Sunsama vs Routine: Which App Can 10X Your Output Under $20?

I’ve tried every productivity app under the sun.

I’ve downloaded them, set them up, used them religiously for exactly 2.7 days, and then watched them gather digital dust while I went back to my chaotic life of “urgent” emails marked as unread.

The problem isn’t you.

The problem is that most productivity apps are built by people who think adding more features will somehow fix your life.

Which brings us to Sunsama and Routine – two apps that get it. Well, sort of.

They get it in completely different ways, like two therapists giving you opposite advice that somehow both make sense.

Sunsama is like that friend who tells you to slow down and breathe. The one who asks, “Do you really need to do all this stuff today?” (The answer is usually no, by the way.)

Routine is more like that friend who helps you organize your entire garage in one weekend. They’re not telling you to do less – they’re helping you handle more without losing your mind.

Here’s what’s interesting:

They’re both right. And they’re both wrong. It just depends on what kind of mess your work life is right now.

In this article, I’m going to help you figure out which one is right for you.

TL;DR: Make A Quick Decision

Sunsama and Routine are different. They’re both good. Just not for the same person.

Choose Sunsama ($20/month) if:

• Your problem is doing too much, not too little.
• You want a daily planner that forces you to be realistic.
• You already have tools you like and just need help organizing your day.
• You believe better work comes from better boundaries.

Choose Routine ($12-$15/month) if:

• You’re drowning in different apps and want one system to rule them all.
• You love keyboard shortcuts and markdown.
• You’re willing to climb a learning curve to gain power.
• You need AI that can help you think.

The real difference?

Sunsama helps you work less but better. Routine helps you handle more without losing your mind.

A warning: If you’re looking for a simple to-do list, neither of these is for you. They’re both serious tools for serious work.

Pick Sunsama if you need discipline. Pick Routine if you need power. It’s really that simple.

Sunsama Overview

Sunsama is a minimal daily planner productivity app that emphasizes work-life balance. This is clearly evident in its design and functionality.

Think of it as a thoughtful friend who asks you the right questions each morning.

What’s actually important today?

What are you trying to accomplish this week?

When do you want to stop working?

The magic is in how obvious this seems in retrospect. Of course, we should start each day with intention.

Of course, we should estimate how long things will take. Of course, we should write down our thoughts. But almost nobody does this consistently.

Here’s what makes it different:

1. Sunsama forces you to be realistic. Most people load up their day with 12 hours of tasks and then feel bad when they only finish 6 hours’ worth. Sunsama shows you when you’re doing this.
2. It understands the difference between planning and doing. You get a dedicated planning ritual each morning. It’s like warming up before exercise – small investment, big payoff.
3. It respects boundaries. Sunsama helps you plan when to stop working. This seems counter-intuitive for a productivity tool. Most want you to work more. Sunsama wants you to work better.

The clever part is how it connects to everything else you already use. Your calendar, your task manager, your notes – Sunsama doesn’t try to replace them.

It sits on top like a wise editor helping you make sense of it all.

I particularly like the weekly review feature. Most people never step back to look at the bigger patterns in their work. But that’s often where the most important insights come from.

The focus mode is interesting too. Not because timed work sessions are new – they aren’t – but because it feels different when it’s connected to your intentional plan for the day.

The Good Parts

✅ It’s surprisingly thoughtful. Sunsama is a wise friend who asks, “Are you sure you want to work until 11 PM?” when you’re overloading your day.

✅ The interface is clean and simple. You’d be amazed how rare this is in productivity software. Most apps look like they’re trying to launch a space shuttle.

✅ It integrates with your existing tools—Google and Outlook calendars, email, even Slack and Teams.

✅ There’s this clever feature where it changes your Slack status automatically when you’re focusing.

✅ The daily planning ritual is genius in its obviousness.

The Not-So-Good Parts

❌ There’s no free tier. This is probably intentional—they want committed users. But it limits adoption.

❌ Sunsama requires significant manual input. You have to plan everything deliberately. Some people will love this. Others will find it exhausting.

❌ It’s not great for project management. But honestly, that’s probably by design.

Sunsama’s Platform Availability

• Web app.
• Mobile app: Android and iOS (iPhone and iPad).
• Desktop app: Windows, Mac & Linux.

