TL;DR
Aftertone: £20/mo or £100 lifetime. macOS productivity system — tasks, time blocking, Focus Screen, behavioural AI, weekly reports.
Amie: Free plan (limited) or $6–$15/mo. Beautiful calendar with tasks, email integration, AI meeting notes (bot-free), and Pomodoro timer. Mac, iOS, web. No Android. Pivoting toward AI meeting recording.
Key difference: Amie is a gorgeous calendar that records your meetings. Aftertone is a system that helps you do the work between meetings.
Amie is one of the most beautiful productivity apps on the market. The design is exceptional — pastel colours, fluid animations, a calendar that genuinely makes scheduling feel pleasant. It combines calendar, tasks, and email in one view, and recently added bot-free AI meeting recording that summarises calls and extracts action items without an awkward bot joining your meetings.
But Amie is mid-pivot. The team is investing heavily in AI meeting features, and the calendar-and-tasks side — while still functional — feels more like supporting infrastructure than the core product. Task management is basic. There's no behavioural AI, no weekly reports, no focus mode beyond a Pomodoro timer. And it's not cheap — $6 to $15/month with no lifetime option.
Aftertone doesn't do meetings. It does the work between them. Time blocks, native task management, a Focus Screen that adapts while you work, AI that studies your patterns, and weekly reports that tell you what to change. Less beautiful, perhaps. But built for execution.
Side-by-Side
Feature | Aftertone | Amie |
|---|---|---|
Pricing | £20/mo or £100 lifetime | Free (limited). Personal: ~$6/mo annual. Pro: ~$15/mo annual. |
Lifetime plan | Yes | No |
Platform | macOS (iOS/Android coming) | Mac, iOS, web. Windows and Android in beta. |
Core identity | Productivity system: plan, execute, evaluate, optimise | Beautiful calendar + AI meeting notes + basic tasks |
Task management | Native — keyboard shortcut capture, project tags, filtering | Basic — create tasks, drag to calendar. Integrates with Todoist, Notion, Linear. |
Time blocking | Visual time blocks with daily structure | Drag tasks onto calendar. AI suggests time slots (paid tier). |
AI | Silent behavioural AI — tracks stalled tasks, time drift, energy patterns. Weekly insight reports. | AI meeting recording (bot-free), meeting summaries, action items, AI email drafting, chat assistant. |
Focus mode | Focus Screen — context-aware, current task only, overdue flags, 1-2-3 shortcuts, auto calendar updates | Pomodoro timer |
Weekly reports | Automated, AI-generated, personalised | None |
Calendar sync | Google Calendar, two-way | Google Calendar, Apple Calendar |
Meeting features | Not included | Bot-free recording, AI summaries, action items, follow-up email drafting |
Email integration | Not included | Gmail integration — drag emails to tasks, respond from within Amie |
Independently owned | Yes | Yes (Berlin-based startup) |
Where Aftertone pulls ahead
The Focus Screen
Amie has a Pomodoro timer. Aftertone has a context-aware working environment that shows your current task, flags overdue items, offers 1-2-3 shortcuts for what's next, and updates your calendar automatically. One is a countdown clock. The other is where you actually do your work.
Behavioural AI vs meeting AI
Amie's AI records meetings, writes summaries, and drafts follow-up emails. Useful if your day is meetings. Aftertone's AI watches how you actually work — which tasks keep slipping, where planned time drifts from reality, when your energy dips — and writes you a weekly report with specific suggestions. Amie's AI handles what happened in meetings. Aftertone's AI handles what's happening with your work.
Weekly reports
Amie has no end-of-week analysis. Aftertone generates a personalised weekly report that compounds into an improvement loop over time.
£100 once vs $72–$180 per year
Amie Personal costs ~$72/year. Pro is ~$180/year. Aftertone's lifetime plan is £100. Over two years, Aftertone is cheaper than even Amie's cheapest paid tier.
Native task management
Amie's task management is basic — many users pair it with Todoist or Linear. Aftertone's is native and complete. Keyboard shortcut from anywhere, tag to a project, done.
Where Amie is the better fit
If your day is meetings, Amie's bot-free AI recording is a genuine differentiator. No awkward bots joining calls, automatic summaries, action items extracted, follow-up emails drafted. Aftertone doesn't do meetings at all.
The design is exceptional. Amie is arguably the most visually polished productivity app on the market. If aesthetics matter to you, it sets a standard.
Email integration lets you drag Gmail messages into tasks and respond from within the app. Useful if email is a major source of your work.
Amie has iOS and web apps. Aftertone is macOS-only for now. For more alternatives, see the full best Amie alternatives guide.
3-year cost comparison
Aftertone costs £100 once. Amie costs approximately $72 per year — that's $216 over three years. By the end of year one, Amie already costs more than Aftertone's lifetime price. Over three years, you'd spend 2.2× more on Amie. Both are independently built tools. Only one lets you stop paying.
Who should choose Amie
If you need cross-platform support beyond macOS, Amie may be the better fit today. If you rely heavily on integrations with other tools in your stack, check whether Amie connects to what you use daily. And if Amie's specific approach — its unique features and design philosophy — matches how you prefer to work, it's worth trying.
But if you want a productivity system that goes beyond planning into execution, evaluation, and optimisation — with behavioral AI that learns your patterns and a Focus Screen that protects your attention — Aftertone goes deeper. And it costs less to own forever than most competitors charge per year.
Frequently asked questions
Is Amie better than Aftertone?
It depends on what you need. Amie has its own strengths — particularly if you need broader platform support or specific integrations. Aftertone is stronger on execution: its Focus Screen, behavioral AI, and weekly reports create a four-phase productivity system (plan, execute, evaluate, optimise) that most competitors don't attempt.
Does Aftertone work on Windows or Linux?
Not yet. Aftertone is currently macOS-only, built as a native Mac app for performance and deep OS integration. iOS and Android apps are in development. If you need Windows or Linux support today, Amie may be a better short-term choice.
Can I use Aftertone with Google Calendar?
Yes. Aftertone syncs with Google Calendar via two-way sync. Your time blocks, events, and schedule changes appear in both apps. Aftertone adds the productivity layer — tasks, Focus Screen, AI insights — on top of your existing calendar.
Is Aftertone's lifetime plan really one payment?
Yes. £100 once, then it's yours. No annual renewals, no price increases, no feature gates behind higher tiers. Every feature — behavioral AI, Focus Screen, weekly reports, unlimited projects — is included.
What if I'm switching from Amie to Aftertone?
Aftertone syncs with Google Calendar, so any events you have there will appear automatically. For tasks, you'll need to recreate them in Aftertone — but the keyboard shortcut capture makes this fast. Most users are fully set up within a day.
Related reading
For more context on how Aftertone compares in the broader productivity landscape, see Best Amie Alternatives (2026), Best Mac Calendar Apps for Time Blocking (2026) and Productivity Methods Compared.
Bottom line
Amie is a beautiful calendar that's becoming a meeting-first tool. Aftertone is an execution-first system built for the work between meetings. If you spend most of your day in calls and need AI summaries and follow-ups, Amie solves that. If you need a Focus Screen that protects your attention, AI that studies your work patterns, and weekly reports that help you improve — Aftertone does things Amie wasn't designed to do. And it costs less over time. Try Aftertone free at aftertone.io.
