TL;DR
Aftertone: £20/mo or £100 lifetime. macOS productivity system — tasks, time blocking, Focus Screen, behavioural AI, weekly reports.
Sunsama: $20/mo or $16/mo annual. Cross-platform daily planner. Guided planning rituals, integrations with Asana, Jira, Todoist, Trello. No lifetime plan.
Key difference: Sunsama guides you through planning each morning. Aftertone does that and also tracks what happens after — then tells you what to change.
Sunsama is a capable daily planner. Guided planning rituals, a clean interface, and integrations with half the tools in your stack. If you've heard of it, you probably know someone who swears by it.
But it's $20/month. That's $240/year, every year, with no way out. No lifetime plan. No free tier. And for that price, there's no AI — everything is manual.
Aftertone costs £100 once. You own it. It runs natively on macOS, it has AI that actually learns how you work, and its Focus Screen does something no other app in this category does properly. More on that below.
Both apps believe productivity should be intentional. They just deliver on that differently.
Comparison Table
Feature | Aftertone | Sunsama |
|---|---|---|
Pricing | £20/mo or £100 lifetime | $20/mo or $192/yr annual |
Lifetime plan | Yes | No |
Platform | macOS (iOS/Android coming) | Web, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android |
Time blocking | Visual time blocks | Calendar-based time boxing |
Task management | Native — keyboard shortcut capture, project tags, filtering | Pulls tasks from Asana, Trello, Notion, ClickUp, Jira, Gmail |
AI | Silent behavioral AI — patterns, stalled tasks, time drift, energy tracking. Weekly insight reports. | None |
Focus Screen | Contextual — shows current task, flags overdue items, lets you pull upcoming tasks forward with immediate shortcuts. Auto-updates your calendar. | Basic focus mode |
Weekly reports | Automated, with personalised optimisation suggestions | None |
Guided planning | 4-phase workflow: Plan → Execute → Evaluate → Optimize | Step-by-step morning planning ritual + shutdown |
Integrations | Google Calendar | Asana, Trello, Notion, ClickUp, Jira, Gmail, Slack, Todoist |
Where Aftertone pulls ahead
You stop paying after day one
Five months into a Sunsama subscription, you've already spent more than Aftertone's lifetime price. Over three years that's $720 vs £100. That maths doesn't improve with time.
AI that works in the background
Sunsama's workflow is entirely manual — you plan, you work, you reflect, all by hand. Aftertone's AI runs silently across your week. It picks up which tasks keep stalling, where your time drifts from your plan, how your energy shifts through the day. End of each week, you get a report with specific observations and suggestions for restructuring your next week. Sunsama doesn't have anything like this at any price.
The Focus Screen is context-aware
This is probably Aftertone's most misunderstood feature. It doesn't just hide distractions. When you're in a Focus block, the screen shows your current task, flags anything overdue, and gives you simple, intelligent options to pull upcoming tasks forward if you finish early. Pick one and your calendar updates automatically. It feels like working with a plan that adapts to you in real time, not a static schedule you have to manually shuffle.
macOS-native speed
Aftertone launches instantly. Keyboard shortcuts work at the system level. Task capture doesn't require opening the app — hit the shortcut from anywhere and the task is saved. Sunsama runs in a browser. The gap in responsiveness is noticeable from the first hour.
The Evaluate and Optimize cycle
Sunsama has an end-of-day shutdown, which is genuinely good. But you do the reflecting. Instead, Aftertone automates this. It captures stalled tasks, time drift data, and energy patterns, then generates a report with specific suggestions. Week after week, this compounds. Manual reflection is valuable. Automated analysis on top of that is noticeably different.
Where Sunsama is the better fit
Cross-platform is the big one. If you need iOS, Android, Windows, or web access, Sunsama covers it. Aftertone is macOS-only right now.
Sunsama's integration ecosystem is deep. If your workflow involves pulling tasks from five different tools into one daily view, Sunsama handles that natively. Aftertone is a single source of truth — it doesn't aggregate from other apps.
Sunsama's guided morning planning is a standout for people who are new to time blocking. It walks you through every step. Aftertone expects you to know what you want to get done — it just makes it easier to actually do it. For more alternatives, see the full best Sunsama alternatives guide.
Who should use Aftertone
You work on a Mac. You want to pay once. You want AI that quietly learns your patterns and tells you how to improve. You care about deep focus and want a Focus Screen that actually adapts while you work. You'd rather have one clean app than a hub that connects to everything else.
Who should use Sunsama
You need to work across multiple devices and operating systems. Your workflow depends on pulling tasks from Asana, Notion, Jira, or Gmail. You prefer a guided daily planning ritual over setting your own structure.
3-year cost comparison
Aftertone costs £100 once. Sunsama costs approximately $192 per year — that's $576 over three years. By the end of year one, Sunsama already costs more than Aftertone's lifetime price. Over three years, you'd spend 5.8× more on Sunsama. Both are independently built tools. Only one lets you stop paying.
Frequently asked questions
Is Sunsama better than Aftertone?
It depends on what you need. Sunsama has its own strengths — particularly if you need broader platform support or specific integrations. Aftertone is stronger on execution: its Focus Screen, behavioral AI, and weekly reports create a four-phase productivity system (plan, execute, evaluate, optimise) that most competitors don't attempt.
Does Aftertone work on Windows or Linux?
Not yet. Aftertone is currently macOS-only, built as a native Mac app for performance and deep OS integration. iOS and Android apps are in development. If you need Windows or Linux support today, Sunsama may be a better short-term choice.
Can I use Aftertone with Google Calendar?
Yes. Aftertone syncs with Google Calendar via two-way sync. Your time blocks, events, and schedule changes appear in both apps. Aftertone adds the productivity layer — tasks, Focus Screen, AI insights — on top of your existing calendar.
Is Aftertone's lifetime plan really one payment?
Yes. £100 once, then it's yours. No annual renewals, no price increases, no feature gates behind higher tiers. Every feature — behavioral AI, Focus Screen, weekly reports, unlimited projects — is included.
What if I'm switching from Sunsama to Aftertone?
Aftertone syncs with Google Calendar, so any events you have there will appear automatically. For tasks, you'll need to recreate them in Aftertone — but the keyboard shortcut capture makes this fast. Most users are fully set up within a day.
Related reading
For more context on how Aftertone compares in the broader productivity landscape, see Best Sunsama Alternatives (2026), Best Mac Calendar Apps for Time Blocking (2026) and Productivity Methods Compared.
Bottom line
Sunsama is a good daily planner. Aftertone costs less, does more with AI, and has a Focus Screen that Sunsama can't match. If you're on a Mac and you're tired of paying monthly for tools that don't learn anything about how you work — try Aftertone. You'll know within a week. Try Aftertone free at aftertone.io.
