Open Sunsama vs Sunsama

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

Sunsama

• Professionals who want a fixed routine for planning each workday
• Pulling tasks from several work tools into one daily list
• Linux users: desktop apps cover macOS, Windows and Linux

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.

Sunsama

• There is no free plan. Workspace access stops when the 14-day trial ends unless you subscribe.
• The $17 rate requires paying $204 per user for the year; monthly billing is $22 per user.
• SSO, SAML, SCIM and audit logs are limited to the Enterprise plan, which has no public price.
• Workspace data is permanently deleted 30 days after a cancelled subscription ends.

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.

Sunsama

Guided daily planning

A step-by-step routine: review yesterday, add today's tasks, check the predicted workload and set the order. Sunsama can prompt you to start at a set time.

Timeboxing

Drag a task to a time slot, or press X to auto-schedule it. The block shows up in Google, Outlook or iCloud calendar, or on Sunsama's internal calendar.

Tasks from other tools

Bring in work from Asana, Trello, Jira, Linear, Notion, Todoist, Gmail, Slack and others, and plan it alongside tasks created in Sunsama.

Focus mode and Pomodoro

Work on one task at a time with a timer, Pomodoro intervals, break reminders and the option to mute other apps.

Weekly planning and review

A weekly prompt to review where time went and what got done, then set objectives for the week ahead.

AI estimates and channels

Suggests a time estimate and a channel for each new task, based on work you have previously added to Sunsama.

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.

Sunsama

• Pro$17

  per user / month, billed yearly ($204)

  The one self-serve plan: unlimited usage and integrations, AI, MCP and Zapier. $22 per user / month when billed monthly.

• EnterpriseCustom

  Adds SSO and SAML, SCIM, audit logs and custom privacy and data requirements.

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.

Sunsama

• Annual discount

  Save $60 per user with yearly billing

  Sunsama charges $204 per user once a year ($17 per month) on the yearly plan, against $22 per user each month ($264 a year) on monthly billing.

• Education

  Student discount on request

  Actively enrolled college students can email support from a student address to get a discount. It lasts until graduation or four years, whichever comes first.

• Nonprofit

  Non-profit pricing on request

  Sunsama's billing guide says it offers non-profit plans. Organizations apply by sending proof of non-profit status to support.