Sunsama
Daily planner and calendar that timeboxes tasks for work-life balance.
Sunsama is the best planning tool we've tested for turning a chaotic workday into a focused, finite plan. If you're drowning in tasks and meetings and willing to adopt daily rituals, it's worth every penny of the $17/mo annual price. But if you hate structured rituals or need heavy project management, skip it.
Verified 8d ago · liveness 78/100 · cite: rightaichoice.com/tools/sunsama
- Executives and founders who juggle meetings and high-impact work
- Product managers overwhelmed by cross-tool follow-ups
- Remote workers struggling to maintain boundaries
- Freelancers and solo professionals wanting one place for work and life
- Teams needing shared project dependencies (use Asana/Jira)
- Users who prefer an unstructured, list-only task manager
- Organizations that require a free tier or basic planning
We scan live Reddit threads, YouTube comments, X posts, G2 reviews and other communities — and hand you an honest verdict in under a minute.
- Honest verdict, not marketing
- Real pros & cons from real users
- Attributed quotes with receipts
3 free scans · no card needed
Skip Sunsama if you prefer a free, unstructured to-do list, need shared project dependencies, or can't commit to a daily planning ritual—it's a paid, opinionated planner that rewards consistency.
If you pay monthly, the cost is $22/month, which is $5 more per month than the yearly plan—a noticeable spike if you don't lock in annually.
Sunsama's $17/month (billed yearly) is priced for individual professionals and small teams who value a structured planning system. It's cheaper than hiring a productivity coach but more expensive than basic to-do apps like Todoist (free tier) or any.do (under $5/month). Compared to timeboxing-focused tools like Motion (around $19-34/month), Sunsama is competitively priced. Enterprises will need custom quotes with SSO and audit logs.
In short
Sunsama — Daily planner and calendar that timeboxes tasks for work-life balance. Best for Executives and founders who juggle meetings and high-impact work, Product managers overwhelmed by cross-tool follow-ups, Remote workers struggling to maintain boundaries. Plans from $14/mo.
What's new in Sunsama
Checked 3 days agoAcross the latest 3 updates: 3 feature updates.
How to Avoid Burnout at Work and Reclaim Your Energy
Sunsama article on burnout prevention: early signs, time-blocking, shutdown rituals, and setting boundaries.
The Hybrid Worker's Focus Problem: Why You're Getting 30% Less Deep Work
Sunsama discusses why hybrid work reduces deep work by 30% and offers a system to protect focus.
Sunsamagotchi: A Reflection on Focus and Simplicity
Sunsama introduces Sunsamagotchi, a minimalist device that turns your top task into a tactile reminder.
Viability Score
How well maintained and how widely used is Sunsama? Built from what the vendor actually publishes (docs, changelog, tutorials, integrations, pricing), whether the site is live, and how much real users discuss it. How we calculate this
Last calculated: August 2026
How we score →Key Features
- Timebox tasks directly on your calendar
- Auto-schedule tasks into open time slots
- Guided daily planning ritual
- Shutdown routine to end the day intentionally
- Pomodoro timer for focused work
- Weekly objectives and goal tracking
- Bi-directional calendar sync (Google, Outlook, Apple)
- Pull tasks from Asana, Trello, Jira, and more
- Convert Slack and Teams messages into tasks
- Drag emails from Gmail into your task list
- Focus mode with distraction-free view
- Daily and weekly time analytics
- Zapier integration for 9,000+ apps
- SOC2 compliance and SSO/SAML (enterprise)
- AI + MCP integration
About Sunsama
Sunsama is a daily planner for modern professionals—designers, engineers, executives, product managers, marketers, and operations leaders—who feel overwhelmed by chaotic schedules, constant interruptions, and endless to-dos. It merges task management, calendar, and goal setting into one focused workflow, helping you plan each day with intention, stay focused, and end work on time feeling accomplished. The core of Sunsama is timeboxing: you drag tasks from your project management tools directly onto your calendar, so you always know what fits today. Auto-scheduling fills available slots, and a guided daily planning ritual helps you align goals, prioritize, and set a realistic workload. Throughout the day, focus mode, Pomodoro timers, and automatic break reminders keep you on track, while a shutdown routine and daily highlights let you finish the day with clarity and without guilt. Sunsama unifies your work across tools. It syncs bi-directionally with Google, Outlook, and Apple Calendar, and pulls tasks from Asana, ClickUp, GitHub, Jira, Linear, Monday.com, Notion, Todoist, Trello, and more. It also converts Slack and Microsoft Teams messages into actionable tasks, and you can drag emails from Gmail and Outlook into your plan. For automation, Zapier connects 9,000+ apps, and AI + MCP integration extends customization. Unlike general project management suites like Asana or Jira, Sunsama is purpose-built for personal planning and burnout prevention. Named Best Scheduling Tool by Wirecutter, it offers a 14-day free trial with no credit card required. With SOC 2 compliance and enterprise features like SAML/SSO, it's ready for serious workplaces. In 2025, Sunsama expanded its ecosystem with Sunsamagotchi, a minimalist hardware device that turns your top task into a tactile reminder, reinforcing focus and simplicity. This positions Sunsama not just as software, but as a lifestyle tool for structured planning with rituals at its core.
