if you haven’t heard of Agendio before, it’s a company that allows you to build a completely custom planner and you can even modify elements of their base layouts (font size, line spacing, colors, sizes of most sections of the page), to create the page layout you want.

I purchased 2 monthly planning notebooks in 2 different versions so I could compare:

• 7 x 9″ coil bound
• US half letter size hardcover

Both have the same list style monthly calendar, but I created different list / planning pages. I also did 4 & 6 page spreads instead of just a monthly calendar and some notes pages that most monthly planners have.

This post contains affiliate links. I’m an affiliate of Agendio which means if you place an order via my link, I’ll receive a small commission in exchange for referring you.

Quick facts

• Size: Multiple sizes to choose from (US letter size, 7 x 9″ and 5.5 x 8″)
• Coil bound cardstock cover with clear laminate cover OR hardbound with wire binding
• Cover personalisation
• Tabs (optional paid extra)
• Neutral or colorful inside pages (colorful costs extra)
• Inside page layout – you choose!
• There is no set number of pages in the planner – you choose
• I opted for a 12 month duration for each planner but you could do a 6 month planner too

For full details on options, add ons etc. – see my ordering tutorial in this post.

Price:

• For the medium size (7″ wide x 9″), starting price is $48 for black and white, $59 for color printing
• For the 5.5″ wide x 8″ high hardcover, starting price is $42 for black and white, $44 for color printing
• My coil bound planner was $48 USD
• The hardcover planner was $43 USD
• Price will vary depending on how many pages you choose to add, color printing etc.

Let’s take a closer look!

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The covers

I much prefer the coil bound cover to the hardcover. The coil is built into the hardcover which means the pages don’t lay flat when you fold them back on themselves. Plus if you go with the coil bound you can choose a pattern and personalise the cover with your choice of text.

One of the few cons of the Agendio planners are the cover designs – there is a very limited range of patterns and colors. I purchased this planner about a year ago in this haul – maybe they’ve improved the cover options since then.

The hardcover comes in plenty of colors to choose from, but 1 cover color only.

You get to chose your duration & start dates for the planner.

• Coil bound – I chose November 2019 to October 2020. For this 12 month duration (4 pages per month plus about half the book is dot grid or lined pages), it’s about 0.9cm thick (0.35″ thick)
• Hardcover – I chose the same duration – from November 2019 to October 2020 (6 pages per month). Due to the hardcover it’s much thicker at about 1.8cm (0.75″ thick)

I’ll start with the coil bound planner, then the hardcover and then I’ll tell you which one I prefer at the end of this post!

Coil bound monthly planner

Love this shade of blue! This cover style is cardstock with a clear / plastic cover similar to the Plum Paper covers. It’s my all time favorite cover style as the corners never get scuffed like laminated covers do, and it also makes the planner lightweight.

For the monthly calendar, I hate boxes for each day like most planners include. There’s not enough room to write and some of them split boxes in half rather than just re-starting the numbering in the top row. A much better use of space is a list style monthly calendar so that is what I chose for both of my monthly planners.

If you like the layout I chose and want to make one yourself, here is the layout model number (32136).

Inside pages

I set my planner up with 4 pages for each month:

• Monthly calendar
• To do list, goals and project space
• Dot grid pages
• Lined pages

I really like the shaded lines for Saturday and Sunday. You can customise just about everything – the font style, colors, number style, add national holidays for your country, birthdays etc.

I chose colorful pages for this planner but you also get neutral black and white too. You can pick what colors you want – I went with pink, purple and blue. Color printing costs a few dollars extra.

There is an option to tick what country’s national holidays you want pre-printed, or you can just leave it blank. I like that the font size is small so doesn’t take up much room.

On the right side of the page I added some open ended lined writing space and a giant to do list.

I normally hate mini month at a glance calendars but they were a part of the base template I customised and since I opted out of tabs I kept them. Since all of the calendar will be taken up with blog planning, I have the small box for important dates, reminders etc.

