Sunsama made the daily plan into a ritual. Pull in tasks from Asana, Gmail and Linear, drag them onto your calendar, then shut the day down with a list of wins. People love it.
What they don’t love is the price. Sunsama is $22 a month billed monthly, or $17 billed yearly, per its pricing page, and there’s no free plan. Plenty of people also find the ritual more structure than they need, or want a tool that plans the day for them.
This guide compares nine Sunsama alternatives on price, AI and the job each does best, all checked on each vendor’s site on October 16, 2026. The first is Context Board, which we make, so weigh the bias. Its Day planner asks your own Claude or Codex to plan the day, for $6 a month at the launch price.
- Context Board is the pick if you use Claude or Codex. Tasks and meetings on one timeline, and Plan my day places your inbox around your meetings using the AI plan you already pay for. Free for 3 days, then $6 a month at the launch price.
- Motion and Reclaim auto-schedule your day and move things when it slips.
- Akiflow and Morgen are the closest to Sunsama’s inbox and time-blocking flow.
- Routine, Structured and Super Productivity have free plans, and Super Productivity is open source.
- Ellie keeps Sunsama’s calm, brain-dump-first feel.
Why people leave Sunsama
Sunsama is a good product. People leave for four reasons.
- Price: $22 a month is more than most people pay for any other single app. The yearly plan brings it to $17, still with no free tier.
- The ritual: the guided morning plan and evening shutdown suit some people and feel like homework to others.
- Manual planning: you drag every task onto the calendar yourself. When a meeting moves, you move everything after it.
- Another AI bill: Sunsama’s Pro plan now lists AI and MCP. If you already pay for Claude or ChatGPT, you may want the planner to use that instead.
Sunsama alternatives compared
| Tool | Best for | Price | Plans your day |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Context Board | Planning with your own Claude or Codex | $6/mo launch price after a 3-day trial | Your agent, when you ask |
| 2. Motion | Auto-scheduling that reshuffles for you | From $19 a seat/mo | Automatically |
| 3. Akiflow | One inbox for every task source | $34/mo, or $19/mo yearly | You, with an assistant |
| 4. Morgen | Calendars and tasks with an AI planner | $30/mo, or $15/mo yearly | AI planner |
| 5. Reclaim.ai | Protecting focus time on Google Calendar | Free Lite, then $12/mo | Automatically |
| 6. Routine | Tasks, calendar and notes in one app | Free, then from $5/mo | AI assistant |
| 7. Ellie Planner | A calm brain dump and timebox | Free to try | ChatGPT or Claude over MCP |
| 8. Structured | A visual timeline on iPhone | Free plan | You |
| 9. Super Productivity | Free, open source and offline | Free | You |
Prices come from each vendor’s own page, read on October 16, 2026, and show monthly billing where the page gives it.
1. Context Board: a day planner your own AI plans
Best for: people who already use Claude, Claude Code, Codex or Cursor and want the planner to use that, not another AI subscription.
Context Board is a web app at board.contextbolt.com. Most people know it as a live dashboard, and one of its board types is a Day planner: today and this week on a timeline, with your tasks and your meetings side by side.
Here’s how a day goes:
- Add tasks fast: type “Invoice Acme Friday 2pm 30m” and it lands on Friday at 2 PM for 30 minutes. “Every Friday” makes it weekly.
- See your meetings: paste your Google Calendar or Outlook calendar’s secret iCal address and your meetings sit on the timeline, read only, refreshed every 30 minutes.
- Plan my day: one button asks your agent to place your inbox in the free gaps around your meetings, with a reason for each. It never moves a task you placed yourself.
- Drag to adjust: move a block, stretch it to change the length, or drag it to another day in the week view.
- End the day: see what got done and move what’s left to tomorrow, off the timeline, ready to plan again. Nothing piles up as overdue.
The difference from Sunsama is where the AI comes from. Plan my day runs on your own Claude Code or Codex plan through a small runner on your computer, set up once with one line. Or it runs on your own Anthropic API key, which stays in your browser. Any agent connected over MCP can plan the day too, so “plan tomorrow on my planner” works from Claude Code or Cursor.
Each task can hold notes, and the phone view shows the day as a list. You can share the planner as a read-only link, or download your tasks as a CSV.
And because it’s Context Board, the planner sits beside everything else you run. A widget shelf holds a focus timer or habits next to the timeline. Another board can show your revenue, traffic and the Claude Code sessions waiting on you, all on the same $6 plan.
Price: free for 3 days, then $6 a month at the launch price. If you join at $6, you keep $6. One plan with every board type, widget and connection.
