January 21, 2026
12 MINUTES
Central vs FollowUpThen: Executive Assistant Comparison
Compare Central AI and FollowUpThen on AI executive assistant capabilities, setup, pricing approach, and call handling. See which platform fits your business workflow best.
Written by
Emma Houlihan
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Central AI EA manages inbox, calendar, and tasks, while FollowUpThen only sends email reminders. With Central AI, work moves faster, without managing reminders or extra tools.
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Executive Assistant Comparison
Is your inbox noisy enough that real work keeps slipping? If you're comparing tools to cut interruptions without reworking your system. This Central AI vs. FollowUpThen comparison highlights how an executive assistant differs from reminders to help you choose.
The Scope: Productivity vs Reminders
Central AI and FollowUpThen approach productivity from different angles that often get confused. Central AI works across inbox, calendar, and tasks. FollowUpThen focuses on making sure an email reappears when scheduled.
Central AI’s Executive Assistant pulls email, meetings, and tasks into one workspace so work stays connected. It turns messages into scheduled time, tracked tasks, and follow-ups without jumping between tools. The system is built to reduce context switching during the day.
FollowUpThen email reminders is a service that triggers follow-up messages you explicitly schedule. It is reliable and simple for reminder-driven workflows. It does not manage calendars, tasks, or broader workload beyond email reminders.
Central vs FollowUpThen: Service Comparison
This table compares the service model and operational fit of Central AI and FollowUpThen services for day-to-day productivity work.
Category | Central AI | FollowUpThen |
|---|---|---|
Model | AI executive assistant across email, calendar, and tasks | Email-based reminder tool using scheduled follow-up messages |
Setup | Connect inbox and calendar, then configure preferences | Send emails to FollowUpThen addresses, confirm once |
Support | Documentation and direct support channels | Help center and email-based support |
Best-fit | Professionals managing daily workload across tools | Users needing simple email follow-up reminders |
TL;DR: Central AI spans inbox, calendar, and tasks, while FollowUpThen fits lightweight reminder needs for email-focused workflows.
The Depth: Robust vs Lightweight
Both services help manage email and workflow, but only one is built to link email, calendar, and tasks so your productivity tools talk to each other in one connected flow, with less context switching.
What Is Central?
Central AI is a suite of AI products built for small and mid-sized businesses. Its Executive Assistant is one product that brings email, calendar, and tasks into a single workspace for the day. It’s meant to be where you check what matters now, then act without hunting for context.
It’s for SMB owners and startup founders who live in their inbox and keep bouncing between tabs. Meetings move, threads pile up, and follow-ups get lost. You might already have a task app, but the busywork still lives in email. Central EA keeps the day in view so you can decide what to handle next.
Work feels less scattered because tasks and time blocks stay tied to the original messages. You spend less time sorting, and fewer essential follow-ups slip through.
What Central’s Executive Assistant Can Do for You
Central AI helps you handle inbox pressure and task follow-ups in one place, so you can stay on the work that actually moves the business.
Central helps with:
Unifies your day in one view: See emails, meetings, and tasks together in My Day so you know what is next
Turns messages into next steps: Catch action items in email, create tasks, and draft replies in your voice
Schedules focused work: Drag an email or task onto your calendar to block time, then reschedule without losing context
As your workload grows, Central keeps email, calendar, and tasks together so you do not need extra tools.
What Is FollowUpThen?
FollowUpThen email assistant is an adjacent productivity tool focused on email-based reminders. You schedule a future message by emailing addresses like tomorrow@followupthen.com, and it sends that email back later.
Setup is lightweight with nothing to install. followupthen sign up is tied to the first-use email verification. The followupthen website includes a dashboard for pending follow-ups and settings.
It fits busy professionals, and the followupthen productivity tool approach stays centered in email. Its scope stays in scheduled reminder emails, not disclosed beyond that.
What FollowUpThen Can Do for You
FollowUpThen primarily helps with scheduling email follow-ups and reminders using simple email commands.
