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Microsoft Excel vs Sunsama

Microsoft Excel and Sunsama are both personal productivity tools. Microsoft Excel is aimed at small businesses and enterprise, while Sunsama is aimed at freelancers and small businesses. Microsoft Excel costs less, from $9.99/mo versus $22/mo for Sunsama. Only Microsoft Excel has a free plan.

Microsoft Excel

The standard spreadsheet for analysis, modeling and reporting

Sunsama

Daily planner that pulls tasks from your tools

PricingFreemium · $10Paid · $22
Starting price$9.99/mo$22/mo
Free planYesNo
Free trial30 days14 days
Built forSmall businesses, Enterprise, FreelancersFreelancers, Small businesses
Platformsweb, macos, windows, ios, androidweb, macos, windows, ios, android
CountryUS · 1985US · 2017
Rating——

Choose Microsoft Excel if

Finance, accounting and analyst teams that need the deepest spreadsheet features and the industry standard file format.

  • Industry standard skills and file format
  • Unmatched depth for financial modeling and analysis
  • Handles large datasets on the desktop

Look elsewhere if: Teams that mostly collaborate live in the browser on simple sheets (Google Sheets) or need a relational database with views (Airtable).

Choose Sunsama if

Individuals who want intentional daily planning across many tools.

  • Encourages realistic days
  • Unifies tasks from many tools
  • Calm, intentional design

Look elsewhere if: People who want automation (Motion) or a free tool (TickTick).

Microsoft Excel vs Sunsama pricing

Microsoft Excel

  • Excel for the web$0Free with a Microsoft account, reduced feature set
  • Microsoft 365 Personal$9.99/mo$99.99/yr; 1 person, desktop apps, Copilot, 1 TB
  • Microsoft 365 Family$12.99/mo$129.99/yr; up to 6 people, 1 TB each
  • Microsoft 365 Premium$19.99/mo$199.99/yr; higher Copilot limits and advanced AI
  • Office Home 2024$179.99/one-timePerpetual Excel, Word, PowerPoint for 1 PC or Mac

Sunsama

  • Pro$22/mo$17 billed yearly; unlimited usage and integrations
  • EnterpriseCustomContact sales

Microsoft Excel · Key features

  • Dynamic array formulas including XLOOKUP, FILTER and LAMBDA
  • PivotTables, PivotCharts and a wide range of chart types
  • Power Query to import, clean and reshape data from many sources
  • Power Pivot data models for large multi-table analysis
  • Python in Excel for analysis and visualization in the grid
  • Copilot to generate formulas, analyses and summaries from prompts

Cons

  • Advanced features have a steep learning curve
  • Web version lacks some desktop features
  • Emailed copies lead to version chaos

Sunsama · Key features

  • Guided daily planning ritual
  • Import tasks from many tools
  • Timeboxing on calendar
  • Workload warnings for overcommitment
  • Daily shutdown and weekly review
  • Focus mode

Cons

  • Single pricing tier, not cheap
  • Manual planning takes minutes daily
  • Not a team project tool

Microsoft Excel vs Sunsama: FAQ

Which is cheaper, Microsoft Excel or Sunsama?

Microsoft Excel starts at $9.99/mo and Sunsama at $22/mo. Both prices are checked on the vendors' own pricing pages.

Do Microsoft Excel and Sunsama have a free plan?

Microsoft Excel has a free plan. Sunsama has no free plan, a 14-day free trial.

Not sure yet?