Sunsama vs Ellie: Choosing Your Perfect Daily Planner App

Sunsama and Ellie Planner are two different productivity apps that help you achieve a similar goal: better daily planning.

Sunsama has been around for a while now, and they are pretty popular in the productivity space.

Ellie Planner is a one-person project that resonated with countless productivity-seeking individuals, maybe because of its ease of use and the essential yet limited features that do the trick.

Now, the two significant questions are

1. “How are they different?”
2. “Which one should you pick?”

That’s what this comparison guide is all about.

By the end of this article, I can promise you one thing—you won’t be going home by yourself.

Sunsama vs. Ellie Summary

Sunsama and Ellie are productivity apps focused on daily planning. Sunsama is more established, while Ellie is a newer, one-person project. Both aim to improve daily planning and time management.

• Sunsama is better for individuals/teams needing extensive planning features and integrations.
• Ellie is ideal for those preferring simplicity and essential functionality.
• Both apps effectively assist in daily planning and time management.

Sunsama Overview

Sunsama is a beautiful daily planner app that connects your tasks, projects, and calendars. It guides you into planning your day to achieve work-life balance and avoid burnout.

One of the most appreciated things about Sunsama is its Guided Daily/Weekly Planning features.

It’s a handholding approach to help you plan your day or week one step at a time.

The end result?

For one, the absence of anxiety.

Sunsama lets you see exactly how many hours you’ll be working for the day and at what time you can wind down and relax.

And it’s all realistic. If you start adding a lot of tasks, your daily planning calendar will tell you, “dude, chill up. That’s a lot for the day. Move the less urgent tasks to the future”.

Not literally, but you get the idea.

That brings me to their task planning.

You can drag and drop your tasks into your connected calendars (Google and Outlook) and perform efficient timeboxing.

There’s also a Focus Mode and a Pomodoro Timer for when you decide to get into the zone and complete a certain task.

Sunsama integrates with apps like:

• Asana
• ClickUp
• Monday
• Notion
• Todoist
• Gmail
• Etc.

You can bring content from each of these apps and convert it into an actionable task inside Sunsama.

Sunsama Platform Availability

• Web app.
• Mobile app: Android and iOS (iPhone and iPad).
• Desktop app: Windows and macOS.

Ellie Overview

Ellie is a simple daily planner which is like Sunsama in some ways and different in others.

For instance, Ellie also has a Ritual feature that allows you to conduct daily planning.

The difference?

Ellie is easier to use than Sunsama because of its focus on a few essential features that do an excellent job.

Ellie also has a Brain Dump feature that allows you to capture ideas on the go on any device (Ellie works on the web, Mac, Windows, and iOS).

When it comes to timeboxing, Ellie connects with all the three big players:

1. Google Calendar
2. Outlook Calendar
3. and Apple Calendar.

Like Sunsama, you can drag and drop tasks to Ellie’s calendar for time blocking.

Ellie’s Analytics breaks down how you spend your time with helpful data and charts.

Ellie has far less integration capabilities than Sunsama. Besides calendars, it only connects with Slack and Zapier, as of writing this.

Ellie Platform Availability

• Web app.
• Mobile app: iOS (iPhone and iPad).
• Desktop app: Windows and macOS.

Now that you have a fair idea of what both Sunsama and Ellie can do, let’s explore their features at length.

Ease of Use

Sunsama and Ellie are known for their ease of use, which also makes them an attractive option for those with ADHD.

Yet, which one is the easiest to use?

Let’s start with Sunsama.

Sunsama has a clean, modern, and highly intuitive user interface that is easy to navigate. The layout is well-organized, with clear sections for tasks, calendar, email, and more.

Sunsama supports a wide range of keyboard shortcuts to boost productivity.

Sunsama’s Command Palette, accessible via a keyboard shortcut, enables users to quickly search for actions, jump to different areas, and toggle settings.

Ellie also offers a pleasing user experience. The layout is straightforward, with clear sections for tasks, calendars, and other features.

Adding tasks to a calendar in Ellie is effortless thanks to their drag-and-drop functionality. This is something also available in Sunsama.

Ellie also comes with a bunch of keyboard shortcuts that make it easy for you to navigate and trigger actions.

Guided Daily Planning

Sunsama and Ellie both focus on daily planning and time management.

While they share some similarities in their guided daily planning features, there are also notable differences between the two.

Sunsama’s Guided Daily Planning

Sunsama’s guided daily planning flow consists of three main steps:

1. Picking tasks to work on: This involves pulling in meetings, tasks from project management tools, and messages from email and Slack that require additional work.
2. Deferring non-essential work: Sunsama helps you identify tasks that can wait and removes them from your daily plan.
3. Ordering your work: The final step involves arranging your tasks in a logical order and estimating the time required for each one.

Sunsama’s guided planning helps you create a focused, intentional, and achievable list of work for the day.

It, as briefly discussed earlier, integrates with various tools like Gmail and Slack to pull in relevant tasks and messages.

Ellie’s Guided Daily Planning

Ellie’s daily planning approach is centered around a “brain dump” feature that allows you to offload tasks and free up mental space.

