I’m going for a Sterling Ink because I have no need for a yearly, monthly, weekly AND daily page overview in one diary (I have a 5 year diary for memory keeping). I think I’d go with the Cousin otherwise but I’m excited to try Sterling Ink this year! Thanks for your video, I’ve been searching high and low for a direct comparison! X
I’m glad it helped :) do you have the Hobonichi 5 year or another brand? I’ve debated getting one. I’ll probably do an update to this once my 2025 planners get here since I panicked when my cousin hasn’t shipped and got a backup sterling ink which means I’ll have a cousin, and a sterling ink a5 vertical and horizontal. Nothing like fomo to make you order more than you need :)
Thank you! This video was so helpful. I’ve recently found hobonichi and now sterling ink and I’ve been so torn. I’m a happy planner girl but hobonichi intrigues me. I appreciate your time on this video so much!
I found Hobonichi last fall and have enjoyed using it. I LOVE the paper as I'm an avid fountain pen user. I switched to the ginormous B5 Common Planner for 2025 because I just didn't have enough room in my weeklies in the HON. I'm a functional planner and needed more space. I also hated the blanks left in my dailies as a result of inconsistent journaling. CP is undated in the back so I can journal with no gaps. Also, the quotes at the bottom of the Hobonichi pages began to annoy me as they took up valuable real estate and some made no sense post translation 🤣. Anyway, there's only ONE way to know which is right for you no matter how many videos you watch and that is to try them in your real life. Have fun!
Thank you I'm so glad it was helpful. I love Happy Planner stuff, just could never get the rings to feel right for me. Side note if you do end up going with the Cousin all your Happy Planner Stickers are great on Daily Pages. I'm sure you could do the same in the Common Planner and with a little sticker surgery they work well in the weekly spread as well. All of last years (the 2024) hobonichi are on sale if it helps you to see it first hand. There are also a lot of Hobonichi Buy Sell groups on facebook where you might be able to find one. Good Luck, and my the force be with you...you know the force is almost as strong as a planner ;)
So true! I thought about the B5 it looks beautiful but I just could commit to it lol I might still get a notebook though in that size to test out. The way the fountain pens are on the paper is a dream. So I think I've been really lucky with my Hobonichi and haven't noticed any issues with my fountain pens on the paper. I was wondering have you heard about any inconsistencies with the Sterling Ink or have you had any? I haven't heard anything but was just wondering. Mine this year seems great but I don't know if I just got lucky again in the Sterling Ink as well.
You mentioned in the Hobonichi (21:45) that the notes column had the faint pink headers that lined up with the date bars. Those are the red Sunday headers from the previous month ghosting through.
So I like hobonichi for the whimsy and Japanese style but Sterling Ink is by far more luxurious and nice. The paper is superior 🤌🏻the font 🤌🏻 the gold edges🤌🏻 the color choices❤ it's just lovely and such a joy to write in and flip through
Its like a classier more high end version of the cousin with a simplified feel. I love them both so much...I didn't get the foiled last year but maybe I will this year. My grandmother had an old bible with similar paper and one of my favorite things as a kid was just flipping through it and listening to the paper...I know I was a weird kid but I still love the sound and the feel of these type of pages.
Love this! I just ordered both the Sterling Ink and Hobonichi A6 and excited to have them. Also, I'm planning to use the Common Planner with a Hobonichi cover! I'm planning to use the Common Planner for work and Hobonichi for Personal. It seemed more work oriented with goals and quarterly pages.
