Every approach to tracking college deadlines eventually runs into the same test: what happens when four courses' worth of assignments, exams, and readings all need to live in the same place at once. A method that works fine for one class in week two often falls apart by week ten, once quizzes, problem sets, project checkpoints, and a couple of midterms are all competing for the same calendar. Here's how the common approaches — and a specific set of apps built for this exact problem — hold up against that test, plus the framework we used to compare them and a quick guide to which one fits a given situation.
The paper planner: flexible, but it has no memory
A paper planner or a spreadsheet works, but every date has to be transcribed by hand from every syllabus, and if a professor moves a due date, you have to notice and re-copy it yourself. There's also no cross-referencing built in — nothing stops "Essay 2" and "Problem Set 6" from looking identical on the page even though one is worth ten times as much of the final grade.
Generic to-do apps remove the paper, not the work
A generic to-do app removes the paper but not the labor — it can hold a due date and a checkbox once you've entered it, but it has no idea what a syllabus is, no concept of grading weight, and no way to flag that three courses just landed exams in the same week. Entering a semester's worth of deadlines by hand into Reminders, Todoist, or a similar app still means reading every syllabus line by line and typing each date in yourself, and redoing that work every time a due date shifts. Neither approach is wrong, exactly — they just put the entire syllabus-to-calendar conversion labor on the student, every single time something changes.
The four questions we measured against
A newer category of app reads the syllabus, or connects to the school's LMS, and builds the deadline list for you rather than asking you to type it in. Eight of them are covered below, and none of them work identically.
This comparison is published by Semora, one of the products included. It is a desk review of public product pages, pricing pages, help documentation, and store listings, first checked in August 2026 and re-checked on October 7, 2026; it is not a claim that we hands-on tested every product. Features and prices change, so verify a vendor's current documentation before choosing.
We compared all eight against four questions that predict whether an app holds up across a full semester rather than just a demo:
- Does it read a syllabus, or does it require an LMS connection (or manual entry) to get deadlines in at all? Semora, DormWay, Shovel, and StudyFetch all read an uploaded syllabus in some form. Mindgrasp and Studley AI process uploaded material but don't parse a syllabus for deadlines. Taskade has a general AI document import but nothing built for syllabi. myHomework relies on manual entry or LMS import only.
- Is grade tracking included, or just a deadline list? Semora and DormWay both include it — DormWay via a grade calculator with weighted categories and what-if planning — and Shovel has a manual weighted gradebook you fill in yourself. The other five don't describe grade tracking.
- Is there a real, ongoing free tier, or just a trial before a subscription starts? DormWay is free today, with a paid Pro tier it says is in development. Semora's free tier (unlimited Canvas, Blackboard and Moodle classes plus one course added by hand, and one AI action for the life of the account) has no time limit, and the deadline and grade tracking stay free indefinitely. Shovel's pricing page advertises a 7-day trial before billing starts, and Mindgrasp offers a 3-day trial and publishes no free plan. Studley AI's free plan covers one study set, and StudyFetch lets you start free without publishing its limits; myHomework's free version is ad-supported instead.
- Does it sync across your phone and a browser without extra setup? Coverage varies widely — from Semora and StudyFetch's phone-plus-web setups, to DormWay and myHomework's broader multi-platform reach, to Shovel and Taskade's native iOS/Android apps alongside a web app.
The sections that follow take each app in turn, grouped by how it answers question one, because that is the answer that decides whether an app can do this job at all.
Semora: the syllabus as the starting point
Semora scans a syllabus by photo, PDF, drag-and-drop, or pasted text and extracts every assignment, exam, quiz, project, and reading with its due date, along with the grading scale, meeting times, and office hours — turning deadline tracking and grade tracking into the same free-tier feature; the free plan's limits are in the FAQ below. Canvas, Blackboard, and Moodle import is free on every plan. Connecting Canvas takes one step: copy the private Calendar Feed link Canvas already gives you and paste it in. There is no access token to generate and nothing for your school to approve. See the full Semora vs DormWay and Semora vs Taskade comparisons for more detail.
DormWay: free, with the widest LMS list here
DormWay pairs AI syllabus parsing with calendar-feed import from Canvas, Brightspace/D2L, Blackboard, Moodle, Google Classroom, Schoology, and IvyLearn, plus a Google Calendar connection, merged into one semester timeline. It is free today: its pricing page shows $0 with no credit card, and says a paid DormWay Pro is in development but not yet for sale. It also includes a grade calculator with weighted categories and what-if planning, an "Ace" AI assistant that answers policy questions with citations back to the syllabus, and a per-course "Intelligence" tab showing a difficulty rating and weekly hour estimate. It runs on web, iPhone, iPad, and Mac, but has no Android app yet; its homepage says Android is coming soon.
