Your calendar is packed. Your task list is even more crowded. And it feels like you’re constantly shuffling priorities. Sound familiar? Then you’re probably looking for a tool that doesn’t just track your tasks but actually helps you get them done. Motion and Sunsama both claim they can save your day. But they approach it in completely different ways.
Motion in short
Motion is the AI assistant that assumes you’re too busy to organize your schedule yourself. And honestly, it has a point. The tool automatically places your tasks into your calendar, shifts things around when a meeting runs long, and tries to optimize your day. It’s aimed at teams and individuals who want a smart algorithm to take over the planning. It’s especially popular with people who have ADHD or struggle with decision fatigue. Motion wants to be your execution machine.
Sunsama in short
Sunsama deliberately goes in the opposite direction. This tool wants you to think consciously each day about what you’re going to do. The daily planning ritual isn’t a bug, it’s a feature. You drag tasks onto your calendar, estimate how long things will take, and close out the day by marking what you actually finished. The interface is calm and minimal. It feels more like a journal than a productivity machine. Sunsama is built for people who want control, not automation.
Motion vs. Sunsama: the differences
The fundamental difference? Motion decides for you, Sunsama lets you decide. And that difference shows up everywhere.
Take planning. In Motion, you type in a task, give it a deadline, and the AI automatically finds a spot in your schedule. If a meeting runs over, Motion pushes the rest of your day forward. Get a new urgent task? It gets slotted in immediately. It’s dynamic—sometimes almost too dynamic. You look at your calendar and see tasks sitting at times you’d never have chosen yourself. Sometimes brilliant, sometimes frustrating.
Sunsama works differently. Every morning (or the night before), you manually drag tasks onto your calendar. You choose when something happens. The tool does give suggestions and shows how many hours you’ve already planned, but the choice stays with you. It takes more time, but it also gives you more breathing room. You don’t overload your day because you have to actively think about what’s realistic.
Then there are the integrations. Sunsama clearly wins here. It connects with Todoist, Trello, ClickUp, Notion, Asana, Jira, Gmail, and many more. You can pull tasks from all those tools into Sunsama and plan your day there. Motion mainly integrates with calendars and has its own project management system. If you’re already using other tools for your tasks, Motion becomes an extra layer, while Sunsama acts more like the glue that holds everything together.
Speaking of project management: Motion has more extensive team features. You can create projects, assign tasks to teammates, and see who’s working on what. There’s even a meeting scheduler built in (think something like Calendly). Sunsama is much more of a personal tool. You can see what teammates are planning, but it’s not a full project management system.
The interface is also very different. Motion feels busier, with more buttons, options, and information. It can be a lot to take in. Sunsama leans toward calm and simplicity. Fewer colors, fewer distractions. Some users find that boring, others see it as a relief. It really depends on what you need: maximum functionality or maximum focus.
And then there’s the philosophy. Motion is built around optimization: how do you get as much done as possible? Sunsama is built around intentionality: what do you want to accomplish today? Neither approach is better, but they’re fundamentally different ways of thinking about productivity.
Pricing compared
Neither tool is cheap. Motion costs $ 1 per month with monthly billing, or $ 1 per month if you pay annually. That’s a lot. Especially because there’s no free plan. You can try it free for 7 days, but after that you’ll need to pay. Motion also recently launched an “AI Employees” plan for $ 1 per month, aimed at autonomous workflows.
Sunsama costs $ 1 per month, or $ 1 per month with annual billing. No free plan here either, just a 14‑day trial. It’s a bit cheaper than Motion, but still more than most other task management apps. For comparison: Todoist Pro costs $ 1 per month, TickTick Premium $ 1.40 per month.
Honestly? For individual users, I find both prices on the high side. You’re mostly paying for the philosophy and the focus on intentional work. With Motion, you’re paying for the AI planning. Whether it’s worth the price depends on how much time and mental energy it actually saves you. For teams, Motion can pay for itself if it cuts down on meetings and project chaos. For Sunsama, the value is in the daily ritual—if it keeps you from burning out, it’s worth its weight in gold.
Conclusion
Which one should you pick? That really comes down to one question: do you want a system to think for you, or do you want to stay in control yourself?
Choose Motion if you’ve got a packed schedule with lots of meetings, if you work in a team, or if you struggle with prioritizing. The AI planning works well for people who otherwise get buried in choices. It’s also useful if you often need to reshuffle things because your day doesn’t go as planned.
Choose Sunsama if you get overwhelmed quickly by busy interfaces, if you use multiple tools you want to connect, or if you want to think more intentionally about your day. It’s better for work–life balance because it forces you to be realistic about what actually fits into a day. It’s also nicer if you want more control over when something happens.
Personally, I’d pick Sunsama for individual work and consider Motion if I were on a team with lots of projects. But try both. The free trials exist for a reason. In the end, it’s about which tool helps you not just get more done, but stay calmer doing it.