I’m so excited for you! I’ve loved them both a lot and truly think they were very thoughtfully designed. I agree ☝️ on the Common Planner being more of a Work Planner at least for me. Can’t wait for all my new planners to get here:)
I love your comparisons. Some of the lightness of the font, etc is supposed to be a little darker for 2025 in SI. And I love that you mentioned the decoration of the covers being different. For 2024, I have used a Cousin for day to day and a SI A5 for a reading journal. I put a clear cover on the SI and then slid stickers into the places where I wanted them. I liked being able to change them out for the season if I wanted. This year I tried the Hobonichi launch day and gave up on ordering directly like I did last year. So I’m backtracking to reconsider what I really want and will use. My biggest sticking point is the many days that I didn’t use a daily page in my Cousin. I did find that I could use those pages when I had note taking or mind mapping (where the date didn’t matter) but I’m wondering if the SI full with the daily pages in the back being undated would work better for that. 🤷🏻♀️ Decisions…😊
The Hobonichi Launch Day was such a disaster!!! I ended up using a reseller as well which was sad. Then to see that they hiked prices especially for Europe because of a wrong currency conversion. Makes me wonder what's going on with them as a company. I've started using the Daily Pages for more month specific pages than true Daily pages although the brain dump daily is super helpful for me. I made a video recently showing some of those if it might help but I totally get it. I still miss a lot of the daily pages...I'll end going back a just using them for random things sometimes or umm playing with stickers because I have a sticker problem. Did the clear cover help the SI with stability for you? I'm so scared that the SI A5 launch this week will be like Hobonichi or that I won't be able to get one...you would think life will be over as we know it if I don't get one so over dramatic but so stressed about it. I'm really glad you liked the comparison choosing a planner is crazy hard and I always stress going I need to get one, sometimes I forget if it doesn't work I can always change it. :)
@@MyMagicalPlanner100% correct on all accounts. The Launch Day was terrible but it seems like they have restocked. I’m still conflicted about the two systems and which I think will work best. Yes, the clear cover worked beautifully. My planner from this year has held up well. So I recommend using one. The only negative is you lose the texture of the planner itself under the plastic. But it does protect it. I’m so afraid that I’m not going to like going without a Cousin and also about the SI final day. She’s held such a major planner up until the final day. And the launch falls when I’m in church. Ugh. Hopefully we will all get the systems that we want.
Have you all decided? I'm in the same boat!! I'm tired of having a bunch of empty daily pages in the Hobo. I'm going SI. Which clear cover did you use? Maybe I can slide it into my Hobo cover!
@@thehoys9412 Awesome 😎. I have been a Hobonichi enthusiast for awhile now but I love the feel of the SI covers. I’ve also decided that I’ve had days where I don’t get to my daily page so I love the SI planner days and then blank pages to use as I want to in the back. I think that will be more useful over the year. I’m putting my SI in my Hobo cover too!
Used cousin in 2024 and SI b6 for work. Switch my edc to B6 SI and B6s for work for 2025. I going to snagged a SI A5 just incase the B6 doesn’t provide enough journaling space
@@lonnab07 that sounds like a solid plan:) size is so important but you really don’t know what’s right until you try it. My cousin hasn’t shipped yet so I’m probably going to try to get an a5 vertical and horizontal but man I’m assuming launch is going to be crazy pants tomorrow. Love hearing what your getting :)
Hi! Just FYI A5 in the US is $42. Shipping is free. I have had both planners and price/ quality is a no brainer. PS the ink color is darker in this year’s Sterling Ink. That sold me on the A5.
@@Azbudgetcat where did you manage to find it for $42?? Jetpens is $62ish yoseka $60 and Amazon $65. Did you mean the a6 maybe that’s around $40. Just looking for clarification (I ordered both Sterling ink and Hobonichi again btw) if you can send me the link to where you found it for $40 I would be very interest.
Ngl I laughed a bit at the clock part 😅Tbh it's a dealbreaker for me - the 12h grid is not clear at a first glance to me so I think it would annoy me. I've ordered my Hobonichi for 2025 already but it's nice to know what else is out there.
I'm glad you laughed I totally was and I laughed even more when I edited it because seriously if you can't laugh at your self ok well I don't know how to end that sentence but something unfavorable I'm sure. I am the first to tell you I am no expert nor am I perfect (thank goodness to much pressure) but I love my planners. For my everything I want to be able to glance at it and know when things are so I totally get it. I kinda love the competition with all these new planners on the market, I feel like it helps us all to grow and for business to make a better more thoughtful product. If money wasn't a thing I would test them all out. :)
I'm the anti-floppiness person 😅 can't stand it. I'm in a sterling ink N1 for my journal and to solve for that i just glued some cardstock inside the covers and collaged over it to give me a sturdier feel. However I won't be in one in '25, instead I'll be in and Aura Estelle A5 Complete Weekly (instead of the Cousin this year) for all planning needs and I'm toying with a Hobonichi Weeks as a journal...thats tbd! Looking forward to having my months with my weeks and no dailies!
