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Comparison · PM

Sunsama vs Leantime

A side-by-side editorial comparison of Sunsama and Leantime — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.

Sunsama vs Leantime: at a glance

FeatureSunsamaLeantime
SectorPMPM
Velocity score6.36.3
Sparks · 30d01
Top themesdaily-planning, ai-assistant, mcp, task-priorityauthentication, permissions, json-rpc-api, mobile
Last editorial update27d ago2d ago
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What is Sunsama?

Sunsama ships Task Priority + Auto-Sort and starts wiring Sunny into MCP — daily planning gets opinionated.

Sunsama is in steady weekly-release cadence, with the bulk of recent work concentrated in two places: the Task Priority + Auto-Sort system, which has just graduated from beta into a documented core feature, and the Sunny AI assistant, which is gaining persistent memory and MCP-callable primitives like get_task_by_id. The integration surface continues to deepen — Linear, Todoist, Jira, Asana imports now carry priority signal through into Sunsama's own model.

Read the full Sunsama trajectory →

What is Leantime?

Leantime hardens its new permission engine through a rapid-fire auth patch cycle.

Leantime just shipped 3.9.0, a ground-up permission engine that replaced ad-hoc role checks with centralized, fail-closed authorization across every domain, landing alongside a JSON-RPC API layer and mobile push tokens. The 3.9.1 through 3.9.4 point releases that followed are almost entirely auth stabilization: Bearer and personal-access-token authentication broke under the new Sanctum guard and took four patches to fully settle. The project is mid-transition from a legacy PHP codebase to a modern Laravel, Blade, and JSON-RPC stack.

Read the full Leantime trajectory →

Sunsama vs Leantime: editorial side-by-side

S6.3

Sunsama ships Task Priority + Auto-Sort and starts wiring Sunny into MCP — daily planning gets opinionated.

◆ Current state

Sunsama is in steady weekly-release cadence, with the bulk of recent work concentrated in two places: the Task Priority + Auto-Sort system, which has just graduated from beta into a documented core feature, and the Sunny AI assistant, which is gaining persistent memory and MCP-callable primitives like get_task_by_id. The integration surface continues to deepen — Linear, Todoist, Jira, Asana imports now carry priority signal through into Sunsama's own model.

◆ Where it's heading

The product is moving from 'manual daily planner' toward 'opinionated planner that can be driven by Sunny or external agents.' Auto-Sort is the most telling move: Sunsama is now willing to reorder the user's day on its own based on priority and scheduled time, which is a philosophical step away from the manual drag-and-drop heritage. The MCP work signals they want Sunsama to be addressable by other AI tools — not just consumed via the Sunny UI.

◆ Prediction

Expect the next few weekly drops to expand Sunny's MCP toolset (write actions, not just reads) and to roll priority rollover into more of the integration importers. A 'Sunny plans your day' end-to-end flow that leans on the new priority + auto-sort plumbing is the natural next milestone.

L6.3

Leantime hardens its new permission engine through a rapid-fire auth patch cycle.

◆ Current state

Leantime just shipped 3.9.0, a ground-up permission engine that replaced ad-hoc role checks with centralized, fail-closed authorization across every domain, landing alongside a JSON-RPC API layer and mobile push tokens. The 3.9.1 through 3.9.4 point releases that followed are almost entirely auth stabilization: Bearer and personal-access-token authentication broke under the new Sanctum guard and took four patches to fully settle. The project is mid-transition from a legacy PHP codebase to a modern Laravel, Blade, and JSON-RPC stack.

◆ Where it's heading

The direction is a comprehensive backend re-architecture, with the permission engine, JSON-RPC API, completed Blade template unification, and experimental Postgres support all converging on a cleaner, API-first core. The recent burst of Bearer-auth fixes shows the team paying down the regressions the permission-engine rollout introduced rather than adding new surface. Mobile is the next frontier: the 3.8.0 TestFlight API groundwork and 3.9.0 push tokens point to a native app nearing release.

◆ Prediction

Expect the auth-fix cadence to slow as the Bearer regressions settle, with attention shifting toward the mobile app's public launch and broader JSON-RPC endpoint coverage.

Alternatives to Sunsama and Leantime

Other PM products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Sunsama or Leantime.

See all Sunsama alternatives → · See all Leantime alternatives →

Recent activity from Sunsama and Leantime

Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.

  1. 3d agoLeantimeCross-project 'My Work' loading fixed; mark-done action secured
  2. 3d agoLeantimeUnified session factory across web, API-key, and Bearer auth
  3. 4d agoLeantimeRoute-cache self-heal and Bearer/PAT token auth fix
  4. 5d agoLeantimeBearer API context restored; JSON-RPC contract tests + CI gate
  5. 5d agoLeantimeNative permission engine, JSON-RPC API, and mobile push
  6. 20d agoLeantimeBlade migration completed; mobile API surface and task collaborators
  7. 28d agoSunsamaWeekly Product Changelog: May 15, 2026
  8. 1mo agoSunsamaIssue with recurring tasks
  9. 1mo agoSunsamaTask Priority & Auto-Sort
  10. 1mo agoSunsamaWeekly Product Changelog: May 1, 2026
  11. 1mo agoSunsamaWeekly Product Changelog: April 24, 2026
  12. 1mo agoSunsamaWeekly product changelog: April 17, 2026

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between Sunsama and Leantime?

They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Sunsama and Leantime are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 6.3 vs 6.3, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.

Is Sunsama better than Leantime?

Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Sunsama and Leantime are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 6.3 vs 6.3, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other PM products to evaluate alongside.

What are the best alternatives to Sunsama?

Top Sunsama alternatives in PM are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Sunsama alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/sunsama for the full list with editorial commentary on each.

What are the best alternatives to Leantime?

Top Leantime alternatives in PM are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Leantime alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/leantime for the full list with editorial commentary on each.