Motion vs Open Sunsama
We give Motion a 2.6 GPA and Open Sunsama a 3.4, out of 4.0. Motion grades higher on features and platforms. Open Sunsama grades higher on value for money, the free plan and ease of use.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Motion
AI work planner that auto-schedules tasks on your calendar
Open Sunsama
Self-hostable daily planner with time blocking and an MCP server
How we grade them
| 2.6GPAMotionGood | 3.4GPAOpen SunsamaVery good | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CA team seat is $19 a month billed annually, and one person alone pays $29, or $49 month to month. A typical planner is about $7.99. You do get projects, docs and a notetaker for that, but AI use is metered at 7,500 credits a seat each month, and Gantt charts and time tracking need Business AI. | AFree of charge for personal, educational and non-profit use under its license. For-profit companies need an enterprise license, asked for by email, and no price for that is published. |
| Free plan and trial | DNo free plan. There's a 7-day trial, per Motion's App Store listing, but a card is required and it's charged when the trial ends unless you cancel. Motion's terms also say purchases are non-refundable, so set a reminder. | AFor your own planning it's simply free, with no paid tier holding features back. You can use the hosted app or run it on your own server. The site lists no price for the hosted app. |
| Features | AA scheduling engine that places tasks by duration, priority and deadline and rebuilds the plan as the day changes, projects and workspaces, sync with Google, Outlook and iCloud calendars, booking links, a notetaker that drafts action items, and AI chat and docs. That's the whole job and then some. | BA board with a column per day, drag-and-drop time blocking, Google, Outlook and iCloud events alongside, a focus timer that logs real time against your estimate, rollover and repeating tasks. But auto-scheduling, team workspaces and task-app integrations are still on the roadmap. |
| Ease of use | C4.1 from about 1,900 App Store ratings, which is a C on our ladder, with about one rating in six a single star. The scheduling is automatic, but there's a lot of product around it now: projects, docs, credits and two tiers of plan. | BWe have no App Store rating on record for it, so a B is as high as we go. There's a hosted app at opensunsama.com, so Docker is only for people who choose to self-host. Self-hosters work through the web app, as the desktop apps only connect to the hosted one. |
| Platforms and integrations | AWeb, Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android. It connects to Google Calendar, Outlook, iCloud Calendar, Gmail, Zoom, Google Meet, Slack and Zapier. The iCloud connection has a more limited feature set. There's an API, with engineering support for it on Enterprise. | BWeb, Mac, Windows and Linux, with calendar sync, a REST API and an MCP server for Claude, ChatGPT and Cursor. But there's no native phone app yet, so on a phone it's a mobile web app. |
| Best for | letting AI fit your tasks into your calendar | Sunsama-style planning you can host yourself |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Motion and Open Sunsama. How we grade
Where they differ
- Open Sunsama has a free plan. Motion does not, though it has a free trial.
- Only Motion lists iOS and Android apps.
- Only Open Sunsama lists a Linux app.
- Open Sunsama is open source and self-hostable, according to its own site.
- Motion also covers meeting notes, auto-scheduling and booking links.
- Open Sunsama also covers time blocking and kanban boards.
At a glance
| Motion | Open Sunsama | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Free plan |
| Starts at | $19 per seat / month on team plans, billed annually (individuals from $29) | Not published |
| Free plan | None | Free of charge for non-commercial use under its license: personal, educational, non-profit and non-commercial open-source use, plus evaluation. The site states no price for the hosted app. |
| Free trial | 7-day free trial, per Motion's App Store listing. A card is required and is charged when the trial ends unless cancelled. | None listed |
| Web | ||
| macOS | ||
| Windows | ||
| Linux | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Made by | Nexusbird, Inc. | Circo |
| Price read from | usemotion.com | github.com |
| Checked | Oct 4, 2026 | Oct 9, 2026 |
Who each one suits
Motion
- People who want tasks placed on the calendar automatically
- Teams that want tasks, projects, docs and meeting notes in one app
- Deadline-driven work that needs frequent re-planning
Open Sunsama
- People who want Sunsama-style daily planning with code they can read
- Planning a day through Claude, ChatGPT or another MCP client
- Individuals who want to self-host their planner with Docker
Worth knowing
Motion
- There is no free plan. A card is required for the trial, and Motion's terms say purchases are non-refundable.
