Motion vs Sunsama
A source-aware comparison of pricing, documented capabilities and workflow fit.
Short answer
- Price: not directly comparable — Motion is pricing not verified, Sunsama is pricing not verified.
- How to start: both are pricing not verified.
- Where they differ: only Motion has public api and sso (saml); both offer mobile app.
These lines are generated from the pricing we track, not from a paid placement. How we score tools.
What Motion is
What Motion isMotion schedules your tasks into real calendar slots automatically and reshuffles when things change. Handing scheduling to the software is the point: tasks land in real slots and move themselves when a meeting appears. You give up control of your own calendar to do it, and the price sits well above ordinary task apps.
What Sunsama is
What Sunsama isSunsama walks you through planning each day, pulling tasks from your other tools and forcing a realistic time estimate. The daily planning ritual is the product: it forces an estimate and a realistic list before the day starts. That deliberate friction is exactly why some people stay and others leave within a week.
Side by side
| Motion | Sunsama | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Productivity | Productivity |
| How to start | Not verifiednot a monthly price | Not verifiednot a monthly price |
| Public API | Yes | No |
| Mobile app | Yes | Yes |
| Open source / self-hostable | No | No |
| SSO (SAML) | Yes | No |
| Visit | Motion ↗ | Sunsama ↗ |
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What Motion is built to do
- Automatic scheduling
- Places tasks into open calendar slots and reshuffles on change.
- Meeting booking
- Offers booking links that respect scheduled task time.
- Project deadlines
- Works backwards from a deadline to schedule the work needed.
What Sunsama is built to do
- Guided daily planning
- Walks through choosing and estimating the day's work each morning.
- Task import
- Pulls tasks from issue trackers, mail and project tools into one list.
- Timeboxing
- Places chosen tasks on the calendar with duration estimates.
Choose Motion if
- People with more tasks than hours who want the calendar decided for them.
Choose Sunsama if
- Professionals who want a guided daily planning ritual and can pay about a dollar per workday
- People who commit yearly: $17/month billed annually versus $25 monthly
- Teams that want shared planning; each member is priced the same
Skip Sunsama if
- You want a free plan — there is none, only a 14-day trial
- $25 a month is too much for a planner when your calendar app already suffices
- You need SSO or SCIM without an enterprise contract
Evidence and freshness
Where a claim on this page comes from a vendor page, it is linked here.
Motion: pros & cons
- Turns a task list into an actual plan
- Reschedules automatically when meetings move
- Combines tasks, calendar and projects
- Expensive for an individual
- Automatic scheduling can feel rigid
- Learning to trust it takes time
Sunsama: pros & cons
- Daily planning ritual that actually sticks
- Pulls tasks from many sources
- Encourages honest time estimates
- Expensive for a personal planner
- The ritual takes time every morning
- Not a team tool
Our verdict on Motion
Effective if you accept its decisions. Fighting the scheduler defeats the purpose.
Our verdict on Sunsama
The guided planning is the product. If you will not do the ritual, do not buy it.
Motion vs Sunsama: common questions
- What is the difference between Motion and Sunsama?
- On the criteria we check, only Motion has public api and sso (saml); both offer mobile app. The table above lists every criterion side by side.