That's a great hack to deal with the floppy issue! Thanks for sharing. I picked up an Aura Estelle undated when they first came out with a planner with tomoe river paper...it was really nice, just not right for me. I hope you enjoy it. I love the weeks...I just always have to much to put in it :) Some of the covers this year were so pretty especially Purple Night - I almost order it just because I loved the cover so much. Love this so much and I hope it's the perfect fit for you.
@@thekatplans that’s great! I like AE planners just wish their print was a little darker. They remind me of a Stalogy vs the SI covers. Though I found some SI covers for 2024 had more structure than others depending on the color.
Yes they did this when they switched to Sanzen so they use a different gsm that everyone else. And as a result, they’ve had really inconsistent paper with the hobo.
That feels a little like being different just to be different and it's biting them in the butt. Hoping the paper consistence is better this year but I'm debating getting a backup third planner in case the hobo has issues.
There’s so many amazing Sanzen TRP planners now which is amazing. There’s lots of really simple layouts like the SterlingInk that mirror the cousin and then lots of unique layout options as well. It’s a great time to be in the community. Sadly Hobonichi has some super inconsistent paper that isn’t the standard unique features you see in TRP. It’s truly an inconsistent paper production for their 47gsm that they’ve decided to source from Sanzen instead of the 52gsm sanzen TRP that the rest of us use. People are seeing terrible bleed thru and feathering and it’s a true issue.
Just Scribble...hi there...just tried to email you about your DOODLE..unique books with the CAL...but.. in 75gms instead of 83gms. Is this really an issue with the hobonichi.????.is this in the 2025 version or the 2024 version?
I’m going for a Sterling Ink because I have no need for a yearly, monthly, weekly AND daily page overview in one diary (I have a 5 year diary for memory keeping). I think I’d go with the Cousin otherwise but I’m excited to try Sterling Ink this year! Thanks for your video, I’ve been searching high and low for a direct comparison! X
I’m glad it helped :) do you have the Hobonichi 5 year or another brand? I’ve debated getting one. I’ll probably do an update to this once my 2025 planners get here since I panicked when my cousin hasn’t shipped and got a backup sterling ink which means I’ll have a cousin, and a sterling ink a5 vertical and horizontal. Nothing like fomo to make you order more than you need :)
Thank you! This video was so helpful. I’ve recently found hobonichi and now sterling ink and I’ve been so torn. I’m a happy planner girl but hobonichi intrigues me. I appreciate your time on this video so much!
I found Hobonichi last fall and have enjoyed using it. I LOVE the paper as I'm an avid fountain pen user. I switched to the ginormous B5 Common Planner for 2025 because I just didn't have enough room in my weeklies in the HON. I'm a functional planner and needed more space. I also hated the blanks left in my dailies as a result of inconsistent journaling. CP is undated in the back so I can journal with no gaps. Also, the quotes at the bottom of the Hobonichi pages began to annoy me as they took up valuable real estate and some made no sense post translation 🤣. Anyway, there's only ONE way to know which is right for you no matter how many videos you watch and that is to try them in your real life. Have fun!
Thank you I'm so glad it was helpful. I love Happy Planner stuff, just could never get the rings to feel right for me. Side note if you do end up going with the Cousin all your Happy Planner Stickers are great on Daily Pages. I'm sure you could do the same in the Common Planner and with a little sticker surgery they work well in the weekly spread as well. All of last years (the 2024) hobonichi are on sale if it helps you to see it first hand. There are also a lot of Hobonichi Buy Sell groups on facebook where you might be able to find one. Good Luck, and my the force be with you...you know the force is almost as strong as a planner ;)
So true! I thought about the B5 it looks beautiful but I just could commit to it lol I might still get a notebook though in that size to test out. The way the fountain pens are on the paper is a dream. So I think I've been really lucky with my Hobonichi and haven't noticed any issues with my fountain pens on the paper. I was wondering have you heard about any inconsistencies with the Sterling Ink or have you had any? I haven't heard anything but was just wondering. Mine this year seems great but I don't know if I just got lucky again in the Sterling Ink as well.
