A Sunsama Alternative With a Free Plan, for Work and Life

You tried Sunsama because the mornings felt calmer: a few quiet minutes, a plan that fit the hours you had, an evening where work actually ended. Then the trial ran out, or you noticed the walk and the reading were just more tasks, with no goal behind them.

If you are searching for a Sunsama alternative, this guide gives Sunsama fair credit first, then shows a planner that is free to start and keeps your goals beside your tasks.

Is Sunsama worth it?

For many people, yes: if your days are mostly work spread across tools, and the morning ritual is what keeps you calm, it earns its price. Sunsama calls itself “The only task manager, calendar, and daily planner for modern professionals.” Each morning you “Plan your day using a step-by-step routine.” You decide how long each task should take, and you “Schedule your tasks to your calendar.” At the end of the day, a shutdown helps you “End work on time, without guilt”.

The research backs it: a specific plan for an unfinished goal quiets the nagging feeling that you are forgetting something.

Around the ritual, Sunsama does a lot more. It pulls tasks in from tools like Asana, Trello and Jira, and “Sunsama bi-directionally syncs with all your calendars.” Its planning agent, in beta, drafts your day for you to review, adjust or undo. It has Pomodoro timers and weekly objectives. And it listens: “Click the microphone button in the Sunny panel to talk to Sunny verbally instead of typing.”

Why look for a Sunsama alternative?

The first reason is price, and Sunsama is open about it. “Sunsama doesn't have a free forever plan and doesn't plan to.” Its reason, in its own words, is a fair one: “Free plans create bad incentives”. After a 14-day trial with no card needed, you pay or you leave.

The second reason is scope. Sunsama is built for the workday, though it takes personal chores too, and its goals are weekly objectives: “Set and track weekly goals to focus on what truly matters”. It is a different job from a goal like 10,000 steps a day, or saving for a trip by June, where you want a number, a date, and a habit that moves it.

A plan made only of tasks also cannot show that one missed day is not the end of a habit, and research on how habits form says it is not.

What should a Sunsama alternative do?

Before you try all the apps like Sunsama, decide what the move is for. Most lists of Sunsama alternatives are other work planners, and if you want the same workday ritual, start there. If you want help with your whole day, a good Sunsama alternative should:

• Be free to start and free to stay, so a trial ending is not the end.
• Keep the daily plan, with your tasks, calendar and focus in one place.
• Hold goals with a number and a date, and the habits that move them.
• Count habits in a way that survives a bad day, so a miss is a dent, not a reset.
• Let you talk it through, and ask before it changes anything.

That is what Ranya was built for. Your tasks live on boards, every dated task shows on your calendar, and Focus covers the hours you work. Goals cover Health, Wealth, Relationships or any part of your life, with the habits that move them and a daily brief. It runs on the web, your phone, Mac, Windows and Linux, and you can call Ranya from any page and plan your day out loud.

Sunsama vs Ranya: how do they compare?

Sunsama’s side comes from its own pages, checked on October 27, 2026, and its pricing page has the prices. Ranya’s side matches the live product that day.

What does Sunsama do better?

Sunsama is the better choice if:

• Your work lives in Asana, Trello, Jira or Slack, and you want it all pulled into one daily list.
• You want your planner to write changes back to Google or Outlook.
• You want a guided, step by step routine each morning, an evening shutdown, and a look at where your time actually went.
• You want an app installed from an app store.

Weighing an AI planner too? See how Ranya compares with Motion.

How to plan your day in Ranya

1. Get it out of your head

   There is no importer, so bring over only this week. On any page, press ⌘JCommand J, type a task and press Enter (on a phone, tap More, then Task). It lands in your Inbox.

   Open the Inbox (on a phone, tap More, then Inbox) and tap the sparkle beside + (Suggest boards). Each task gets a board you can accept with a tick, and Move all to their boards moves the lot, with Undo.

   Add to Inbox: Book the car service

   ⌘J

2. Set one goal and the habit that moves it

   Open Goals (on a phone, tap More, then Goals) and set one goal with a number and a date, then the habit that moves it. Log the habit with one tap, or say it. Instead of a streak counter, the Habits page shows habit strength: it grows every day you show up, fades slowly when you miss, and never resets to zero. More in a habit tracker without streak guilt.

3. Read your brief

   Once you have a goal, Ranya writes you a brief each day, the first time you open Home: “What changed, one thing worth knowing, and one thing to do today, for each goal.” The goals that need you come first, and the ones on track stay quiet. More in how to stay on track with your goals.

   • 10k steps a day
   • Read 2 books
   • Save $1,000 this month

   HealthSlipping

   10k steps a day

   Walk 10k steps a day · by Oct 31

   Changed

   8,900 steps a day over the last six days, down from 10,400 the week before.

   Spark

   You were about 1,100 steps a day short this week. A 20 minute walk is roughly 2,000 steps, which covers it.

   Why this: your last 14 days of steps.

   Walk 20 minutes after lunch

   Add as task Tell me more

   Was the spark useful?

4. Plan today, then focus

   Open Plan today and pick a few things from what is overdue, due today, pinned, in your Inbox and the habits today still owes. Then start. Blocks run 25, 45 or 60 minutes, or your own rhythm. Each break is headed “Move a little” and suggests a movement, like “Fifteen squats, slow on the way down.” More in how to plan your day.

   12m

   until a break

   Now12m

   Write the quarterly report

   Up next3

   • Book the car service
   • Walk 20 minutes after lunch
   • Read for 20 minutes

   Example focus session. Write the quarterly report is in hand, 12:30 into a 25 minute block, with Book the car service, Walk 20 minutes after lunch, Read for 20 minutes queued.

5. Or plan it out loud

   Tap the Ranya button at the bottom right of any page, or press ⌘⇧,Command Shift Comma. On a phone, tap the Ranya button just above the tab bar, or Call in More, and the call opens full screen. Then say what you need. She reads each change back and waits for your yes, or a tap on Confirm. To give your tasks a time as well, see how to time block your day.

   Ranya

   0:18

   Ranya is asking

   You: Add a task to my Work board to send the invoice.

   Ranya is asking: Create task 'Send the invoice'

   Create task 'Send the invoice'

   CancelConfirm

   MuteEndMinimise

Which should you pick?

Pick Sunsama if your days are mostly work across many tools, and a guided ritual with a shutdown is what keeps you calm. Pick Ranya if you want a planner you can keep for free, with your goals and habits beside your tasks, and a call that asks before it changes anything. See how goals work in Ranya, or see what the free plan includes.

A note on fairness: Ranya is built by one person, who also wrote this post. Every Sunsama fact comes from Sunsama’s own pages, so you can check it.