Verdict: the pick for anyone who lives in Claude or Codex already. Sunsama’s ritual for about a quarter of the price, planned by an AI you already pay for.
2. Motion: auto-scheduling that reshuffles for you
Best for: people who want the planner to decide, and to re-decide when a meeting runs over.
Motion auto-schedules your tasks by deadline and priority, then reshuffles them when your day changes. It has grown into a full workspace with AI chat, docs and projects. Pro AI starts at $19 a seat a month, with 7,500 AI credits per seat, and yearly billing saves a third.
Verdict: the strongest pick if you want hands-off scheduling. Some people find it moves too much, which is the opposite of Sunsama’s calm, and it’s a bigger tool than most solo planners need.
3. Akiflow: one inbox for every task source
Best for: people drowning in tasks from Gmail, Slack, Notion and Linear.
Akiflow pulls tasks from dozens of tools into one inbox, then lets you time-block them on your calendar with keyboard shortcuts. Its Aki assistant and an MCP connector are in Pro. It’s $34 a month billed monthly, or $19 a month billed yearly, with a 7-day trial that needs a card.
Verdict: the closest to Sunsama’s inbox, faster to drive by keyboard. Priced like Sunsama too, on monthly billing.
4. Morgen: calendars and tasks with an AI planner
Best for: people juggling several calendars who want help placing tasks.
Morgen joins your calendars and task tools, and its AI Planner suggests where tasks fit. Pro is $30 a month billed monthly, or $15 billed yearly, with a 14-day trial and no card.
Verdict: a strong calendar-first option, and half Sunsama’s price if you pay yearly.
5. Reclaim.ai: protecting focus time
Best for: people whose real problem is meetings eating the day.
Reclaim sits on Google Calendar and defends time for focus, habits and tasks, moving them as meetings land. The Lite plan is free for one calendar. Starter is $12 a month, or $10 billed yearly. It also connects to Claude over MCP.
Verdict: the best free option if your calendar is the problem. It’s built around focus time rather than a daily task list.
6. Routine: tasks, calendar and notes together
Best for: people who want one app for tasks, meetings and notes.
Routine has a free plan with 250 AI credits and 3 integrations. Personal is $5 a month, and Professional, with meeting notes and agents, is $10.
Verdict: the cheapest all-in-one with a real free plan.
7. Ellie Planner: a calm brain dump
Best for: people who loved Sunsama’s calm and want something simpler.
Ellie starts with a brain dump, then you timebox tasks around your Google, Apple or Outlook events. Unfinished tasks roll over. It’s free to try with no card, and you can plan with ChatGPT or Claude over MCP.
Verdict: the closest in spirit to Sunsama, with less ceremony.
8. Structured: a visual timeline on iPhone
Best for: iPhone and Apple Watch users who think in a timeline.
Structured shows your day as one colorful timeline of tasks and events. There’s a free plan and a paid Pro, and it now has a web app.
Verdict: beautiful and simple on a phone. Light on integrations.
9. Super Productivity: free and open source
Best for: developers who want a free, offline planner with no account.
Super Productivity is free and open source. It runs offline, needs no account, and pulls issues from GitHub, GitLab and Jira, with timeboxing and time tracking built in.
Verdict: the best free pick for a developer. No AI and no polish, but nothing to pay.
Where Sunsama still wins
Sunsama is still the most complete version of the guided daily ritual. It pulls tasks in from Asana, ClickUp, Gmail, Linear, Notion, Slack, Todoist and more, syncs both ways with Google, Outlook and Apple calendars, and has native apps on every platform.
Context Board’s planner does a different job. It reads your calendar rather than writing to it, it plans when you ask rather than on its own, and its tasks live on the board rather than coming in from Gmail or Slack. It’s a web app with a phone view, not a native app. If you need two-way calendar sync and a dozen task imports, Sunsama or Akiflow fits better. If you want a quick plan from the AI you already use, at $6, that’s what the Day planner is for.
How to choose
- You already use Claude, Claude Code or Codex: Context Board, $6 a month at the launch price after a 3-day trial.
- You want the planner to decide for you: Motion or Reclaim.
- Your tasks are spread over many tools: Akiflow.
- You juggle several calendars: Morgen.
- You want free: Routine, Reclaim Lite or Super Productivity.
- You loved Sunsama’s calm: Ellie.
If you build with Claude Code or Codex, the planner pairs well with the board that shows what’s left of each plan. Claude Code vs Codex compares the two, and the AI agent dashboard shows every session waiting on you. Running a launch? The product launch checklist turns into a week of planner tasks.
Try Context Board free for 3 days, pick Day planner, and press Plan my day.