Daily Captain vs Sunsama
Checked 22 Sep 2026. Prices and features change; tell us if something is out of date: hello@dailycaptain.app.
Sunsama is a daily planner for desk workers: it pulls tasks from your calendar, Asana, Jira, Notion or Todoist, walks you through a planning ritual each morning, timeboxes the day and closes it with a shutdown. It is good at that, and it costs $22 a month, or $17 a month billed yearly, with no free plan.
Daily Captain is not a planner. It is a goal sheet: up to seven goals in the morning, one check at midday, an honest count at night, and one person who sees your week. It takes about a minute a day and costs $9.99 a month after 8 free days. It has no calendar, no integrations and no timeboxing.
If your day lives in a calendar and in other tools, Sunsama. If your problem is being busy all day without knowing whether any of it moved you toward the goal, Daily Captain.
| Feature | Sunsama | Daily Captain |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Planning and finishing a workday from tasks and calendar events. | Deciding what today is for, and being honest about it at night. |
| Price | $22 a month, or $17 a month billed yearly ($204 a year). No free plan. | 8 days free, then $9.99 a month. One price, everything included. |
| Free trial | 14 days, no credit card required. | No free plan. 8 free days, then one flat price. |
| A day looks like | A guided planning ritual, tasks arranged and timeboxed on the calendar, focus mode, a shutdown ritual, weekly objectives and a weekly review. | One sheet a day: up to seven goals in the morning, one check at midday, an honest count and tomorrow’s first goal at night. |
| Time it asks for | A planning ritual each morning and a shutdown at night; Sunsama’s own guides describe both as multi-step. | About a minute in the morning, a moment at midday, a couple of minutes at night. |
| Platforms | Web, Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS and Android. The phone app is described by Sunsama as a companion to the desktop app. | iPhone (App Store), Android (Google Play) and any browser. Same account everywhere. |
| Integrations | About 20, including Google, Outlook and Apple calendars, Asana, Jira, Notion, Todoist, Slack, Zapier. | None. No calendar sync, no task import. |
| Accountability | Post your plan to Slack or Teams. No buddy or friend feature. | One buddy sees your week and answers. A public page shows the goals you switch on. No feed, no ranks, no points. |
| Streaks or points | None. | None. No streaks, no red days, untick allowed. A missed day leaves nothing to repair. |
| History | Planned versus actual time, weekly review with a time breakdown. | The week view: said versus done, no charts. Your writing exports as plain text and JSON. |
| Support | support@sunsama.com and in-app messaging. | A person answers at hello@dailycaptain.app, and feedback sits inside the product. |
Sunsama plans the hours. Daily Captain asks what the hours are for.
Sunsama’s morning ritual starts from what is already on your plate: yesterday’s leftovers, tasks from your other tools, calendar events. You arrange them, estimate them, timebox them. That is a real skill and Sunsama teaches it well.
Daily Captain starts one step earlier. Before anything gets scheduled, it asks: what would make today count? You write up to seven goals, in your own words. Each one can point at a yearly goal. At midday you check once whether the plan is still the plan. At night you count honestly and write tomorrow’s first goal. Nothing gets a time slot, because most things do not need one; they need a yes or a no.
A minute a day, so you actually keep doing it
The most common reason people give for leaving a planner is that the planning became the work. Sunsama’s ritual is deliberately thorough, and for a desk worker with a full calendar that thoroughness pays. For everyone else it is a cost you pay every morning.
Daily Captain is deliberately thin. There is no setup, no import, no estimate. The whole point is that a tool you can do in a minute is a tool you keep doing.
Being seen
Sunsama lets you post your plan to Slack or Teams, which works if you have a team. Daily Captain assumes you might not. You invite one person by link and they see your week, as you wrote it, and answer. People work harder when someone knows what they set out to do. That is the whole social feature: no feed, no ranks, no points.
What people who leave Sunsama say, and what we did about it
We read the 49 critical App Store reviews of Sunsama, plus its Google Play, Trustpilot and Capterra reviews, on 22 Sep 2026. Three themes came up most. Here is what each one looks like on our side.
- The phone app is a second-class citizen next to the desktop app: inputs drop, tasks go missing, and Sunsama itself calls it a companion you use after planning on a computer.
- What we did: Daily Captain is one sheet that is the same on iPhone, Android and the web, meant to be filled in on the phone. There is no desktop-first version to catch up with.
- Around $20 a month feels like a lot, and there is no cheaper tier or one-time purchase.
- What we did: One flat price, $9.99 a month, shown on the page before you sign in. It is still a subscription, and there is no free plan; we do not pretend otherwise.
- Set-up has to happen on a computer, and sign-in sometimes loops.
- What we did: There is no set-up. You sign in with a link, no password, and write today’s first goal on the first screen. Fair warning: we also have no calendar sync and no integrations, and for many Sunsama users those are the point.
Sources: Sunsama on the App Store, Sunsama on Google Play, Sunsama on Capterra
Pricing
Sunsama
Sunsama Pro is $22 a month billed monthly, or $17 a month billed yearly, which is $204 a year per user. There is a 14-day free trial with no credit card, and no free plan after it; when the trial ends you lose workspace access unless you upgrade. Read on Sunsama’s pricing page on 22 Sep 2026.
Daily Captain
Every account starts with 8 free days. After that it is $9.99 a month, one flat price with nothing behind a second wall: the buddy, the yearly goals, the reminders and the apps are all in it. Plus tax where it applies, shown before you pay. Cancel any time and your writing stays readable.
There is no free plan. If you want the method for free, the paper version, the Daily Goal Sheet PDF, is at heegstra.io/goal-sheet.
Sources: Sunsama pricing, Daily Captain pricing, on the home page
When to choose Sunsama
- Your day is a calendar and you want tasks timeboxed against it.
- Your tasks live in Asana, Jira, Notion, Todoist or email and you want them pulled into one plan.
- You work at a desk most of the day and like a thorough planning and shutdown ritual.
- You want planned-versus-actual time and a weekly review with numbers.
When to choose Daily Captain
- You are busy all day and want to know whether any of it moved you toward a goal.
- You have tried planners and stopped because planning took longer than doing.
- You want one person to see your week, not a team workspace.
- You want a flat price you can read before you sign in, and nothing to set up.
Trying it
Nothing to import and nothing to set up. Sign in, write what today is for, and tonight write tomorrow’s first goal. If it is not for you after 8 days, nothing has happened to your card and you have lost about a minute a day.
Questions
Is Daily Captain cheaper than Sunsama?
Yes. Sunsama is $22 a month, or $17 a month billed yearly. Daily Captain is $9.99 a month after 8 free days. Neither has a free plan.
Can Daily Captain import my Sunsama tasks or my calendar?
No. Daily Captain has no integrations and no calendar sync. You write today’s goals by hand, which is the method.
Does Daily Captain timebox my day?
No. It asks what today is for and whether each goal is important, not when you will do it. If you need hours planned, Sunsama does that well.
Why goals instead of to-dos?
Because being busy is not the same as getting closer. A to-do list holds everything you could do; a goal sheet holds the few things that move you toward what you want, and asks at night whether they happened.
How long does Daily Captain take each day?
About a minute in the morning, a moment at midday and a couple of minutes at night. There is no setup and no onboarding: you sign in and write today’s first goal.
Why does someone else see my week?
Because being seen works, the way people work harder in a library than alone at home. One person who knows what you set out to do is enough. They see exactly what you wrote, and only when you send it.
Ready to try Daily Captain instead of Sunsama
Start your first sheet8 days free, then $9.99 a month.