Emery vs Routine

Emery

• People who drop to-do apps once overdue tasks pile up
• Managers, freelancers and solo founders planning their own day
• Blocking time for tasks beside Google, Outlook or iCloud events

Routine

• People who want tasks, calendar and notes in a single app
• Capturing tasks quickly from the keyboard on desktop
• Trying a planner on a free plan before paying

Emery

• New accounts get no free plan. The site sells a $99 yearly plan or $149 lifetime access with a 30-day money-back guarantee and no web trial.
• The web price of the monthly option appears only after sign-up; the US App Store lists $19.99 monthly and $39.99 quarterly.
• There are no desktop apps yet (the site says they are coming), and the App Store listing is for iPhone only.
• It is built for one person: the site's FAQ says Emery is not designed for team planning.

Routine

• The Free plan is capped at 3 integrations, 3 custom databases and 250 AI credits.
• Time blocking and time boxing are not part of the Free plan; they start with Personal.
• AI meeting notes, AI agents, automations and time tracking require Professional or higher.
• Routine's download page says the web app is 30% slower than the desktop apps and lacks some functionality.

Emery

Fires, Growth and Extras

Each day's tasks go into three groups: Fires that cause problems if skipped, Growth work toward longer-term goals, and Extras that can wait or be dropped.

A fresh page each day

The planner opens on today. Unfinished tasks are set aside in grey to review later, with no overdue counts or streaks, and a week strip shows the days ahead.

Drag-and-drop time blocking

Dragging a task onto the calendar reserves a time slot for it. The block can be saved to a connected external calendar or kept on Emery's own.

Two-way calendar sync

Google, Outlook and iCloud calendars sync in both directions, and several accounts can be connected and viewed together.

Priorities for meetings

Calendar events can be given the same three priorities as tasks and are color-coded, so the meetings that matter stand out in the day view.

Notes and projects

Private notes can be attached to events, and tasks and notes can be organized by project.

Routine

Planner and calendar

Plan the day in a view that combines tasks with events from connected calendars such as Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook. Time blocking starts on the Personal plan.

Dashboard hotkey

A desktop hotkey opens a dashboard for creating tasks quickly and adding context to them without switching apps.

Universal inbox

Imports tasks, messages and notifications from connected apps and services into one inbox.

Notes and custom databases

Notes, a journal and pages sit alongside tasks. Custom databases model your own object types: 3 on Free, 10 on Personal and unlimited from Professional.

AI meeting notes

Records meetings without a meeting bot and generates a summary with the transcript and original audio. Requires the Professional plan.

AI assistant, agents and MCP

An AI assistant and voice commands are in every plan. AI agents and automations need Professional, and MCP connects Routine to assistants such as ChatGPT and Claude.

Emery

• Premium Monthly$19.99

  per month, as a US App Store in-app purchase

  Monthly subscription as listed on the US App Store. Emery's site also sells a monthly option, but its web price is shown only after sign-up.

• Premium Quarterly$39.99

  per 3 months, as a US App Store in-app purchase

  Quarterly subscription as listed among the in-app purchases on the US App Store.

• Annual$99

  per year

  Yearly plan as priced on Emery's site, with a 30-day money-back guarantee. The US App Store lists Premium Annual at $99.99.

• Lifetime$149

  one-time payment

  Lifetime access for a single payment, offered on Emery's site next to the yearly plan.

Routine

• Free$0

  Tasks, calendars and notes, AI assistant, voice commands, offline mode, 3 integrations, 3 custom databases and 250 AI credits.

• Personal$5

  per month, billed yearly

  Adds time blocking, time boxing, event coloring, exporting, unlimited file uploads, 10 integrations, 10 custom databases and 500 AI credits.

• Professional$10

  per month, billed yearly

  Adds AI meeting notes, AI agents and automations, time tracking, a menu bar widget, unlimited integrations and databases, and 7,000 AI credits.

• Business$15

  per seat / month, billed yearly

  Adds an organization with workspaces, access control, versioning, consolidated billing, priority support and 10,000 AI credits per seat.

• EnterpriseCustom

  Adds unlimited history, compliance, audit logs, analytics, user provisioning and a success manager.

Emery

• Lifetime license

  Lifetime access for $149

  Emery's site offers lifetime access for a single $149 payment as an alternative to the $99 yearly plan.

• Annual discount

  Annual plan costs about 58% less than monthly

  The US App Store lists Premium Annual at $99.99 and Premium Monthly at $19.99, so a year paid at once costs about 58% less than twelve monthly payments ($239.88).

Routine

• Annual discount

  Up to 38% off on yearly plans

  Routine's pricing page marks its yearly prices as 38% off for Personal and 17% off for Professional and Business.

• Startups

  Startup program: Business plan free for a year

  Startups with under $2 million in funding and fewer than 20 employees can apply for the Business plan free for one year, worth up to $2,500.