NocoBase ships two beta trains a day, and the latest center on its agent layer and on demo deployments. Beta 10-28.1 lets users manage Runner Agent conversations with task links, queued messages and usage, and swap agents without losing history; it also adds inline form validation and duplicate-submission protection to app templates. Beta 10-28.2 tightens demo mode so shared demo apps block requests with external effects.
◆ Where it's heading
The platform is being rebuilt as an app-template and agent product on a 3.0 server line: agents can develop app-local plugins, run conversations tied to tasks, and operate inside templated apps with release management. Each beta also publishes a cluster of package tags, so the feed is dense but the substance sits in the dated release notes.
◆ Prediction
Expect the Runner Agent and app-template work to keep landing in daily betas until app-server 3.0 leaves beta; a stable 3.0 announcement is the likely next large step.
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.
Camunda
Camunda opens the 8.11 cycle with job-worker fixes and variable metadata across gRPC, REST and MCP.
Todoist
Todoist's 2026 bets are on capture: voice via Ramble, photos and files via Task Capture.
Atarim
Atarim's AI experts now propose changes to live pages as drafts, and the app runs on phones.
Fibery
Fibery's MCP server can now upload local files, so AI assistants can attach screenshots and images.
SmartSuite
SmartSuite adds a scheduled JavaScript runtime with secrets and run history.
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.
- 1d agoNocoBaseBeta 10-28.2: safer demo mode, agent reply fixes
- 1d agoNocoBaseBeta 10-28.1: Runner Agent conversation management
- 1d agoNocoBase@nocobase/app-template-examples@1.0.0-beta.68
- 1d agoNocoBase@nocobase/app-skills@0.1.0-beta.54
- 1d agoNocoBase@nocobase/app-plugin-users@2.0.0-beta.11
- 1d agoNocoBase@nocobase/app-server@3.0.0-beta.4
- 2mo agoEllie PlanneriPad Week Calendar, Pomodoro, Quick Capture, rich notes, and MCP ⚡
- 10mo 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.