5 Best Motion Alternatives For Calendar Automation [Free & Paid]

The rise of digital calendars, across multiple platforms such as Google Calendar, Outlook, iCloud Calendar, etc has made scheduling quite complex. That’s why it’s pretty common to use a Calendar Automation app that facilitates scheduling across multiple providers, saves so much time on manual scheduling, and avoids double bookings.

One of the most popular calendar automation tools is Motion. If you’re a Motion user looking for an alternative to Motion, or just comparing different calendar apps to find the one that’s best for you, this is the article to read.

In this article, we’ll list the top 5 Motion alternatives and competitors, and compare their features, strengths, weaknesses, and pricing.

Why do users look for an alternative to Motion?

Motion has been around since 2019, and the team has continuously added new features, such as Project Management, Calendar Management, and Task Management, providing more value for its users. That might be great for the product, but not for all users. Let’s explain why:

• You might not need all the features: Motion is now a Project Management tool, with the ability to manage your calendars, tasks, scheduling, etc. This might be great for power users, but if you just want to use one of the features available, for example: the scheduling links feature, the price tag might be too much.
• Expensive if you’re not using all features: If you’re a power user, the price tag might be worth it, but if you’re only using the smart calendaring capabilities, the price might not be justified. The alternatives offer a subset of the features at a fraction of the price.
• The product is complex: The more features you add to a product, the harder it is to make it user-friendly. Given the range of features offered by Motion, it takes a little bit more effort to get used to it.
• You need other features not supported by Motion: Even though Motion is quite mature and offers lots of features, you might need specific features not offered by Motion.

Top 5 Motion Alternatives worth considering

1. OneCal

OneCal is a calendar automation app that allows you to share scheduling links, sync multiple Outlook or Google Calendars in real-time, view calendars in one view, and more.

What do OneCal and Motion have in common?

• Scheduling Links: OneCal and Motion offer a scheduling links feature that allows you to share scheduling links for others to book time with you. Options-wise, the features are quite similar, although setting the scheduling links up is easier in OneCal.
• Calendar View: OneCal and Motion have a Calendar View feature that allows you to consolidate all your calendars in one place, eliminating the need to juggle Outlook or Google Calendars. Given that you can also sync Outlook and Google Calendars using OneCal, the Calendar View allows you to hide clone events created by OneCal Calendar sync, so you don’t see duplicated events.
• Outlook and Google Calendar support: Both OneCal and Motion have support for Outlook and Google Calendar.

What differentiates OneCal from Motion?

The major difference between OneCal and Motion is that, while OneCal focuses on scheduling links, calendar sync, and calendar view capabilities, Motion is much broader with its project management, tasks, and calendar features.

Let’s explore the features that make OneCal different than Motion:

• Real-time Calendar Sync:
  
  - OneCal allows you to sync Google Calendar with Outlook in real-time. The calendar sync feature clones events from one calendar to another, or multiple calendars at the same time, streamlining your availability across multiple calendars, saving time, and avoiding scheduling conflicts.
  
  
  
  
  -Motion had a Calendar Sync feature, which was sunset as of September 1st, 2023. If you used that feature, you are probably looking for an alternative solution, OneCal is the way to go.

• Calendar View:
  
  - OneCal uses the Calendar View feature to merge all calendars into one view and gives the ability to view all meetings in one place, and quickly join meetings.
  
  
  
  - ⁠Motion Calendar View also allows you to merge all calendars in one view, but it has an addition of also displaying tasks, given that one of the features offered by Motion is Tasks Management.

• Scheduling Links:
  
  - OneCal offers multi-calendar scheduling links which are easy to use and manage. The links are multi-purpose, and you can configure rules such as custom availability, booking approval, multiple meeting duration, and much more.

  

  
  
  ⁠- Motion offers similar options to OneCal, but offers some more features, such as surveys and team meetings.

OneCal Pricing vs Motion Pricing

Compared to Motion, the prices of OneCal are cheaper, considering that it offers a subset of features that Motion offers, and mostly specializes in Calendar features.

OneCal offers a 14-day free trial, no credit card is required, but after your trial finishes, you’ll have to choose one of the paid plans in order to continue using the apps. Motion also has a free trial, but you have to connect your Credit Card to start the free trial.

The OneCal Plans are:

• Starter: $5/user/month
• Essential: $10/user/month
• Premium: $25/user/month
• Custom/Enterprise Plans
  

Motion Plans:

• Individual: $19 per month, billed annually, or $34 billed monthly
• Team: $12 per user month, billed annually, or $20 billed monthly

You can sign up for a 14-day free trial of OneCal to schedule meetings and sync your calendars in less than one minute. No credit card is required.

2. Reclaim AI

Reclaim AI is a smart scheduling tool that competes with Motion on some of the smart calendar solutions both offer. Same as OneCal, Reclaim only focuses on Calendar scheduling, meaning that it doesn’t have the Project management features Motion offers.

What do Reclaim and Motion have in common?

Both Reclaim and Motion offer scheduling links, along with smart scheduling features, such as Focus Time, Prioritized scheduling, etc.

What differentiates Reclaim from Motion?