Behind the Verdict
Sunsama is not another to-do list. It's a daily planning system that forces you to put tasks on a calendar. That's the whole pitch, and for the right person it's transformative. The guided daily ritual—plan in the morning, shut down at night—is the secret sauce. If you're the type who says 'I'll just write a list' and then never looks at it again, Sunsama will feel like a life raft. The timeboxing is brutal in the best way: it shows you exactly what won't fit, so you stop lying to yourself about how much you can do. Where it bites: Sunsama is expensive. At $17/month billed yearly (or $22 monthly), it's a serious investment for individuals. There's no free tier, only a 14-day trial. If you're a student or saving pennies, that's a hard pill. Also, if you're looking for shared project management—dependencies, team boards, Gantt charts—this is the wrong tool. Sunsama is personal planning, not team coordination. You'll still need Asana or Jira for that. The closest alternative is Akiflow, which does timeblocking too. But Sunsama's rituals are more baked in. Akiflow feels more like a power-user tool with keyboard shortcuts, while Sunsama feels like a coach. The Wirecutter nod confirms it: for pure scheduling discipline, Sunsama wins. In practice, the money is worth it if you actually adopt the rituals. The Pomodoro timer, auto-breaks, and shutdown routine are the reason people pay. If you're going to treat Sunsama as a fancy task list, it's pointless—the value is in committing to the structure. The Sunsamagotchi hardware gadget is a cute extra, but it won't change the game by itself. For hybrid workers struggling with focus—and Sunsama's own blog posts confirm the 30% deep work loss—this tool directly addresses that. If you're an exec or PM juggling cross-tool
Researching Sunsama? Get your full AI stack in 60 seconds.
Free, no signup — tell us your goal and get tools matched to your budget & existing stack.
Real-world workflow fit
Concrete scenarios for the personas Sunsama actually fits — and what changes day-one when you adopt it.
You start your day by opening Sunsama's daily planning ritual. It pulls your Jira tasks, converts relevant Slack messages into tasks, and drags emails from Gmail. You drag the three most important items onto your calendar for the day, auto-scheduling them into open slots. You set Pomodoro timers during deep work and mark them complete. At the end of the day, you run the shutdown routine, log your
Outcome: You end the day feeling accomplished, with a clear record of what you did and what's next, and you've reduced context switching.
You use Sunsama to unify your business and personal tasks. Each morning, you pull tasks from Notion and Todoist, and your Apple Calendar events appear in the same view. You timebox client work and personal errands into the day, ensuring a balanced schedule. The focus mode and Pomodoro timer help you bill hours accurately, and the daily analytics show you how much time you spent on each client.
Outcome: You have a single source of truth for your day, and you're able to complete client work and personal tasks without conflict.
Use Cases
- Run a 15-minute daily planning ritual that pulls tasks from Jira, Linear, and Gmail into one ordered day.
- Time-block a deep-work morning and a meeting-heavy afternoon with explicit estimates per task.
- End each day with a guided shutdown to log wins, blockers, and tomorrow's top three.
- Weekly review that surfaces what got pushed and what consistently overflows.
- Onboard remote team members by aligning their weekly objectives and daily plans in shared view.
- Reduce context switching by converting Slack/Teams messages into actionable tasks in your plan.
- Use Pomodoro timers to maintain flow during deep work sessions within your timeboxed blocks.
- Track time analytics to optimize workload and energy levels over weeks.
Models Under the Hood
as of 2026-08-15
Limitations
- Sunsama requires a paid subscription after a 14-day free trial (no credit card required), with the Pro Plan priced at $17 per month billed yearly or $22 per month billed monthly.
- The product is opinionated by design, centered on a daily planning ritual and timeboxing tasks on a calendar.
- AI features are present but described only as part of the Pro Plan's 'AI + MCP + Zapier' inclusion, with no advanced AI capabilities detailed in the evidence.