The idea of the left column was to have 1 main goal and 2 smaller goals, with the steps to complete them listed in the largest box underneath. The right column for general to do list / brain dumping.

I also added some extra notes pages – dot grid and lined.

I chose 0.25″ dot grid spacing but after having tried it a few times now in other Agendio notebooks I purchased in the same haul – here, here and here), I think this grid size is too big. I much prefer 5mm that you see in most dot grid notebooks so will be making sure I choose 5mm next time.

I chose 6mm (0.25″) line spacing. This may sound odd given my comments above, but this is my favorite line spacing for a notebook. Maybe because I’m not ruling up spreads, I use these pages purely for list making, monthly review and general notes.

I opted not to add tabs because they cost extra and there’s nothing decorative printed on the dividers / tabs anyway. So instead I just added sticky notes.

Hardcover

The hardcover is 6″ wide x 8.5″ high (16.5cm x 21.5cm).

The actual pages inside are 5.5″ wide x 8″ high (US half letter page size).

If you like the layout I chose for this one, the layout model number is 32157.

By default, Agendio includes a dates at a glance calendar (it’s the same as the one that came with the coil bound version so I didn’t bother taking a photo for the hardcover version as well).

Since this is a smaller page size I went for a 6 page weekly spread:

• Monthly calendar
• To do list, goals and project space
• 2 Dot grid pages
• Lined to do list
• Lined monthly review page

The perforated corners cost extra but are still cheaper than tabs. So instead you could order these and tear them off on the monthly calendar pages only, or tear off all of the pages for each month as you use them.

I added some extra lined notes and checklist pages at the back of the planner. I opted for color printing for these but the only color element are the lines at the top and bottom of the page so I would just get the cheaper black and white printing for these pages next time.

Apart from the slightly too small for me page size, the binding being part of the cover, the fact that the pages don’t fold back on themselves really sealed it for me that I won’t be ordering another hardcover from Agendio – I’ll be sticking to coil bound.

Pen Testing

I didn’t pen test these specific planners as I’ve purchased other Agendio planners that have the same paper so here are the results of that pen test:

The paper of the planner is so smooth and nice to write on. I tried various ballpoint, gel, fine tip and marker tip pens – there was some ghosting on the back side of the page. I also did some highlighter and stamp swatches. The highlighters also had some ghosting and, as always, the MAMBI stamps bled through the page 🙁

It’s not the best paper I’ve come across in a planner but it is bright white. For this planner I recommend ballpoint, gel or fine tip pens.

Pros of the Planner

• Completely custom – choose exactly what you want
• Not many planners offer a 4 page (or more if you choose) monthly planning calendar / spread
• Combination of dot grid and lined pages
• List style calendar available, instead of the usual box format
• Colorful or black color scheme – you choose

There are plenty more pros to the Agendio planners, I just mentioned those that are specific to a monthly planner in this review. For a full pros and cons list, see this post.

Cons of the Planner

• The hardcover version does not lay flat when you fold the pages back on themselves
• Paper is prone to ghosting
• Tabs are expensive and cost extra
• Limited cover options

Would I use this planner?

Yes. I’ve been using the coil bound version this year. I was going to switch between the coil bound and the smaller hardcover to see which I prefer but I’ve liked using the coil bound so much that I’m going to stick with using it until I’ve used up all the months. As someone that used to switch between numerous monthly calendars this is a big deal! I’ll be trying the A5 size when the coil bound runs out.

I’m an affiliate of Agendio which means if you place an order via my link, I’ll receive a small commission in exchange for referring you.

Read more about my monthly planning process in this post.

More planner reviews:

• Legend Weekly Planner
• Personal Planner Review (affordable, completely customisable weekly planner)
• Hema Dot Grid Notebook for Bullet Journaling 

Planning Tips:

• 12 Planner Layout Ideas for Monthly Habit Tracking in Your Bullet Journal
• 10 Different ways to do a monthly goals review in your planner
• Color coded monthly meal planning using sticky notes 

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