Back in September and October, I was caught up in the throes of Hobonichi season, and bought all of my 2025 planners. And I’m completely obsessed with them! I started using my beautiful Yumi Kitagishi Weeks this past week, and my One Piece HON and A6 Techo are patiently waiting in a drawer for the New Year to roll around. 

But in September I also discovered the Kinbor brand and their Hobonichi dupes, and whilst I’d already bought all my 2025 planners, I was curious, and so I picked one up off AliExpress. 

Kinbor does their own version of the Weeks and also the A6 and A5 planners, but I chose the A6, so I could try it out for the rest of this year, and practice some layouts for my Hobonichi next year. There were definitely fewer designs to pick from than Hobonichi’s A6 planners, but this cute bread and coffee one caught my eye. 

The cover might not be everyone’s cup of tea, as it has a slightly rubbery texture with the bread and coffee design embossed in a darker brown. The gold highlights are a nice touch though, as are the matching brown end papers inside the planner. 

The inside layout is the same as the Hobonichi A6, with monthly calendar pages and then daily pages with grid paper. On the listing for the Kinbor A6 the paper is described as ‘52gsm Bachuan paper’ and it feels lightweight and smooth, just like Hobonichi’s Tomoe River paper. It’s also a slightly higher gsm than Hobonichi’s 47gsm, so I was curious as to how it would handle ink in comparison. 

I decided to try out a few of my favourite pens in it:

You can see here what I wrote, and then the level of ghosting on the back of the page…and I have to say, I’m impressed. I’d expected the Platinum #3776 with a fine nib to be OK, but I was pleasantly surprised to find the thicker Western fine nibs inked with bright colours were also OK. Even the bold gel ink of the Uniball One barely showed, and it certainly didn’t bleed through!

I wanted to give this planner a proper test, so after receiving it in September I started washi-taping over the days of the week in the daily pages and have been using it for the end of 2024. I’ve then been using the front section as a notebook, and to practice planner spreads for next year. So I’ve now been using the Kinbor A6 for a couple of months, and I have to say, I’m just as impressed with it now as I was when I got it! 

At £7 this was a fraction of the price of a Hobonichi Techo, and the HON, which is its equivalent. It’s the same in terms of layout, and the paper quality is surprisingly good!

I also love the adorable cover design, although there were less choices, and to be honest, none of the others appealed to me that much. This is still a great Hobonichi alternative though if the brand name doesn’t matter to you, but you want an A6 daily planner.

Does my appreciation of the Kinbor A6 planner make me regret my Hobonichi splurge? Thankfully, not really! Hobonichi definitely has a lot more cover designs, and I especially love the anime tie-ins they do, which have been particularly good this year. But if next year there are no Hobonichi designs that appeal to me (the chance is pretty slim, but it could happen!) I’d definitely consider buying a Kinbor planner instead.

So have you tried any Kinbor planners? What do you think? Or are you a Hobonichi fan?