You mentioned in the Hobonichi (21:45) that the notes column had the faint pink headers that lined up with the date bars. Those are the red Sunday headers from the previous month ghosting through.
Haha just like me and my 24 hour clock thing shesh....sorry guys!!
@@MyMagicalPlanner you were soo funny...I would have also taken a WHILE to get it all straight...also...with that 24 hour clock gismoie thingie!
So I like hobonichi for the whimsy and Japanese style but Sterling Ink is by far more luxurious and nice. The paper is superior 🤌🏻the font 🤌🏻 the gold edges🤌🏻 the color choices❤ it's just lovely and such a joy to write in and flip through
Its like a classier more high end version of the cousin with a simplified feel. I love them both so much...I didn't get the foiled last year but maybe I will this year. My grandmother had an old bible with similar paper and one of my favorite things as a kid was just flipping through it and listening to the paper...I know I was a weird kid but I still love the sound and the feel of these type of pages.
Love this! I just ordered both the Sterling Ink and Hobonichi A6 and excited to have them. Also, I'm planning to use the Common Planner with a Hobonichi cover! I'm planning to use the Common Planner for work and Hobonichi for Personal. It seemed more work oriented with goals and quarterly pages.
I’m so excited for you! I’ve loved them both a lot and truly think they were very thoughtfully designed. I agree ☝️ on the Common Planner being more of a Work Planner at least for me. Can’t wait for all my new planners to get here:)
There’s a lot of great TRP planners that work great for work with their setup and goal sections.
I love your comparisons. Some of the lightness of the font, etc is supposed to be a little darker for 2025 in SI. And I love that you mentioned the decoration of the covers being different. For 2024, I have used a Cousin for day to day and a SI A5 for a reading journal. I put a clear cover on the SI and then slid stickers into the places where I wanted them. I liked being able to change them out for the season if I wanted. This year I tried the Hobonichi launch day and gave up on ordering directly like I did last year. So I’m backtracking to reconsider what I really want and will use. My biggest sticking point is the many days that I didn’t use a daily page in my Cousin. I did find that I could use those pages when I had note taking or mind mapping (where the date didn’t matter) but I’m wondering if the SI full with the daily pages in the back being undated would work better for that. 🤷🏻♀️ Decisions…😊
The Hobonichi Launch Day was such a disaster!!! I ended up using a reseller as well which was sad. Then to see that they hiked prices especially for Europe because of a wrong currency conversion. Makes me wonder what's going on with them as a company. I've started using the Daily Pages for more month specific pages than true Daily pages although the brain dump daily is super helpful for me. I made a video recently showing some of those if it might help but I totally get it. I still miss a lot of the daily pages...I'll end going back a just using them for random things sometimes or umm playing with stickers because I have a sticker problem. Did the clear cover help the SI with stability for you? I'm so scared that the SI A5 launch this week will be like Hobonichi or that I won't be able to get one...you would think life will be over as we know it if I don't get one so over dramatic but so stressed about it. I'm really glad you liked the comparison choosing a planner is crazy hard and I always stress going I need to get one, sometimes I forget if it doesn't work I can always change it. :)
@@MyMagicalPlanner100% correct on all accounts. The Launch Day was terrible but it seems like they have restocked. I’m still conflicted about the two systems and which I think will work best.
Yes, the clear cover worked beautifully. My planner from this year has held up well. So I recommend using one. The only negative is you lose the texture of the planner itself under the plastic. But it does protect it.
I’m so afraid that I’m not going to like going without a Cousin and also about the SI final day. She’s held such a major planner up until the final day. And the launch falls when I’m in church. Ugh. Hopefully we will all get the systems that we want.
Have you all decided? I'm in the same boat!! I'm tired of having a bunch of empty daily pages in the Hobo. I'm going SI. Which clear cover did you use? Maybe I can slide it into my Hobo cover!
@@thehoys9412 Awesome 😎. I have been a Hobonichi enthusiast for awhile now but I love the feel of the SI covers. I’ve also decided that I’ve had days where I don’t get to my daily page so I love the SI planner days and then blank pages to use as I want to in the back. I think that will be more useful over the year. I’m putting my SI in my Hobo cover too!
