Sunsama Alternative

Why FocusBox is a Sunsama alternative

Sunsama made the daily planning ritual popular: every morning you pull tasks in, check them against the time you actually have, and every evening you close the day on purpose. It works for a lot of people. The catch is the price. Sunsama is $22 a month, or $17 a month billed yearly, and it has no free plan. FocusBox runs the same rituals, adds AI help for breaking work down, and costs $8 a month, or $60 a year, with a free plan to start on.

What stays the same

A guided plan for the day

Plan My Day walks you through the same steps: pick what goes on today, estimate each task, put them in order, and commit. FocusBox shows the plan against the daily capacity you set and flags it when you go over, so an eight hour list does not quietly land on a four hour day.

A shutdown at the end of it

The Daily Shutdown shows what you finished and moves anything unfinished to tomorrow, so nothing is left hanging overnight. An optional evening email recaps the day.

A weekly review

Once a week FocusBox asks you to look back and set a few intentions for the week ahead, which then show up at the top of each morning plan.

Your calendar and your tools

FocusBox reads your Google Calendar so tasks are planned around your meetings, and can write the plan back as calendar blocks. Tasks come in from Todoist, Asana, ClickUp, Notion and Jira.

What FocusBox adds

AI that turns a goal into tasks

Type a goal, or dump everything on your mind into one box, and FocusBox breaks it into small tasks with time estimates and drafts a day from them. This is the part that helps most on mornings when starting is the hard bit, and it is why FocusBox is built with ADHD in mind.

A timer built in

Every task has its own timer, with Pomodoro cycles and automatic breaks, a full screen focus mode and ambient sounds. The plan and the timer are the same screen, so you go straight from deciding to doing.

Where Sunsama is the better choice

Sunsama connects to Google, Outlook and Apple calendars and syncs both ways, while FocusBox works with Google Calendar only. Sunsama can turn emails and Slack or Teams messages into tasks, and it connects to more tools, including Linear, GitHub, Trello and Microsoft To Do. It has desktop apps and an Android app; FocusBox runs on the web, on iPhone and as a Chrome extension. If your day is driven by email and several calendars, Sunsama fits that better. If you mainly need a calm plan, help getting started and a timer to work through it, FocusBox does that for less.

Price comparison

• Sunsama: $22 a month billed monthly, or $17 a month billed yearly. 14 day free trial, no free plan.
• FocusBox: free plan with 3 projects, 5 completed tasks and 2 AI credits a month. Pro is $8 a month, or $60 a year, with no task or project limits and 50 AI credits a month.

Sunsama prices are from sunsama.com/pricing on 24 September 2026.

FAQ on FocusBox vs Sunsama

Does FocusBox have a daily planning ritual like Sunsama?

Yes. Plan My Day covers choosing, estimating, ordering and committing to the day, and the Daily Shutdown closes it. Both can be switched off or rescheduled in the Rituals settings.

Is FocusBox free?

There is a free plan with limits on projects, completed tasks and AI credits. Pro removes the task and project limits. Sunsama has a trial but no free plan.

Does FocusBox work with Outlook or Apple Calendar?

Not yet. FocusBox connects to Google Calendar only.

Is there an Android app?

Not yet. FocusBox is available on the web, as an iPhone app and as a Chrome extension.

To try it, start on the free plan.