It handles:
Scheduled reminders: Send a future email back at a set time
Recurring tasks: Repeats reminder emails daily until a task is done
Reply detection: Cancels a scheduled follow-up when a reply arrives
It remains focused on scheduled emails, with optional calendar feeds and Zapier.
Workflow: Hands-off vs Hands-on
Central AI and FollowUpThen both handle incoming email, but service models differ in system workflows versus reminder scheduling.
How Central AI’s MyDay Works
My Day pulls your email, calendar, and tasks into one workspace, so Central EA can turn incoming messages into drafts, time blocks, and tasks.
It uses your connected accounts and the knowledge you add to spot action items and shape next steps. Replies can be drafted to match your writing style.
With Ask Central, you can trigger multi-step actions across connected tools and then review, edit, or clarify details when they are missing.
How FollowUpThen Works
FollowUpThen runs through your email client. You send, CC, or BCC an email to an address like tomorrow@followupthen.com, and it returns later or sends a scheduled follow-up. followupthen task automation can repeat tasks daily until completed.
Nothing to install; first use requires email verification, and settings are managed in a web dashboard. You can subscribe to an iCalendar feed to see follow-ups on your calendar, and use Zapier to trigger or create reminders from other apps.
Central vs FollowUpThen: Side-by-Side Comparison
This table compares how work moves through inboxes, calendars, and tasks, from intake through handling and review, for Central AI and FollowUpThen.
Component | Central AI | FollowUpThen |
|---|---|---|
Workspace | My Day hub for email, calendar, tasks | Email client with scheduled reminder emails |
Action Points | Flags action items; can create tasks | You set follow-ups; it repeats until done |
Automation | Draft replies; drag to time-block on calendar | Sends emails at set times; cancels on reply |
Integration | Connects calendars and CRMs; Ask Central runs actions | iCal feed view; Zapier triggers with other apps |
Behaviour | Learns your voice; Ask Central can execute | Explicit syntax; templates; no drafting or triage |
TL;DR: One runs work in a single-day view, the other schedules the reminder emails you explicitly set.
Pricing Plans: Subscription-based vs Freemium
Central AI and FollowUpThen use different plan structures: one packaged around an executive assistant workflow, and the other built as a freemium reminder service with optional add-on skills and usage limits.
Central Pricing
Central AI’s Executive Assistant is priced as a subscription with a 10-day free trial, then you pick a tier and choose monthly billing or an annual option.
Free: 10 Day Free Trial
Starter: $29/month (or $25/month billed annually)
Standard: $49/month (or $45/month billed annually)
Both tiers cover day-to-day inbox work like blocking cold emails, using pre-drafted replies in your style, creating tasks and follow-ups automatically, scheduling meetings automatically, and sorting emails automatically. Standard also adds meeting note-taking, multiple inboxes and calendars, bulk unsubscriber, Reply Zero, and auto-sync with HubSpot, Pipedrive, and Salesforce.
If you want more coverage, the Executive Assistant can be bundled with Central’s other AI tools for additional savings.
FollowUpThen Pricing
FollowUpThen uses a freemium subscription model for an email-based reminder service. Plans are priced per user, with optional add-on skills that can cost extra. A team plan keeps the same core model with centralized billing controls.
Free: $0, up to 50 active reminders per month
Base: $4 per user per month, unlimited follow-ups
Team: $4 per user per month, base features plus team billing
The free plan also limits recurring tasks to 3 per month. FollowUpThen pricing plans support monthly or annual billing, and team changes are prorated.
FollowUpThen cost based on publicly available information as of January 2026.
Central vs FollowUpThen: Which Offers Better Value?
Central AI offers better overall value when your day spans email, meetings, and tasks, because it keeps work connected in My Day and converts messages into drafts, tasks, and scheduled blocks. You get one place to decide, act, and follow through as volume grows.
FollowUpThen is excellent when you need dependable, email-based reminders you schedule in advance, but it stays focused on sending follow-ups rather than managing the rest of your day.
Visibility: My Day View vs Pending Follow-ups.
