DormWay vs Shovel: Which Study Planner Should You Actually Use? (2026)

I'm Riley, a student at Michigan and one of the people building DormWay, so yes, I'm biased, and I'm going to tell you exactly where Shovel beats us anyway. Most "vs" posts pretend the other tool is garbage. That's lazy, and you'll catch it in about thirty seconds.

The truth about DormWay vs Shovel is more interesting. Both apps auto-import your Canvas assignments and read your syllabus with AI, so the tired "automatic vs manual" pitch doesn't apply here. The two things that actually separate them are price and philosophy: DormWay is free for students and gives you one timeline that fills itself in, while Shovel is a paid, deeper time-budgeting tool that estimates how long your work will take and warns you when you're about to run out of hours. This post is the side-by-side I wish existed when I was choosing.

The short version

Both DormWay and Shovel are automatic, AI-driven planners that sync Canvas and parse your syllabus, so don't pick based on "which one auto-imports." They both do.

Pick DormWay if you want a planner that's free for students, never sells your data, and gives you one self-filling Do Now / Up Next / Due Soon timeline so you never wonder what's due.

Pick Shovel if your real problem isn't "what's due" but "I keep running out of time." Its capacity model ("The Cushion") estimates how long each task takes, subtracts it from your real free hours, and tells you whether you're ahead or behind. That time-budgeting is genuinely deeper than DormWay's timeline today, and Shovel also offers native Android and broader LMS coverage.

The trade-off: Shovel is $9.79/mo (or $35/yr) after a 7-day trial; DormWay's core is free for students.

DormWay vs Shovel at a glance

The honest headline: this isn't "automatic vs manual"

Let me clear up the biggest misconception first. Shovel is not a manual-entry planner. It auto-imports Canvas, Brightspace, Moodle, and Google Classroom, and it has AI syllabus upload, just like DormWay.

If you've read our other comparisons (vs MyStudyLife, myHomework, or Coursicle), the "we fill ourselves in, they make you type every assignment" wedge is real in those. It does not apply to Shovel. Shovel is also an auto-fill, AI-driven planner, and pretending otherwise would be the exact kind of dishonest "vs" post I said I wouldn't write.

So here are the real axes of difference, plainly:

• Price — free for students vs a paid subscription.
• Philosophy — a self-filling timeline vs a time-budgeting capacity model.
• Data stance — DormWay never sells your data.
• Platforms and track record — Shovel adds Android and a longer history.

I'll tell you where Shovel wins so you can trust me where DormWay does.

Where they're basically the same (so don't decide on these)

• Both auto-sync Canvas read-only and reflect due-date changes when an instructor moves a deadline.
• Both use AI to turn an uploaded syllabus PDF into tasks and events, and both route that AI output through a review step. Shovel literally tells users to "double-check your tasks." DormWay's AI is scoped to dates, not essays — we use AI to read your syllabus, not to write it.
• Both run on web, iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
• Both are auto-fill planners. Neither makes you hand-type every assignment.

One honest caveat worth flagging: Shovel's syllabus AI is confirmed to extract tasks and events (assignments and exam dates). What's *not* documented is whether it auto-extracts your grading-weight breakdown and late policy from the syllabus. Shovel does have weighted-grade tracking, but that appears to be a manual or separate feature rather than something pulled from the document. DormWay does auto-read grading breakdown and late policy, so treat that as DormWay's edge, but verify Shovel's current behavior yourself if it matters to you.

For context on the syllabus side: across many real student syllabi, DormWay's extraction pulled assignments, due dates, exam dates, the grading breakdown, and the late policy on the large majority of real syllabi. It's not magic and it's not 100% perfect — you should still glance at what it pulls — but it reliably reads the large majority of real syllabi.

Where Shovel genuinely wins (and I mean it)

This is the part most "vs" posts skip. Shovel has real strengths DormWay doesn't match today.

