We believe there are better options available in this category, read below to learn what this software does well, and what they could do better. ⤵
Comparing Motion to Google Calendar isn't a straightforward apples-to-apples scenario.
Check out the app screenshots above to better understand what you're going to get on the calendar side of things, because they are nearly identical, it's just more about how it looks.
Motion does add in some nice quality of life features though like Travel Time (for before/after meetings):
.webp)
This is where Motion stands out over Google Calendar, as a lot of thought went into their meeting scheduler. You can set it to check against team calendar availability and even generate the meeting request in plain text, making it feel less like a meeting URL:
Many of us are already familiar with Google Calendar – it's a free tool that is used as the foundation and back-end for not just Motion but for numerous other daily planner apps. Google Calendar has all the essential features you'd expect from a reliable calendar, fulfilling its primary function.
The cracks in Google Calendar's facade begin to show when delving into its additional features, such as Google Tasks or Appointment Scheduling.
While these functionalities exist, they are more so afterthoughts, lacking in a great (or even good) user experience. Users tend to find these features clunky and inefficient, requiring excessive clicks and navigation, which can lead to frustration and a sense of limitation within the Google Calendar ecosystem. And that's when you might start looking elsewhere... 👀
Enter Motion: a tool that is more than just a calendar.
Motion's strength lies in its sophisticated meeting scheduler and task manager, both of which are powered by AI. This advanced technology is adept at organizing tasks based on their priority, offering a level of personalized efficiency that Google Calendar cannot match.
Users of Motion report feeling like they have an AI assistant at their disposal when using Motion. This sets Motion apart and is a reason why many are willing to pay for a better calendar + task tool.
The silly answer here is, well... Both—you need a proper calendar like Google Calendar if you're to use a tool like Motion to its fullest potential. There's also a few instances where the Google Calendar API is actually limited (for every calendar in the market) for things like updating team calendar events (that you aren't the owner of), so you'll be occasionally jumping into Google Calendar in some edge-cases like that. Other than that, Motion would be your full-time calendar with Google Calendar just being the infrastructure on the background for events and calendar functionality.
.svg)
.webp)
Use AI to plan your work, automatically. Be 137% more productive. Use the AI assistant for busy people and work teams.
Motion (also often referred to as Use Motion and Motion App) is in a category of it's own that we've been referring to as time management…
Let me explain:
Motion's main goal is to take care of all of your team's needs revolving around time. If you're someone that wakes up in the morning and looks at their calendar app to see what you have on for the day, Motion App will fit in like a glove.
It connects in deeply with your Google Calendar, Microsoft Calendar, and even Apple Calendar, allowing you to build out project management and task management for yourself and team members. The best part is that all of these tasks automatically organize themselves based on priority right onto your calendar (and your team's) to ensure the most important (and blocking) tasks get done.
If you've heard of the productivity app terminology of "time blocking", well Motion does that automatically using AI, no manual time blocking needed.
It even goes to the degree of allowing you to share meeting scheduler links with others, all while respecting your existing events across all of your calendars (and even your team's calendars), along with automatically inviting team members into the appointment once booked.
With your entire team using Motion, it's like you have a full-time personal assistant shared across the company, ensuring that everyone is getting deep work done all while focusing on what is most important (at the most ideal time), all while making sure that no one is ever double-booked.
All of this makes for an incredibly powerful tool for individuals, but exponentially more valuable with every additional team member you add. No other project management or daily planner tool on the market seems to go to this degree.
As compared to some of the best project management software on the market often mentioned like Asana, Monday, ClickUp, Motion has taken their sights on slightly smaller teams of between 1–50 people.
This team size target is based on their current feature-set, from what we've seen. For example, the larger teams that we work with who have many layers of management often require reporting capabilities over everything else. And with Motion, that's not something you're going to get, because they are currently focused on giving the only AI project management tool on the market focused on helping the individual and teams, over the needs of upper-management.
So if you and your team are used to spending a lot of time planning deadlines, and rearranging your "My Task" view in the existing tools on the market, Motion flips this on it's head with the use of AI. Something to consider if you're fed up with the manual work involved with traditional project management tools.
-v2.webp)
Compared to the best daily planner apps on the market like Sunsama and Akiflow, Motion is the only daily planner we've seen that actually leverages AI to plan your day for you. With all of the other apps in the category, you need to manually drag in tasks to time block and plan each day. This is an incredibly time consuming process, that some justify as being "more mindful", but once you actually have AI schedule your day for you, you realize how much time is actually wasted "mindfully planning your day".
Compared to the best calendar schedulers on the market like Calendly and Chili Piper, Motion bakes in the core functionality of these tools, with the added visibility of team tasks and urgent deadlines, actually booking off availability for you and your team if high priority work needs to get done by a quickly approaching deadline.
Large teams (100–500) with other enterprise software implemented will find integrating Motion more involved than other enterprise tools. When using an enterprise software stack like that of Salesforce, it's common for other project management tools to have native integrations.
With Motion, it will require a custom integration approach (something that we actually help teams do). But while it's possible, one might ask if it's worth making the large investment in a custom integration when you might be able to get something more native out of the box with the other tools focused on larger teams.
(This of course depends on the actual integration needs of your team, as native doesn't always do exactly what you'd like it to do).
Motion currently lacks advanced reporting and dashboard functionality. So while you can see at a top-level the status of projects and tasks in Kanban and Listviews, even a team workload view, that's about where reporting dashboards end, making it less suitable for large teams requiring extensive project analytics.
If all of that connects with you and you think it might fit your needs, they have a 7 day free trial that you can use along with your team to see what it's like having a personalized AI assistant.
Google Calendar brings all of your calendars together in one place, so you can manage work, personal life, and everything in between.
Google Calendar is the official calendar app that comes with your Google account ( along with Google Workspace and Gmail). It is also the foundation of some of the best calendar apps and best daily planner apps on the market. It is a direct competitor to Outlook calendar in Microsoft Outlook and Apple calendar.
Google Calendar is a free calendar that helps you organize your schedule and coordinate events with others. Access it via mobile app or any desktop device from your Google Account. Schedule events, set task reminders and share your calendar with others. Like any of it's main competitors, it will allow you to manage multiple calendars in one place (e.g. personal and work).
Google Calendar is the best free calendar app (we prefer it over Outlook and Apple calendar).
We understand that many people using Google Calendar might just be using it for personal use and not for work, so comparing it with other paid tools doesn't make for an apples to apples comparison. While there are better paid calendar apps out there like Motion, Sunsama, and Akiflow, they all use Google Calendar at the foundation.
If you're looking for a free alternative to Google Calendar for improving your calendar view experience (e.g. weekly view, day view, and creating a new event, viewing multiple calendars, basic time management), then your best bet would be to check out Notion Calendar or Routine.
When comparing Calendly vs Google Calendar and Motion vs Google Calendar, you see first-hand how basic scheduling is when it comes to Google Calendar. In-fact, we wrote an entire post comparing these three scheduling apps when Google recently released their Appointment Scheduling functionality.
White Google calendar is a great foundation, it's not the nicest looking calendar app out there. Google Calendar has looked the same for the past 6+ years, but it's because they are building the web app, android app, and iOS app for billions of users. With that, they can't be that innovative without upsetting many users.
So that's where we recommend checking out the daily planner apps space, and opting for a tool like Motion or Routine.
Google Calendar does have Google Tasks which is used for basic time blocking but they are no where near the level of the paid calendar apps.
Google Calendar is free.
.svg)
.svg)
.svg){kind=logo}
.svg)
.jpg)
.svg)
.webp)
.svg)
.svg){kind=icon}
.svg)
.svg)