Central AI and FollowUpThen take different approaches to review, control, and safeguards for day-to-day email and follow-up work.
How Central and FollowUpThen Keep Work Reliable
In My Day, Central AI keeps email, meetings, and tasks together so you can see what is pending and what has become work. It can draft replies in your writing style and surface tasks when it detects action items. Ask Central can execute connected workflows upon request.
FollowUpThen relies on explicit reminder addresses you add to, cc, or bcc, so you control what gets scheduled. Visibility comes through the web dashboard, pending follow-ups, daily agenda emails, and reminder history logs. It also supports templates, recurring tasks, and reply detection to cancel a scheduled follow-up.
In practice, one places review in a single-day view, while the other stays lightweight and relies on you to schedule each follow-up as work shifts.
Side-by-Side Comparison
This table compares how Central AI and FollowUpThen ensure consistent outputs through control, visibility, execution, and personalization.
Category | Central AI | FollowUpThen |
|---|---|---|
Control | Editable drafts, plus suggestion or auto draft modes | You set timing via addresses, cancel or complete links |
Visibility | My Day shows emails, meetings, and tasks together | Dashboard, pending list, agenda emails, reminder logs |
Execution | Ask Central runs requested actions across connected tools | Sends scheduled reminder emails; tasks repeat until done |
Personalization | Learns your writing style for drafted replies | Default follow-up templates can be customized |
Limits | Meeting notetaker only with higher tiers | No drafting; calendar feed is view only; free usage caps |
Data Security: Third Party Verified vs Limited Access
Both Central AI and FollowUpThen address data protection and client confidentiality, but they rely on different platform controls and publish different security disclosures.
Central documents platform-level controls include MFA, encryption at rest, access reviews, logging, incident response, and vendor management, plus regulated use-case readiness. It lists GDPR compliant status, HIPAA approval, SOC 2 Type I approval, and SOC 2 Type II in progress.
🛡️ Central supports HIPAA- and GDPR-compliant workflows and is SOC 2 Type I certified.
FollowUpThen defaults to a minimal-access model and states that message bodies are stored with 128-bit encryption, with content deleted after send within a time window or immediately in privacy mode. It also states an annual security review by a Google-approved third party, adherence to the Google API user data policy, and documentation of GDPR compliance steps and DPAs. Formal certifications, such as SOC 2, are not disclosed.
TL;DR: Central AI outlines broader platform controls and compliance status, while FollowUpThen emphasizes minimal access and audited practices, with fewer formal certifications disclosed.
Summary & Recommendation
If you are browsing followupthen alternatives, it helps to start with what each tool actually handles. The right choice depends on whether you want a unified day view that can act, or a lighter tool that simply reminds you of your schedule.
Choose Central AI if you want:
✅ One My Day view for email, meetings, and tasks
✅ Draft replies in your writing style, with quick edits before sending
✅ Turn emails into tasks and follow-ups you can review
✅ Drag emails or tasks onto your calendar to block time
✅ Use Ask Central to run connected actions across your tools
Choose FollowUpThen if you want:
✅ Schedule email reminders by adding a timed address in cc or bcc
✅ Keep recurring tasks until you click complete in the reminder
✅ See upcoming follow-ups on your calendar via an iCal feed
✅ Auto-cancel a follow-up when a reply is detected
If your primary need is making sure specific threads come back at the right time, FollowUpThen is a solid fit. However, for SMB owners and founders juggling email, meetings, and tasks all day, Central AI is the better default; it keeps the work connected and helps turn messages into finished work, not just reminders.
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Receptionist
Central vs FollowUpThen: FAQ
"We were drowning in calls and website chats, missing about 40% of them during patient appointments. Central's Voice and Chat agents handle everything now. We've booked 60+ new patients in the last month alone, and our front desk can finally focus on the people actually in our office."
Dr. Sarah Chen, Founder, Riverside Family Medicine
Actions, Not Just Answers
Use Central AI to bring email, meetings, and tasks together and turn messages into next steps - without constant context switching.
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