• The Cushion (Time Cushion). Shovel estimates how long each task takes, subtracts it from your real available hours, and gives you a single "ahead or behind" signal. That's a genuine layer beyond a due-date list, and DormWay doesn't have an equivalent yet. If your problem is "I have the dates, I just keep running out of time," this is built for exactly that executive-function struggle.
• Broader LMS coverage. Shovel adds Google Classroom and Brightspace sync, which DormWay's Canvas / Blackboard / Moodle set doesn't cover today.
• Native Android. DormWay is web plus Apple platforms (iPhone, iPad, Mac) right now. If you're on an Android phone, Shovel works and DormWay doesn't.
• Longer track record. Shovel has been around since roughly 2019, supports rotating and block schedules, and has weighted-grade tracking.

No "but actually" here. If those things matter to you, Shovel may be the better pick, and the 7-day trial is worth taking.

Where DormWay wins

• Free for students at the core level. No 7-day countdown and no $9.79/mo just to keep your own deadlines visible. (To be precise: pro features are planned, so this is "free for students," not a promise that everything is free forever.)
• Never sells student data. That's a deliberate stance, not a footnote.
• One auto-built timeline — Do Now / Up Next / Due Soon. The answer to "what should I do right now?" is the home screen, not a calendar you have to interpret.
• Auto-reads the full syllabus. Assignments, exam dates, grading breakdown, *and* late policy — so the weight of each task and the cost of being late are surfaced, not just the date.

The wedge, stated plainly: DormWay is the planner that fills itself in, with automation but without a paywall.

Price, in plain numbers

• Shovel: 7-day free trial, then $9.79/mo or $35/yr (the yearly price is marketed as a limited-time discount, about $2.92/mo annualized). The US App Store also lists Lifetime in-app purchases at $46.99 and $13.99, which appear to be promotional or regional tiers. No student discount found. Shovel does offer some genuinely free standalone tools (a free Schedule Builder and free study courses), but the core planner app is subscription-gated.
• DormWay: the core is free for students. To be straight with you: pro features are planned, so this is "free for students," not a claim that every future feature will be free.

Framing for the cost-conscious freshman: over a school year, Shovel's planner runs roughly $35 to about $120 depending on plan. DormWay's core costs $0.

Which problem are you actually solving?

Here's the diagnostic I'd use. Ask yourself: do you not *know* what's due, or do you know but keep running out of *time*?

• If it's "I lose track of what's due, and I want one place that updates itself for free" → DormWay.
• If it's "I know my deadlines, but I overcommit and run out of hours" → Shovel's capacity model is the more developed tool.

And you can just try both. Shovel has a 7-day trial; DormWay is free for students. Running the comparison yourself costs you nothing.

More than a task list — it plans around your world

Every other app here is a place to *store* your deadlines. DormWay is the only one that knows the world they live in: it factors your campus’s academic calendar (finals, breaks), campus events, your city, and the day’s weather into the plan it builds for you — so "what should I do today" accounts for the exam next week, the event on campus tonight, and the storm rolling in, not a flat to-do list. It even knows the local language on hundreds of campuses — your school’s slang, acronyms, and building nicknames — so it talks about your campus the way you do, not generic “school.” Shovel can’t do that — it doesn’t know your campus.

Who should use what

Use DormWay if you want a planner that's free for students, never sells your data, and gives you one self-filling timeline (Do Now / Up Next / Due Soon) that auto-reads your Canvas, Blackboard, or Moodle plus your syllabus — including grading breakdown and late policy — so you never wonder what's due.

Use Shovel if your core struggle is time, not awareness. Its capacity model estimates how long tasks take and warns you when you're overbooked, and it adds native Android plus Google Classroom and Brightspace sync. That's worth $9.79/mo (or $35/yr after a 7-day trial) if time-budgeting is the feature you'd actually open every day.

Short version: DormWay for "what's due, free." Shovel for "do I have enough hours, paid."

Stop renting access to your own deadlines. DormWay is free for students — connect Canvas, upload a syllabus, and watch your timeline fill itself in. Get started free