Shovel: available time as the constraint
Shovel turns a PDF syllabus or a direct LMS connection (Canvas, Brightspace, Moodle, or Google Classroom) into a time-blocked study schedule, weighing available time against estimated time per task. Distinct features include "The Cushion™" predictive conflict alerts, reading-time estimators, streak-based motivation tracking, a manual weighted gradebook, and free supplementary "how to study" courses. Its Canvas connection uses the Canvas Calendar Feed link and syncs every 24 hours, and it has native iOS and Android apps. Shovel's pricing page shows a 7-day trial followed by $9.79/month (against a crossed-out $19.99) or $39/year, the yearly price marked as a limited-time offer. Confirm the price at checkout.
StudyFetch: an AI tutor that wants your material first
StudyFetch includes syllabus-to-calendar scanning as one feature inside a broader AI study platform built around its Sparky tutor (formerly Spark.E), which StudyFetch says answers from a student's own uploaded course material (slides, PDFs, notes, photos, video, or audio) rather than the open web. Around that core, it auto-generates flashcards, quizzes, full-length practice tests, draft grading, audio recaps, and explainer videos, and its Live Lecture feature records class audio into structured notes. Its Calendar reads a syllabus for each class and fills in exam dates and class times. It documents an LTI 1.3 integration with Canvas, Blackboard, Schoology, D2L Brightspace, and Google Classroom, deployed at the institution level rather than by an individual student. StudyFetch has no public pricing page; its US App Store listing shows Premium at $19.99 a month, $29 a quarter, or $96 a year.
Mindgrasp and Studley AI: complements, not replacements
Neither of these parses a syllabus, which is not a failing so much as a different product. Both sit downstream of the deadline problem: you already know what is coming, and you want the material turned into something you can practice with.
Mindgrasp doesn't parse a syllabus for deadlines — it turns an uploaded document, video, or lecture recording into notes, flashcards, and a quiz, making it a complement to a deadline tracker rather than a replacement for one. You can upload or link a PDF, DOCX, PowerPoint, MP3/MP4, YouTube or Vimeo video, or web article, or record a lecture live, and Mindgrasp generates AI notes, a summary, flashcards, a quiz, and an "AI Tutor" chat for that content. A higher Scholar/Premium tier adds an "AI math expert" and a Chrome extension for capturing content from the browser. That extension pulls content such as lecture recordings from Canvas, Blackboard, and Panopto pages; it does not import deadlines or read a syllabus. On Mindgrasp's official plan picker, billed yearly, Basic is $5.99/month ($71.88 a year), Scholar $8.99/month ($107.88), and Premium $10.99/month ($131.88); billed monthly they are $9.99, $12.99, and $14.99. A 3-day free trial is offered.
Studley AI is a materials-first app similar in spirit to Mindgrasp: you upload PDFs, lecture slides, lecture recordings, YouTube videos, article links, or a photo of handwritten notes, and its AI converts that into flashcards, multiple-choice quizzes, fill-in-the-blank exercises, written-response tests, and an AI tutor. A "Solve" feature lets you photograph a homework problem for a step-by-step explanation, and a podcast feature turns material into AI-narrated audio, with progress tracked across four mastery levels. No syllabus-parsing or LMS integration appears anywhere in its public materials. Its own FAQ says the free plan lets you make one study set, and Unlimited costs $3.74 a week billed monthly or $1.88 a week billed annually.
Taskade and myHomework: the two opposite extremes
These two bracket the category from either end — one a general-purpose workspace that was never built for coursework, the other a planner that deliberately does nothing but plan.
Taskade is a general-purpose AI workspace, now led by an AI app builder, with eight views of the same project data (List, Board, Table, Mind Map, Gantt, Calendar, Actionsheet, Org Chart), built for teams and freelancers rather than students. It has a general AI document import but nothing built to turn a syllabus into dated assignments, and none of its integrations is a learning platform. Its differentiators are the ability to build custom AI agents trained on your own docs, deploy multi-agent "teams," and run automations — useful broadly, but none of it purpose-built for a class schedule. Taskade's own pricing page lists a free plan (2 users, up to 3 apps, one-time AI credits), and, billed annually, Pro at $10/month, Business at $25/month, and Max at $100/month; billed monthly, those are $20, $50, and $200.
myHomework Student Planner takes the most manual approach of the group: you enter classes and due dates yourself, or import assignments from Canvas, D2L, Google Classroom, Blackboard, Schoology, and other platforms, with a premium account auto-updating the planner as new assignments appear. Teachers who use its Teachers.io service can also send posted assignments straight to the planner. There's no syllabus photo or PDF parsing at all. What it does have is broad platform reach — iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, Chrome, and Kindle Fire, though several of those apps were last updated years ago — plus 60+ customizable themes, homework widgets, and reminder notifications. The base version is free with ads; Premium is $4.99 a year on its pricing page, does not renew automatically, and adds file attachments, external calendar access, planner sharing, and homework import. Worth noting: myhomeworkapp.com's homepage now leads with a K-12 digital hall-pass product, though the Student Planner app is still listed and was still updated as recently as early 2025.