- One person pays more than a team seat: Pro AI is $29 a month billed annually for an individual, against $19 per seat for teams.
- AI use is metered: 7,500 credits per seat a month on Pro AI and 15,000 on Business AI, with extra credits charged per 100.
- Gantt charts, time tracking, capacity planning and permissions are limited to Business AI.
Open Sunsama
- The license is non-commercial: personal, educational and non-profit use is free, and for-profit companies need an enterprise license with no public price.
- There is no native phone app yet; on a phone it runs as a mobile web app in the browser.
- The desktop apps connect only to opensunsama.com, so a self-hosted install is used through the web app.
- Team workspaces, auto-scheduling and integrations with Linear, GitHub, Jira and Notion are unchecked roadmap items, not shipped features.
Key features
Motion
- Automatic scheduling
- A scheduling engine places tasks into openings on your calendar based on duration, priority and deadlines, and rebuilds the plan as the day changes.
- Tasks and projects
- Tasks sit inside projects and workspaces, and AI can draft a project and its tasks from a description. Timelines and Gantt charts need Business AI.
- Calendar sync
- Connects Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook (Office 365 and Exchange Online) and iCloud Calendar. The iCloud connection has a more limited feature set.
- Booking links
- A shareable link lets other people book meetings based on your real-time availability. You set rules for availability, duration, buffers and limits.
- AI Notetaker
- Captures transcripts from video calls and drafts summaries and action items, which you approve before they become tasks.
- AI Chat and Docs
- A chat interface creates items and searches workspace data, and collaborative docs include AI drafting. AI use draws on the plan's monthly credits.
Open Sunsama
- Kanban board of days
- Tasks sit on a board with a column per day and a backlog. Each task can carry a P0 to P3 priority, a time estimate, subtasks, rich-text notes and attachments.
- Drag-and-drop time blocking
- Dragging a task onto the calendar creates a block linked to that task, and resizing the block sets its length. The calendar has day, 3-day, week and month views.
- Calendar sync
- Events from Google Calendar, Outlook and iCloud appear next to tasks and time blocks, so a day is planned around existing meetings.
- Focus mode and rollover
- Focus mode shows one task with a timer and records actual time against the estimate. Unfinished tasks roll over to the next day, and recurring tasks repeat on their own.
- MCP server for AI agents
- A hosted MCP server with 24 tools lets Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and other MCP clients read the schedule and create or move tasks and time blocks after an OAuth sign-in.
- REST API and self-hosting
- A REST API with scoped API keys covers tasks, time blocks and ideas. The app can be run on your own server with Docker Compose, which starts PostgreSQL, Redis, the API and the web app.
Plans
Motion
Pro AI (teams)$19
per seat / month, billed annually ($29 billed monthly)
AI chat, projects and tasks, calendar and meetings, docs and notes, mobile and desktop apps, and 7,500 AI credits per seat each month.
Business AI (teams)$29
per seat / month, billed annually ($49 billed monthly)
Everything in Pro AI plus capacity planning, dashboards and reports, Gantt charts, time tracking, permissions and 15,000 AI credits per seat.
Pro AI (individuals)$29
per month, billed annually ($49 billed monthly)
The same Pro AI plan bought by one person rather than per seat for a team.
Business AI (individuals)$39
per month, billed annually ($69 billed monthly)
The same Business AI plan bought by one person rather than per seat for a team.
EnterpriseCustom
Everything in Business AI plus custom integrations, API with engineering support, white-glove onboarding and a dedicated solutions engineer.
Open Sunsama
Non-commercial use$0
The license provides the software free of charge for personal, educational, non-profit and non-commercial open-source use, and for evaluation.
Enterprise licenseCustom
Required for commercial use, including for-profit companies running it in production. Requested by email; no price is published.
Ways to pay less
Motion
- Annual discount
Save 33% by paying annually
Motion's pricing page labels annual payment as saving 33%: a Pro AI team seat is $19 a month billed annually against $29 billed monthly.
Open Sunsama
- Nonprofit
Free for non-profit organizations
The license lists non-profit organization use among the permitted uses that are free of charge, while for-profit companies need an enterprise license.
- Education
Free for educational use
Educational use is one of the permitted non-commercial uses that the license provides free of charge.