Routine Overview

Routine is an all-in-one advanced productivity app that does a lot.

It helps you manage your calendar, and plan your day, manage projects and knowledge, all while collaborating with the people you love.

It works on pretty much every platform—Mac, Windows, iOS, and web.

If you’ve used Notion, you’ll feel at home. But that’s not what’s important. What’s important is that it takes the good parts of Notion’s interface—the flexible views like Kanban and lists—and builds something more focused.

The calendar integration is particularly clever. It pulls all your calendars into one view. You can slice this view in different ways: by week, by 5-day periods, by month.

Routine has what they call a Universal Task system.

Think about how many places your tasks currently live: emails, chat messages, project tickets, random sticky notes. Routine pulls these all together.

But here’s what most people miss about task management: speed matters more than features.

The faster you can capture a task, the more likely you are to actually use the system. Routine gets this.

You hit Ctrl+Space, type your task, and you’re done. No context switching, no unnecessary clicks.

The note-taking system is worth mentioning, not because it’s revolutionary (it isn’t), but because it’s thoughtfully integrated.

It uses markdown, which might seem like a small detail, but it matters. Markdown lets you type fast without lifting your hands from the keyboard.

Perhaps the most interesting part is the AI assistant. Routine’s AI has access to your entire knowledge base.

That means you can ask questions, and get answers that might surprise you in a good way.

The Good Parts

✅ The command bar is brilliantly fast. Hit Ctrl+Space anywhere, type what you need, and you’re done.

✅ The Universal Task system actually solves the “tasks everywhere” problem. Most apps just give you another place to store tasks.

✅ It uses markdown for everything. This might seem like a small detail until you realize how much faster you can write without touching your mouse.

✅ The AI assistant has context about your entire knowledge base.

✅ The time blocking is thoughtfully implemented. Drag a task to your calendar, and it just works.

✅ The natural language processing makes everything feel fluid. You can type “meet with Sarah next Tuesday” and it just understands.

The Not-So-Good Parts

❌ Several key features are still in beta or “coming soon.” This makes it feel a bit like moving into a half-finished house.

❌ The all-in-one approach means you’re really committing. If any part doesn’t work for you, you can’t easily swap it out.

❌ There’s definitely a learning curve. The power is there, but you’ll need to invest time to access it.

❌ It might be too powerful for casual users. Sometimes you just want a simple to-do list, not a complete productivity operating system.

❌ The sheer number of features could be overwhelming. Even power users might only use a fraction of what’s available.

Routine’s Platform Availability

• Web app.
• Mobile app: iOS (iPhone). Coming soon on Android.
• Desktop app: Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Sunsama Vs. Routine Comparison Table

Best Sunsama Features

1. Ease of use

Sunsama’s interface feels like walking into a thoughtfully organized room. Everything has its place, but nothing screams for attention.

It’s the opposite of what we’ve come to expect from productivity software, which usually looks like the cockpit of a 747.

The most striking thing about Sunsama’s ease of use is what’s missing: complexity.

The interface has two collapsible sidebars and a main workspace. That’s it. No infinite nested menus. No feature sprawl.

This simplicity doesn’t come at the cost of power.

Take the command bar (⌘ + K). It’s a universal remote for your workday.

Need to create a task? Two keystrokes.

Want to schedule something? Same thing.

It’s fast in the way that matters – not just technically fast, but cognitively fast. You spend less time thinking about how to do things and more time doing them.

The way Sunsama handles task creation is a perfect example. You can drag emails, Slack messages, or calendar events and turn them into tasks.

Even the learning curve tells an interesting story.

While Routine demands you learn its power to be productive (remember that “half-finished house” analogy?), Sunsama is immediately useful.

You can start with just the daily planning ritual and gradually discover more features as you need them.

2. Daily Planning and Organization

Remember how I mentioned earlier that Sunsama is like a thoughtful friend?

Well, this is where that metaphor really comes alive. The magic starts before you even begin planning.

You tell Sunsama some basic truths about yourself:

• When your week starts.
• How many hours you can realistically work.
• When you want to start planning your day.

I’ve noticed something interesting in the settings. Sunsama’s settings are more extensive than its features. But each setting serves a purpose.