It offers a simple, yet powerful interface for time-blocking and visualizing your day.

Key features of Ellie’s daily planning include:

• Time blocking: Drag tasks from the Kanban view into your calendar to visualize your day.
• Recurring tasks: Useful for morning/night routines and other rituals.
• Analytics: Combined with the built-in time tracker, you can visualize how you spend your time.

Ellie aims to provide a straightforward daily planning experience, with a focus on simplicity and ease of use.

My opinion:

If daily planning is your critical priority, go with Sunsama.

This is not only because Sunsama does it better but also because of its wider scope. Sunsama also offers additional planning and reflection features like daily shutdown, weekly planning, and weekly review.

Task Management

Let’s start with Sunsama.

It’s a task management powerhouse that pulls in tasks from all over the place – Trello, Asana, Gmail, you name it.

I’ve found this feature to be a real game-changer, especially if you’re juggling multiple projects or clients.

Ellie, on the other hand, keeps things simple but effective. It’s got a Kanban-style task board that’s all about organizing your day.

However, one thing to note here is that on the surface, Sunsama and Ellie’s task management dashboard looks almost the same.

Given that Sunsama was founded early, it seems Sunsama inspired Ellie’s design.

Things start to be different when you click on it for additional details.

Turns out Sunsama has a lot more task management options than Ellie.

For context, this is what Sunsama’s task details look like:

And this is Ellie’s:

Now, one thing to note here is that Ellie offers all the essential and useful features.

We have:

• task name and date
• estimated time required to complete the task
• actual time with a timer
• task label
• recurring task option
• notes and subtasks.

This is great.

Sunsama takes it to another level by introducing Focus Mode inside your tasks.

It helps you work and collaborate on a specific task without any distractions.

Inside Focus Mode, you also have a Pomodoro Timer if you wish to go forward with a work-break approach.

And you heard it right, Sunsama also allows you to invite team members and work together on a task.

This is something that Ellie does not offer as it focuses on individual productivity.

Calendar Integration

I have some great news for you if you use third-party calendar apps like Google Calendar or Outlook Calendar.

Sunsama and Ellie play nice with these calendar apps by allowing you to connect and sync them inside their interface.

Any updates made to your calendar in Sunsama and Ellie will automatically sync to your connected Google or Outlook calendar, and vice versa.

You can drag and drop tasks directly onto your calendar in Sunsama and Ellie to block off time for focused work.

Both of them even allow you to view your calendars based on different filters like:

• Day
• Week
• Month
• Etc.

Third-party Integrations

When it comes to third-party integrations, Sunsama wins.

Sunsama has a pretty impressive lineup of integrations, covering popular tools like Zoom, Notion, Jira, ClickUp, Trello, Asana, Todoist, Outlook, and Gmail.

This allows you to pull in tasks and events from all your favorite apps into one centralized dashboard.

However, Sunsama seems to be a bit more selective with their integrations. They’ve focused on the most popular productivity apps, rather than trying to integrate with everything under the sun.

This makes the experience feel a bit more curated and intentional.

On the other hand, Ellie Planner has a more limited set of native integrations – mainly with Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Slack (Notion and Todoist integration coming soon).

Analytics

When it comes to productivity apps, the analytics features can make all the difference.

Let’s dive into how Sunsama and Ellie stack up in this crucial department.

I’ve found Sunsama’s analytics to be insightful but limited.

The bar chart breaks down how you’re spending your time across different days.

Ellie’s analytics is a bit more advanced and useful.

For one, there’s a filter to see data for a specific timeframe, if you want.

Then, there are separate clear sections to view your progress.

I am talking about data for:

• Tasks completed
• Actual vs. estimated time taken
• Tasks by label
• And much more.

In my experience, Ellie does a better job at displaying your historical performance.

Pricing And Plans

Sunsama offers two subscription options:

• Monthly Subscription: $20 per user per month.
• Annual Subscription: $192 per user per year ($16 per month).

They also have a 14-day free trial, which is great for testing out the app before committing. For Squeeze Growth readers, Sunsama even offers a 30-day free trial.

Ellie Planner has a different approach:

• Free Plan: Unlimited tasks, brain dump, and basic features.
• Ellie Pro Plan: $9.99 per month or $299.99 for a one-time purchase.

The Pro plan unlocks additional features like time blocking, calendar integration, and more advanced task management.

Planner Perfection: Choosing Between Sunsama and Ellie

We’ve taken quite the journey through the lands of Sunsama and Ellie, haven’t we?

Let’s break it down one last time.

Sunsama’s got a wider range of integrations, a Focus Mode that’ll make you feel like you’re in a productivity bubble, and even lets you collaborate with your team.

On the flip side, we’ve got Ellie. It’s the cool, minimalist friend who knows exactly what you need without all the extra bells and whistles.

Its brain dump feature is a godsend for those of us with minds that never seem to shut up. It has better analytics too.

So, pick your poison.

Sunsama if you want the Ferrari of planners, Ellie if you prefer a Toyota Corolla (reliable, gets the job done, won’t break the bank).