Motion vs Sunsama

Updated October 2026 · AppBreakup editorial

Motion

An AI planner that automatically schedules tasks and projects into the gaps in your calendar.

Paid

Visit Motion Motion profile

Sunsama

A daily planner that walks you through planning each day from your tasks and calendar.

Paid

Visit Sunsama Sunsama profile

The short answer

Both put your tasks on your calendar, but they disagree on who does the planning. Motion's AI schedules and reschedules tasks for you automatically. Sunsama guides you through a short daily ritual where you choose the work, estimate it and drag it into place. Pick Motion if you want hands-off scheduling and team projects; pick Sunsama if you want a calmer, deliberate planning habit.

Motion or Sunsama: our take

Motion treats planning as an optimisation problem. You give it tasks with deadlines, durations and priorities, and it fills free time on your Google or Microsoft calendar, moving things when meetings shift or work overruns. It has expanded into projects, docs, notes, an AI meeting notetaker, workflows and reports, which suits small teams that want planning and execution in one tool. The results depend on accurate estimates, and the expanding feature set adds a learning curve.

Sunsama keeps you in charge. Each morning it walks you through picking tasks, pulling them from tools such as Asana, Trello, Jira, Linear, Notion, Todoist, GitHub, Gmail and Slack, estimating them and dragging them onto your Google or Outlook calendar. It warns when you have planned more than your working hours allow, and an evening shutdown routine rolls unfinished work forward. Weekly planning, focus mode and objectives keep the bigger picture visible. Its mobile apps are lighter than the desktop app.

Neither has a free plan. Motion's Pro AI plan is $19 per seat/month and Business AI $29 per seat/month, with a free trial. Sunsama has a single Pro plan at $17/month billed yearly or $22/month billed monthly, after a 14-day trial with no card. Both run on the web, desktop and mobile; Sunsama also has a Linux app.

Choose Motion if your days are full of shifting meetings and you would rather an algorithm keep your schedule realistic, or if your team needs shared projects. Choose Sunsama if you are an individual who wants to plan intentionally and avoid overcommitting, and you value the routine as much as the schedule.

Choose Motion if…

People and small teams who want an AI to plan their tasks around meetings automatically
Automatically schedules and reshuffles tasks
Projects, docs and meeting notes in the same tool

Choose Sunsama if…

Knowledge workers who want a guided daily planning and shutdown routine
You need Linux, which Motion doesn't list
Guided daily and weekly planning rituals
Pulls tasks from many work tools

What is Motion?

Motion is best known for its AI calendar: you add tasks with deadlines, durations and priorities, and Motion places them into free time on your calendar, rescheduling automatically when meetings move or work runs over. Over time it has grown into a broader work suite with projects, docs, notes, an AI meeting notetaker, workflows and reports, aimed at individuals and small teams who want planning and execution in one place. It connects to Google and Microsoft calendars and runs on the web, Mac and Windows desktops, iOS and Android. Pricing is per seat per month in AI-focused tiers that include monthly AI credits, with a free trial you can cancel in one click; there is no permanent free plan. The automatic scheduling can feel like magic when your task list is accurate and frustrating when it isn't, and the expanding feature set means a steeper learning curve than simpler calendars or planners.

What is Sunsama?

Sunsama is a calm, ritual-based planner. Each morning it guides you through choosing what to work on, pulling tasks from tools like Asana, Trello, Jira, Linear, Notion, Todoist, GitHub, Gmail and Slack, estimating how long they'll take, and dragging them onto your Google or Outlook calendar as time blocks. It warns when you've planned more than your working hours allow, and an evening shutdown routine helps you review the day and roll unfinished work forward. Weekly planning and review, focus mode, timeboxing and objectives help keep the bigger picture in view, and there are AI and MCP features for power users. There is deliberately no free plan: after a 14-day trial without a card, there is one Pro plan billed monthly or at a lower yearly rate. It runs on Mac, Windows, Linux, the web and mobile. Fans love the mindful approach, though the price is high for a personal planner and the mobile apps are lighter than the desktop app.

Side by side

Attribute	Motion	Sunsama
Pricing	Paid	Paid
Open source	No	No
Self-hostable	No	No
Platforms	Web, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android	Web, macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android
Best for	People and small teams who want an AI to plan their tasks around meetings automatically	Knowledge workers who want a guided daily planning and shutdown routine
Status	Active	Active