The daily planning ritual itself is simple:

1. You gather tasks that matter for today
2. You estimate how long each will take
3. Sunsama shows you if you’re being realistic
4. You write a quick journal reflection

That last step is crucial. Most people skip reflection because it feels like extra work.

Here’s what’s clever about Sunsama’s approach:

It forces you to be honest with yourself. When you say a task will take 2 hours, Sunsama actually blocks out 2 hours. No more pretending you can do 12 hours of work in an 8-hour day.

The most powerful part?

The daily shutdown. Just as it helps you start your day intentionally, it helps you end it properly. Sunsama taps you on the shoulder and says, “Hey, you’ve done enough for today.”

I will not go into detail about weekly planning and weekly review features. It is all the same, with different timelines.

3. Task Management

The core of Sunsama’s task management is simple. You can create tasks in three ways:

• The board view (think sticky notes on a wall).
• The command bar (Cmd/Ctrl+Space).
• Or just hitting ‘A’ on your keyboard.

That’s it.

But here’s where it gets interesting.

When you make a task, you have to say how long it will take. AI will give you an estimate too.

The board view is an endless roll of paper stretching into the future. Sunsama lets you plan as far ahead as you want. It’s liberating in a way that’s hard to explain until you try it.

You might remember that earlier we talked about Routine’s Universal Task system. Sunsama has something similar but with a different philosophy.

Sunsama acts like a universal translator between your existing tools.

It connects to GitHub, Jira, Trello, Asana, Todoist, Notion, ClickUp, Slack – pretty much anything you’re already using.

You can even turn emails into tasks, which is surprisingly powerful.

Here’s the clever part:

These aren’t just copies of your tasks. They stay in sync. Complete something in Sunsama, it’s marked done everywhere else. One remote to control all your devices.

But perhaps the most interesting feature is what happens after you create tasks. Sunsama helps you organize tasks into “channels” – think of them as contexts for different types of work.

They help you separate deep work from shallow work and personal tasks from professional ones. It’s part of that broader philosophy we discussed earlier about work-life balance.

The real magic happens when you start dragging tasks onto your calendar. Sunsama’s time-blocking feels complete and natural.

That leads us to Sunsama’s calendar capabilities.

4. Calendar Integration

Some productivity apps treat your calendar like a distant cousin at a family reunion – they acknowledge it exists but don’t want to interact with it.

Sunsama does the opposite. It connects with Google Calendar, Outlook, and iCloud.

The magic is in the bi-directional sync.

Whatever you do in Sunsama shows up in your regular calendar. Whatever you do in your regular calendar shows up in Sunsama.

Timeboxing feels natural.

Drag a task onto your calendar and it creates a real calendar event. Not just a visual overlay, but an actual block of time your colleagues can see.

You can connect multiple calendars.

Have a work Google Calendar and a personal iCloud calendar?

No problem. Sunsama keeps everything moving smoothly without crashes.

Meeting import is thoughtful.

Remember how we discussed Sunsama’s emphasis on intentionality?

This shows up here too. You can choose which types of events to import and how to handle them.

The implementation details are clever too.

You can set different calendars for different channels of work. Personal tasks can go to your personal calendar, or work tasks to your work calendar.

5. Additional Features

Let’s start with the AI. Unlike Routine’s AI having access to your knowledge base, Sunsama’s AI is more focused. It learns your work patterns.

When you create a task, it suggests which channel (work context) it belongs in. When you estimate time, it tells you how long similar tasks usually take.

The interesting part isn’t the AI itself – it’s how it changes your behavior. After a few weeks, you start making better time estimates naturally. The AI isn’t just predicting; it’s teaching.

The keyboard shortcuts are worth mentioning because they’re thoughtfully chosen. The most common actions are adding tasks (A), starting focus mode (F), and opening the command bar (Cmd + K).

The analytics are interesting too. Sunsama shows you the gap between what you planned and what happened.

With that covered, let’s discuss and compare Routine’s features.

Best Routine Features

1. Ease of use

People often confuse simplicity with ease of use. They’re not the same thing. A bicycle is simple. A car is complex. But for most trips, a car is easier to use.

This distinction matters when we talk about Routine’s approach to ease of use.

At first glance, Routine seems to nail it. Clean interface. Minimal sidebar. Just three main elements: your tasks, notes, and your calendar.

