The Day Designer is a nice planner, but it comes with a not so nice (i.e. expensive) price tag. Their collaboration with Blue Sky Planners however, have a similar style for a much cheaper price. So is it worth paying extra for the original Day Designer?

This post contains affiliate links, if you make a purchase after clicking my link I’ll receive a small commission. As always, all opinions are my own.

Day Designer Planner versus Day Designer for Blue Sky Collab Planner

I’ve done a few reviews of the Day Designer for Blue Sky Collabs:

• Day Designer for Blue Sky Horizontal Weekly Planner Review 
• Day Designer for Blue Sky Today and To Do Notebook
• Day Designer for Blue Sky Planner (vertical hourly)
• Day Designer for Blue Sky Horizontal weekly
• Blue Sky / Day Designer Day to a Page

I’ve also done a review of the Day Designer in this post. And various Blue Sky planners such as this one.

Information in this post current as of the time of writing (July 2020).

Both planners

• Do not have the option to add additional pages
• Do not offer cover personalisation
• Offer calendar year (Jan to Dec) and academic year (Jul – Jun)
• 12 month duration
• US holidays pre-printed in the planner
• The same signature stripe black cover (as well as other cover designs to choose from)
• Wire binding – the pages lay completely flat and can be folded back on themselves
• Brief goal planning section
• Split boxes on the monthly calendar spread

Differences:

• Day Designer now include a sheet of gold foil stickers with their planners (they didn’t when I purchased mine so I can’t show you a photo of them). The Blue Sky Planner collabs do not include stickers
• Day Designer has a pocket folder adhered to the back cover, the Blue Sky Collab planners do not
• Day Designer has black and white spreads only whereas the Blue Sky Collab planners are colorful

The Cover

Day Designer is a hardcover.

The Day Designer for Blue Sky are a mix of hardcover and softcover. Some of the collab planners like the horizontal have a cover you can pull the cover design (printed) onto paper out and replace it with your own cover e.g. print a digital paper pattern or use some cardstock craft paper (similar to the MAMBI create your own cover). Some of them have a paper / cardstock type material for the pattern cover, and then a frosted cover over the top.

Blue Sky Collab’s create your own cover

The hardcover versions of both planner are sturdy and have gold corners to prevent wear and tear.

The hardcover on the Day Designer has a glossy finish whereas the Blue Sky Collab planner has a matte / smooth finish.

Winner: The hardcover are both sturdy / good quality so I’d say this is a tie. It really depends on personal preference but I like the collab planner covers (the ones with the frosted cover hold up well and are lighter than a hardcover)

The inside layouts

There are daily, weekly and monthly calendar only options for both planners.

The inside layouts of the Blue Sky collab planners have a bit of color whereas the Day Designer (at the time of writing this) have just a black and white / neutral inside layout).

Day Designer:

• Today and to do planner
• Daily – schedule and to do list
• Lined notebooks

Day Designer for Blue Sky Collab

• Today and to do (notebook, not a planner)
• Vertical weekly (hourly schedule)
• Horizontal weekly
• Daily – schedule and to do list
• Lined notebooks

Winner: Blue Sky collab as there’s more layouts to choose from

Monthly Calendar

Both have lined writing space on the monthly calendar. Unfortunately both also do the split boxes rather than just re-starting the numbers in the empty boxes on the top row.

Winner: Tie

Page Size

Both come in 2 page sizes although the large and small varies slightly between the two:

Day Designer

Original (large)

• Cover dimensions: 9” wide x 9.75” high
• Page Dimensions:  7.3″ wide x 9.5″ high

Mini

• Cover dimensions: 6.625” wide x 8.3” high
• Page Dimensions:  6″ wide x 8.125″ high

Day Designer for Blue Sky Collab

• Large = 8″ wide x 10″ high
• Small = 5″ wide x 8″ high

Winner: Tie. The page sizes are similar neither is ‘better’ – it just depends on your personal preference

Pen testing & Paper Quality

Day Designer

Day Designer has 100 GSM paper. I typically see ghosting and some bleed through for marker pens on this paper thickness (usually 140 GSM or higher has no ghosting or bleed through).

Given the price of the planner I expected thicker paper, there’s a lot of ghosting and bleed through:

The Day Designer for Blue Sky

I couldn’t find any information about the paper thickness but it feels quite thin so I expect it’s 100 GSM (or less). So I was surprised when there was hardly any show through.

Winner: Day Designer for Blue Sky Collab Planner

Price

The Day Designer

• Original (large) = $59 USD
• Mini = $49 USD

Day Designer for Blue Sky Collab

• 8 x 10″ (Large) = $35 USD
• Mini = $15 USD

Winner: Blue Sky Collab Planners (much cheaper!)

Shipping cost

Unfortunately, the Blue Sky website does not ship internationally (outside the USA). However, you can find the collab planners on Amazon (affiliate link).

Day Designer ships internationally but it’s very expensive. The Day Designer planners used to be available on Amazon too but not at the moment.

So regardless of which one you want to purchase I’d get it on Amazon as shipping will be cheaper and you can combine your purchase with other things on Amazon (or you could buy both planners!)

Day Designer has free shipping within the US when you spend $100 or more.

Approx $36 USD to ship the mini size to Australia. Approx $50 USD to ship the original (large size) to Australia,

Day Designer for Blue Sky charges $9 USD for the large size to ship to a US address. You might also need to add taxes on top of this depending on the US state you’re shipping it to. The mini costs $7 USD to ship to a US address.

Winner: Tie. While Day Designer ships internationally, it’s so expensive it’s not worth ordering. Both are available on Amazon.

Is it worth paying more to get the original Day Designer?

No. I prefer the Day Designer for Blue Sky collab planners. The Blue Sky planners have a much more affordable price point and the covers are just as nice (there’s more options to choose from and I like the create your own cover option too). The inside pages are functional and pretty, with a bit of color without being overdone.

I also have a personalised Blue Sky planner which is one of my all time favorites, great weekly layouts, very functional and nice cover options to choose from – and all for an affordable price. See my review in this post.

If you like the original Day Designer Planner here is the link to their website (my affiliate link. If you make a purchase after clicking my link I’ll receive a small commission).

More planner reviews

• Agendio versus Golden Coil: Which custom personalised planner is best?
• Emily Ley Simpified Planner collaboration with At A Glance
• Purple Trail Weekly Planner Review

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