Disclosure: Kalend is ours, and it is listed first. It gets the same four fields as every other app, including its drawbacks.
Short answer
Our pick is Kalend — today’s tasks next to your calendar, plus habits and a journal, free and entirely on your iPhone. If you want Sunsama-style time blocking with Google and Outlook built in, look at Akiflow.
Sunsama is a calm way to plan a working day: pull in your tasks, place them on the calendar, and stop when the day is full. The catch is on its own App Store listing — the iPhone app is a “companion to the desktop app”, and you can only use it once you have planned your first day on a computer.
So if you plan your day from the couch, the bus or bed, you need something that does the whole job on the phone. These six do, each in a different way.
Switch to Kalend if
- You plan your day on your phone, not at a desk
- You want tasks and calendar together without a work tool’s setup
- You would rather not pay for a planner at all
Stay with Sunsama if
- The guided daily planning ritual is why you use it
- You pull tasks in from work tools on a computer
- You mostly plan at your desk and only glance at the phone
At a glance
| App | Best for | Pricing |
|---|---|---|
| Kalend (ours) | People who want tasks, a calendar, habits and a journal in one free app, kept in their own iCloud | Free. No paid tier, no subscription and no ads; the only purchase is an optional tip |
| Sunsama | People who plan each working day at a desk and want that plan in their pocket | Free download; a companion to Sunsama’s desktop app |
| Akiflow | People who time-block their work and want tasks and meetings in one schedule | Free download; the listing gives no plan prices |
| Structured | People who think in time blocks and want their whole day on one visual timeline | Free timeline; Structured Pro (monthly, annual or lifetime) for more |
| TickTick | People who want lists, a calendar view, habits and a focus timer on every platform | Free tier plus a Premium subscription |
| Todoist | People who need the same list on every platform, including Android and the web | Free tier plus a paid Pro plan |
| Apple Reminders | People who want dated lists and shared shopping lists at no cost, already on their iPhone | Included with Apple devices at no extra cost |
The apps in detail
Kalend
Ours
- Best for
- People who want tasks, a calendar, habits and a journal in one free app, kept in their own iCloud
- Highlights
- Tasks, calendar, habits and a journal in one app
- Your calendar events next to today’s tasks, with an overdue section
- Syncs through your own iCloud — no account, no server of ours
- Works offline
- Pricing
- Free. No paid tier, no subscription and no ads; the only purchase is an optional tip
- Watch out
- Apple-only: no Android app and no web version, and it needs iOS 18 or later. It syncs through your personal iCloud, so there is no sharing — you cannot assign a task or share a list with anyone.
Sunsama
- Best for
- People who plan each working day at a desk and want that plan in their pocket
- Highlights
- Review the day you planned and stay on it
- Add a task on the go and drop it onto your calendar
- Synced with Google Calendar and Outlook Calendar
- Pricing
- Free download; a companion to Sunsama’s desktop app
- Watch out
- Its own listing says the iPhone app is a companion “not a standalone replacement” — you must plan your first day on the desktop app before it works.
Akiflow
- Best for
- People who time-block their work and want tasks and meetings in one schedule
- Highlights
- One to-do list you drag onto the calendar to block time
- Syncs with Google Calendar and Outlook
- iPhone, Apple Watch, web and desktop
- Pricing
- Free download; the listing gives no plan prices
- Watch out
- It is built for a working day full of meetings, it needs an Akiflow account, and the listing does not say what it costs.
Structured
- Best for
- People who think in time blocks and want their whole day on one visual timeline
- Highlights
- A drag-and-drop timeline of the day
- An inbox for ideas you will sort later
- Syncs across iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Mac
- Pricing
- Free timeline; Structured Pro (monthly, annual or lifetime) for more
- Watch out
- The listing puts calendar import, recurring tasks and its AI in Pro — the first things most planners need.
TickTick
- Best for
- People who want lists, a calendar view, habits and a focus timer on every platform
- Highlights
- Flexible recurring tasks, checklists and multiple reminders
- Calendar views and a habit tracker built in
- Syncs across all your devices, with shared lists
- Pricing
- Free tier plus a Premium subscription
- Watch out
- The most advanced features — including much of the calendar — are Premium, and your data lives in a TickTick account.
Todoist
- Best for
- People who need the same list on every platform, including Android and the web
- Highlights
- Instant sync across iPhone, Apple Watch, Mac and browsers
- Natural language and voice capture
- Scales from personal lists to teams
- Pricing
- Free tier plus a paid Pro plan
- Watch out
- Calendar layout and larger project limits sit in Pro, there is no habit tracker, and everything lives in a Todoist account.
Apple Reminders
- Best for
- People who want dated lists and shared shopping lists at no cost, already on their iPhone
- Highlights
- Built into iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch
- Smart lists, tags, sections and shared lists
- Syncs through iCloud with no extra account
- Pricing
- Included with Apple devices at no extra cost
- Watch out
- No planning view that mixes your calendar with your tasks, and no habits or journal.
The honest trade-off
Sunsama’s strength is the ritual: it walks you through planning a realistic day and pulls in work from other tools. No free app here copies that step by step. Kalend, Structured and TickTick give you the same end result — tasks sitting next to your events — but you do the deciding.
If your problem was never the planning and always the laptop, that is a good trade. Open the app, see today, add what is missing, done.
Common questions
Is there a free version of Sunsama?
Sunsama’s iPhone app is a free download, but its listing says it is a companion to the desktop app and only works after you have planned your first day there.
Can I use Sunsama on iPhone only?
No. The App Store listing says the mobile app is “not a standalone replacement” for the desktop app.
What is the best free Sunsama alternative on iPhone?
Kalend, if you want tasks, your calendar, habits and a journal free with no account. Akiflow if you want time blocking tied to Google Calendar and Outlook.
App Store listings checked on 12 November 2026. Prices change — each entry describes how an app is paid for rather than a number that goes stale.
MMA.
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