It uses what I call “progressive complexity.” The basic stuff is right there on the surface. But as you dig deeper, you find more layers.

The biggest surprise?

The things you’d expect to be easy sometimes aren’t.

Take moving tasks around. In Sunsama, you just drag and drop them like physical cards on a board. In Routine, you have to explicitly reschedule them.

The calendar and tasks live in separate tabs too. This might seem more organized, but it’s less intuitive.

If you want something that’s immediately intuitive and stays that way, Routine might frustrate you.

But if you’re willing to invest time in learning a more powerful tool, Routine’s complexity becomes a feature, not a bug.

2. Task Management

The faster you can capture a task, the more likely you are to use your system. Routine gets this part right.

Hit Ctrl+Space, type what you need, and you’re done.

Unlike Sunsama’s direct approach we discussed earlier, Routine adds a layer of natural language processing.

Type “call Charu next Tuesday at 2” and it just understands.

There are two kinds of tasks in Routine: regular and recurring. But Routine does something clever with this distinction.

Regular tasks are like physical objects – they exist in one place at a time. But recurring tasks in Routine are more like templates or molds. Each instance gets its own copy of everything, including images and notes.

This becomes powerful when you consider task hierarchy. Every task in Routine belongs somewhere – to another task, a page, an event, or a person.

Here’s the part that might surprise you:

Tasks can live inside notes. They’re not just items on a list; they’re building blocks you can embed anywhere.

3. Note-Taking and Lists

When you write something in Routine, you’re not just saving it. You’re placing it in a network of connected thoughts.

The markdown support might seem like a small detail, but it’s not. Most note-taking apps make you click buttons to format text. Routine lets you just type.

But here’s the part that’s actually clever:

Tasks can live inside notes. Think about that for a second.

In most apps, tasks and notes are like oil and water – they don’t mix. In Routine, they’re more like milk and coffee. They naturally blend together.

I’ve noticed something interesting about how this changes behavior. When everything can be connected, you start thinking differently about how you capture information.

An example might help:

Say you’re planning a project. In a traditional setup, you’d have your notes in one place and your tasks in another.

In Routine, your project note can include both your thoughts and the actual tasks you need to do. It’s all one fluid thing.

The hierarchy system is worth mentioning too. Routine lets you create what they call “pages” – think of them like folders that can contain other folders.

That phrase – “second brain” – gets thrown around a lot these days. But Routine actually delivers on it.

Every note you take becomes part of what they call a knowledge graph.

This becomes powerful when combined with the search function we discussed earlier. Because everything’s connected, finding something often leads you to related things you forgot you knew.

How Does Sunsama & Routine’s Price Compare?

Sunsama takes the prix fixe approach: $20 monthly, or $16 if you commit to a year. That’s it. No free tier, no enterprise plan, and no complicated matrix of features.

Routine does something completely different. They start with a free tier that’s actually useful – calendars, tasks, basic integrations.

Their paid tiers – $12/month for Professionals and $15 per member/month for Business – reveal something interesting about their strategy.

The free tier gives you the foundation and basic rooms. Professional adds the fancy kitchen (offline mode, smart planning). The Business plan builds you a whole compound (workspaces, real-time editing).

The fascinating part is how these pricing choices reflect everything else we’ve discussed about these tools.

Sunsama’s pricing, like its interface, is simple and intentional. Routine’s pricing, like its feature set, offers more choices but requires more decisions.

Your Turn

Sunsama and Routine are not trying to sell you the productivity equivalent of a get-rich-quick scheme. They’re trying to solve real problems.

The catch?

They’re solving completely different problems.

Sunsama is like that friend who calls you out on your bullsh*t. The one who says, “Dude, you can’t do 12 hours of work in 8 hours. Stop lying to yourself.”

Routine is more like that friend who’s obsessed with systems and optimization. They’ve got a keyboard shortcut for everything and probably color-codes their socks.

Are you the kind of person who says yes to everything and then drowns in commitments?

Get Sunsama. It’s literally designed to help you stop being an overachieving mess.

Are you drowning in tabs, apps, and random sticky notes?

Get Routine. It’s built for people who need a digital brain that’s smarter than their chaos.

So pick one. Commit to it.

Choose wisely, or don’t. Either way, at least now you know what you’re getting into.