- Enterprise plans are available with custom security, compliance, and integration needs.
as of 2026-08-01
Verification history
We have re-verified Sunsama 16 times since . Each pass re-reads the vendor's own pages and re-checks every listed field against that evidence; passes where nothing had changed are marked as such.
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
Showing the 6 most recent of 16 verification passes.
Free to cite with attribution — this page re-verifies continuously.
12-month cost
Project the real annual outlay, including the implied monthly cost when only an annual tier is published.
Vendor list price only. Add-on usage, seat overages, and contract minimums are surfaced under Hidden costs & gotchas.
Plans compared
For each published Sunsama tier: who it actually fits, and what it adds vs. the previous tier. Cross-reference the cost calculator above for projected annual outlay.
Free trial
$0 for 14 days
Pro Yearly
$17/mo (billed yearly)
Ideal for
Individual professionals and solo workers who are committed to the daily planning ritual and want to save ~23% compared to monthly billing.
What this tier adds
Starting tier with unlimited usage and integrations; billed annually at $17/month, offering significant savings over monthly.
Pro Monthly
$22/mo
Ideal for
Professionals who want to try Sunsama without a year-long commitment or prefer flexible month-to-month billing.
What this tier adds
Same features as Pro Yearly but billed monthly at $22/month; no annual savings.
Enterprise
Contact Us
Ideal for
Organizations that need advanced security, compliance, and admin controls, such as SSO/SAML, SCIM, and audit logs.
What this tier adds
Adds SSO & SAML, SCIM + Audit Logs, custom privacy and data requirements, and custom integration/billing needs on top of Pro features.
Where the pricing makes sense
The company stage and team size where Sunsama's pricing actually pencils out — and where peers do it cheaper.
Sunsama's $17/month (billed yearly) is priced for individual professionals and small teams who value a structured planning system. It's cheaper than hiring a productivity coach but more expensive than basic to-do apps like Todoist (free tier) or any.do (under $5/month). Compared to timeboxing-focused tools like Motion (around $19-34/month), Sunsama is competitively priced. Enterprises will need custom quotes with SSO and audit logs.
Setup time & first value
How long it actually takes to get something useful out of Sunsama — broken out by persona, not the marketing-page minute.
Individual professionals can start planning within minutes: connect your calendar and task apps in about 5 minutes, and complete your first daily plan in 15-20 minutes. For teams requiring SSO and compliance, budget additional time for IT approval—typically a few days to a week. The 14-day free trial is enough to establish the daily planning habit.
Switching to or from Sunsama
How to bring data in from common predecessors and how to get it back out — written for the switcher, not the buyer.
- →From Todoist: Export your tasks as CSV, then import them into Sunsama; or manually recreate projects using Sunsama's task creation features.
- →From Trello: Move cards by exporting the board and importing into Sunsama, or reference Trello boards via the integration.
- →From Notion: Use the Notion integration to pull tasks directly; for detailed notes, consult the Sunsama import guides for CSV mapping.
- ↗To Any.do: Export your task list from Sunsama as CSV and import into Any.do's task manager.
- ↗To TickTick: Use CSV export from Sunsama to import tasks into TickTick's list and calendar views.
Integrations
Resources & Guides
Official links
Featured Head-to-Head Comparisons
Reclaim Ai vs Sunsama
Choose Reclaim.ai if you want AI to automatically schedule and protect your deep work, meetings, and habits, and you manage a team. Choose Sunsama if you prefer a manual, ritual-based daily planning approach to balance work and personal time as an individual. Reclaim is better for teams using Asana/Jira; Sunsama excels for knowledge workers seeking intentional daily structure.
Asana vs Sunsama
If your team needs AI-native project coordination with shared memory and enterprise governance, Asana is a powerhouse with its Spring 2026 release. If you are an individual professional focused on daily intentional planning and work-life balance, Sunsama’s guided rituals and calendar timeboxing win. Choose based on scale and focus: complex team workflows vs. personal productivity.
Akiflow vs Sunsama
If you want a structured, ritual-based daily planner with deep task integration and a shutdown routine for work-life balance, Sunsama at $16/mo is the better value. But if you prefer an AI-first, auto-scheduling approach that learns your preferences and handles rescheduling, Akiflow’s recent 2.76 update (Schedule Optimizer, MCP server) makes it the more powerful choice—at a higher price.
Popular in Calendar & Scheduling
Frequently Asked Questions
Categories
Best-of guides
Topics
Used Sunsama? Help shape our editorial sentiment research.