Which one fits you
- If your school uses Brightspace/D2L, Google Classroom, Schoology, or IvyLearn → DormWay imports calendar feeds from all of those, plus Canvas, Blackboard, and Moodle, merged into one timeline.
- If you want time-blocked scheduling — weighing available time against estimated time-per-task — as the core feature rather than an add-on → Shovel.
- If you want one tool that turns slides, notes, video, and audio into flashcards, practice tests, and a tutor, with syllabus scanning as one feature among many → StudyFetch.
- If you just need flashcards, a quiz, or notes generated from a specific uploaded document, video, or recording, and don't need a deadline calendar at all → Mindgrasp or Studley AI, depending on whether you also want a photo-based homework solver (Studley AI) or an AI math expert on a higher tier (Mindgrasp).
- If you want a lightweight, broadly cross-platform planner (including Mac, Windows, or Kindle Fire) and don't need AI syllabus parsing → myHomework Student Planner.
- If you're managing a team or project outside of coursework entirely → Taskade's general-purpose views and custom AI agents are built for that, not for a syllabus specifically.
- If you want the syllabus-to-calendar step done automatically, with grade tracking in the same free tier → that's the gap Semora is built to fill, detailed below.
Sources and methodology
Semora publishes this comparison and is one of the products listed. This is a desk review, not hands-on testing, based on official pages checked October 7, 2026: Semora features and pricing; the DormWay homepage, pricing, and App Store listing; Shovel's help center and pricing page; StudyFetch's Sparky and Calendar pages and its App Store listing; the Mindgrasp product site and plan picker; the Studley product site and FAQ and Google Play listing; Taskade pricing and its help article on project views; and myHomework's pricing page, help page, and App Store listing.
No third-party review sites were used. Treat the official vendor pages and store listings as the current source of truth, and confirm details before buying.
Where Semora fits
Semora's free plan covers one semester (the limits are in the FAQ below), with Pro ($4.99/month or $29.99/year) adding unlimited scans, lectures, courses and semesters, Smart Plan, a Workload dashboard, Grade Scale & Forecasting, calendar sync with .ics export, Flashcards, a Focus Timer, an AI Tutor, Academic Risk alerts, Progress Insights, and Share & Streaks. It runs on iPhone, iPad, Android and the web, sharing one account so an edit on one syncs to the other in near real time. See the full features list or the pricing page for the complete breakdown.
Frequently asked questions
What's the best app if my university doesn't use Canvas?
DormWay imports calendar feeds from Canvas, Brightspace/D2L, Blackboard, Moodle, Google Classroom, Schoology, and IvyLearn; Shovel connects to Brightspace and Google Classroom alongside Canvas and Moodle; and Semora imports Canvas, Blackboard, and Moodle free. If your institution uses none of those, the syllabus itself becomes the practical entry point — a scanner that reads the PDF or a photo does not depend on your school having an integration at all, which is the argument for a syllabus-first tool rather than an LMS-first one.
Is a planner worth paying for if I already use Google Calendar?
It depends on which part is costing you time. Google Calendar holds every date in this article perfectly well — storage was never the limitation. What it cannot do is get the syllabus into that format for you, keep it current when a professor moves a date, or tell you that an essay is worth 15 percent while a problem set is worth 2. If typing the dates in is the annoying part, a scanner helps; if you've already got them all in and they never change, you may not need anything else.
Does automatic scanning get dates wrong?
Sometimes, and that is why the review step matters more than the model behind it. Syllabi contain TBD exam dates, weekly assignments compressed into one line, and dates written relative to class sessions, and every parser inherits those ambiguities. Semora shows you what was extracted before anything saves, and DormWay added a similar review step in September 2026, which puts the correction where it costs thirty seconds rather than a missed deadline.
How many courses can I track on Semora's free tier?
Unlimited classes synced free from Canvas, Blackboard or Moodle plus one course you add by hand within one semester, along with full deadline and task tracking, grade tracking with weighted averages, same-day reminders, and one AI action for the life of the account — a syllabus scan, a lecture recording, or a document turned into notes. Two caps are worth knowing in advance: that AI action does not come back once it is spent, and a free account covers one term, so starting a second is where Pro becomes necessary rather than optional.
Do I need more than one of these apps at once?
Often, yes, because several of them are not competing products. A deadline tracker and a materials-first study tool solve different problems — one tells you what is due and what it is worth, the other turns a chapter into flashcards. Plenty of students run one of each. What rarely makes sense is two apps from the same category, since the second one only splits your deadlines across two places.
Why is one app on this list free and another charges?
Mostly cost structure rather than generosity. Storing a deadline costs a vendor almost nothing, while generating tutor answers, flashcards, and quizzes costs money on every single use — which is why the AI side of every free tier is metered tightly, Semora included at a single lifetime action, while the deadline-and-grade side of a planner or syllabus-first tier stays usable indefinitely. DormWay is the outlier: free today, though its pricing page says a paid Pro tier is in development.
Ready to get organized?
Scan your first syllabus free. No credit card required.