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Comparison · Support
Plain vs DoneDone
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Plain and DoneDone — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:workflow-automation
Plain vs DoneDone: at a glance
What is Plain?
Plain built an autonomous support agent, and has now built the controls to trust it.
Plain's changelog is dated entries with no titles, and nearly all of it concerns two AI surfaces: Ari, the customer-facing responder, and Sidekick, the internal agent. Sidekick spent July gaining reach — its own full-page home, reusable workspace skills, and connection to arbitrary MCP servers. The newest release turns to Ari and adds what was missing around it: a way to test it before customers see it, provenance behind each answer, configurable tone, and explicit escalation rules.
What is DoneDone?
DoneDone ships custom fields — expanding from simple task tracker to configurable work platform.
DoneDone is a project management and helpdesk tool that has been steadily deepening its structural capabilities over the past several months. Recent releases show a deliberate build-up: kanban sorting and collapse controls, workflow automations tied to status changes, email-to-task intake, and now custom fields. The product ships incrementally but on a consistent cadence, with most features driven by direct customer requests.
Plain vs DoneDone: editorial side-by-side
Plain
8.8SUPPORT
Plain built an autonomous support agent, and has now built the controls to trust it.
◆ Current state
Plain's changelog is dated entries with no titles, and nearly all of it concerns two AI surfaces: Ari, the customer-facing responder, and Sidekick, the internal agent. Sidekick spent July gaining reach — its own full-page home, reusable workspace skills, and connection to arbitrary MCP servers. The newest release turns to Ari and adds what was missing around it: a way to test it before customers see it, provenance behind each answer, configurable tone, and explicit escalation rules.
◆ Where it's heading
The sequence reads as capability first, then governance. Plain rebuilt Ari into an agentic first responder, opened Sidekick to any MCP server, and let teams write skills the whole workspace shares — all of which widen what the agents can do and reach. The current release closes the loop the other way, making that autonomy inspectable and bounded before it is switched on. That is the order support-AI vendors have to complete in: teams will not put an agent in front of customers on capability claims alone.
◆ Prediction
With testing and provenance in place, the next step is likely measurement — resolution and escalation rates per skill, or per-answer quality review feeding back into the skills teams write. The entries are short summaries linking off-site, so per-release depth is limited.
DoneDone
6.3SUPPORT
DoneDone ships custom fields — expanding from simple task tracker to configurable work platform.
◆ Current state
DoneDone is a project management and helpdesk tool that has been steadily deepening its structural capabilities over the past several months. Recent releases show a deliberate build-up: kanban sorting and collapse controls, workflow automations tied to status changes, email-to-task intake, and now custom fields. The product ships incrementally but on a consistent cadence, with most features driven by direct customer requests.
◆ Where it's heading
DoneDone is building toward a more configurable platform, moving away from opinionated simplicity toward flexible data models and process automation. Custom fields and workflow automations together form the foundation of a structured work management tool that teams can mold to their own processes. The direction is clear: make DoneDone adaptable enough to compete with more complex tools without requiring that complexity upfront.
◆ Prediction
Custom fields will likely expand with automation triggers (e.g., automate based on field value, not just status), and the email-to-task intake may gain routing rules or field-mapping capabilities to make incoming requests more organized from the start.
Alternatives to Plain and DoneDone
Other Support products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Plain or DoneDone.
Formbricks
Formbricks 6.0 RC cycle reveals commercial hardening: lower self-hosted cap, MCP OAuth, and Act as Beta
SolarWinds Service Desk
SolarWinds Service Desk is loading its Labs pipeline with native Entra ID automation, IT asset tracking, and compliance-ready task management.
Freshchat
Freshchat keeps product moves off the public record — changelog offers nothing to track.
Freshdesk
Freshdesk's changelog feed contains only marketing copy — no substantive release data available.
TeamViewer
TeamViewer's scraped feed contains only community marketing fragments—no actual release data.
See all Plain alternatives → · See all DoneDone alternatives →
Recent activity from Plain and DoneDone
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 7d agoDoneDoneCustom Fields are live! 🎉 ⚡
- 23d agoDoneDoneCreate Project Tasks from Email!
- 29d agoPlainTest Ari before customers see it, with per-answer proof ⚡
- 1mo agoDoneDoneNew: Workflow Automations!
- 1mo agoPlainImport past conversations from any tool, no built-in importer
- 1mo agoDoneDoneInclude tags in CSV exports!
- 1mo agoPlainSidekick connects to any MCP server ⚡
- 1mo agoPlainSidekick gains reusable, workspace-shared skills ⚡
- 1mo agoPlainShare published workflows by link
- 1mo agoDoneDoneChecklist Templates just got a little easier to manage.
- 2mo agoPlainSidekick gets its own full-page home and tool controls
- 3mo agoDoneDoneKanban Collapse Columns
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Plain and DoneDone?
Both compete on the same themes — workflow-automation — within Support. Plain is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 8.8 vs 6.3), with 1 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 1. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is Plain better than DoneDone?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Plain is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 8.8 vs 6.3), with 1 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 1. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Support products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to Plain?
Top Plain alternatives in Support are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Plain alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/plain for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to DoneDone?
Top DoneDone alternatives in Support are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "DoneDone alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/donedone for the full list with editorial commentary on each.