Used cousin in 2024 and SI b6 for work. Switch my edc to B6 SI and B6s for work for 2025. I going to snagged a SI A5 just incase the B6 doesn’t provide enough journaling space
@@lonnab07 that sounds like a solid plan:) size is so important but you really don’t know what’s right until you try it. My cousin hasn’t shipped yet so I’m probably going to try to get an a5 vertical and horizontal but man I’m assuming launch is going to be crazy pants tomorrow. Love hearing what your getting :)
@@MyMagicalPlanner got what I desired. Hop you were able to snag yours
Hi! Just FYI A5 in the US is $42. Shipping is free. I have had both planners and price/ quality is a no brainer. PS the ink color is darker in this year’s Sterling Ink. That sold me on the A5.
@@Azbudgetcat where did you manage to find it for $42?? Jetpens is $62ish yoseka $60 and Amazon $65. Did you mean the a6 maybe that’s around $40. Just looking for clarification (I ordered both Sterling ink and Hobonichi again btw) if you can send me the link to where you found it for $40 I would be very interest.
Ngl I laughed a bit at the clock part 😅Tbh it's a dealbreaker for me - the 12h grid is not clear at a first glance to me so I think it would annoy me. I've ordered my Hobonichi for 2025 already but it's nice to know what else is out there.
I'm glad you laughed I totally was and I laughed even more when I edited it because seriously if you can't laugh at your self ok well I don't know how to end that sentence but something unfavorable I'm sure. I am the first to tell you I am no expert nor am I perfect (thank goodness to much pressure) but I love my planners. For my everything I want to be able to glance at it and know when things are so I totally get it. I kinda love the competition with all these new planners on the market, I feel like it helps us all to grow and for business to make a better more thoughtful product. If money wasn't a thing I would test them all out. :)
Liked and subscribed!
😊
Thank you so much, and welcome. :)
I'm the anti-floppiness person 😅 can't stand it. I'm in a sterling ink N1 for my journal and to solve for that i just glued some cardstock inside the covers and collaged over it to give me a sturdier feel. However I won't be in one in '25, instead I'll be in and Aura Estelle A5 Complete Weekly (instead of the Cousin this year) for all planning needs and I'm toying with a Hobonichi Weeks as a journal...thats tbd! Looking forward to having my months with my weeks and no dailies!
That's a great hack to deal with the floppy issue! Thanks for sharing. I picked up an Aura Estelle undated when they first came out with a planner with tomoe river paper...it was really nice, just not right for me. I hope you enjoy it. I love the weeks...I just always have to much to put in it :) Some of the covers this year were so pretty especially Purple Night - I almost order it just because I loved the cover so much. Love this so much and I hope it's the perfect fit for you.
The AE has more structure in their cover than some but it’s still bendy and floppy - not stiff like the cousin.
@@JustScribble I've used one in the past and been happy enough with it. Not like the Sterling Ink imo.
@@thekatplans that’s great! I like AE planners just wish their print was a little darker. They remind me of a Stalogy vs the SI covers. Though I found some SI covers for 2024 had more structure than others depending on the color.
Thanks for all this info :) I was wondering if the covers would have more structure this year...she's so good at listening to her customers.
With the Sanzen Tomoe River Paper, Hobonichi has changed to 47 gsm paper
@@olderandorganized I missed that thank you
Yes they did this when they switched to Sanzen so they use a different gsm that everyone else. And as a result, they’ve had really inconsistent paper with the hobo.
That feels a little like being different just to be different and it's biting them in the butt. Hoping the paper consistence is better this year but I'm debating getting a backup third planner in case the hobo has issues.
There’s so many amazing Sanzen TRP planners now which is amazing. There’s lots of really simple layouts like the SterlingInk that mirror the cousin and then lots of unique layout options as well. It’s a great time to be in the community.
Sadly Hobonichi has some super inconsistent paper that isn’t the standard unique features you see in TRP. It’s truly an inconsistent paper production for their 47gsm that they’ve decided to source from Sanzen instead of the 52gsm sanzen TRP that the rest of us use. People are seeing terrible bleed thru and feathering and it’s a true issue.
Just Scribble...hi there...just tried to email you about your DOODLE..unique books with the CAL...but.. in 75gms instead of 83gms. Is this really an issue with the hobonichi.????.is this in the 2025 version or the 2024 version?