• More Advanced Scheduling Options and Features: Given that Reclaim’s only focus is Calendar scheduling, it offers more options compared to Motion. With Reclaim, you can set recurring routines, smart 1:1, meeting breaks, and more.
• No Project Management Tools: Reclaim doesn’t offer any Project management tools. If you need calendar tools along with Project management tools, Reclaim is not the best option.
• Calendar Sync: Reclaim offers a Calendar Sync feature, that allows you to sync one Google Calendar to another. Motion doesn’t have a calendar sync feature.
• Only Google Calendar Support: With Reclaim, you can only connect Google Calendars, as they’ve yet to support Outlook Calendars. Motion supports both Google and Outlook Calendars.

Reclaim Pricing vs Motion pricing

Reclaim is cheaper compared to Motion, and comes with a free plan. Reclaim charges based on specific features and limitations that come around them. For detailed pricing, please visit their pricing page.

• Free: 2 Calendars, 1 sync, 3 weeks scheduling range
• Starter: $8 per user per month
• Business: $12 per user per month
• Enterprise: $18 per user per month

3. Clockwise

Clockwise is a Calendar Automation platform that is only compatible with Google Calendar and uses AI to find the best meeting times. Unlike Motion, Clockwise doesn’t have Project Management features, and only focuses on Calendar solutions.

What do Clockwise and Motion have in common?

Both Clockwise and Motion have in common the scheduling links feature, and the ability to optimize your time using AI.

• Optimize your time using AI: Both Motion and Clockwise use AI to schedule your meetings and place them according to your tasks, and meetings, so you don’t face meeting conflicts.
• Scheduling links: Motion and Clockwise offer scheduling links for you to share with others. Both platforms offer plenty of customization and integration with their smart scheduling features.

What differentiates Clockwise from Motion?

Although Motion can use AI to optimize your time, Clockwise is better at managing standalone meetings, such as 1:1 meetings. This is because Clockwise reschedules flexible meetings based on the best time, or to avoid meeting conflicts.

In terms of scheduling links, both platforms integrate quite well with their smart scheduling features and offer plenty of customization.

Clockwise Pricing

• Free
• Teams: $6.75/month per user paid annually
• Business: $11.50/month per user paid annually
• Enterprise: Contact for pricing

4. Routine

Routine is a calendar app, that allows you to manage meetings and tasks in one place. Routine, similar to Motion, is not only a Calendar app, as it can be used to write meeting notes, use it as a knowledge base, and more.

What do Routine and Motion have in common?

Routine and Motion offer similar features when it comes to calendar scheduling.

• Smart meetings creation: Motion and Routine leverage AI to schedule your meetings.
• Planner: Motion and Routine have a Calendar View feature that allows you to view all your meetings in one place.

What differentiates Routine from Motion?

• Use of AI to translate commands to meetings: With Routine, you can use natural language to write commands, which are then translated to tasks, meetings, etc.
• Ability to create meetings and tasks from the Planner: With Routine, you can directly create meetings and tasks from the Planner, in addition to viewing all events in one view.
• No Project Management Features: Routine focuses on managing Calendars, and doesn’t have features that cover the project management aspects, as Motion does.
• Additional Calendar Features: Routine comes with additional calendar features, such as Meeting Notes, Reminders, Knowledge base, and more, making it more powerful when it comes to managing calendars and dealing with meetings.

Routine Pricing

• Free
• Professional: $10 per month
• Business: $15 per user per month
• Enterprise: Contact for pricing

5. Sunsama

Sunsama is another smart calendar app, that approaches scheduling through guided daily planning. Sunsama takes a different approach to other calendar tools, by pushing for realistic daily goals and pushing back tasks that are not important.

What do Sunsama and Motion have in common?

Motion and Sunsama both offer smart scheduling solutions, that block time in your calendars according to your availability, schedule, etc.

• Smart Scheduling: Sunsama and Motion have smart scheduling features that automatically block time according to your preferences, tasks, and the goal of avoiding meeting conflicts.
• Automatic time blocking for tasks: Both Sunsama and Motion allow you to automatically block your time for tasks.

What differentiates Sunsama from Motion?

Sunsama takes a different approach to meetings, as it offers a Timeboxing feature, that allows you to schedule tasks to your calendar. Furthermore, Sunsama is completely focused on managing your time, unlike Motion which offers more project management features.

• Timeboxing: Allows you to schedule your tasks on your calendar.
• Unified Daily View: You can pull all your tasks from Trello, Asana, or emails from Gmail/Outlook, and manage them in one view.
• Tons of integrations: Sunsama has integrations with Slack, Notion, Todoist, Jira, Trello, and many more.

Sunsama Pricing

• 14-Day Free Trial
• Yearly Subscription: $16 per month, billed annually
• Monthly Subscription: $20 per month, billed monthly

Which Motion Alternative is best for automating your calendars?

As detailed in the article, almost all the alternatives offer similar features to Motion, some having a different approach to scheduling, and the way they attempt to make you more productive. The best Motion Alternative has to be decided by you, not by us, as it all depends on your needs.

For multi-calendar scheduling links and calendar-syncing features, OneCal is the best alternative to Motion.

For heavy users who want to leverage smart scheduling features such as smart 1:1, meeting breaks, and managing tasks, Reclaim is a solid alternative. If Reclaim doesn’t feel right for you, you can try Clockwise.

If you want to try a different approach to scheduling, Sunsama is worth a try.

Automate your calendars with OneCal

Sign up for a 14-day free trial to share multi-use booking links, automatically sync calendars in real-time, save time, and protect your private life.